Dekra

I'm looking at a variety of options, 457 is likely to be the most likely but that does not mean I can't have a wish list. Things change all the time, the employer I am looking at has previously offered PR sponsorship and may do so again. Or may not. I've not given the full picture in my opening post, the equity realised comment was after I deducted £10,000 as a starting point for visa costs, shipping and temp accommodation. I understand this is on the short side and proceeds of the house sale would not be available in the early stages of visa applications but we do have ways and means around some of that which would leave us with approximately £15,000 to bring with us as a potential deposit or savings to have behind us. I should point out however that I will be not making the move without having secured work myself. Hence employer sponsored migration.

Thanks for the welcome ali and Marisa. Marisa, I am deliberately basing all my calculations on myself being the only earner at the moment and I know it's going to be tight. But that is why it's good I'm the sort of person that likes to plan in advance. The very earliest I think we would do this is early next year but I am thinking more along the lines of August 17- Feb 18 as the window of a number of things all being about right together. I am also hoping to find an employer that would consider taking us on with a PR visa from the start as hubby will be 46 at the end of this year so wouldn't want to be applying for PR later and he's suddenly knocking on the door of 50 (don't tell him I said that lol). I would do my best to keep cost of moving down but as you say it's not always the best way in the long run.

Hi, I am new to forum but hope to find lots of answers to the questions buzzing around my head here. But first a little about me. I was almost Australian however my parents returned home to Scotland 7 months before my birth in 1975. A little part of me has always felt Australian and I've always dreamt of emigrating. Until now it has always been a pipe dream but after qualifying as a nurse last year my husband and I have been able to talk about it in more realistic terms now. We have two children who are currently 8 and 5, one of whom has some additional educational needs but is thriving at his current school. Any decision will be made with the needs of both children at the heart of it, so this will be one area I will be looking at closely. Having looked into different areas we would prefer to go to WA - Perth or surrounding areas specifically. Other than that the big issues are financial. We own our own home here but it's not a huge value and by the time the mortgage is paid off we would be lucky to have £15,000 equity realised. Our savings are non-existent but we would be able to raise some cash by saving between now and a potential emigration date. That's not a lot to put down as a deposit on a home in Australia. There seems to be a big discrepancy between rental rates and mortgage rates, with the mortgage for the type of home we would like being lower than the mortgage rate but based on my salary alone at the moment the maximum mortgage available would be significantly short by around $120,000. We aren't looking for anything crazily expensive as far as I can tell. Just want 3 beds, 1 bathroom would do but an ensuite would be nice. Don't want to be too cramped but again small Australian homes seem to have as much or more space than we are used to with our ex-council 2 bedroomed (plus loft conversion - hence lack of savings). Maybe we are greedy, maybe we are lazy but we would ideally like to run two cars as well unless we were living close to where I'd be working and public transport was good. So that's it really, theatre nurse looking for a nice hospital to work in, hubby is a diesel engineer to trade and is a specialist in Allison Transmissions, although for the last two years he's done shop work to fit in around my nurse training then shift pattern now I've started work. He's happy to work but that would be something that would be easier once over there I think. Now I have introduced myself I'm away to check the other forums, hopefully find some answers and maybe more questions I never realised I needed the answer to. Sorry if I make a pest of myself with questions, I will try to find previous posts on a subject before posting. Dek