Ausvisitor

The climb is good for the experience, in terms of a view it's probably one of the worst in Sydney, because when you are on the bridge you can't see the bridge My office is on the top floors (44-47) of the newly built second AMP building, I doubt there is a better Sydney view from anywhere else in the city Love taronga, can spend days there never gets boring And you are right a median house price of 1.5m seems cheap now after 2 years getting used to the AUS prices

Yes it is, the agent fees will be around £2,000 on top of the visa fees (well depending on how much/little you get them to do)

You pay for things like language tests and vetassess up front before you apply. At this point you can submit your EOI Assuming you get an invite you then pay for the visa processing fee for each visa you need. As the prime applicant you pay full price any accompanying adult is 50% and kids (I think) are 25%. You'll also need to pay for medicals and police checks. The only fee that is incremental (i.e. you pay in stages) is the fee to your agent (if you have one) who often charges at various milestones in the process

Newcastle isn't a bad place but saying people prefer it to Sydney is a bit like the fox who lost his tail. Those who say it's better are basically trying to convince themselves I know of no one who (if they could afford the same house in both places) prefers Newcastle to Sydney, what people mean to say when they say they prefer Newcastle is that they can afford Newcastle and in Sydney they can only afford a shoebox

Not retired but a quick Google Nine highest UK providers with more than 10,000 students for the proportion of private school students with Imperial in 5th at 32.4% (behind Durham, St Andrews, Edinburgh and Exeter) followed by UCL (32.4%), Oxford (31.4%), LSE (30.4%) and Cambridge (30.0%)

I'm not saying it's right (if anything I'm agreeing with you that it's a bit disagreeable). However all the top law firms and the elite consultancies are paying over £50k starting salaries this year plus £5-£10k signing bonuses. (the magic circle law firms are the biggest offenders at around £120k for some graduates - mainly Oxbridge) I agree that there is a price to entry but I don't think it always comes in the form of cash or the bank of Mummy and Daddy. I went to Oxford, it's bloody hard work, I was doing 5 times the work of my brother (who went to York) to walk out with (on paper) the same degree. But I got interviews and he got many less. We both went to one of the worst state schools in the country, one where less than 10% went on to do more education after 16 (yes I'm old enough for 16+ study to be optional). Neither of us had a penny from our parents when we were at uni (they didn't have anything to give us), so I get a bit annoyed when people say Oxford grads are just entitled rich kids. That said it was private schools all the way when it came to educating my kids, they aren't going to have to grasp the bottom of the rung and haul themselves up like I had to if I can help them get on at the 10th floor just by using my own money.

In the UK there is one social house for every 16 people (based on 4.4m social houses and 67.3m people). I'm QLD there is one social house for every 110 people (50k houses and almost 6m people) That means that QLD has (per capita) nearly 10 times less social housing than the UK so the need for management will be lower. Basically QLD has 1% of the social housing of the UK, so think about how many people are employed managing that and get rid of 99 out of every 100 employees, that's how many staff QLD needs to manage its stock

Median salary is a better indicator than average (average includes people (like young teens) who just work 4 hours a week in the supermarket for pocket money) That said the median is £34,900 so still well below what many top graduates will earn straight out of university this year

Flipping heck I thought teachers were paid more than £49k with your level of experience We have graduates joining the UK office of the company I work for on £57k with absolutely no prior work experience The world has gone mad...

The social problems have always been just under the surface in Glasgow, the huge amounts of money spent on the Glasgow infrastructure in the 1990s and 2000s (and the relative feel-good economy) meant they could be "papered-over", but they were arguably worse then because they were under the radar. I do agree though I had many a good day (and night) on good old Sauchiehall Street (or as our US friends would say saucyhall street)

You might not like Dave, but he didn't lie about Scotland and Europe. The European union came out at the time and said as a "new" nation Scotland would have to apply for admittance to the EU. Look at how long that is taking, they are about to admit two new members but they applied before the 2014 referendum so Scotland would still be waiting, and guess what based on Scotland's GDP and the debt they would have taken as their share of UK debt on independence they would almost certainly have failed the financial stress test. But the truth isn't as much fun as having a go at a politician is it???

