Help/advice with process and finances (Lots of questions!)

[ayatollah]

Hi, I'm a long time lurker and rare poster on these forums. I have asked a couple of questions on here but now I'm going to blow my load (so to speak) in this thread. You can check the BOLD bits for the questions if you don't want to read a spiel!

 

Ok here is my situation, I am a 28 year old computer programmer with 3 years post grad experience. My wife is an interior designer, also 28, with 5 years post grad experience. We are from N. Ireland. I have a sister (14 years old) in Hobart and have been down numerous times to see her.

 

On the last occasion, this time last year, another emigrant I was talking to basically offered me a job and sponsorship. I have been in contact with him since and there is still a position for me if I move over. However, numerous problems come in to play.

 

I have checked with estate agents and there is not as much equity in my house as there once was. I could probably make £5-10k if I was lucky, at this current moment in time. We have no savings to speak of, and some loans to pay off. And by my rough calculations we would need at least £10k to pay off whatever we need to pay off, buy flights, ship our belongings over and ship our 3 dogs. That's before any fees for the actual visa process.

 

So, I would need to wait maybe 2 years to raise cash and, hopefully, have the property market in NI become less of a bottomless pit. But I don't know if there would be the job there for me in that time.

 

What would people advise me to do? I could just begin the 175 application process, as it seems it would take long enough anyway. Then by the time it was approved I could have raised the money, or won the lottery. But this leads to the first question. How long after visa is approved does it have to be validated? And say we went and validated the visa but came back to sort things out. Is there a time limit on when you can come back for?

 

What would the process be for applying? Get skills assessed by ACS then apply? Then wait for CO and do everything else they say?

 

Also what about costs? What should I factor in for (rough estimates):

Flights (We're thinking around £1300)

Ship Dogs (£5000 for 3 Jack Russell's?)

Ship possessions (I'm thinking £3000 for 20ft)

Visa application and surrounding costs (Again guessing at around £2500)

 

Then we'd need to have some money on arrival, again £10k was what I was hoping to bring.

 

Is there anything that I've missed or should think about? It's an awful expensive process, but a worthwhile one I reckon in the end. We will eventually be in Australia but trying to work out what the quickest route would be for us.

 

Any help you guys can give would be greatly appreciated. Cheers.

[Cerberus1]

How long after visa is approved does it have to be validated? And say we went and validated the visa but came back to sort things out. Is there a time limit on when you can come back for?

 

As far as I'm aware, the first entry date (date you have to 'validate' by) is, under normal circumstances, around twelve months from the earliest date of police checks / medicals.

For a 175 visa, the visa is valid for 5 years from the date of grant. Out of this 5 years, you're expected to be in Australia for a total of 2 years of this 5 year period. (This is so that you easily qualify for a Resident Return Visa after the 5 years is up. You'd need a Resident Return Visa to re-enter Australia as a permenant resident if you weren't an Australian citizen at that point in time). So, after validation, I guess you could return to Northern Ireland for approaching 3 years before returning to Australia.

[ayatollah]

Cool, thanks for that info Cerberus. That'll help with our decision making.

 

Anyone else have any input on the other points?

[2and3]

Do you need to take the dogs?? That is a huge sum of money !! Or could you perhaps 'delay' sending them over??

Could you rent your house out - rent may not cover the mortgage though ? Alternatively You could just stick it on the market now and hope that it sells in two years. Move into rented -or friends/family and save like mad.

Do you need to bring a container of stuff over? I take it there are no kids - just the dogs?

[ayatollah]

We really do have to take the dogs. I would be happy with just one over but my wife couldn't bear to be without them. We don't have any kids.

 

I was thinking about renting the house and we might be able to cover the mortgage with it, but there are no relatives that would be able to put us up unfortunately. We also wouldn't want to put the house on the market now, where we won't get what we want from it. It could be 2 years down the line when the market recovers and people will look at my house having been on for 2 years and it would downgrade the value.

 

The container of stuff was a guesstimate as we don't know what we would want to bring with us but 20ft should more than cover us. The only large items we would bring would be 2 and 3 seater sofas, maybe, dining room table, definitely, and a couple of coffee tables/cabinets, not too big. We may be able to ship these over for cheaper but don't really know for sure.

 

Selling the car would raise enough for the application I reckon, £1600 isn't it, not including other fees. (Medicals, etc.)