DianaK

I asked the question about my cat and they said that in addition to the vet's recommendation and the request that you have to send, you have to supply the food to them. This was in Sydney, I am not sure if they changed the rules since last October and after they "moved" to Melbourne.

Just be prepared financially and mentally that you might be without a job for 6 months.

It also depends on what is available in your area. I found that the speed and service is pretty much the same among the providers and I went with the least expensive provider, as I was not interested in bundles with phone and TV. As an example, Dodo and TPG are cheaper than Telstra, Optus and Internode.

You can go on a month to month/no contract but the initial cost is more and you pay for a modem. I am on such plan.

I have organized all papers for release of the container and the quarantine myself and it was all done within 10 days from arrival of the container. It was around Christmas and they wanted to book the inspection after the holidays but we talked to the company where the goods were stored and they asked the inspector to look at our goods while inspecting somebody else's container. You have to be on their case and following up with them until you get them to inspect the shipment. I am not sure how it works if an agent is organizing it for you. When I called for a quote, the agency asked for over $1000 for just organizing the documents and the quarantine and we decided to do it ourselves.

We used them for clothes mainly and then we packed the cardboard boxes with nylon wrap and we did not have a single box or item damaged, although we shipped everything in pallets as we did not have enough items for a full container.

I suspect that this is the better option as based on what I get deducted as tax from my pay cheque here is 10% less than my Canadian deductions, although I am earning 30% more in Australia and I am in a comparable tax bracket. I still have to see what is the bottom line after my taxes are done here for the first year but with the new tax rate for my bracket, introduced by Trudeau I will most probably be still better off in Australia.

I am still waiting for my T4 and soon I will be able to let you know. My concerns are more around paying as little as possible to CRA for the Life long learning plan and First time home buyer plan when I become non resident and mainly when is best to become non resident in this case. In your case, if you stay a resident in Canada you will be charged on worldwide income, meaning that you will pay taxes in Australia and Canada on the same income. If CRA calculates that your taxes in Canada are $10,000 and ATO calculates your Australian taxes to be 7,000, you will get a relieve on the 7,000 in Canada based on the treaty between the 2 countries but you will still owe 3,000 to CRA in Canada. If you are non-resident you can choose not to file and you will pay 3,000 less. I just picked random numbers for the example, I am still not sure if there is such a difference between the tax rates in the 2 countries.

For jobs, she does not need CPA's assessment. All she needs is connections and good luck

It does not matter what is the official statistics. The reality is that there are thousands of international students that graduate as accountants and this has a lot of impact on the job market. The main problem is the so called local experience and in many cases the industry. From personal experience, solid accounting experience in the Oil & Gas industry is not really what the companies in Sydney are looking for. It will be great for Perth may be but not in Sydney. And if you are in a situation where you are overqualified for junior positions and you do not have a local experience for the more senior roles then it might be tough to find a job. There is an option to enroll in an internship, where you pay from 1,500 to 3,000 and work for free to get local experience and a reference from a local employer but not everybody is prepared to do that.

You can also try and call them at this number +61 3 9606 9677 (outside of Australia). I have noticed on their website that they estimate 10 to 15 business days for processing, from the date they receive the documents. I personally sent all my documents with a courier and it was there within 3 days. Don't you have an option to contact them in UK? I am pretty sure that there was a discussion here about that but I am not much help as I am not familiar with their office in UK. Do you have your IELTS results? This is what took the longest time for me to get when I was collecting all documents. Also, I put a lot of effort in providing a very detailed syllabus related to my university degrees as they were not available and I had to write them myself. It was all worth it in the end. I hope that things will work out for you. Let me know if I can help with any other information.

Also, how many divorced women with children, limited employment opportunities in their countries and poor English will embark on this "adventure" with the genuine intention to study, considering the fact that $20,000 to $30,000 AUD per year for study is a lot of money even for the Australians? It is sad really, but the student visa is the easiest way to enter Australia and a lot of "students" lie to the point that they declare their siblings for husbands and wives so that they can come and work/stay here.

Most probably the majority of these students have never been interested in education really...they knew what they will be paying when they enrolled and went through the whole process of applying for visas.

