evets

Would you not prefer to meet Australians, since you are in Australia and not hang out with expats in a similar situation to yourself. Get a little more immersed to local life!!

So true. And after living in the city and reading the reasons why it is the most livable, you wonder if they have actually lived in the city OR just ticked a few boxes for certain criteria. When I read the reason's why Melbourne made the list, I think yes some good points but day to day living does not come close.

As VS said, they are pretty much the same, some good experiences some bad! Not sure why you think you do not have a lot of stuff, you have a motorcycle included. Shared container, will add shipping time, as they need to fill the container prior to shipping. How long can you wait for your goods to arrive? Sole container, will at least give you a rough guide and will be faster albeit more expensive.

The cost of living and house prices are/is very different from the 80's in Australia and in London. They appear to be struggling to get on the housing market in London, it will be no different in Melbourne, but the added bonus is her hubby will earn 40% more. Not sure what the overall figure or package would be to offer a fairer point of view. The problem being they are not fighting against first time buyers by local and foreign investors at auctions and the actual sold price will be far more(look at 200 to 300k AU$) than the original RE estimate. Would the company provide healthcare and any other benefits? Relocation allowance? As Chris mentioned, I fully agree with the culture and history comments. Melbourne, while it is the most European equivalent in Australia is still remote, but does have tons going for it. Bentleigh while probably a lot safer than South London, the high street is still disappointing. Then again not filled with pound shops, still a variety of cafes, shops etc to choose, far more choice than the suburb I live in not so far away. On the postive side you rarely see people begging for money, unless you are in the CBD. As for living in Bentleigh, you would need a car if you want to get out and about. It does have a train station to get you into the CBD, but commute times if you wanted to visit other areas and the beach would be pretty long. What is your budget for renting, guess looking at a 3 bed min: house or flat? What about budget for buying? You are looking at some of the prime areas of RE in SE Melbourne. People are being pushed out further and further due to the increasing costs. Have you thought about looking to East Melbourne outer suburbs or West or North? For example, 3 units in the block I am on, 2 bed detached went for around the $600k mark. All of them would have needed a new kitchen, bathroom and one of them a garden refurb. I am only 2 suburbs to the east of Bentleigh. I personally think Melbourne is the best city in Australia, having visited all of them. Great lifestyle, culture, brunch lifestyle, friendly people, big investment in the CBD, lots going on culturally, big Latin dance scence and culture. Downside I feel, it is just getting to expensive, wages not rising with the cost of living, housing market out of control. If you were one of the people that arrived pre 2009, and by a few years before that and got on the housing market then sorted. Now not so good. Think the same can be said for London, but London had GFC at that time and house prices fell, not so here. They have risen nearly 100% in Sydney and Melbourne since 2009. The weather in summer can sometimes be oppresive when it starts to rise above 30/35 and not so safe for the kiddies. My unit feels like a very hot sauna at the moment, even though we just had a major thunderstorm, which caused major flouds in the CBD, East Melbourne and oddly Bentleigh(came up on my Twitter feed). Still not really cooled down. Been fun watching the twitter and instagram feeds of car drivers still not having any sense of how to deal with it and getting stranded. I really cannot say much bad about Melbourne especially compared to London(both very different cities), but it does have its downsides. It is all really what you are looking to move for and achieve longterm.

That is a bit of an understatement! They will be in for a shock getting off the plane, especially coming from Glasgow At least it means they can head to the beach to cool down. That is a good route you have chosen, think better than flying via Singapore. Hope you enjoyed the flight.

haha spooky, no I think they should tax it higher if you plan not to rent it out, then provides an incentive to rent it. The Chinese are notorious for buying and then leaving empty, and then if they do want to rent will mainly only rent to Chinese. Well this is the case in Vancouver. Cannot comment on Australia, as not sure. Since Vancouver introduced the foreign investment tax, they have already seen a downshift. I have seen so many deprecated properties in my suburb, which are only fit now to be knocked down but people are off the mind set property... the only way is up! Also the numerous vacant blocks, where they just knocked it down and leave it empty. Or maybe propose the same scheme as China, no foreign investors! If china can buy here, free trade should mean we can invest in property there. The government here, like many other western governments have too much invested in themselves to care about joe average and the future generations. The only real bonus for the kids today is waiting for the parents to kit it and have the property due to inheritance. Sad state of affairs.

Wonder if Australia would consider this, since the number of empty properties and vacant land I see in the SE suburbs of Melbourne. Would certainly help the rental market out. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/real-estate-video/video-vancouver-mayor-says-taxing-empty-homes-will-boost-rentals/article32155437/ Vancouver really appears to be looking at the investment market, local and foreign. Also with the recent tax they introduced to foreign buyers.

welcome, iinet also offer naked broadband which means you do not pay for the landline, if you do not need it. EDIT: This service does take longer to activate though. Are you going to buy the modem yourself and set it up yourself. This means it would be faster than having to wait for engineers over the holidays. The setup is pretty simple and the instructions on there website easy to follow.

Hi, While not in Brisbane I am with iinet(Melbourne), very good customer service and on the whole has been very reliable. Any issues(and not that many that I can count one hand) have been resolved pretty quickly. The are owned by TPG now, which I have used in the past and found the service to be pretty reliable but the customer support was awful when I did encounter a problem. Internet is more expensive than the UK, less competition. NBN is rolling out, check out if your post code supports it. Note: it is not having the greatest reviews and a bit of a money pit for the government, due to the functionality offered not what was documented. This might offer what you want, just do a little research on it or someone here might be able to comment as not available in my suburb. Try to see if you can find out how far you from the exchange as that can make a difference to speed and line quality.

