Ausvisitor

@Waz05 has painted a pretty good picture. I think they may have underplayed the cost of migration by the time you add in skills assessment, language tests, medicals, police checks and visa fees, for a family of 4 it's going to be nearer 8-10k That isn't the expensive but though, it's the other stuff. Flights, temp accommodation for 6-8 weeks and living expenses. By the time I got my first paycheck in Oz (which was 2 months after landing) we had spent nearly £15k on all that stuff over and above just getting the visa. (We also bought a car and deposits for rental property but I haven't included those costs in the figure) One qualification point, was your degree 4 years with classroom time (or 3 plus year long PGCE)? Australia doesn't recognise the "on-the-job" entry to teaching that the UK does so if you don't have 4 years at uni and classroom teaching experience as part of those 4 years you won't pass the skills and registration bodies tests

Having read your response and the shade you cast on some members, I think it's safe to say your user name is 50% dead on accurate and 50% a work of fiction.

You don't need the Spanish consulate, you need the Spanish police service. Google them and search their website for criminal background check. Speaking Spanish will help you here.

Ultimately it sounds like the OP has a decent life and has a lot of ties to the UK (his partner more than him but still many ties) If one of you isn't up for the move it will always be an issue, I guess it depends on are you unhappy in the UK ? @Marisawright often comments that in reality the UK and AUS are both first world countries with pros and cons, AUS is not the land of opportunity it was in the 1960s for affluent UK people anymore. It's a tough decision, however given you have kids and your partner sounds like she might be a Brit I'd be tempted to get over to AUS while the kids are young and wait out the time for your other half to get her citizenship in AUS, that way you get to trial living in AUS and if you do decide to return to the UK, you will all have AUS citizenship and UK citizenship to be able to move at will....

You do realise that governments spend tax take don't you... You probably also realise that tax take is the amount they charge their citizens (customers) for being in the country (the product) It would be abhorrent if products had differing prices based on how much cash you had in your pocket, why is tax seen as different? And whilst government spending isn't the same as a household budget, the money they spend it money they've taken from actual people, so they do in fact spend my money so I am paying for it (I get no choice on what they spend it on but it still your and my money they are spending)

You say your wife is a contractor and working for UK companies while in TAS. Is she doing that through an AUS employment/business model or through a UK limited company. Because if she is still invoicing through her UK company she won't be classed by the bank as working in AUS and so that 12 months will drag on and on

I guess my issue is that people are very keen to have equality with money they haven't earned. It's easy to say the government should spend on "this or that" if in reality you are not the one paying for it

What on earth could be fairer than treating people the same? Surely that is absolute definition of fairness Equally someone with half a brain should be able to separate a taxation system from a misguided sense of entitlement (your statement about assault), the fact you conflate the two, well I'll leave you to consider what that might mean !

In the UK a few (not many at all) credit cards do something called a super balance transfer, this basically allows you to draw the money down to a bank account rather than pay off another credit card. There are minimum amounts you can do and you can only do it once per card but it goes on as a balance transfer rate not a cash advance. They are rare though and I don't know if Australia has anything similar

I suppose some might do it that way, we won't we will leave the homes "ready to return to" and just lock up and leave. Family could use the holiday property in Europe but there is no way we are renting out houses on airbnb

We will have to disagree, but I do respect your viewpoint I just don't think the same.

They almost certainly won't scrap the tax cuts - it would open them up to lots of criticism I could see them introducing some new levy (or change to some other existing tax/charge) that effectively gave with one hand and took with the other

Why should someone contribute more because they earn more? The fairer option would be everyone gets $50k tax free and every cent above that gets taxed at 35% No one can say that approach is unfair and it delivers more cash to the lower paid than the current system but works out about the same on overall tax take

But that money only exists to be taxed because I want it. If someone else wants it they could also work as hard as I do.

@paulhand it used to be that many suggested waiting until notified before uploading medicals and police checks due to their expiry dates. Is the processing significantly faster now so that expiry isn't as much of an issue?

Our plan, but it is 20+ years away yet, is to keep the house in Aus, the UK and the one in Europe and just perpetually ping-pong around them all. If we get it just right we might even end up not tax resident anywhere (although they'll still find a way to tax us)

I don't see any problem with the tax cut. But then I'm in the group that everyone seems to be treating like lepers (you know that group so good at what they do they get paid over $250k for doing it - and in the process also pay for everyone else to get tax cuts and benefits). This might be the first time in my 40 years on the planet when I actually benefit from something in the budget and you all want to take that away from me

As someone who did the same a few years ago I wouldn't pull out of the house sale just maybe look for some temp accommodation or maybe just go on a roadtrip around the UK enjoying a few months free time. That said unless you've actually been granted the visa there is still no guarantee you will get them, so there is no simple answer here

I live in Sydney, the only people I know that are moving to Canberra are those that love Sydney but can no longer afford it. They are all gutted to be leaving the main city - the one the entire globe considers to be Australia Australia is (to the world) Kangaroo Koala Hot Opera House Bridge All easily got within 3 km of Sydney CBD, nowhere else can claim that

Yep - cos it's dirt cheap and populated with people with young families who just want to hang at home/park with the kids. It's a cultural wasteland and a place to avoid if you have any ambition in life (unless you are a politician)

I've never heard of it being a problem, but a smart immigration agent could easily decide to kick up a fuss. If the actual salary is 85k it isn't hard to see why they couldn't find an on shore applicant that would do it for 60-80. So you've gamed the system, but I suspect you'll get away with it.

If your kids are into soccer they probably should have stayed in Europe, soccer over here is about in a par with the National League North (i.e. 6 divisions below the premiership) I listened to Gary Lineker on a podcast they other day, he was talking about kids that are "very good" at football. He cited Chelsea's academy which has over 700 kids in it who are all "excellent" yet in the last 15 years only 6 of them have made it though to the premiership and less than 50 to any sort of professional role. That said soccer is the biggest participation sport in Australia (NSW certainly) by miles so they won't have trouble finding teams

For anyone starting now it's 35 years. For those who had paid in and not opted out of SERPS there was a levelling calculation done as the extra SERPS allowance you would have gotten got added back in as extra contributions. I ended up needing 25 years of contributions and I'd already done 22 when the change came in, so it's totally possible lavers might only need 30 years

It's a guide at best. If you dig deep somewhere it will say you'll get your decision in 90 days, except when you don't (or words like that). Generally the figure they quite is how quickly 75% of applicants get dealt with, with those not in that grouping (i.e. the easy ones - although no idea what makes something easy or hard) taking longer

I know it's too late now, but the better time to engage him would have been before the skills assessment. My agent gave me loads of tips on the best way to prep and submit the skills assessment, and if you get that wrong the dream is over. Arguably my agent was more helpful prior to submitting the EOI than afterwards (as in doing all the due diligence to give advice we collated pretty much everything we needed for the whole process so there were no surprises)