Petkula73

I disagree. The situation in the UK has gone beyond competition and in to exploitation. Given the market share, the UK supermarkets can pretty much treat their suppliers in any way they want. If Tesco decides it's going to pay 10% less for Brand X this year, then the supplier has a choice - either take the hit, or lose the customer. That's fine with in the larger manufacturers and has driven efficiency. But there's a wider picture. The farmer who has been told Tesco will pay him 4p a litre less for milk can't become 4p a litre more efficient. Magnify this across a range of suppliers, and to their suppliers and all we see is soaring profits for supermarkets, whilst everyone else loses out. And where is the cost cutting from the supermarkets going? One place it's not going is to the customers. Supermarkets have all number of tricks to convince shoppers what a great deal they are getting, whilst at the same time raising prices on non-known value items to compensate for the loss leaders and discounts. The customers save very little, despite the spin from the supermarkets. How many bogus deals do Tesco have for example? How many bottles of very average Hardy's or Oxford Landing wine were £9.99 but are miraculously reduced to £4.99? How much was that wine ever actually worth and how many bottles were sold at the "original" price? Yet, the average Tesco customer sees this as a great deal, despite the fact that their local wine shop sells better quality products at the same price. Of course, the Tesco shopper is "too busy" to venture to their local shop, so they don't know this. "Competition" has also limited choice. If you go to the largest Tesco, how much choice do they actually have? How many types of cheese would they stock for example? Not as many as you'd think. UK supermarkets carry something like 30,000 lines on average, but most of it is very similar stuff that sells in high volumes, all bought in huge quantities. If you can find a local cheese shop, you'll find 10 times more variety than Tesco could ever stock as the retailer can take smaller volumes. But, there average high street no longer has a cheese shop, a fish monger, a butcher, a baker, a greengrocer thanks to Tesco. Bulk buying economy mild cheddar (and Tesco has row of rubbish like this) and selling off for £2 a block has put the little guys out of business. Australia doesn't have competition like this at the moment and therefore in my local high street we still have all of these shops. Yes, we pay a bit more, but is that really such a bad thing to keep the choice and give someone a living?

We had a Move Cube last year. The delivery time was 3 months, so it's the same as a container. They will no doubt be loaded in to larger containers for transit anyway, so delivery times are the same. I packed all of the above items (aerosols, battery drills and so on) with no bother. It worked really well for us. You can get loads in them if you plan properly. My advice, get loads of large boxes from SevenSeas and cram as much as you can in them in. Allow yourself at least 2 weeks to do this so you can properly pack the stuff in. On the day the cube arrives you'll need to work quickly as you only have 6 hours, so get your big things in first, then your boxes, then cram all available space with smaller items. It's amazing how much you'll get in. Don't worry if it feels like the box is about to explode. SevenSeas will seal it properly before it ships. I'd do it again. Saved us £2.5K over a container and everything arrived in one piece including loads of wine glasses, picture frames and so on.

Absolutely correct. It's so boring hearing people moaning how expensive things are over here. You'd think stuff in the UK was being given away for free if you believed what people wrote on here. Yes, you can buy utter shite, such as a budget lasagna, in ASDA and Tesco filled with horse meat, starch and salt for a pound and I'm sure plenty of people think this is normal. It amazes me how many people can't see beyond ready meals and processed junk when they talk about how expensive Australia is. Is it really a bad thing that you can't get rubbish like this in Australia? Things are cheap for a reason. People in the UK have a completely unrealistic view of the value of food. How do you think Tesco can sell a rotisserie chicken for £2.99 for example? Or how can ASDA sell robotic looking bananas for 30p a kilo? And how many small businesses have gone under in the UK, how many farmers work for basically nothing and how many people in the developing world are being kept in poverty because the average moron who shops in Tesco thinks "Every Little Helps"? Coles and Woolworths are not much better. Get out and support your local butcher, baker and candlestick maker!!

