Incata

I would go near family to start off with. It is always nice to have someone to pop round to have a cup of tea with if you are lonely while you are getting yourself established. York is lovely. I'd live there in a heartbeat. Manchester has good bits and bad bits but lots of work, as does Liverpool. Newcastle is also great, both for work and a social life. I know South Yorkshire well because I have family there but can't advise on work or social life as I spend my time with family, not working or socialising.

I agree. It's also the little things that got me. I do a lot of cooking with herbs, and I did not bring them with me (did not think they would get through customs), so I gave them away to a friend who also loves cooking. Thus when I need something for a recipe, I can just access the supplies I have gradually built up, I have to go and buy a new jar of the herbs. A single jar might not be expensive, but when you buy 5 or 6 it starts to mount up. ps: + chocolate. Decent quality stuff (think Green and Blacks rather than Cabdurys) comes in at $4 per bar so it is not a cheap, quick pick me up!

Just a quick tip. Get your phones unlocked before you leave the UK. I had a phone on orange and have had some difficulty in getting it unlocked over here. I have now been in touch with orange and they are going to try and help but as I am no longer a current customer, they cannot guarantee that they will be able to do it.

It matters not whether or not the single mothers talk about the fact that they have paid their rent. It is the experience of the landlord that counts and if a landlord has had a number of people on HB not paying their rent, s(he) is not going to risk taking on any others. There is also the issue of a deposit. If a tenant has a job, they have to put down a deposit. A person on HB does not, so it is very hard to get back the money for any damages caused. If a single mother on benefits is not inclined to pay her rent because someone has said that single mothers are unreliable, she is not the sort of person you would want to rent to anyway. Single mothers on benefits have got that reputation because of the way a large number of them have behaved, not because of the way one or two have behaved. To compare: Nigerians have not been given a bad reputation because a couple of their number decided to kill Lee Rigby. However, if a large number of Nigerians started killing unarmed soldiers who are off-duty, then they would start to get a reputation for being murderous sociopaths and people would say that reputation was deserved. Reputation comes about because of the actions of a large number of people, not because of the actions of a few.

We used Overseas Emigration as we have two young children (now 3 and 4), my husband was away a lot with the RN, and I just did not have the time or energy to be on here all the time looking for information as to what to do next. For us it was marvellous to just be able to hand it over to someone who knew exactly what they were doing. From the time we first spoke to them until the day we got the visa was 5 months. Three months of that was waiting for the skills assessment (one month to get all the paperwork together and then a 2 month wait for it to be processed by the assessment authority). We then took two weeks to sort out medicals and police checks, two days to sort State Sponsorship and 6 weeks total to get the visas in our hands. I don't think for a moment we would have been able to do it that fast ourselves, not least of all because my son had a very serious accident just as the visa paperwork was about to go in, and then applying for a visa became the last thing on my mind. Having someone else do it was a relief and it meant that we did not have to worry and were able to leave it all in their capable hands. However, a word of caution. There are a number of people who have been burned by migration agents, so I would only go with someone who comes recommended such as Overseas Emigration (formerly Ian Harrop Associates), Go Matilda or several of the agents who post on here regularly.

You will need to contact the institution you trained with to get a copy of your certification. Nobody will do it for you. However, it is relatively easy to do and I was able to get a copy of my university degree 18 years after I left. I would suspect that your current employer will probably need to provide you with a reference for the skills assessment (although I do not know as my husband is in a different line of business). Have you thought of contacting a migration agent? There are several on here who provide very good advice and most of them will do a free initial assessment of your case.

The other one we use to protect against bits is lemon juice in a plain base moisturising lotion. While I would not dream of using it where there is malaria, we used to use it in Canada and it was very effective. We stopped at the point I read in a book on bears, that they are attracted by the smell of lemon. However, while using it, we never got bitten (and nor did we attract bears but I was not about to take the chance after that!). I would only use this in Perth (and other none risky areas) and it can make the bed sheets pong of lemon if you wear it in bed. I would also point out that after a couple of days your partner may suggest that you, or they, sleep in the spare bedroom!

An excellent herbal remedy to try is one called Apis. It is specifically for allergic reactions and works wonders for us when we have been bitten by mozzies. We use a 30cc dose of it, 3 times a day for 3 days. Very often the bite will clear up after a couple of doses. Disclaimer: Please note, I am not a trained herbalist or homeopath. This is only how we treat it ourselves and if you want professional advice you should consult a registered homeopath. We use http://www.helios.co.uk for all our remedies and we call them (via skype) when we need free advice from qualified homeopaths.

Distance relationships can work out, 6 months is nothing in the overall scheme of things, but will give you time to think and sort out what you want and where you want to be. My husband was in the Royal Navy for 9 years after we met. Three months after we started dating he went to sea for six months and I saw him for 2 days in the middle. We managed to speak twice during his deployment when he was in mobile signal range. Our relationship survived and I am sure yours will too, particularly now skype is so popular! Have faith and courage. You will be fine! Best of luck and let us know how you get on!

It only takes 1 or 2 to not pay their rent to sour the taste of renting out to people on HB. Incidentally, nowhere in the article did it say that all of his other 800 houses were rented to foreigners. It only said that he was kicking out the 200 on HB. Their nationalities were not mentioned and incidentally, it is not just British people born and bred who are entitled to HB, it is any Tom, Dick or Harry from Europe who goes to live in the UK who is entitled to it. He is therefore not being racist, as he is not kicking them out because of their race, he is kicking them out because they are on HB and being on HB does not make you count as a separate racial group.

Sorry, perhaps I should clarify. Single mothers on benefits have a reputation for not paying their rent. We actually rented our home out to a single mother with two kids, but she was working, so we did not have an issue with that. She was a perfect tenant and we were very sad when she left and bought her own house. Had she been on benefits it would have been a different story and we would not have rented it out to her.