I was sponsored by my employer due to a project with a customer, that required someone to be local and not offshore(terms of the initial contract). Also a specialised position in which it was difficult to find anyone locally even though it was advertised. You have not mentioned what line of work you and your partner are in. Some positions can be easier than others and also depending on the size of the company sponsoring you, the path to PR may not be guaranteed unless you fund that part yourself.

Not sure why you say you are getting lots of crap answers. People are responding with there opinions, whether they be positive or not. The housing market in Australia is now driven by investors. Without a job or alternative income, no mortgage. Approx $30k deposit just will not cut it, especially when you take in consideration the other fees. Realistically they would be looking at around $100k, to cover all costs IMO.

Do you know what state you will be moving to? Housing costs vary wildly depending if you are looking for a 1 bed unit to a standalone house, and also what city you are looking at and how far from the CBD you are prepared to live. As VS mentioned approx $30K will not even cover the min deposit for the majority of housing, let alone flats in most of Australia. Then you have the additional fees that go with buying. I would suspect you would need double that for a half decent deposit, excluding fees.

You do know that you can view the sites mentioned yourself and guessing by your response you are not in Australia. While nice that you can post on here looking for work, please take the initiative yourself to be pro active. There are vacancies here, but as I mentioned roles are being outsourced/offshored to India. I have a friend that does this for a living for the SMB market.

Since you have not mentioned what field of IT you are specialised in, finding an employer to fork out thousands in an already swamped market could be a major hurdle you face. Unless you have some very indemand skill set that is hard to find someone locally. From my understanding you cannot work until the visa has been processed and granted, how long do you expect the employer to wait!

I agree with this, the number of taxi drivers I have met from India with far better qualifications that myself and cannot find work. Australia may be the dream, but the reality is very different these days. Would love to suggest other wise, but even locals are struggling with the IT market, too much being outsourced or offshored(to India or parts of Eastern Europe). Australia is a high cost centre for MNC and if they can hire in a lower(make that cheaper) cost centre then they will. I understand it may be your dream, but seriously consider the relocation unless you are prepared to change career and you want the lifestyle here. It is not always greener! As a BA with your certs, which these roles tend to be in demand, you could strike lucky very quickly otherwise end up spending a long time looking, with the excuse local experience required. Have a plan B in place and enough funds to support you.

I think it all really depends on what part of the UK you are living in. If you are close to London the eurostar gets you to Paris fairly quickly not the same hassle with an airport. Ma Even as you mention the hassles of airports, most of Europe you can get to within 1 or 2 hours flight, an hour at the airport for checkin. Travel to Europe is pretty painless and cheap with the discount carriers. Travel from Perth to another city is long and most likely expensive. Perth is the most isolated city in the world.

Have you tried seek, linkedin etc for what roles are available and applied for any? Are you in Perth or trying to see if someone will hire you from abroad? Australia from what I understand, has a glut of C.A. How much knowledge do you have of Australian policies, as each country around the world is different.

Agreed. The auction system, and how they just keep pushing up the prices during the auction. The majority of buyer are usually now investors or foreign buyers who can and will price out first time buyers. shocking. On the market system, and owners now getting very greedy or just grouping up to sell to developers if they still have there mcmansion. I have watched a few, and cannot believe it is not illegal how they work it. How many times can you call going once, going twice with no one making an offer, only the auctioneer making his own next bid to start the process again. Foreign investors who just buy property and then leave it sitting empty. The amount of properties I see in my suburb that are empty and some which should be condemned is astonishing.

Not sure I understand your response. Immigration requires the police check whether or not have a record which you have declared. This is process. They need to confirm you record is clean and cannot take your word for it. From memory my UK police check took a couple of weeks.

No worries, forums like these are a good way to vent and discuss options. Fingers crossed your manager is approachable and you can discuss the incident.

As per my understanding, Australia requires you to provide a police background check. It does not matter what your original country says, it is what Australian immigration mandates. If your MA is going to discuss this with your manager, which I find odd, you NEED to chat to them before hand. It may be a spent issue, but these things linger as I have found out myself.

Sorry the link is for a paid website. I just double checked and it will not allow me to access it now. As for your misnomer, only you employer can comment if they will hire you or not.

I know this is an old post, but never noted the link at the time. I have read the webpage you posted and honestly shocked at some of the peoples convictions and demanding compensation... child porn, convicted armed robber, stalking sheesh people never cease me. With those convictions you should not be entitled to any compensation because you got sacked.

OK so not a MA but was in a slightly similar position myself, DUI in my early 20's. When I applied for my 457 I did not mention it, mainly as I completely forgot about it. It was when I applied for PR, I noted it in my application as then I remembered and thought sheesh must declare. Cannot remember what part of the application triggered this. I cannot remember mentioning it to my manager, and he never mentioned it to me, so not sure if the MA even mentioned it to him. Never heard anything from my HR dept about it. I am in the final stages of relocating to Canada, and mentioned it to the lawyers managing my application. This caused untold issues, apparently Canada harder to get into than Australia!!! I spoke to my manager about and he was fine, just upset that it was going to delay the visa application. If the MA is going to disclose it to your HR team who then will disclose it to your manager. Best bet talk to your manager, it is better coming from you than via HR, at least you are being upfront with him.

True(or the TV shows flogging Australia), salaries do indeed to be better here I think overall, then again cost of living I think is generally higher.