I'm a landlord in the UK and a tenant in Australia, so I get to see both sides of this. From a landlord's perspective I am looking for a long term bet as I want the house occupied, so someone with a bit of stability is a bonus. References are important, but other factors come in to play. I currently rent to someone who was declared bankrupt a few years ago. Sounds dangerous, but it's a safe bet as he had a business that went bust, but is now in full time employment. This means he can't get a mortgage and as he's in his 50s he probably wouldn't get one when his credit rating improves. So I see him as someone who'll look after the house, make it a home and treat the place like he owns it. As a tenant in Australia, we knew we were good prospects as we can't get a mortgage here yet and have a daughter in school. We therefore played hard with the landlords and offered under the asking price for the rent. This was accepted as the landlord wants us in there for the long haul. My advice would therefore be to make yourself as attractive to a landlord as possible. If you can demonstrate any sort of stability that's great. If you're only here for a short period, then push forward your positive points to the agent, for example present yourself in a neat and tidy way, fill your application in properly and try to stress why you want to live in this particular house and why you're the best applicant. A word of caution though, when you are accepted somewhere, don't be blinded with gratitude. When you move in remember to photograph EVERYTHING and list all faults, snags, issues within the first 3 days. Save all correspondence no matter how trivial and only ever deal with your agent, never direct with the landlord. There's a lot of people out there who see your bond as a chance to make some easy money, so cover yourself up front. Best of luck!

Quick one - bit of advice please. No case officer yet, but getting all the paperwork in order. My wife has made an error on her Form 80. Is she best to cross this out and submit the corrected form as is, or start a new one from scratch? My thinking here is that we submit the corrected one and the CO can then ask for a new version if required. Is this a bad idea? Is it better to just bite the bullet and complete a new one now? No MA or DRC.

I've still got a bank account in the UK which I use to pay various things. I set it up on that originally, then moved it to my ANZ account at a later date. I think you can set Netflix up from anywhere, but ordinarily it won't work in Australia unless you have a VPN on your iPad/Laptop or change the DNS on your Apple TV or equivalent (this requires something like Unotelly). It's a while ago now, but I'm pretty sure we didn't need to supply an address. Netflix is great by the way. UK content probably better than US content, but it's a bit slower and less predictable to stream. We get the US content at full 1080p which is really nice. It's about time Australia permitted it. Not sure who they are protecting...

Try living with my wife...(!)

Agree with Alan. We did a similar thing (transferred role out here on a 457) and our huge regret is waiting 2 years before applying for permanent residence. So much risk on a 457 compared to PR. My safe and secure job of 15 years was made redundant and suddenly I was left panicking about finding another company to take over the 457 or leave Australia. Luckily for me, I was redeployed in to another role, but it was 2 months of sleepless nights and depression. If we'd got the PR visa moving as soon we arrived we'd have avoided all this. If you've got any ideas about staying out here, get the PR moving asap as a 457 offers you more or less no security if things go TU.

Just thinking aloud here, but could you reapply for the Direct Entry 186? Would get you the Bridging Visa A quicker than getting a 457? Best of luck - horrible position to find yourselves in.

There's a third option - we have an Apple TV and a subscription to Netflix from the UK. We use a product called UnoTelly to be able to access the UK, US etc Netflix content. This also means we can watch iPlayer on the PC and iPad (it's similar to a VPN). This also means I can access Sky Sports on the iPad using the log in details of someone I know in the UK. In total this costs us something like $15 a month. Just watched 5 series of Breaking Bad so well worth it. To be honest though, TV plays a very minor role in our lives compared to what it did in the UK. Better things to do nowadays!

Agree 100% and with the post about a having a trip back to the UK helping understand where "home" is. I definitely feel now that I go on a trip to the UK and return home to Australia, not the other way round. Ultimately though, you need to be a bit selfish. It's never easy to leave family and friends, but when we made our decision we had a frank conversation with our families about what was right for us, right for our daughter's future and what it was we wanted. People understand.

I know - isn't it odd that iPads are so cheap? I took one back for someone in the UK in July. The UK 16Gb Wifi model is £399. The same one in Australia was $509. Even better, I found one cheaper still on the internet here, asked OfficeWorld to to a Price Beat, which they honoured, so got it for $472. Then I claimed back the GST in the airport using my UK passport, so in total it came to something like £230! Cheapest iPad in the world I reckon! Ker-ching!

If it helps you to "share" then it's a good thing for you. Stiff upper lip though, old boy. You're hardly that isolated in 2013.

Does sound a bit like whinging to be honest. It costs $0.02 for a 10 minute call back to the UK, or nothing to Skype. You can jump on a plane for $1700 and be back in the UK in 24 hours. We've all had a guilt trip along the way about leaving people behind, but you get over it.

19 days to get the nomination approved is really quick. Someone please correct me here as I am probably wrong, but wouldn't the CO normally approve the nomination? If so, then I think they would normally deal with the application at the same time, if one has been submitted. Looks like Perth and Sydney are a lot faster than Melbourne! Best city in Australia, but seems like the slowest immigration office...

