Donrobo

After looking into and speaking to various agents, we are now worrying about how much money moving and re settling would be.
Do you have to have loads of money behind you to go?
Are the agents any good or is it easy to do yourself?
Are the wages for electricians really that bad?
How much is living costs over there?

Looking at New south wales, gold coast etc.

Donrobo

Does anyone wanna answer????? just gonna bumf it up to top of threads!!!

Wendy

Hi there.

I am probably a little out of date on the cost as we've been here for nearly 3 years, but it cost us about 3,000 pounds. You'll need a bit more now because of the new skills assessment which is (I believe $2,200) about 1,000 GBP as opposed to $300 (about 150 pounds)

But the vetassess assessment should get you nearer to a licence than the TRA used to do (still not convinced of that though, but it's early days)

Electricians wages are about $25 per hour for unlicensed electricians up to about $35 for licensed ones - self employed you can earn whatever, I guess it depends on how much you put in like everywhere else.

Living costs are about the same, some places are a bit cheaper and others more expensive. For instance living in Adelaide is a lot cheaper than living in Sydney, but the wages would be more in Sydney - not sure if they would be better depends where you live, what your living costs are and a whole heap of stuff really.

I had an agent, took all the stress out of it and it was good to have someone to ask to chase things up, or to speak to when worried etc. But it's a personal choice really, depends on you and how happy you are to leave it all to chance that you get it right first time.

crabbejo

hi Wendy

When you say £3000, plus skills assesment costs, are you including removals in that? I've heard of quotes of £2.5k for removals, so £3k would seem cheap overall. I guess it depends on how much stuff you are taking with you?

Can you break that down roughly?

cheers
Jonny

Wendy

We only brought suitcases with us, so no shipping costs. It cost us approx $30k to furnish a 3 bed house and buy a car initially. The small stuff like utensils, bedding etc we just bought minimal stuff and have added as needed over the past few years though, so that is just basic stuff like a 20 piece dinner set from Kmart, or a 24 piece cutlery set from Target - that sort of thing. The bedding we bought good stuff which cost us about $300 for 3 beds you can get cheaper but we didn't know that at the time

We do have a 42 inch HD TV though, and didn't skimp on the dining table, or matresses or DVD recorder etc - things that are going to last basically, and hubby got a Ford Falcoln for $10k.


It's a very long time ago, but what I remember are:

£1900 + VAT for agent
$300 for the initial TRA
£900 ish for the visa
£450 ish for medicals and x-rays

So actually about £3,500, plue new stuff when we got here. Shipping quote was something like £4,500 which we decided wasn't worth it for us as our stuff wasn't in the best condition anyway.

crabbejo

Thanks Wendy

I think we are planning on bringing most of our stuff. As much because we don't really want to be going round the shops all the time when we get there I'm sure we'll have plenty of other stuff to sort out.

My wife is a nurse so hopefully alot of the costs you've mentioned won't apply, but we still need to find all that out.

thanks for the advice anyway

Jonny

Donrobo

Thanks for replying to this thread. I am quite worried when you say that living is about the same as over in the uk. My husband earns £40,000 a year and for us to drop to at least half that but still have the same living expenses as over here is a major concern.
Any othere tips????

Peter Moss

Hi...Migration agents fees vary substantially, so shop around. However, being in the industry there is a major benefit I believe to using an agent in Australia, as the application is lodged in Australia. Australian based migration agents also have to be registered and are regulated by the Migration Agents Regulatatory Authority. Best of luck in your decisions. PM

crabbejo

Why would he be dropping half the salary? Any jobs i've been looking at seem similar to UK, I'm in IT/Telecomms.

cookiestar

For us so far:

Certification of documents: £55
Skills assessment: $450
Visa application: $2105

Then we'll have
Police checks: £70 (there are 2 of us)
Meds: approx £400

Plus we're budgeting up to £8k for flights, shipping, temp accomodation, car hire.

Donrobo

There are 2 adults and 3 kids in our family. My husband is an electrician who now is off the tools(has been for 2 years) and is a team leader incharge of electricians, instrument mechanics and fitters. what kind of job would he be looking at?

Tom Ward

OK here's how it's worked out for us. I'm a nurse and I've just received a skilled independent 175 visa. Agency fee £2000, Skills assessment £300, Visa £950, Medicals £500, removals, packing & shipping (3 bed house) £3800, police checks £70, transport of 2 cats + quarantine £2000, one way flights £800. Luckily we have some friends to stay with when we arrive but we'll still have to buy a car with finance and a house with a mortgage. I'm sure there are cheaper ways of doing it, not using an agent (I would however recommend it) and not taking 2 cats for example but I thought this might help you put some figures together. Having spoken to so many british expats the feedback was unanimous..... take as much of your stuff as you can if it's in good condition. It saves you having to replace it once you arrive and when you've probably got other things to b getting on with and it'll help you to settle with familiar belongings. Everyone's different though, so good luck with everything. We were told when we started the process that there wouldn't be much change from £10k based on our situation..... and they weren't wrong!

comet555

You posted at 1:20 am Brisbane time. Most of us were sleeping.

It probably would have been better to wait to post until the time you posted your second one. At least that one was in the morning here and people would be likely to respond.

G1ZmO

Well these are our current estimates if it helps:

Migration Costs GBP£

Visa £984
Shipping (1/2 container) £3,000
Shipping (insurance) £600
Shipping (customs clearance) £210
Migration Agent £3,500
Medical/Health Checks (2x adults 2x kids) £700
Police Checks £35
Flights £3,000
TRA Application £300
Post-Migration Car Hire £700
Travel Insurance £100
Pre-Migration Accommodation (2 months) £1,000
Post-Migration Accommodation (6 months) £3,500
House sale fees £1,000
Cat transportation and quarantine £1,000

Total: £19,629

Scary!

FluffieFaerie

The entire process including skills assessment, visa process, shipping a transit load worth of stuff, shipping a classic car, flights, re-furnishing our rental, 2 middle-range cars and generally setting up a new life ate up all the equity we had in our first home, about £30k. We did not use an agent as our application was straight-forward. We are young enough that it doesn't really bother us to start again but I think if we were older then this sort of money would be a serious concern. We are just about scraping through on a single income but we are essentially still setting up our lives so our outgoings are still a bit unpredictable. DH earns $70k and he took about a 20% pay cut when we moved here. He has just passed probation in his job and as such they are raising his salary to $75 at the end of the tax year. For what it's worth, just to reiterate what others have said, the cost of living here is pretty much exactly the same as it was in the UK. Some things are more expensive and some things are cheaper but overall our outgoings are about the same.