Marisawright

Hey guys...Is it true that everyone with an underactive thyroid gain loads of weight?has anyone else got a low thyroid problem?and after treatment do you lose the weight?i just got told i have an underactive thyroid and more then anything else im worried about gaining lots of weight and not being able to lose it or have to work a 100 times harder to lose it.

Like Newjez says, if you've had it for a while and haven't gained weight yet, then that's not going to change just because you've had an official diagnosis. Gaining weight is a common symptom of having a low thyroid, once you're on treatment it won't be a problem.

We are using a migration agent in Melbourne and she has advised us that this is the best way. My husband is 50 march 2017 so time is short. From what i can gather it sounds like it is not a possibility

I also think it would be difficult to find an employer willing to take him on. I have met osteopaths who've come out from the UK, as osteopaths are hard to find in Australia - but massage therapists are everywhere. Since there's no regulation, a lot of them aren't properly qualified and therefore not very good - but the point is that there's lots of competition.

Even if he does find a sponsor, as VeryStormy says, the 457 is only a temporary visa. At the end of his contract he'll be over 50 and not eligible for a permanent visa, and therefore you'll have to come home. That's not a problem if all you want is a chance to experience Australia for a few years, but you need to factor the costs of relocating twice into your budget.

I don't think there is an ice rink in Darwin, except the temporary ones they sometimes put up in the shopping centres. So no ice hockey. It's a minor sport in Australia, partly due to the lack of good ice rinks in general. I had a friend who was a keen ice hockey player - he had to give up when he moved to Oz.

Did you like Exeter Marisa ?

Yes I did, I actually managed to find some decent cafes. Not enough dance classes though, like most towns of that size.

Go where you can get a job, then look at houses and the schools will fall into place. Make sure you have your UK citizenship in the bag before you go just in case you might one day want to return (the spouse visa is pretty draconian these days)

Very good point!

I'm not surprised by those figures. Even in a depressed city like Southampton, I'm surprised how many businesses have signs up looking for staff. When we went to Exeter, every second shop in the high street seemed to be advertising for staff. I definitely get the impression the job market is better here than it was in Sydney when I left.

I'd definitely say check out the work opportunities first. Seek.com.au is the best place to look, but it's unlikely you'll be able to secure jobs before you go. Instead, note which agencies are offering jobs in your fields, and call them up to ask questions about your job prospects, what employers are looking for etc.

It's easy to get excited about cheap housing when you don't know the areas, but be cautious - often if the housing is cheap, it's because demand in that area is low (ie. there's no work or no schools). Also check commute times, distances are much greater between towns. If you buy rural, you may be a very long way from amenities.

Personally, I wouldn't underestimate the value of having family close by. You're going to be leaving all your friends as well as your UK family behind, so you'll arrive with absolutely no support network to help you out if things go wrong - which they inevitably will, few migrations go perfectly smoothly! If you can stay with them for the first few weeks, it will remove a lot of the stress - otherwise you'll have to book a holiday flat for a month or so while you frantically rush around looking for a long-term rental.

Yes. As long as you are living in the UK you can claim for those years too. You will need to fill out a form provided by the Pension Service (email: tvp.internationalqueries@thepensionservice.gsi.gov.uk). We had our group certificates and a letter from a relative and friend confirming that we had lived out there during the years we were claiming for. I also have a private pension but that does not matter. If you are resident in the UK the basic state pension is not means tested. Hope this helps.

The person who asked was living in Australia - so just highlighting that you MUST be living in the UK to claim those years. Also, if you claim them while you're in the UK and decide to come back to Australia or move elsewhere, you'll lose the extra years.

I knew someone who got a nasty surprise, they went back to the UK but missed the warmer weather so decided to move to Spain instead. They got a shock when their pensions were slashed - they had assumed that, having claimed the extra years while in the UK, they'd go on getting credit for them, but no. If you leave the UK permanently you lose it.

Ok, I'm a Uk resident. Thinking about moving to Australia? Clean record etc., what are my requirements? I have a trade...Clerical. in Insurance...? Well??

You don't have a trade, you have an occupation. The bad news is that your occupation probably won't get you into Oz.

The Australian government doesn't want migrants who might compete with Australians for jobs - so they will only accept people with skills perceived to be in short supply. You'll find the lists here:

https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Work/Work/Skills-assessment-and-assessing-authorities/skilled-occupations-lists/CSOL

https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Work/Work/Skills-assessment-and-assessing-authorities/skilled-occupations-lists

Unfortunately I very much doubt that Insurance Clerk is on those lists anywhere. Though there are skills involved, it's possible for insurance companies to recruit and train any clerical worker to carry out the role.

The bottom line is that if you don't have the skills Australia wants, you can't migrate. If you're under 30 you could apply for a Working Holiday Visa and come for a year, but that's it. A WHV is basically a holiday where you're allowed to take part time or casual jobs to fund your holiday.

