can1983

After so long away from the UK is it a risk that you wont be happier there? 35 years, so late 1980's? Thatcher was PM? The UK (and Australia) are completely different countries now I think I'd be worried that i wouldn't fit it. That said if you genuinely still have friends there that's excellent, I have lost touch will all my UK friends after 5 years!

I don't believe housing in Aus is any more over inflated than in the south of the UK. They are both crazy If your Australian salary isn't between 2 to 2.5 times the numerical amount of your UK one you will be worse off My UK earnings would be about GBP50k my current Aus one is $120k. I think we are about quits cost of living wise

Ok, just don't expect too much here that's what I'm saying. I first moved to Sydney in 2008 you could virtually hear me ranting from the plane about how awful the UK was and how I wasn't ever coming back. I lasted 3 months before I crawled home and faced up to all my family and friends! I was overwhelmed by how big a disappointment it all was: rubbish place to live, 3 hour a day commute. I had this expectation that Australia would solve all my problems and it didn't it was even worse. Just please don't expect it to be better than the UK it isn't

But imagine living in that with a family, hardly a lifestyle is it?

To the OP here's a question - Do you really want to live in an apartment as a family? I just struggle to believe anyone would consider apartment living a lifestyle improvement over the UK. We love it in Australia but I think its becoming less and less attractive to start over here. If you think the UK is broken just think: - Until recently In most capital cities the highest earners were piles and bricks and colourbond. My house has increased in value by more than my annual salary every year for the past 5 - that's broken - The last prime minister appointed himself to pretty much all of the top jobs in the country just like Hitler did and Putin is doing - That's broken too

I don't think its possible. The lifestyle in Sydney for that income is going to be poor and not something, in my mind, that would improve on the UK 'going down the drain' Lots of people survive on that income but only because either they have a house all paid for that cost them $20k in 1978 or they live in the outer west miles form anything nice and enduring summers which are 5C hotter than the city

what a joke IMMI is, its disgusting how long visas take to process. I am extremely thankful that I am a dual national and will never have to partake in this nonsense again

Extremely low refusal rate for partner visas! I wonder why they may you provide so much evidence when they all get approved anyway

Queensland is a wonderful state if you like your roof being blown off your house every other year or your entire lower floor flooded I don't think 90% of aussies who move interstate go to qld that sounds like fake news Lets get real Brisbane and Adelaide are both nice enough both have their good and bad points Its a hard call but i would edge towards Brisbane as its less isolated than Adelaide

Interest rates are not directly in your control of course but they do go up and down so unless you have to move it i wouldn't We got 1.70 in November 2018 because we had to move it to buy. Ours was in the order of GBP250k People could say that rate was rubbish but we brought a house with it that's gone up 30% since which more than compensates for the exchange rate on the deposit being less than ideal. And we have had a home for our family in the meantime It gave me sleepless nights for 6 months at the time so I do sympathize

I moved around the age of 40, I found it pretty easy to make friends and fit in. I'm in regional Australia (Hobart) Not everyone makes their friends at school and keeps them forever and isn't open to meeting new people. I had a large group of uni friends that were my entire social life from 18 to 35. Now not a single one talks to another as far as i understand. Its not like we fell out with each other we just drifted away.

Pretty much yes, im not sure how long you can keep reporting a loss but for us it was only 1 whole financial year for the company because of when we stopped income and when we took last salary.

I did a similar thing, as a director of the company we paid my wife a salary for 2 years whilst she was on maternity and working part time hours. Ended up avoiding all personnel tax but it was a unique set of circumstances i suppose we used our uk accountant to help close the company from australia. It is quite a long process to wind up and strike off but not expensive

Great, Sorry if my comment was obvious. Everyone told us it would be impossible to find a rental when we arrived, we'd need to slip $200 in the application blah blah but our experience wasn;t too bad if we are honest as we got the first and only rental we applied for (but the rental we got was an oven in summer and an icebox in winter). good luck, when do you arrive October was it?

Good stuff, lovely location we go there regularly. It is nearly an hour out of Hobart but im sure you are aware of that from google maps

The UK financial requirement is a really difficult one to meet, or at least it was for me. I had to get a job from Australia interviewing over the phone so that I got a letter saying I had a job to go to. Since I hadn't seen the place I was going to work in or met the people I lasted about a month after arriving before I got a better job. The UK system didn't think about the practicality of their dumb system. I've heard of lots of cases of people quitting these 'visa jobs' shortly after starting, not even turning up the first day or getting their parents friend to provide a fake job offer. It wastes a lot of people's time and achieves very little

we did airbnb, realistically best option for short term. I'm sure you are aware the rental market in Hobart is crazy competitive, potentially 1 month might not be long enough to find somewhere, particularly if you have pets

I've been back to South East Asia, but the answer sure ain't there.

professional advice might well wipe out the rest of the amount...... then there's no tax to pay woo hoo!

You would certainly not be alone in this dilemma. I assume you are both Australian citizens but British born with all family in the UK? If so maybe a couple of years back in the UK before kids start school would achieve what you want and you can return (but then in would only make your mother older and harder to leave again....) I'm one half of a 'anglo-aussie' marriage. Also by only sibling lives here too so with kids and nieces/nephews the balance of family is heavily biased to Australia. To be honest its not a dilemma for me. So I've not got a lot of knowledge of your type of predicament but I imagine its very hard and best of luck deciding what to do.

Yep id agree go home to the uk with or without your partner. Having a baby in Australia commits you to living here for the duration of their childhood unless the father lets you go. I've been here approaching 5 years, I've never thought of returning to the uk, don't think of it as home and don't miss anything about it. I that regard I'm lucky and a successful migrant but it doesn't sound like you are in that position Good luck

quite cheap isn;t it

why would you put something like this on a public forum Get some professional advice about whether you need to declare it or not. Being arrested isn't a crime but certain convictions need to be declared some don't. I certainly wouldn't be wanting to put 'sexual assault' on the form unless you are required to. I can't believe what you wrote in the last sentence

Good stuff, it was tough when we first arrived living in an airbnb wife 6 months pregnant toddler running a muck. It got easier once we had a rental and, ultimately, our own home

Can't imagine it, there are 10's maybe 100's of thousands of brits living overseas on permanent visas who have mortgages in the UK for their former home - my sister is one of them. Permanent residency isn't, well, permanent! it has an expiry doesn't guarantee citizenship if you are naughty. I did it 10 years ago I paid a one off GBP250 fee to Santander for letting consent and all sorted. I would imagine the best thing is to is let the current mortgage roll onto the SVR and be done with it why remortgage the rate isn;t going to be better than the SVR if you have to get a special 'living overseas never returning' kinda mortgage