ABG

There’s a lot of fluff in their budget, but we’re paying $64 more a month a month in rent and that’s for a 3 bed in Melbourne, about 25km from CBD! Our total spend per month though is 6K for a family of 4 and we live quite comfortably. Not sure what’s going on with their cars; 100k in loans for car+piano+holidays (repaid at 2k/month), plus another grand ‘car repayments’, plus 400 a month in car running costs. Double accounting for dramatic effect??

Settled in and loving it! It can definitely be done cheaper, but I had a job already set up and so we chose properties etc as people earning a salary, rather than looking for a cheaper place and saving money. Definitely the best decision we've made

Mine took a week, I applied first week of September

You nailed it! I initially signed up with Optus as they said I could get fibre. They then cancelled the order saying its not available so I'm now stuck in the slow internet ghetto. NBN is in my suburb, guess not yet at my address yet.

We got hit with $275 per licence (10 years). We also had to pay $18 per applicant for the privilege of going into VicRoads to make the swap!! The one thing I will say is that they were very helpful. We didn't have our proof of address with us but they were happy for me to show them our address on my phone banking app, and then with my wife, I signed the section that I knew her so she didn't have to prove address. In every other country I've lived in before we would have been sent home and told to rebook and come in when we have the right paper work. Our internet is $60 per month, but had to pay the first month upfront, pay $100 for the router (month-to-month contract as we're waiting for NBN to be installed in our area), connection/installation fee was $100, plus we had to make a $20 advance payment for phone as we didn't want any set monthly home phone contract as we don't use it.

So 2 weeks in country: you blow through your money quickly! We’ve gone through about $25k already! Lots of things that don’t require upfront payment in UK does here. We have bought a car (8k) and lots of furniture and house hold items (7k), but then upfront costs to bear in mind: - rent (ours is 2800/month) - bond (2800) - driving licence x2 (550) - internet set up 280 - school uniforms 350 - school contribution (70/ term) - foxtel/tv (125) - health insurance 350 - ambulance cover 90 Hopefully that’s the bulk of the big ticket items; I’m just glad I’ve arrived with work!

Isn’t there an early termination fee? We have that for our cable contract. Early termination costs 3 months fees

My numbers could quite possibly be off - we're moving next week so don't have an accurate idea of the costs. This is what I based it on: Rent - $2700 TV - $50 Internet - $70 Elec - $150 Water - $30 Healthcare - $300 Food & general - $1400 Petrol - $200 Car insurance - 60 Home insurance - $50 I should probably have mentioned that with our household budget, we never include discretionary/entertainment in the cost; this is what our outgoings from our joint account would be, savings and fun money comes out of individual accounts after living expenses, so take home would need to be higher than the above. It also doesn't cover things like rego ($800 I believe per car, per year in Vic).

I did a back of of the envelop tally and according to that we need about $5k per month for a family of 4 in Melbourne. That’s living in SE suburbs with rent of $650 per week. However how I live and how you live could be vastly different!

Thanks, very helpful. I believe I do meet the PSI tests as I will be providing all the equipment etc to provide the services and will be liable if things go wrong. I think I'll probably go as sole contractor for initial contracting, and then amend as appropriate after I've spoken with an accountant when I arrive.

Revisiting this topic again.... So I am going to be working as a consultant for my previous employer and possibly some of that company's customers. I'll be working as a consultant to the company(s), doing contract business development and helping them develop and launch products across APAC. @Ferrets, can you expand a bit on Randstad you mentioned before as when I google them I come up with a recruitment agency. The other options are operating either as a sole trader or a Pty Ltd. My projected annual turnover will be above the GST threshold and also beyond what I think is the 'magic number' where paying corporation tax is more attractive than personal income tax. That makes me lean towards operating through a company, but then I'm not certain yet what all the additional costs are for the paper work to maintain a company. Does anyone have a ballpark figure for this? If it helps, the company will be a one-man band (me), with a part-time employee to help with paperwork (my wife). Added complexity is if I operate as a sole trader with an extra employee, how does that impact the 'magic number' threshold? The business will be a home-based business.

Yes

Vetassess docked me too. I split the employment in two and checked the ‘not for points’ box for the years docked by Vetassess. I.e. I had 9years with same employer, the first considered not relevant so I put that as a separate employment if 1 year and said not relevant, and then a second employment (with same employer) for the rest, but this time as counting for points.

What are you using the Stat Dec for? I used one for my skills assessment in lieu of a statement of works, as I didn’t wish to inform my employer of my intents to emigrate before I knew I had a realistic chance of getting a visa. As mentioned by a previous post, it’s a legal document as per the Statutory Declaration Act 1835 and in order to be valid, needs to comply with that legislation. For my stat dec., I hired a Notary Public to draft the declaration and make sure it was compliant.

