Bungo

I was awarded my skilled visa in 2012 at the age of 44, and immediately validated it with a visit to Oz.

The reason for applying for a visa in the first place was not my untold desire to go to Oz but wondering it if might provide a better future for my children than the UK.

After 4 1/2 years ticking over quite nicely in the UK in a well paid quite secure job, my (5 year) visa will expire next Summer.

In the 4 1/2 years since being granted the visa, a lot of things have happened in the UK, not least Brexit. The future, even though I am still in a well paid secure job, is far from certain in the UK and I worry more about my children's future because of Brexit.

I am now at that crossroads where I have a hard fought and valuable visa that will expire and be gone forever if I don't take up this opportunity. Or I could go to Oz, not find a job or a job not as well paid and could be very quickly financially crippling. With my children at the difficult ages of 11 and 15, schooling and exams would also be risk.

The question is, will Oz provide me the quality of life now and in the future I currently have in the UK?

I am 49, and well aware of how lucky I am to have a granted visa when it is now so difficult to come by one, and do not want to waste it! UK or Oz?

The 'just give it go' attitude and 'what have you got to lose' is not the answer I am looking for, there is too much at stake!

There is nothing in your post that makes me think you should give Australia a go. You have said you have no untold desire and you have said you don't want to "just give it a go". You appear to want to make a considered decision and in this case it is very hard to come up with a rationale for why you should make the move.

Your children are already living in one of the most privileged countries in the world and this isn't going to change anytime soon. The future is always uncertain though, by definition it is uncertain. It is uncertain in UK, it will be uncertain in Australia too.

No way of knowing how you will fare in Australia with jobs, it will depend on what you do and your natural ability to network and find work. If you and the whole family had a burning desire to live in Australia it might make the gamble worthwhile but in the absence of that incentive, I am struggling to see the point of giving up what sounds like a comfortable and content life.

Holding an unused visa can be a curse I think, it is always there tempting you. Maybe once it has "expired" you will be better able to draw a line under this.

It is a shame that this thread has descended into the usual Australia vs UK debate with accusations of negativity. In fact you should know that many of the people that have commented that you should probably stay put are not remotely anti Australia, in fact several are very pro and happy in Australia. But based on what you have said, it doesn't sound like there is any particular reason for you to disrupt everybody and make this move.

thanks very much.please can you assist me with checklists documents neeeded for TRA skill assessment.thanks in advance.

If you are not prepared to do a little bit of reading by yourself, then you cannot handle this process by yourself and you need to engage a migration agent for professional services. A forum cannot walk you through the process step by step and read everything for you,

Hi guys,

 

I am trying my very best to make a perminent move to Australia. I completed a year in 2014 on a working holiday visa without doing my 88 days regional work (clearly I didn't realise at the time how much of an amazing country Australia is!) Now i'm desperately trying to get back over perminantely. I am currently a Real Estate Agent and have been informed that I could get a Skilled Visa on the basis that I find a company to sponsor me... Thing is I CANT!

I'm now starting to consider trying my luck and applying for my second holiday visa in the hope I wont get spot checked (although i've heard immigration are cutting down big time)

 

Please can someone advise me?!? Getting desperate here guys!!

You won't get a second working holiday visa, it isn't about being spot checked, all applications are checked and you don't qualify for it. It won't get you to Australia permanently anyway.

I also think you have zero chance as a Real Estate agent, you need to make this a medium to long term plan and look into retraining in an occupation that hopefully Australia will want.

Good luck for round two. Brisbane will hopefully suit you much better.

Should be reasonably straight forward. I would suggest he continues on the WHVs for now and continue to collect as much evidence as they can of shared address and finances in particular.

There is only one partner visa application, whether a temporary or permanent visa is granted will depend on the length of the relationship at the time, but the initial application is the same.

Hi All, this has been a really useful forum for us recently in planning our migration abroad so thanks all, I'm in a bit of a dilemma so hoping someone may be able to help with some advice..

 

I was offered a job with on a 457 Visa at the start of the year but for a few reasons had to turn it down, I advised the employer that I would be looking to move closer to the end of the year (now ish) and they said they would keep in touch.

 

True to their word, about a month ago they asked me what my situation was and I confirmed that we were ready to move out and they confirmed a current opportunity, it got to the stage of talking about time frames and we were in the process of arranging a second Skype mtg and everything has gone quiet, i.e. emails have gone unresponded etc. This may be due to a myriad of reasons but I think it is prudent to assume that perhaps the opportunity is no longer there and as such we are planning on going down the de-facto/ spouse visa route (we have lived together for 2 years so should be able to get the requisite evidence together)

 

I've read the warnings on here re: the 457 visa so this may turn out to be a better option in the long run, but if I'm honest I liked the idea of having it sorted by an employer and the thought of having to do all of the paperwork involved in getting a visa is giving me a headache! But here we are so I would really appreciate if anyone could help with the following queries -

 

- how long does the de facto visa take to process? I appreciate that this can vary massively but if anyone has any anecdotal experience I would love to hear it.

