AndrewMcD

Thanks all, much appreciated

Thanks, really helpful. I assume that's just Agent fee's though and that each person pays full visa fees to the Government?

Hi, Asking a question on behalf of a friend that I embarrassingly couldn't answer, despite having gone through the process myself! If a family of 4 are planning on migrating under a hoped for 189 category visa it says the fee's are $4,240 to the department and (for example) $1,750 for an agent. I assume that is for the full application and not per person? It's a long time since I did my visa application and I know that Citizenship was a per-person fee, but that makes sense as each person gets thier own. but for a visa it's one application so a single fee, right? Thanks!

Hi All, Bit of a time sensitive question as we need application forms signing by a CEO who leaves thier job at lunchtime today! My wifes company are happy to sponsor her on a 457 (she already works there as I have a 457). In each of the last two years they have spent more than 1% on training and on average over the last three years the spend has been above 1%. However three years ago it was below that. Will they still meet the training benchmark as a sponsoring organisation? Thanks!

Glad it's not just me that thinks it's a little more complex than the standard! To be honest that's why I'm here - I have read the regulations as best I can and I am struggling to square the generic advice I am getting from my migration agent with the non-generic situation we are in, which is very frustrating.

Thanks both. I've done some digging and it seems I have been sponsored by one of the very few companies that have a labour agreement allowing onwards hiring. There has been some changes of ownership / merger / takeover activity so when the dust has settled I will ask them again about the 457 Transition stream so thanks for those pointers. On my wife's case she works for a global Not for Profit organization as Chief Operating Officer / Deputy CEO, though her official job title is "General Manager Operations". She doesn't have a degree but has held CEO roles for smaller charities in the UK as well as Regional Manager level roles in Ireland. Her salary is six figures but not in the hundreds of thousands range (sadly!) Is she eligible for a 186? Her organisation are willing to sponsor her on a 457 if not so that at least we have the security of double visas and the clock ticking on at least one Transition stream but obviously the preference is for a perm visa if we can. She's mid 40s, native English speaker, UK passport, no convictions, etc. I know we also have teh hurdle of her organisation qualifying as a sponsoring body but one step at a time! Thanks again for teh advice, very helpful

Hi, I'm hoping for a little clarity and advice because what I am being told by Migration lawyers doesn't seem to match with my reading of the visa requirements. The situation: - I have been sponsored on a 457 visa and my family and I have been in Oz since January. I work for a small firm that didn't directly meet the training requirements so I was sponsored by an agency who in turn "sub contract" me to my employer. - Question 1: In this arrangement am I eligible for the 186 Transition stream? I assume yes but only if the migration agency offer me a perm job? - Question 2: The company I work for (not the agency) are willing to sponsor me on a direct visa when I reach a years service. What are my best options? My role is on the CSOL (ICT PM) but not the SOL - My wife has a senior role with a not for profit organisation on a good, six figure salary. She is an Operations General Manager and they are willing to sponsor her for a perm visa directly. - She has spoken to a couple of law firms and has been told that "without a degree she would fail the points test" so cannot apply for a perm visa - Question 3: What is the best visa for someone in her situation? Is there a points requirement for this visa? Assuming I am eligible for the Transition stream (without breaking any laws or rules) then that is our easiest route. My concern is that there might need to be some fancy footwork on job offers to satisfy the paperwork and I'd like to minimise any risks. My wife getting a direct, perm, visa would be ideal but (Question 4) would it be prudent for her to apply for a 457 with her organisation? That way we have insurance if anything happens with either job and she can start the clock on the 2 year transition stream with no agency / employer complications. Answers and advice greatly appreciated and if there is a realistic route to a perm visa then I'm happy to hire an agent!

