northernbird

Do you want to stay in Australia and make it your home??

plantpot

I don't know is the honest answer right now, perhaps , yes .... but waiting a year or two might be a better option for us for financial reasons. I didn't come here with the view to living here forever, although I DO like it, it was more , we will see what happens, and I suppose I am seeing what happens. I have not made up my mind either way. I am happy to live in a whole variety of places, perhaps when I feel like 'it's forever' my answer will be far simpler. Or maybe I will find some answers from the posters here that will help make up my mind.

northernbird

How would you and your family cope if you lost your job. Would you be able to get another sponsor quite easily? It doesn't have to be your forever place but you need to think long and hard about what you would do if you lost your job.

plantpot

True, I have thought of this but you make a good point. Would also wonder how I would cope if we lost it on PR too...

northernbird

Absolutely job loss is something that we still think about in the industry my husband is in. However, if he loses his job we don't have to sell our house and leave Australia in 28 days if we can't find another job. He is free to find a job interstate or overseas, not ideal I know but all options if you have PR.

Vash the Stampede

Family Tax Benefit Part A. Centrelink Parenting payment. Healthcare card.

Oh, and permanent residence of course.

plantpot

Yep all good reasons for PR, not got a house here yet though ours is in the Uk (although tbh would so not want to live in Nottingham )....Yukky

plantpot

What does that mean though? Who gets Family Tax benefit part A, how much is it, is it means tested? What is parenting payment? I was under the impression I would not qualify anyway, even when not under a 457 I sure don't for baby bonus!

northernbird

None of which you get if you earn over a certain salary.

Vash the Stampede

Yes it's means tested (see the chart here). My wife has a PR visa and receives this payment.

True, but the FTB cut-off point is just over $100k. Which should accommodate most people, seeing that the average Australian salary is ~$55k.

Pollyana

Don't really see the need for the at that one - as someone who spent nearly three years on temporary visas and therefore couldn't et the permanent government jobs I wanted and was qualified for, I think its a very valid point.

I also know people on temporary visas now who kick themselves every day because they didn't go for the permanent residence option when it was available to them - and as a result will have to leave Aus and go home.

northernbird

Happened to us when we lived in Canada, leaving somewhere we regarded as our home because we never pulled our finger out and became permanent residents. I was NEVER going through that again and having to return to somewhere I don't belong.

Dreamy

We're on our 2nd 457 (2 different employers)

If we'd had PR, we wouldn't have had to upsticks and move to another state when the first employer couldn't guarantee Himself's job when his current project came to an end. We would have just waited it out in Qld. No matter how secure you think your job is - what if you fell ill? What if you had an accident and could no longer work? The insecurity can be terrible. The employer he worked for, who had been excellent during the good times, was totally appalling when the work started to dry up. They employed lots of engineers on 457s.. one of them was being laid off and when he asked about repatriation, a airplane ticket was bought for him for 2 days after he finished work and he was told to take it or leave it.

If we had PR, we wouldn't be looking at International Student Fees of about AUD20,000 per year for Eldest to go to Uni - it'd be about half that (hopefully the PR will be through before he starts in second semester or I'll be renting him out) If we don't get PR, his visa runs out on the eve of his 21st birthday even though Himself's 457 visa goes beyond that.

If we had PR it wouldn't be going to cost us AUD9 per hour for Middlechild to go to TAFE to do his diploma (again he'll have to wait until we get PR)

You've mentioned school fees already, but if we had PR it wouldn't be going to cost us $4500 + administration fee for the youngest to go to school - if he'd gone into Year 11 it would have been $5500 (obviously that's state specific, fortunately we didn't have that for our previous years in Qld)

A 457 truly served its purpose for us - it got us out here quickly (well fairly quickly anyway ) when we were in a situation where we didn't think we qualified for a PR visa under our own right - but now I can't wait til we get PR.

Crystaltipps

Great thread. I've often wondered the same thing.

Before we decided to come here, we got my husband's co to tell us what his take-home salary would be both with and without LAFHA. Wow - that's why it's 457 all the way for us (until he gets a significant promotion anyway!)

The idea of security doesn't really apply to us as we'd probably have to leave Oz for another country if he lost his job anyway. If the job market does go the same way as the UK, I imagine a lot of PRs would have to do the same.

plantpot

You have mistaken my tone with the 'rofl', it's not a negative....I just never considered it is all. I worked for a government agency before and have no plans to do so again. No disrespect intended.

Also PR hasn't been offered to me as such, I am purely basing my question on theory, therefore if I had to leave I couldn't really kick myself before finding out if I am able to actually stay on a PR in the first place. I need to birth this gigantic baby first before they will consider me, cos if it aint 100% I won't get it anyway as we all know!



Again , thanks for all your input.