lee/jane

So far our move to Australia has cost,

Sandown Exhibition - spent £36.00
12 months Australian News £18.50
Train fare and Migration booklet and forms from Oz House (can't do that now) £15.50
Photocopies £6.00
Solicitors (to certify) £110.00
Lees TRA Fee £234.63
Lees bank charges HSBC £15.00
Janes TRA Fee £233.56
Janes bank charges ABBEY £25.00
UPS charges for visa delivery £41.56
UPS again (don't ask) this time cheaper £32.50
Visa fee £748.49
Police forms £20.00
Medicals (rip off) £400.00
International signed for (police checks) £4.42
Visa's sent to Oz House, there and back £11.00


TOTAL £1,952.16


Now we have to add estate agents fees, solicitor's fees, removals, flights and getting two cats out there. Have I forgotten anything?

Jane :

Siren & Brian

Sunscreen costs

Hels

Internet costs as you become more and more addicted to this site???

Peter

In US dollars.

$926 visa fee
$2720 plane tickets LAX-BNE (4 of us)
$280 plane tickets DFW-LAX (4 of us)
$130 Kid's Australian Passports
$150 Kid's US Passports
$135 Registration of two kids as Australians
$202 Wife's Medicals
$60 Passport Photos

Whatever all that adds up to.

Marlo

[QUOTE=lee/jane]So far our move to Australia has cost,

Hi Jane,

Yes you did forget a biggy, the holiday/recce you took to Oz, also which Solicitor did you use? Our certified copies and they done the photo coping cost us £5, Sackvilles.

Catch up with you soon
Loraine

cresta57

My sanity

Wol

Having applied for and been granted firstly Retirement and then Contributory Parent visas - you really don't want to know!

Don

Perhaps biggest cost is loss of income before new job kicks in?

Vegemite Kids

OK - prepare to hate me !!!

Our move didnt cost us penny (or cent)

My ex company paid for EVERYTHING !!!!!!!!!

Shipped my 2 cats down as "household goods", Paid for my hubby's car to be shipped FOC, 40 ft container, 2x business class flights etc... etc....

plus gave both me and hubby 3 months garden leave. (for those that dont know - garden leave is where they continue to pay you even when you dont work for the company - brag, brag, brag )

Woohoo !!!!! I luuuuuurve Motorola.




OK you can all now stick pins in the voddoo doll version of mairi&chris and gusess what ........


I DONT CARE !!!!!

Wol

Why should we hate you for that?

Those of us retiring to Oz have part of our company pensions frozen, along with the state pension. Except Civil Servants and, I think, MPs and Judges. I don't hate them for getting what everyone should get - but I must admit that I do hate the system which differentiates so.

Mind you, the MPs, Civil Servants and in the end resort the Judges do make and enforce those rules...............

JAJ

I'm curious why you say your *company* pension is frozen.
As far as I understand, that's not normal.

Are you talking about the SERPS pension?

Jeremy

Wol

Yes, Jeremy. I was always under the impression that my company pension was indexed - I paid extra for that for many years.

Only recently was I aware that part of it is considered minimum guaranteed pension and that this part won't be indexed.

At the moment I'm in the UK, in receipt of the pension. But we leave next month, and in 3 year's time I'll be 65 when the state pension starts.

My understanding is that at that point, part of the company pension will be "frozen" due to HMG not making up the amount of the SERPS tranche.

And only recently have I learned that those in receipt of a Civil Service pension, who are in the same position as I, WILL get the uprating because the treasury quietly instructs the Civil Service Pension fund (ie, the taxpayer) to pay the indexing anyway.

MPs and Judges are apparently included in this, together with all other Civil Servants.

HMG keep this extremely quiet but have admitted such to members of an Expat Pensioner's association.