Ausvisitor

I thought Paul's response was helpful. You seemed to think 300 was a large amount for the advice you were seeking, whereas the concensus seems to be it's right on par and probably a bargain compared with making a costly mistake

I am not for one second suggesting your response was in direct reply to my post, but I wanted to clarify. Whilst I do not have first hand experience of moving states on a 190, the company I work for has over 800 people employed on 190s and their very expensive army of lawyers and legal experts are all saying don't do it. I know which advice I'm going to take

It's only discretionary if you can use public transport. If you have been living here (NSW) for 3 months you can no longer drive on a UK licence if you have PR (unless you leave the country and return) And if you are buying a car you will pay much more than the $200 in increased insurance if you don't have an Aussie licence, so it's not a day one requirement, but it's certainly a first month need Also if you are renting you need to get to 100 points of ID, this is really easy to do if you have an AUS driving licence as well as a UK passport, but a real pain in the neck if you have to scrabble around in lots of "small points" proof items...

The first few months are incredibly expensive, everyone wants some dollars for something. Driving licence well that will be $200 each to get an AUS licence. You will no doubt need a car (finding one is a tortuous experience, we found it far worse than finding a rental property). But it's worth it, it's a great experience and once you start spending money earnt in Australia (rather than savings from the UK) it all seems great. (I used to resent paying the huge amounts the council's charge for parking in the cities when I got here and was spending UK cash, now I've been here 9 months and spending AUS earnt money it just feels like a normal part of the cost of living) The sooner you get an income the easier most things become

You don't need them all before you submit your EOI, but once you are invited to apply you only have a short window to supply the documents you need, so it's probably best to make sure you can get them now while you have time Also do you not need a skills assessment in order to show you have a skillset / career on the list and that you meet the qualifying criteria for it? If so you need most of the same employment proof for that as you do for the actual grant application

Right now (or possibly by about Feb) is the best time to buy, the market has had a chunk taken out of price rises (and some drops have occurred) There are a lot of people out there with cash to buy outright just waiting for a stabilisation, at that point the market will start to rise again

Rentals are relatively easy, the stories of how hard it is actually makes it feel harder. The answer is simple... Be prepared, both with your paperwork and expectations. Prep all your paperwork in advance, it helps to be able to show jobs and a rental history. When we got here we had neither having lived in our own house for 20 years and coming over on a whim without jobs setup. (Hint showing the agent a UK bank balance with enough in it to buy the property you want to rent does help here) More important though is being flexible, ok so you want 5 beds all ensuite, two minutes from work but also walking distance to kids schools and the beach, well that probably doesn't exist and if it does it won't be cheap and it will be in demand. Low ball your needs for the first rental and just get moved in, spend your house hunting energy on the one you will buy not the one you borrow Oh and in all the annoyance of talking to real estate agents don't forget that this is supposed to be fun, so try to enjoy it...

Couple of things, first depends what state, NSW for instance just flat out refuses to even acknowledge a request for release never mind actually grant one. You are right it is a moral obligation, that said my employers wanted me to transfer to a different state from NSW, they are a massive global company with an army of lawyers and immigration specialists, they all advised me to stay out as NSW are getting quite militant in defending their sponsored grants, I can only imagine other states are similar. As always something isn't a problem until it becomes a problem, and then, often it is too late

It's a tough one, but I suspect the answer is no. Whilst you feel a moral obligation to help the family member, the ability to do so only exists because you have a visa (with a conflicting moral obligation). The state would argue their obligation comes first as without their visa you probably wouldn't be able to afford to care for the family member.