Really not sure what the issue is here? I never claimed that my cost was "normal". In fact I'm trying to point out that there isn't a "normal" as everyone has different circumstances and will need different things. What is unarguable is that the "true" cost to emigrate is probably going to be higher than your expectations. We did budget carefully in the sense that we did a pretty thorough audit of what we expected to spend. And now - 4 weeks or so into living in Oz - we have blown past that budget. Not because the money we spent up to a week or so after the move was higher (in fact we spent less) but because of the higher than expected spend in Australia. All I am saying is that when you budget leave contingency in your finances for unexpected spend because I guarantee that no matter how careful you are you will have unexpected spend. I am lucky enough that I was able to absorb that extra but if your financial margins are tight it can be much harder to deal with a few hundred dollars of unexpected but vital spend that sideswipes you so it's prudent to leave a "misc." category in your fund for just such an event. Not hard to understand, I would have thought?

Again I didn't enter a contract when I was thinking of moving - not everyone plans migration months or years in advance. The opportunity to move came up and we took it and it all moved quickly. Inevitably when you move quickly you spend more. And My maths can be hazy but you said ~30kGBP "as cheap as possible" and I paid 45-50GBK with lots of premium spend. Avoid the biz class flights and the phone contracts and our spend isn't that far apart. And what normal person wouldn't take a biz class flight if they have the choice?! Champagne anyone? Damn right, and as much of it as you can offer, we had a blissful 20 something hours in the air and I wouldn't change it. I'm very lucky, I work in a job that pays well and allows me to choose luxury / convenience and speed over cost. That's why I said above the only real answer to "how much to emigrate" is "how much do you have"? The way that I moved was expensive but absolutely right for us and I wouldn't change anything substantial about it. Other people who mat have more time or less disposable income make different choices and find a route that works for them. Would I take a three stop flight with a second tier carrier to save a few hundred dollars? No way, but nor will I judge or criticize those that do. Migration (like almost everything) is either cheap or fast/easy but they are extremes - the easier you make it the more expensive it is and vice versa. Personally I went for easy and fast and so paid a bit more. But if you can afford it so why not?

Not sure how to square these off? Exclude contract cancellations and biz class flights and our expenses aren't that different! And yep £2-3k to cancel phone contracts - most UK carriers put you on a 24 month contract when you get an iPhone handset and you have to buy it out when you cancel. Ours were all in the 8 - 18 months left range and at anything up to £40/month that's a lot of money. Flip side is that our contracts here are SIM only and cheap as chips

Yeah I agree that like for like living / running costs shouldn't get counted but I'm talking about one offs, cancellation or connection fees or whatever that you wouldn't have had otherwise. I suppose there are two parts to it. First is that not everyone has 12 - 24 months prep and planning. I moved on a 457 visa and apart from this one job I had no plans or ideas of leaving the UK. It went from an initial enquiry in July to getting serious in Sept, job offer in Oct or Nov and flying out 3rd week of Jan, maybe 5 months from "this might happen" to getting off a plane doesn't leave much time to swap over contracts, especially as lots of mobile contracts are 24 months long now. As with most things in life you can go fast(er) or go cheap(er). Second thing is as I said before - you can often minimise or delay costs but not eliminate them. I'm encouraging people to look at everything they will spend, end to end, as that is the true cost. It's like when people talk about how cheap a car is to buy or run but ignore depreciation - if you don't factor in everything you'll be in for a surprise!

A more honest way to answer the "How much does it cost" question is to ask "How much have you got?" Because as long as you have money in your migration budget you will find something to spend it on, once that money is gone you'll stop spending. And as long as people have been migrating and have considered money the prime factor they have been getting creative with ways to save money - as the air fare example above shows! If money is more important than time or comfort then a smaller / regional carrier with multiple stops or long layovers can be spectacularly cheap by comparison. I do agree that people shouldn't confuse deferring a migration cost and paying for it from an Oz paypacket with eliminating that cost all together. Staying with friends or family doesn't mean you don't need to pay a bond on a home it just means that your cashflow is easier and you pay for it from local earnings not UK savings. Every cent you spend that you wouldn't spend if you stayed in the UK is a migration cost, even if it's months later. These "hidden" costs really torpedoed us as I'm just calling them out because you don't think about the costs of - for example - cancelling your Satellite TV contract as a migration cost but it is something you will possibly have to pay