- How much should we budget to spend on it? We are keen to do it without a migration agent if possible, has anyone else gone through this process without an agent?

- Where to start? I appreciate that there are threads on this forum about this, but where can we download the application forms etc to get started!

- The main reason for us moving to Aus is due to my girlfriends mother being ill, so she is going to move out immediately and I will follow when this process is complete, can I complete the visa application for a de facto spouse if she is in Australia and I am in England or do we have to stay together?

 

Thanks in advance for any help, we thought everything was in place to be moving in a month ish so we are back to square one and in a bit of a panic!

The 457 would be quicker, but it t is a temporary visa and you would still need to go through another visa process in order to get a permanent visa.

I would also look into skilled migration and see if you ar eligible. If you are it would be quicker and probably a bit cheaper than the partner visa. It also would be permanent straight away whereas from your timings you likely to get a temporary partner visa and then go though another process in two years time in order to get permanent one.

Have you thought about skilled migration? Might be easier than finding a sponsor.

I understood, although I might be wrong, that rental agents are not allowed to request six months up front. Still if you don't have jobs to go to, it might be something you choose to offer in order to secure the property of choice.

Are you aware though that it may be impossible to gain pr in the future and that you have to return to the UK?

I think "may be impossible" is putting it mildly. It will almost certainly be impossible.

Good. U mean to say that if we enter on the last day of the 5 year PR period & stay continuously for 1year without exit i.e. in PR & stay another 3 years with the breakup stay in the middle & complete 4 years, then also we are eligible for citizenship. I hope i am right now.

I mean to say exactly what I said. I have not mentioned one year and I am not sure why you keep mentioning one year. If you arrive and stay for THREE years without leaving you would qualify for citizenship. There is no relevance to one year at all.

I also would not recommend moving on the last day of the initial five years, what if your flight is delayed or you miss it?

Thank u. But as per website visa granted offshore, the PR starts from the date of first arrival right? How about our early stay of 2 months 8 days, will it be calculated for the 4 years if stay for citizenship?

You are reading something very wrong. The five years commences when the visa was granted and your initial entry date has no particular relevance.

After June next year, when the five years is up, you should apply for a resident return visa before you travel overseas. If you don't intend to travel then you do not need to do anything.

You would be eligible for citizenship three years after you return to Australia, so October 2019, assuming you remain onshore all that to e.

The Brexit vote would not have impacted house prices in June, nor the jobless numbers. Nor will it impact much if at all in the coming months. Any real impact would happen only if the UK opted to leave the single market or if there was a genuine belief that it might. The major UK banks or anyone else will not suddenly decide to relocate anyway. The principle concern would be future inward investment which would not be short lived but long term. However the BOfE's moves to print money and encourage devaluation of the currency is doing the job of countering any negativity in the short term.

 

With continued depressed oil prices and low inflation the UK can ride a consequential jump in inflation from the currency devaluation. Inflation has the advantage of effectively reducing government debt too. In the medium term the 10% and rising devaluation against the Euro may have an impact on Britain's trade balance with the EU which will not aid negotiations.

You think there is no "genuine belief" that UK might leave the single market. :err:

You dont think the referendum made this very much a possibility? Wow.

I think the salary question would give me pause. He makes a massive amount of money by any measure - the equivalent of 133,000 pounds. If you spent all of that on living, and your house is almost paid off, how will you go if your income is only 30,000 pounds?? Thats less than 1/4 of your current income. I know you have talked about rental properties but they are often fraught with expenses. I worry about my own standard of living dropping when I (eventually) get home - and I will go form making $85,000 to about 35,000 pounds. I think you need to thoroughly look in to your expected take home pay in the UK and what your expenses will be, particularly with a family.

That might be £133k at current exchange rates but that is not a sensible comparison, if it were then September last year you would have said "that is like a salary of £97k" and even a few months ago you would have said "that is like a salary of £115k". Big difference. It certainly would be a big drop down to £30k though if that is what OP said though.

As to yourself, I think you will find the buying power of $85k much the same as £35k. Both a touch higher than national averages, perhaps slightly worse off in UK but not by much and depends where you will move to specifically.

Anyways, if you want to go you want to go. I spent a couple of years in a tax free country earning about US$500k between me and the OH. But we (me mainly) weren't happy. Moved back and I had to take a sabbatical to recover so we lived on one salary a fraction of what we previously earned but did not regret it for even one second. Life is too short.

There will not be any CGT to pay as the last 18 months of ownership is treated as if you were still in it and the rules changed 18 months ago, so you are just about in time. This is assuming you once lived in the house that is.