I'm in the UK for XMAS this year and can't wait to get back on the plane. It's wet, cold, depressing and just not as nice as Australia. I know others say no matter how long they spend in Oz they know they are home when they get back to England, I can see what they mean, I know I'm home I also know that with every fibre in my being I'd rather be elsewhere Happy New Year all

First thanks everyone who has given advice, lots to think about. Bit of clarity in my ask. The properties in the UK are all owned outright at the moment. Due to the pull of London for our about to graduate kid, they will be living in London. We are about £100k short of buying something in London outright, and thought we could remortgage one of the already let properties to release that £100k. Can then gift the cash to the kid to buy outright in London (it would be easier to get a mortgage on the new property but as it will be in their name not ours we can't do that - and as they are not yet even employed {have job to go to but haven't graduated yet} they can't get one in their name either) The rent on the exiting property would more than cover the repayments and we realise we would have to live 7 years or there might be some fun & games on tax due on the cash gift (but not planning on checking out anytime soon)

As rammygirl says, I would look for other career codes that more correctly reflect your experience and the role you will be doing. The ICT Manager career codes is a very technology hands-on role and it sounds like the role you are looking to do isn't that.

It's to release cash to buy in the UK for family member still over there. Otherwise I'd agree on it makes more sense here

Ok looking for a bit of advice on where to start looking (as a Google search always says - of course we can - right up until you've filled out the form!) So we have some properties in the UK (owned outright - no mortgage or other finance on them). We want to raise about £100k from one of them (it's worth about £190k). Who would entertain a buy to let mortgage application from an Aussie resident based on the rental return? (For clarity the person owning the property has no income other than rental income, whereas the other partner - who isn't on the deed - has the job) (Realise this is probably in the specialist advice needed category, but looking for where to start which could be talking to the right person)

And returned, it's quite easy when the first salvo fired was blanks rather than real ammo!

I mean if you check and read my post carefully (actually it doesn't need much careful reading it's all there in back and white) you will see there are indeed 3 points in it (and they are numbered). If you can't discern that from reading the text that isn't my fault, maybe have a word with your school teachers

Oh we care about your degree class, unless you've got cast iron global experience going back 15+ years you aren't getting into the company I work with without a first, and we check. Think big 4, and you'll have a 25% chance of being correct (although they all have the same rules and they all employ background checkers to make sure)

The bank (it was NAB) was happy with a contract and payslip for the smaller amount but once the 6 months, or the period mentioned in your contract of employment if different,(most Aussie corporates are 6 months) passed they became more generous In the end we found something we liked and bought it in cash without a mortgage so didn't need to actually go through with the full application

It was CBA that was offering that on their calculator - I mean I guess that is no guarantee they'd actually let you borrow that much though

Australian banks are much more averse than UK banks. They also work very stringently to probationary periods (usually 6 months). When we looked to buy they would offer 350k as a mortgage, as soon as I got through the probation they were happy to go to $1.5m Nothing changed except been in job 6 months

Just remember (like in the UK) the amount you can borrow is only half the equation, you have to add in how much it costs to repay too. $750k over 30 years is nearly $5k a month in repayments at the moment that's 47% of your pay after tax gone on a mortgage (assuming one of you earns $115 and the other $50 - which is the minimum you'll need with most banks to get close to being allowed to borrow $750)

True!

Hi Length of time passed isn't a good indicator here. There are a lot of variables at play. The three biggest are 1) number of visas available 2) average family size 4) your points score So in order 1) in 2023/24 just over 30,000 skilled independent visas are available, of that it looks like around 15000 are allocated to state sponsorship (190 or 491) leaving 15k for 189 visas 2) average family size, so the largest group of people applying for visas are coming as a couple (one applicant with a partner accompanying). There are lots of families with kids as well though so the average 189 application is for 3 people (2 adults and a child). As each person needs a visa, this takes the available pot down to 5000 applications that can be successful (across the entire globe) Now whilst it isn't staggered completely evenly across the year, they don't make all awards in July and then nothing else until May the following year it is broadly spread, so we can assume they will give out 400 189 awards a month (using 1200 visas based on the family size discussion) 3) your points, this is a competition, Australia wants the best so it will always invite the people with highest points first (say 100 points) and then if any spaces left that month move down the list of EOI until eventually (if they haven't reached their target they get to people with 65 points). In each points category the time in queue matters so within the 65 point group as you stay there longer you will get to the top of that queue, but if there are always 400 higher scoring EIO each month you will never get invited. If you know which state you want to live in why not apply for a 190, the states don't follow these competitive rules they can select on their own criteria (and if you know where you want to live there is little difference between a 189 and a 190) The official statements (and some of the lower rent migration agents - not the good ones) make it seem like 65 points is a ticket to the land in the sun It isn't, think about it like a job that needs a degree, if you haven't got one you needn't both applying but if you've got a third and 5000 people apply with firsts, you aren't getting the job even though you met the mandatory conditions.