wakeboardar

any expats on here got any good advice?

GC8

Your first step is to get decent advice. Most consultants will overchrage you and they arent up to much. Southern Australia have a list of trades theyre looking for at the moment; itll make it a lot simpler if you fit the bill as STNI immigration is a lot easier.

Simon

OzzyWRX

G'day!

I moved out to Melbourne from Essex 6 years ago.

When you say taken first steps, what do you mean?

Have you been offered a job out here?
What type of visa are you applying for?
Where are you thinking of relocating to?
Are you bringing your scooby?

zilch

As per OZZY's advice, what do you do, what do you want to do, where do you want to live.

It may be worth doing a quick points test on one of the immigration agents sites to see if you have enough points, some ask you to sign up, but there should not be any further obligation, you may get some spam for a while. That will save you parting with the application fees prior to knowing whether you qualify or not. Definitely worth checking out the Skills in Demand section, you get extra brownie points

Expect the application to take anything up to 12 months, not unless of course you can get a good agent to handle it.

http://www.migrationexpert.com/conte..._australia.asp
http://www.immi.gov.au/

What skills and qualifications do you have, is there a chance of a job offer, one way is to get employer sponsorship that can smooth the waters (mine took 3 months from job offer to arriving, how business oils the wheels as they say). Might be worth checking out some of the larger recruitment companies who can help

Be aware if you have a property in the UK, mortgages are not easily covered on an Ozzie wage, so my advice would be sell early.

Where do you want to live, Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane or even Perth (a bit further away from the rest of the country). Apart from cars any other hobbies, your skills and what you enjoy doing may influence where you want to live.

Most important, what car WRX / STI are pretty common here, from the nice and respectable, right through to the obligatory CHAV variants (Hoons here). Be aware the roads are not up to UK standards (hard to believe i know), and thats why i have traded up to a larger SUV, due to the fact there are to many Mega Patrols and landcruisers on the road the forester looked vulnerable.

The lifestyle is far better than the UK, Sun, Sea, Sand, the ozzies are generally a friendly bunch, i would say more patriotic and proud of their country than us brits. Their press is as crap as our own in the UK, some standard tabloid trash.

I am sure you would enjoy a move down here, i know i have

Cheers and good luck
Jim

Petem95

Be careful with your speed on the highways - theyre as strict as the UK, if not worse.

One of my mates who moved over there got banned within a month for doing only a few kmh over the speed limit on a highway

Hes a bit of a cheeky git, so that may have something to do with getting banned - I can imagine him giving some serious sarcasm to the Aussie copper...

KiwiGTI

But also a few roads that you can only dream of driving in the UK such as the Great Ocean Road, and the road from Mansfield back to Melbourne via Woods Point. (100km of mixed tarmac and gravel and on a good day you won't see another car)

Petem95

Not so sure I like sound of that! *imagines breaking down, then hearing banjo's playing in the distance*

zilch

I would definitely agree there, the ocean road is one trip i want to do. Its generally the wear and tear, in particular the Pacific and Princes highways that will take years to come up to scratch, i know they are working on it, but those trucks take their toll on what we would class as an A class (non carriageway) in the UK.

wakeboardar

well ive sighned up with gomatilda(agents) i have 125 points and being a carpenter it seems im in a good position.
The wife has a sister living in pyrmont sydney, her and he husband could sponser us if we needed it but its seems we dont not yet anyway
They both have top jobs
We spent xmas 04 there and loved it
I have an o4 sti im not sure its viable to take it or just sell it and buy another
hope to see you there then
waky

by the way 04 sti ppp going cheap if anyone fancies it

zilch

transportation on the Roll-on/Roll-Off would be about 1500 pounds for our landie, not sure about a scoob. Then there is the customs/GST charges.

Might be worth doing some initial investigation.

Thanks

Jim
North Shore Sydney by the way

OzzyWRX

Great Ocean Rd is lovely, I'm off for a drive down there next week.

Secoond hand cars here really hold their value, so might be worth bringing your own car over, it'll probably be exempt from most import taxes if you've owned it for over a year in the UK.

In Victoria the government is obsessed with speeding, you can get booked for as little as 3kph over the limit and fines/points are determined by how much over the limit you are. I think for 30kph over the limit it's an auto ban.
Speed camera's everwhere and they're not painted flouro colours either!
Also the std of driving out here is pretty poor, people are less aware of other traffic on the roads than they were in the UK.

Apart from the speed enforcement, some cars are very cheap over here, the rex is $40k new, which is about 16K UKP. The wages are lower, but the cost of living is slightly lower too, with things like food and drink being pretty cheap. One can feel slightly cut off though and it's pretty damn expensive to go anywhere other than Asia. I doubt you'd be visiting the UK very often once you're here, unless you earn REALLY good money.

Dicke C

Off to Adelaide in December for 4 weeks. Started the emigration process as well but with Ian Harrop. Sent my TRA off 6 weeks ago so should hear back about that soon.
Can't wait to get out there and see what SA has to offer. Alot of people have said why Adelaide? Known as the graveyard of Oz. Just want a quiter life, with less hassle. Been to Sydney and Brisbane (3 years ago) but it was just too busy for me.
Good luck with the process hope it goes well.
Dicke C

mightyyid

Do not take your car over - no need and WRX are cheaper if that's what you decide. Selling it would be a major pain as it's not Aus derived. And you'd lose money regardless of how long you kept it. Really is not worth it either way...

Speeding is looked upon very anally over there and yes, you will get nicked. I got nicked about 5 times in the 2.5 years I lived there, once going on the Great Ocean Road (which is great for overtaking really and good views but not as special as I thought it would be), on the long stretches at the end of it, with the car doing about 190kph (I was testing it you see). Copper was nice because I saw him and pulled in way before he was up behind me, and let me off with a 110kph fine. Keep your UK licence as long as you can as you'll just get a fine and not points.

It's good fun - just beware of pommie bashing which is all too common and generally derived from something, even though most of them do not know what a POMmiE actually is, given it's really them and not us. Never mind - my missus is Australian...

Andy

zilch

Andy

not anymore, apparently they can remove your privilege to drive in OZ on a UK licence, one mate at work on a UK licence is on 9 points and is wife 6 tracked through the RTA. They cannot remove your uK licence and not sure how they would it enforce it, but points are now available, yours free with every minor offense. As everyone says, speeding is next to murder on the foul deeds list over here


Cheers

Jim

Iwan

My mate got away with producing his UK licence twice when he moved to Aus, and just got fines. He won't risk trying it now as he's not far off getting citizenship and doesn't want to rock the boat. He's calmed down a lot now!

Apart from when we held a rental car on the limiter for about 30 mins going up the Stuart Highway at Christmas - but we had my licence to fall back on there.

GC8

My little brother did his TRA whilst he lived in Sydney. He's just been sponsored by SA under the State/Territory Nominated Immigration scheme so it looks like he will be living in Adelaide for the next six years. For others looking to emmigrate this will be the easiest way at the moment as Southern Australia have a list of trades that they are particularly looking for; and if you receive their (state government's) nomination then its a lot quicker and easier...


Simon