10 months - that's absolutely dreadful!

Should be Australia - i.e. where you currently live and work. You might be jumping the gun on Scottish Independence too - it's still part of the UK at the moment:wink:

60 days for me so far. Set my expectations for Jan/Feb for this.

Nice one!! You applied on the same date as me - really quick turnaround time. Let's hope things get moving quickly for everyone else.

I guess the frustrating bit for everyone is it takes so long to be assigned a CO. Once the CO is assigned things seem to get done and dusted very quickly. I submitted on 20th August so there could be thousands still to go until I'm at the top of the pile. We have everything in place though, so once the CO gets hold of the application hopefully things will move very quickly. I'm reckoning on Christmas or early next year. Nothing to do but sit and chew the finger nails!

Not according to Ernst and Young it isn't. I trust they know what they're talking about! If you are here for fewer than 182 days your tax liability in Australia is ZERO, provided your income is taxed in a country with a bilateral tax agreement such as the UK.

Hi I'll share my experiences with you, although I'm employed rather than owning a company. Don't think the basics are any different though. I work for a global company and was initiall employed in the UK from 1998 onwards. In August 2011 I was asked to come out to Melbourne to manage a project for a period of three months. The company agreed to bring my family over with me, so we saw it as a change of scenery with a holiday at the end of it. At this stage I was paid in pounds from the UK and was ostensibly on an extended business trip. In December 2011 I was asked if I wanted to stay on until April 2012. This is when we hit the first snag... After 182 days in Australia, so early February 2012 for me, I became a "resident for tax purposes, which made all my earnings (in pounds) liable to Australian tax. Therefore, I was required to complete an Australian tax return for 2011/2012. Around the same time, we had to go cap in hand to the company and ask for some subsistance payments as my pretty decent UK salary was worth very little over here. We'd spent all our savings, so the company generously agreed to pay a stipend and backdate this to the date of entry (these were in the days of $1.4 to the pound). I continued to be employed and paid from the UK and extended my time here further to July 2012 and then was asked if I wanted to transfer out here permanently in the same role. We agreed to this, and I went back to the UK for 3 months to sort out our affairs, then switched to the Australian payroll at the start of November. The issues I have (and we have had to get one of the large accountancy firms in to sort this out) are: 1. From August 2011 to July 2012, then in October 2012 I was employed in the UK, earned pounds but lived in Australia. As such I was liable to pay Australian tax on all earnings. However, not everything was taxable, such as the stipend, which was classed as a living away from home allowance. 2. During this period I was not resident in the UK and could declare this on my tax return and claim back the UK tax paid in this period. 3. During the three months I was back in the UK in 2012 I was employed and paid in the UK, so had no Australian liability (although it was now my normal residence) and was liable to UK tax. 4. The UK tax year runs April to April, the Australian one runs July to June - therefore they are totally out of sync which makes claiming back tax hard as it's not in a like for like period I've lost track of how many forms I have completed and how much hassle this has been. It's also cost a fortune in consultancy fees to the accountants. I have now claimed back the UK 2011-2012 money and am paying off the ATO for 2011-2012 in installments (interest free - so a good option). I now have to work out how we account for the period from April to Nov 2012 and again claim back what I can and pay off what I owe. To be honest it's a bloody nightmare. Would I have bothered if knew then what I know now? Yes, but only because Australia is worth the effort. If I was in the same situation in another country I would have come home at the end of the initial 182 days. Hope this helps

So 9 months to get this processed? Jesus... How depressing for those of use a couple of months in to the process...

Pozz - I'm on the same visa route as you - 457 transition, no MA, no DRC. Is Form 80 required? On the DIAC website the list of required docs doesn't include this - was it something you were specifically told to include or were you covering your bases? I've part filled out Form 80 but not posted it yet. If I can avoid listing every country I have visited with dates it would be a bonus as I have a job where I've spent a lot of time travelling.

Children don't need Xrays or blood samples. The medical for kids is really simple and for a baby it should be a formality. For my daughter (aged 5) the nurse measured and weighed her, did a very basic eye test (telling what the pictures on a chart were), tested her urine. The doctor then checked her with a stethascope, checked her glands in her next, stomach, spine and ankles. That was about it. Still cost $300+ though! Don't sweat the medicals - they're not so strict unless you have a long medical history or they find something seriously wrong. I passed and I'm in terrible shape...