Far, far, far more than you expect. Even when you budget really carefully. We have been in Sydney for 3 weeks and I'm not sure we would have a lot of change of £50k when it's all added up. Now we haven't gone cheapest option and you could trim 10-20% off that figure pretty easily but everyones circumstances are different. Sample figures: - Budget for at least one recon trip. This will be to assess houses, schools, etc. Even a budget hotel is going to be $100+ per night, plus food, car hire and of course flights. My wife went on her own for a few days but it was probably £3k when everything was added up - Moving is going to cost £4-5k for a 20ft container. We have two kids and ended up spending in excess of £6k as we had overflow from a single container. Budget for insurance as well, which is a % of the value you are shipping - Beware of hidden costs of leaving the UK! Our opportunity came up quickly so we had to cancel mobile phone contracts and buy ourselves out of them (almost £3k there alone, although we are now on SIM only contracts in Oz). While we made money on the car I had bought a brand new motorbike and the depreciation meant I lost almost £700 on it. We also worked out that the luggage we had wasn't going to be big enough so spent almost £300 getting new luggage - We figured that we would only be moving half way round the world once so we all went business class which was horrifically expensive (but worth it!). Even without that for a family of four it was going to be ~£6k to fly out. - Your first few days you are going to need to splash out a lot of money. Deposit plus 2 weeks rent in advance on a house, car hire, probably a hotel for a day or two. We put roughly $4k into getting a house between advance rent and deposit, about $400 in a hotel for the first day and maybe another $500 on a car - You then need to establish a home. Oz houses (or at least Sydney) don't come with white goods so we had to but a washing machine, fridge, microwave as well as basics like kettle, iron, etc. We bought decent stuff, I can't remember the price but I doubt we had much change from $3-4k when all the electricals were included - Add then you need all the disposable stuff until your own furniture catches up with you. Air beds, bean bags, crockery, pots and pans. Again we bought a mix of really good stuff (high end pans for example) and stuff we can throw (air beds, sleeping bags, towels). This is an estimate but $2.5k will cover it - And then you need to make your house a home! Especially with young kids. A TV, broadband and mobile phones, BBQ, hammock and deck chairs. Again spend what you can afford - we got a cracking TV, a good hammock and cheap BBQ and other bits but still another $2k+ - You'll probably want to buy a car from a dealer when fresh in country and the absolute cheapest we found was $2.5k for a ratty old Holden station wagon. We spent $6.5k on a really good condition 2004 Ford. Add another $1,500 - 2k for reggo, insurance, etc - Different states have different rules but in NSW kids in secondary schools whose parents are on a 457 visa pay $5k per child per year for state schools and 50% of this is in advance. That's another $5k immediatly for us. Add a whole set of top to toe uniforms, shoes, books, "voluntary"contributions and your looking at another $1500+. And in secondary school kids need a decent laptop, (Macbook Air, $1300 each; ouch) That's off the top of my head and a lot of those figures you can ratchet up or down according to your own budget and needs and some won't apply to you. Be under no illusion though it is mind bendingly expensive. At this point though it was worth every penny and I'd spend the same again if I had to! Forgot to say that visa fees and fees for the Migration Agent were taken care of by the company so no idea what they were but "not cheap" would be my guess

Do you have any reason to suspect that there might be an issue with the role? Is it very generic, are the pay and conditions in line with what a native would earn and so on? And has your employer cleared the bar to actually sponsor you?

Hi, I didn't get a "letter" as such, I had an email from the migration agent that came in overnight to the UK and she followed that up the same night with the formal letters from DIAB but as emailed attachments. My assumption was that if I hadn't heard by 7am UK time then I wasn't going to hear that day. Is it your employer or role nomination that is the hold up, do you know? Is there a date when you need to move by?