If you're determined to migrate, then you need to switch careers to an occupation that's in demand. Bear in mind that (a) you need both qualifications AND experience for most occupations, so it may take several years and (b) there's no guarantee that occupation will still be on the list by the time you've achieved the minimum standard.

My father died many years ago before I came to Australia. My Mum encouraged me to come to Australia and wished me well - she was in very good health until she had a stroke in her mid-80's. I flew back to Scotland as soon as I heard about it. She had the stroke on the Thursday and I arrived at the hospital on the Sunday. I stayed with her 24 hours a day with my sister until she died the following Thursday. She knew I was there and tried to talk to me. It's very difficult living so far away.

At least you were with her at the end. The trouble with living in Australia is that it takes so long to get back - by the time you add on travel at each end of the flight, it can easily be 30 hours or more, and a lot can happen in that time. I hopped on the first plane available when my Dad took ill but still didn't make it in time. It's a horrible feeling sitting on that plane, wondering.

I hope that my parents see it like this but I am informed by my sister that my dad was crying on the phone to her the other day about how devastated he is that the family is apart. I am not sure if it is true however - it may just be another manipulation strategy by her. It does upset me to think that my dad feels this way and could quite possibly die feeling like this but I cannot leave my life here just to make family happy.

Can you call your dad and ask him point blank if he wants you to come back? I think one of the biggest reasons these things cause angst is the British stiff upper lip - if your parents were honest with you about how they feel, and you shared your fears with them, it would all be out in the open and you would know where you stood. But because you're tiptoeing round it with each other, that gives your sister the opportunity to manipulate both of you. There comes a point where you have to be brave enough to mention the elephant in the room IMO, even if it causes a bit of emotional upset.

edit: going back and reading some of the other posts, it does sound as though your parents are putting the guilt trip on you too? If so, do you think it's really them, or do you think your sister could be goading them? I think that's another reason to ask them directly about it.

BTW you can tell them you can't come back for the wedding, because it's complicated if you're not legally resident in the UK - it may have changed, but when we looked into it, we'd have had to come to the UK months before the wedding and we couldn't afford that much time.

So my family and I moved from Milton Keynes UK to Sydney in January 2015; we have already decided we are returning to the UK in August 2017, for a number of reasons:

 

 

1. Unable to buy a house

2. Further Education prospects; I struggle to see what opportunities an Australian education offers compared to that in the UK. There are barely any Universities and an extremely small number of 'good' ones when compared to the UK and Europe.

3. Work opportunities; if we stay in Australia I struggle to see how they could make a living in such a small (And without mining, shrinking) jobs market. My family have access to the EU jobs market, which is huge.

 

 

You are discovering the reality of the Australian dream!

Sydney is very, very expensive and even the pundits agree houses are over-priced, so your assessment won't be a surprise to anyone. I loved living in Sydney myself, but when I see people on these forums asking about a move to Sydney, I always advise them to choose another city instead these days -unless they are young and don't have a family to support. If you're loving the Aussie lifestyle and want to stay, then 'd be suggesting a move to another, cheaper, city.

I often see people wanting to move to Australia because of "better opportunities for their children" and I think that's rubbish. I think Australian universities are on a par with British ones, but there are so few of them they have little scope to offer less popular subjects. And with a small job market, rising unemployment and the reluctance of employers to hire from interstate, I think job prospects are poorer in Australia now than in the UK, where it's so easy to move around the UK itself for work, and not that hard to hop over to Europe either.

If those considerations are important to you, then I think you are making the right decision to move back. Just bear in mind that if you wait until your children are ready to go to university, they'll be treated as foreign students and have to pay full fees.

Not sure if I am understanding this correctly. I am claiming a UK pension , and get 16/30ths of it for the 16 years that I was employed prior to emigrating in 1981. So, if I now provide evidence that I was employed full time in Australia between 1981 and 2001, my pension would then increase?

Only if you are legally resident in the UK. Assuming you're still in Australia, you can't claim it.

a newspaper article, the Telegraph, 4th of December.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/expat-money/12031851/British-pension-is-paltry-but-theres-hope-for-those-with-frozen-payments.html

The funny thing is that we've found the opposite. My oh has wide feet and wears New Balance. We always bought them at a New Balance factory outlet in Drummoyne. He needed a new pair before we left but we didn't bother as we assumed we'd get them cheaper here.

Lo and behold, the high street stores don't stock the wider widths in store, so we've had to order online. After spending hours searching, the cheapest pair we could find were actually MORE expensive than Australia, for exactly the same shoes.

we live in inner London nowhere quite as crowded bar HK etc

 

i work I'm NhS nowadays far from easy and service sadly far from fit for purpose despite skilled caring staff...resources way too stretched

 

I know it would be second best, but do bear in mind that you're living in THE most crowded part of the UK, so you would feel less squashed if you moved anywhere else in the UK. You would also be better off financially as housing is cheaper everywhere else.