I think mine did too, but the actual breakdown is lost in the mists of time, I just have the record of total amount paid

Actually good point. I used an agent and it was more than that 3 years ago 2700 GBP agent Visa fee for each person as per published rates English test fee about 200 Vetassess or equivalent about 1000 Medical 400 per person

Also while it's one application, you get a visa each so it makes sense their is a per person element to it

No it's that price for the first applicant. It is 50% of that for each adult and 25% for each child I imagine the agent fees are for the whole family as one but you'd need to check with the agent

Whilst everyone will tell you (and they are right) that you've made a commitment and it might cause a wobble in the citizenship process, if you are sure you are heading home for senior school anyway then it isn't that big an issue because you might be leaving before you get citizenship anyway. 4 years is a long to "make do" just to get a piece of paper that may not ever be of use to you anyway

Schools not an issue so anywhere nice really

They do send more, but it's only the junior doing the actu work, the other 6 people on the gang (not counting the driver) are there to make sure the junior does it right

Have you already put anything in writing on the immi portal that says you think you might have a criminal record? If so you are probably going to have to think about how you explain that, just ignoring it won't help. Have you got an agent they would know what to do here "off the top of their head" I doubt you'll get any concrete answers on here about what to do, no agent is going to give free advice on this one because it involves criminal records so you will either have to be content with the good intentions of amateurs or talk to an agent, sorry...

Went to look at property in both today, the concensus from people seems to be Oatley is the "better suburb", but I think might prefer mortdale the "main Street" has more happening on it. Anyone got anything good or bad to say about either?

Not quite the same (Sydney not Melbourne) but when we arrived we stayed in a mix of hotels and serviced apartments (basically whichever was cheaper for each 2 week block) We had 49 days in furnished accomodation of one sort or another before getting into the now rental home. All in we spent just over $7,400 for that 7 week window, which we thought was ok To put it into perspective we stayed in an Airbnb for 3 nights in Melbourne in July (so midwinter when no one wants to go there) and it was $700 for 3 nights... and that was one of the cheaper CBD properties

On a similar question, I was sponsored by NSW and have been living/working here for almost 12 months now (will be 12 months before the option I'm going to ask about becomes open). The company I work for has an opening in the Melbourne office that they would like me to go and head up, that would mean moving from NSW - won't be an issue on the 12 months work clause of the 190 visa but is a problem on the 24 months live in the state clause. Are there any options when it is an employer transfer between states? The company would be happy for me.to continue in NSW but the more senior role is only open in VIC. I'm just checking options, not even sure if I really want the bigger role or the move...

In most states you can't work as a sworn officer in the Australian police forces until you are a citizen so this would mean the OP would have to drop into a civilian role (although looks like an exemption for WA at the moment). These citizen roles are rarely "in demand" because so many people who already have work rights are desperate for them for the public sector pay perks

Which country are you based in? Just asking as I do this for a living (retention compliance) and if you are based in the UK or Australia your compliance requirement is to delete them after (3 years of completion in UK) or 6/7 years in AUS. Keeping them longer breaks all sorts of acts and also nullifies you professional indemnity insurance should you be found to have negligently released conditional information that you should have deleted. You might want to rethink your practices (or at least delete the email stating you do them on a public forum )

Car rental in AUS runs about $200 a day so if you are in that ball park you probably aren't going to find much cheaper

It is allowed if it is an offer, what isn't allowed is the provision of that money to the landlord (if you are using a rental agency) they have to hold the cash in their client account and pass it on to the landlord weekly/monthly as though it had been paid in installments So although you get certainty for 6 months you will be paid, you have no reference to show that they won't just stop paying after that (of course a referee doesn't stop that happening either) and you as a landlord also don't get early access to a lump sum (unless you are letting direct without an agent) I would choose a weekly/monthly payer with a reference every time over a no reference up front payer, unless they paid the whole 12 month contract duration in advance.

Ok rules slightly different here and will depend on how you come to be due this payment. If you actually own shares in the company that mean you own a percentage and you are getting your percentage in cash then as a non-resident you get taxed quite favourably but will still get stung in AUS if you have already left the UK If you don't own the shares it's still just an employment related payment and subject to payroll taxes (both in the UK and AUS) You really need to talk to an accountant who understands both tax regimes to structure this deal (and your move to Australia) appropriately to time it for the best taxation outcome