One of the biggest problems for private landlords is that neither their mortgage companies, nor their insurance companies, will allow them to rent to tenants who claim HB. When we rented out our house (while we were posted away for 4 years by the military), our home and contents insurance would have doubled and the excesses doubled, had we taken tenants on HB. After being burned by renting to the military (another mistake we would never make again if we bought a house to rent out), there was no way we were going to risk taking on tenants and be so much out of pocket if they damaged the place. We know a number of people who feel the same way.

I lived in Canada for 2 years, after emigrating there when I was 29. I had 2 wonderful years there before moving back to the UK (relationship reasons). You can take the person out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the person. Canada and it's people will always be a part of you. If you do decide to go back though, to the West Coast I can thoroughly recommend Vancouver - so many immigrants there and it is such a lovely place. However, it is the dampness in Winter which chills you. As others have said, why not try the UK? You speak the language, you have citizenship and there are so many different places to try and the winters aren't as bad. At 29 you are still a spring chicken so give it a go. Good luck!

He is also paying tax on all the income he is generating, so indirectly supporting those on welfare with 6 kids.

I am a daughter in-law so have not experienced this with my two being very young. However, my in-laws have more chats with the children now, than they ever did when we lived in the UK, and it is not so much that the children have grown older, it is that we make more of an effort to call them on skype two or three times a week. My 4 year old even calls his Gran on skype to complain about being told off by us or to complain about his brother (so Gran gets to referee!). There is also, from my side, a large measure of guilt for moving away from them, so I make an extra effort to gather everyone round the computer and call my in-laws regularly. It may sound strange, but we are actually closer to my husband's parents now than when we moved over and we talk to them a whole lot more. I've even asked my mother in law for advice. Admittedly she nearly passed out from shock, but we are now more like mother and daughter. Do get skype if you have not got it. It won't take the pain away, but it might help in the early days.

They were. Others just chose not to. He chose to take a risk on buying them, that he would be able to rent them out. As I recall (from a story some years ago) the chap and his wife were originally teachers. They took a punt on the housing business and extended their mortgage to buy a house to rent out. It worked so they did it again and are now at the point of having 1000 houses (and have given up their teaching jobs to manage the business). Every one of those houses went on the market. Any person who wanted to could make an offer. Why should it be a problem that he chose to buy them? Would you vet who bought your house? If the housing market was poor and someone came along offering to buy your house, and nobody else wanted to, would you turn round and say, "no I am not selling to you because I think you have too many houses already?" Good on the chap for having done well enough and been brave enough to take the risk in the first place.

He is not a fat cat. He is someone who has bought houses and successfully rented them out. Until the government stopped paying the rent directly to the Landlords, there was no problem letting houses to the unemployed. Now the money is given directly to the unemployed person, they have the choice of whether or not to pay their landlord. Many mortgages for buy to let houses will not allow the houses to be let to those on housing benefit (or whatever it is currently called). Single mothers do have a reputation for not paying their rent so I can quite understand why he does not want to let his houses to them. I would not either. I'd much rather rent my house to someone who would pay the rent on time, than have to deal with solicitor costs in evicting them. Do I have any sympathy? No. They are given the money to pay the rent by the government. They choose not to pay it. They get evicted. Tough. They should take some responsibility for their actions.

You need to specify what size shipping container. A 40ft shipping container from London to Perth cost us £7200. Are utilities such as electricity included in the price of the holiday flat, or do you have to pay them on top? Do you have to pay a deposit? Does the holiday flat have a washing machine or will you be paying to use a laundry? Have you included food and drink in your $100 per day or is that just getting around? Have you factored in a hire car or do you just plan to use public transport? Do you plan to buy a car quickly? If so you will need to consider insurance on top of the price of the car. When you are applying for rentals, you are expected to put down a week's rental as a deposit at the time of application. You only get it refunded if you are unsuccessful. This can be quite a hit if you are not expecting it. I would suggest that you look at your day to day living costs in the UK, then double them and from that work out how much you will need to live on everyday.

Don't buy a house on a flood plain and you will be fine. Aim to go for at least 50m above sea level.

Just to update what Jen has said, from Jan 2015, on a 457 visa, you will have to pay $4000 per child, per year for schooling. It is worth bearing in mind if you go down that route.

He is one of the best known American Country Artists, one of whose songs is about it being 5pm somewhere.

The HR jobs market is lousy in Perth and about 20 years behind the UK. It works on a "who you know" basis and competence does not seem to come in to it. There are lots of unemployed nurses in Perth as well, the jobs market for them is really tight. Many are hoping that when the new Fiona Stanley hospital opens the situation will improve. However, local applicants with local experience, local qualifications and local friends will be first in line. I would recommend you go to Sydney or Melbourne where I have heard that the jobs market is better for both nurses and HR people. I would steer well clear of Perth at the moment.

Alan Jackson right?

We also used Moneycorp. We found them very swift and efficient at transferring the money and their rates are good, but have not been overly impressed with their opinions of where the market was going to go (which were very inaccurate). I fully understand that it is only their opinion and we made the decisions as to when to transfer ourselves, but we trusted them as the experts on the money market and we should not have done that. If you are going to transfer your money through them I would do your own research, read a number of opinions on different sites of what is happening in the money market and then make your own decision as to when will be the best time to transfer. We listened to their opinions and they got it very wrong. Had we not listened to them, waited until our house sale had gone through to make the trade, rather than agreeing the rate at the point contracts were exchanged, we would have been better of to the tune of $20 - $30k. It's a hard lesson to learn and not one I would make again.

We still use HSBC as our UK account with our Australian address. However we opened a Commonwelath Bank account for day to day stuff here and are very happy with it. HSBCs here are few and far between.