As someone who has just returned from Australia, I am struck by how crowded London's whole commuter belt in the South of England is, even right down to the coast - but you don't have to go far north of London to start seeing a huge difference, with far more open spaces and far less traffic once you're off the motorways.

No solution for the NHS, I'm afraid, unless you can get work in another field, but at least it could address your other concerns and still let you be close to family and friends. I wouldn't be worried about finding work - if you can land a job in a whole other country, you can find a job in another county!

Recognized like by the engineers australia? My wife's credentials were assessed by them. We didn't bother having mine assessed as it was enough for our application. Yes, i have looked at seek.com.au...everyday. I was informed my experience in the middle east and the philippines is not relevant, way to bursting my confidence with those words. We chose sydney because this is where my wife's sister lives...she helped out when we had the baby.

 

I did some research and going back to school might increase my chance of practising my profession.

Being assessed for immigration and having your qualifications recognised to work in Australia are two different things. Employers will always prefer a local engineer to an overseas one because they are not familiar with overseas qualifications. University standards vary around the world - how do they know whether a Filipino engineering degree is better or worse than an Australian one? They only have your word for it.

If you can get registered with Engineers Australia, that will give an employer confidence that you meet Australian standards.

Employers may say your overseas experience is not relevant - it's up to you to prove that it is. When you apply for a position, analyse the advertisement and list the requirements (qualifications, competencies) they are looking for. Then list each of them in your cover letter, giving an example of how your experience enables you to meet each requirement.

So your cover letter would start something like, "Dear ... , I wish to apply for the position of .... I feel my qualifications and experience are an excellent fit for this position, as follows: ...."

It may also help to attach written references from your employers in the Middle East and the Philippines to your application. If employers can read references which talk about how good you are, it will influence them (whereas they aren't likely to bother to make an overseas call to find out).

I agree with Flatpack. The most important thing is that the agent is MARA registered - unregistered agents are a lottery.

Are your engineering qualifications recognised in Australia?

Have you looked on seek.com.au to see where the jobs are? Sydney is by far the most expensive place in Australia to live - if you can find work in another city you would save a lot of money in rental costs.

@Margie - I wouldn't say I'm an expert, but I have just been through the same process myself!

Assuming you've been in Australia exactly 40 years, that makes you 61.

Australian Pension

Just to be clear, we're talking about the government pension here, not superannuation (see further down).

To get your Australian pension, you'll need to stay in Australia until the day you reach pension age, then you go into Centrelink to claim it, and you can then go anywhere in the world and continue to get paid. It would be reduced if you'd been resident for less than 35 years, but that won't apply to you.

If you leave Australia before you reach pension age, then the only way you can claim is to move back to Australia when you reach pension age and stay for TWO FULL YEARS. If you leave the country before the two years is up, your pension will be stopped.

Two other alternatives - (1) pray that Australia and the UK manage to sign an agreement to allow pensions to be paid (we've been waiting since 2001!) or (2) move to Spain, Italy, Malta or France instead where you can claim your Aussie pension no problem at all.

British Pension

To get a UK pension, you must have paid at least two years' NI contributions (if you're planning to continue working, you'll be able to do that easily). Then, how much you get depends how many years' contributions you have made. You can submit a claim to have your Australian work record recognised towards it, so bring evidence of your Australian work record with you. Unfortunately they will only credit years before 2001, but it will help!

If you are still short of years to qualify for the full pension, then you can make voluntary contributions and as you're so close to retirement age, it would probably be worth it - unlike the Aussie pension, the UK pension is NOT means tested so you'd start receiving it the moment you reach pension age. Your best idea is to request a pension forecast ASAP:

https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-statement

- but you'll have to wait till you're resident in the UK to claim your Australian work years.

Superannuation

If you leave your lump sum in your super and transfer it to a British account AFTER you've arrived in the UK, you could get slugged a scarey amount for tax. However, if you take your lump sum BEFORE you leave and just put it in the bank, then it's just savings and you can transfer it without being liable for any tax. If you decide to do that, I would use a service like Moneycorp to do the transaction instead of letting your bank do it - it will save you a LOT of money in commissions and fees (join through PomsinOz to get a fee-free account).

If you don't want to take a lump sum and prefer to convert your super to a pension, the bad news is that it won't get tax-free treatment in the UK like it would in Australia. You'll have to declare your super pension as income on your British tax return and pay tax on it (though you do get a tax-free threshold just like in Australia). That could make quite a difference to what your income would be in retirement.

Banking and Credit

This is a huge headache.