You just have to call them and ask. It has been a while since I have done the assessment. It is early March and if you are really organized you might be able to get the assessment done on time. DIBP are considered an independent institution but "unofficially" they will consider the CPA opinion unless there is something that is obviously not "right". The assessment is not that expensive and I think that in your case, considering the time constraint you have to try it, even if it is to get assessed by CPA and ICAA or Vetassess at the same time. This is an option for you, if you are not sure which institution will provide the most favorable assessment in your situation. And then you can decide. What I think is that ICAA might be more restrictive in regards to what they consider accounting experience, but I am not an expert and I am not aware what is your accounting experience. The content of your employment letter and how your duties are described is very important and will contribute a lot to the outcome of the assessment.

CPA will assess you as an accountant and will look at various accounting duties which will encompass broad range of accounting categories. While auditor and management accountant will look for very specific experience. I do not know what type of accounting experience you have but may be it is a good idea to look at the numerous accounting job ads to get an idea where most of your experience will fit. To give you an example, most of my experience was related to systems but CPA still recognized it as accounting experience.

If you are performing duties of a typical project accountant, then there is a big chance that CPA will recognize it as accounting experience. If the person writing the Letter of employment puts in detail the accounting duties related to the project work and agrees to modify your title to something like Management Consultant (Project Accountant) or Management Consultant - Project Accounting, this should be sufficient to point out the nature of the work you performed. And it will not be cheating, it is just adding detail for better clarification. We had to do it here with our resumes as the responsibilities associated with certain accounting titles vary from country to country.

I will be filing my Canadian taxes for 2015 pretty soon and I will let you know how it went. We moved here in October and I am going to claim Canadian income until October. Also, for RRSP, first time home buyer and life long learning you owe taxes on the full amount as soon as you become non resident for tax purpose in Canada. I will still have to find out what is best for the first year - to declare myself non resident as of certain date this year or to extended it for the next year when I will be deemed to be a non resident due to no longer having ties with Canada. I am thinking for engaging a tax agent in Canada but I might look for an agent here in Australia.

We have two cats and it was no problem getting a rental in Surry Hills. We are currently in a very nice, newer apartment building and a lot of the tenants have cats or dogs. We rented through Charles & Stuart but I am not sure if this is one of their areas where they have rentals or it was more of an incidental find. You can call their office in Double Bay and ask. The ad did not say pet friendly, we just asked.

Most of the newer cars can run with Ethanol just fine, no damage, but I have personal experience with using E10. When we arrived, we did not know much about the the E10 fuel here and filled the tank of the Jeep with E10 several times. As a result we had issues with the catalyst converter, which was most probably related to the type of fuel (or so I have been told).

I was based in Wellington, but I have visited NZ on previous occasions, as a tourist. I think that it is a great place to visit for a month or so and there is a lot to see. Just too slow and quiet for me to live there.

I am a big city person and I find NZ really "small and restricting" in regards to what you can do and where you can go. It is quite gloomy and cold, in a way that I have never expected it to be. I disliked it so much that I had to resign and leave a great company, only because I could not imagine myself staying for the whole duration of my project. People are really nice and nature is beautiful, but this is all for me. I could never live there.

Research master course in accounting? What for? To be an accountant here you do not really need a master degree. Are you concerned about how another degree will help with getting the PR or just about your career? If it is about the career, I will not bother with another degree. May be, applying with CPA to get a professional designation will be of more use to you, or if you are eligible to work in Australia, get an accounting job. Getting a local experience, even as an accounting clerk or volunteer will give you more chances than a master degree, considering that you already have a master degree.

We booked 2 months, but only because it took 2 months for our container to arrive. Otherwise, 1 would have been sufficient to secure long term rental.

I agree with Pom Queen. One of my cats had wrong RNATT details and they had to issue new permit, the other cat's breed was wrong and if we have not noticed it, the airline would have refused boarding the cat as they do not transport this breed. Just check every single line. I am glad I did prior to departure.

Yes, if you like quiet life, definitely not the area. We are not party animals either, but I still enjoy having everything around. Good luck with the search.