You do need to inform HMRC of the sale, but this is possibly something you can do yourself?

We are thinking of moving back to the UK next year, initially for a year but maybe permanently and I have been trying to find any information regarding the best thing to do about a car.

 

We have UK driving licences, but the photo ID expired in 2009. I understand that we can renew these in the UK, but have read elsewhere on this forum that in order to do that you need to have been resident for 185 days. Is this true? Also that being the case we would be able to drive temporarily on our Oz licences, but understand that it is not possible to get insurance with your Oz licence if you buy a car, which would mean the only alternative is to hire a car till we can get our UK licences. Confused!

Nope the 185 days is not true. Your licence has not expired anyway, just the photo card has and you simply need to renew that when you return and have an address. OH renewed his within a couple of months of returning, mine has a couple more years to go so I just started using it again as we went back to the same address.

I would have thought passport and driving licence for proof of id. I can't see how a tax return would prove ID or any bills as they don't have photo on it. Or do you mean proof of address?

Hi everyone,

Im just starting out and hit a wall already... so im hoping i can get a bit of info.

I have worked in IT within the gaming industry for 5 years now with the same company.

I would just like to know would i come under :[TABLE=width: 597]

[TR]

[TD]Computer Network and Systems Engineer[/TD]

[TD]263111[/TD]

[TD]ACS[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

 

How am i supposed to go for an assessment without knowing this?

Hoping someone can shed some light for me.

thanks

 

 

sorry not too sure where this should be entered??:arghh:

If you do not know what occupation you come under then a group of random strangers on the internet certainly won't know. You need to read the job descriptions or consult a migration agent who could go through it with you.

I am not sure why you think WA are looking for primary teachers, but nothing further from the truth. Primary teachers struggle to get work across Oz and of all areas WA is probably the hardest.

The reality is it will be extremely hard to get work as a primary teacher anywhere in Australia, other than remote outposts. However it is on WA sponsorship list so perhaps that is what OP means.

Yes the 90 days is notice of cancellation, but look like OPs friend visa has expired and so they are currently out of status.

To opening post, whilst it is unfortunate that agent did a runner if the visa was declined it was declined whether agent did runner or not, so there was a small delay in hearing about it but doesn't change the fact that it was declined.

Not having a passport is tricky though, but of course there is no such thing as a "457 visa extension", it would be a brand new visa application so surely they had a valid passport when they lodged the application? Anyway, I guess travelling on an expired passport will be fine so long as they go straight to the home country.

Sounds like it is too late to worry about overstaying by the way, when someone is given eight days to leave the country I would have to assume he does not currently hold a visa and so is already an overstayer.

You have had six replies to the previous identical thread you posted.

Hi everyone, I'm moving back to England (in June 2017) from Australia after 11 years to be with my family again. I've just sold my house in Sydney and I'm wondering whether it's worth putting the money into a term deposit here for 8 months or take advantage of the low pound and putting it in a UK account, even though the interest rates seem really low at home.

 

Does anybody know:

 

A) Is it better to keep the money in Australia until next year? The best rate I found in Oz was about 2.9% (over 8 months) with NAB.

 

B) Or transfer the money into my UK HSBC account or another account/term deposit in the UK?

 

C) Or do something else with it?

 

Thanks,

Marie

If anybody could answer that question they would be a billionaire for sure.d

I would also be looking into this in terms of FX not investment returns. I would be carefully monitoring the exchange rates and would definitely be moving a sizeable chunk over now, really cannot complain about 1.60. Then I would keep monitoring and if sterling keeps falling then I'd continue to send chunks. If at any time it starts to go the other way for more than a day or two, I'd move the rest all at once.

It might be the case that this turns out to be the wrong approach but I can't see into the future so that is just what I would do.

I dont think the wait from 30th Septenber to now is too bad if you have been selected for inspection. Even if you were not selected for inspection it can be a week or so until you clear and get an unpacking date booked in.

I think where you have been unlucky is that your ship appears to have taken a long time if you were packed up mid June and it only arrived end September. Did it sit in port for a while? And then you were doubly unlucky to get chosen for inspection, most are not.

I think you would be wasting your time on legal advice, the process can take time. I would however keep the pressure up on the shippers, every day. We had a little bit of a delay moving back, just a couple of weeks later than we thought but we had a holiday booked and really wanted to get our stuff back before then as all the summer clothes were on ship and we just wanted to get sorted.

Hi I was wondering if someone could clarify a question for me.

 

I qualified last month as an Operating Department Practitioner in the UK (ODP) and have an interview for a private hospital in australia for the role of anaesthetic technician with 457 sponsorship. Before proceeding further I was wondering if there is actually a minimum work experience requirement for the 457 visa? I don't want to be offered a job and then fall at the last hurdle when I apply for the 457

 

Thanks

You would be expected to have experience, do you have any?

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