You cannot open a UK account from Australia, it's impossible. Even when you get to the UK, no bank will look at you until you can show them proof of a UK residential address - which means you can't even apply until you've found a place to live AND received your first electricity, water or phone bills. Even then, you can't open an account at the counter, so allow a week's wait for an appointment and two weeks for the account to be available for use. So don't close your Australian bank accounts, you'll need to go on using them (with your ATM cards) for at least a month. If you need a credit card, then you'll need to keep using your Australian credit cards for at least a year.

A cheat which would speed things up - if you have relatives in the UK, change your postal address for your Australian bank accounts and credit cards to their address before you go - then you'll have some bank and credit card statements waiting for you when you arrive, and can use that as proof of address (just don't let slip to the bank that it's not going to be your permanent address!!).

Even once you've got proof of address, you'll only be able to open the most basic account, with no overdraft and no credit card, because you have zero credit rating. Some banks will not even give you a debit card (Barclays will so they're your best bet - they will also give you a credit card earlier than most). You won't be able to get a mortgage or any personal loans, except from loan sharks.

The silly thing is that you can't even GET a credit rating until you've incurred some kind of debt - which you can't do because you have no credit rating. The only way to do it is to apply for a high-interest credit card designed specially for people with a bad credit rating, then use it at least once a month and pay it off on time every month. After about a year, you'll have a good enough rating to get a mortgage or bank loan.

I would not even be considering it were it not for dd of late July when travel component of our visa expires therefore if not in Oz then need to start whole process again which would mean family as a whole not included.

 

my drivers are overcrowding pollution health.my mum would come with .

You say "mum would come with". It is now difficult and horrendously expensive to get residency for an aged parent - if you haven't already investigated that, do so - it might be another deal breaker.

The fact that your oh is calling this "YOUR dream", and you talk about "MY drivers" suggests that you're the one who's been driving the move to Australia and you've persuaded your family into agreeing to the move. Having been on these forums for some time now, I can tell you that's a potential recipe for disaster: the first few months in a new country are hard enough, even if you're all 100% committed. If you've got family members who don't really want to be there, at the first sign of difficulties (and there will be difficulties) they'll be wanting to give up and go home.

Also have you thought about what you'll do if your kids don't settle, and they decide to move back to the UK once they leave school (if they're moving reluctantly then you have to allow that's a possibility - don't assume they'll fall in love with Australia once they get there, many people don't!). Will you follow them back? What if only one of them moves back and the other meets and marries an Aussie? Which country will you choose?

I'm sorry you've found yourself in this situation, you're certainly not alone. Best wishes in working it all out.

Hey we have the choice of moving to Perth or Brisbane. We are a young family my husband a chippy two children ages 7 and 3 I have read so much info but like to hear from people who live in either cities..Where best to settle and riase family, schools, cost living?

It's a very very difficult question to answer because people's reactions to cities are so personal. I wouldn't live in Perth if you paid me, whereas I love Sydney. On the other hand, I know people who love Perth and wouldn't live in Sydney at any price. The same goes for Perth vs Brisbane. It's like asking people whether they'd prefer to live in Exeter or Newcastle - they're very different even though they're in the same country, and some people will prefer one and some the other.

My only comment would be, if you don't have a job to go to, then I'd choose Brisbane. Only because if you struggle to get jobs, or don't like it, you have a much greater choice of towns and cities along the East Coast which you can move to affordably. Whereas if you have to move from Perth, it's horribly expensive to relocate all the way across the country.

Any chance you could visit Australia to activate your existing visa?

I don't think the 175 visa is offered any more, so if you don't use this one, you can't get another one. If you let your existing visa lapse, you'd go for a 189. No idea whether not using the 175 would count against you.

OK, I deleted it, but I don't really stress about stuff like that. I would if she was 8

 

Entirely up to you, just mentioning it because a surprising number of people forget it's a public forum and post things they wouldn't if they realised.

I'm assuming you're young, free and single, so I wouldn't live anywhere near Bella Vista. It's a commercial estate surrounded by sprawly family suburbs and will bore you to tears

 

Your public transport options in that area (at the moment - train arrives in 2019) are buses. ...

 

http://www.cdcbus.com.au/IgnitionSuite/uploads/docs/Region_4_Network_Guide%2024%20January%202015.pdf

http://www.cdcbus.com.au/hillsbus-maps.html

 

Personally I'd be tempted to look at the services that go to North Sydney.

I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure there are NO services that go from North Sydney on to the M2. The North Sydney section of that map refers to a different service altogether.

I agree that the worst thing he could do is live in the burbs, however I do think that inner-Sydneyites are too dismissive of Parramatta - yes it has rough elements, but not as bad as Sydney's cinema precinct on a Friday or Saturday night, and it is a mecca for young people from all over the Western suburbs.