IMO, the speculators ruin its value as a currency as people are trading it as a derivative. So as an investment opportunity, it’s high risk so don’t play with what you can’t afford to lose. As a currency; until the speculation comes under control, it’s greater value as a derivative outweighs its transactional value and so it won’t reach its true potential. If I wanted to invest in blockchain tech I’d put my money somewhere other than cryptocurrency

My only input would be to retake English test as it’s the quickest and cheapest was to get an extra 10 points. If Cambridge didn’t work for you, try PTE or IELTS. Now that you’ve done it once you know what to expect and should be able to improve your score if you’re a English first language speaker (which I’m guessing based on your English usage in your posts). Migration agent also worth exploring as the migration pathway is tricky if your case is not clear cut

When I arrive in Aus in the couple months, there’s a good chance I’ll be doing some consulting for my current employer. What’s the best structure to do this based on anyone else’s prior experience? I was thinking Aus Sole Trader business licence rather than setting up a Pty Ltd. This sound right or would doing it through a UK Ltd be better? My leaning towards Aus business was that having demonstrable local income would be helpful for getting rental properties etc, plus the fees would be AUS$ denominated and so I wouldn’t be exposed to FX fluctuations. If this is the way to go, can I register for an ABN offshore?

We’re moving to SE suburbs in Sept (Mentone area) and based on costs from my brother who is already living there and in same family situation (family of 4, 2x young children), we calculated a little over $5k per month covers living expenses for the family in a 3-4 bed house (looking at $600/week rent, Foxtel, good internet etc), savings etc would be on top of that. On moving costs, we were quoted £2.7k for 570 cubic feet shared container, £3.1k for 690 cubic feet ( half of a shared 40’ container), and £3.4k for private 20’ container (690 cubic feet). We got flights for average £430 per ticket on Singapore airlines. We’re budgeting on having to pay 3 months rent upfront + 6 week deposit. There are other chunky bills, like car rego ($850/car I think) but I reckon $20k relocation should be enough. As we’ll have no credit history in Aus, we’re going to get a UK loan for car purchase as although we have the cash to cover it, I’d rather pay next to no interest and manage cash flow as we’re living off savings until I get a job. I may have missed it, but have you been to Melbourne before? We went last year to activate our visa and it has something for everyone. Sports, arts, beaches, parks, skiing nearby in Winter etc. We can’t wait to go!

So how did it all pan out? Did OP son try convince airport staff to let him travel without a visa, or did he get emergency passport? Curious to find out [emoji16]

It’s worth getting your application in sooner rather than later if you are really serious about going. Sooner it’s in, the sooner you get in the queue! I’m was in a similar field - R&D Manager and Vetassess took off one year of my eligible work experience as they believe that it takes 1 year practical experience before you are at the correct skill level to fulfil the role. The English test isn’t too bad. You don’t need to do the academic one, just the general one if you do IELTS. I was in same boat with not wanting to tell my employer my intentions. For Vetassess, I made use of a Statutory Declaration in lieu of a current work reference. For the main application however I bit the bullet and spoke to a friendly manager to do a reference letter. Provided there are no complexities in your circumstances and if you’re willing to put in the leg work, you can d the whole thing without an agent. I did.

We’re going in September and apart from getting quote for shipping (and securing visas), haven’t done anything. I reckon you’re fine with a Jan move date!

Thanks everyone! Checked my son's passport and it actually has 14 months left on it so will leave that one as well. Figure it will be easier going in with the original passports that the visas were granted on.

So we’re on countdown to leave, T-minus 3 months and counting. What’s the minimum you’d time remaining on your passport you’d leave before renewing? We need to renew for our youngest as he’s only got 12 months left so no point leaving it, but then question my daughter’s and my passport which have 3 and 4 years left respectively. How easy is it to renew from Oz? If it’s pretty simple then I won’t renew the other 2, but if it’s a PITA then I’ll send all 3 in at once.

Home Affairs = Australian Government Department of Home Affairs.... Whilst Australia has not criminalised entering/leaving on a foreign passport like South Africa, its pretty clear from the government department responsible for matters relating to citizens,that Australian citizens are meant to enter/leave on an Australian passport. I'm not inclined to trawl through legislation to justify this - I'm happy to take it at face value. If you recommend going against government advice, good for you. Personally, if Dept of Home Affairs says Australian citizens must enter/leave the country on their Australian passport, then that's the advice I'm going to go with. Not the advice of an anonymous person on a forum who is challenging this because there may/may not be a piece of legislation showing that the border agency has the power to stop an Australian citizen leaving the country,

As you’re paying the agent, probably best to get him to explain it carefully to make sure you understand everything. The advice on here is largely from well meaning amateurs, and the agents posting can’t give detailed advice as they are not familiar with your particulars and can’t give professional advice without knowing that. If your agent is well respected, first port of call is a detailed discussion with them and the rely on their experience.