Hi all,

I appreciate if someone could help me with my query.
What is the maximum amount of cash we can bring into Aus as a family (two adults and three children) when landing for first time as permanent residents?

Cheers,

If you're talking about carrying cash on the plane I believe it's $10,000 Australian (per person I imagine). I doubt if the kids could do that though! It's a bit silly to carry that much cash anyway.

However if you're talking about how much you can transfer into a bank there's no limit as far as I know. The only restriction is when you are physically carrying cash in on the plane.

There is NO restriction on taking in Cash at the airport.

The $10,000 is the limit at which you must declare it on the boarding card, so if you take $9,999. Then you just walk through and don’t have to say anything.

If you take $30,000 cash then you declare it on your landing card.

$10,000 and over you just need to declare it.

You can take 1 million through for all you like, just as long as your declare it – if you don’t they can take it off you.

Here, from the customs website:

Currency
"There is no limit to the amount of currency you can bring in or out of Australia. However, you must declare amounts of A$10,000 or more in Australian currency or foreign equivalent. If asked by Customs you must also fill in a Bearer Negotiable Instruments (BNI) form if you're carrying promissory notes, travellers cheques, personal cheques, money orders or postal orders.”

http://www.customs.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=4443#items

If you are carrying a large amount of cash, even if it is lower than $10k, customs may still insist on counting it which might hold you up. Travelling with large sums of cash should really be a last resort.

Bring as much as you want, don't worry about making the declaration, making it doesn't mean you pay tax. You declare it and they wave you through. Bringing cash into the country is perfectly legal - in fact, we're all very grateful for you bringing your foreign-earned money into the Aussie economy and spending it!

It's not the same as a duty-free allowance where if you bring 2 litres of vodka, you don't pay duty on it, but if you bring 3 litres of vodka, you do (or whatever - I don't know what the actual booze limits are). What they are trying to do is penalise money launderers who try to sneak large amounts of cash into the country: if they find wads of undeclared cash, with the declaration law they don't have to prove that you're intending to do something naughty with it in order to seize it. They just have to prove that you didn't declare it.

Having said that, of course, it's better to avoid carrying cash if you don't need to, if only for the normal theft/loss risks. You know you can set up an Aussie bank account while still in the UK, right?

"normal" theft/loss risks ? I would not think that (theft) could happen in Australia. What if you bring money on Saturday and you stay in your hotel until Monday when you go to the bank and open a bank account and save your money. Could your money be plausibly stealed from Saturday to Monday while staying in your hotel ? That could happen in a developing country, but I guess not in Australia, could it ?

You're actually serious aren't you?

There were just under 45,000 prosecutions for theft, robbery, fraud etc in New South Wales alone in 2004, and that's probably just a drop in the ocean of actual offences. So yes, theft happens in Australia and no, I wouldn't be very enthusiastic about leaving a wad of cash in a hotel room even in a little room safe. (Particularly because once I thought I was being very smart about hiding my credit cards in a light fixture when my room didn't have a safe...and then I forgot to retrieve them when I left the hotel. I remembered just as the plane was taking off... <facepalm>).

A lot of Branches are open Saturday and Sunday now, so no need to wait until monday to get to the bank!

Yes, you're right. That's an important distinction that I forgot to mention.

I still don't consider it very safe to carry that much cash and I would definitely expect a delay going through customs.

I agree, I can't imagine getting to customs and trying to pull 10 grand out of your pocket. lol... Don't understand why someone would bring so much cash, with bank accounts, credit cards etc... really no need.

When we arrived we had two kids and $300 Canadian, plus all of our credit and bank cards from Canada. So I just don't see the need to bring that much cash. It was very poor planning on our part though!

But we did exchange the cash for Australian and used the credit cards for everything else until we got a bank account setup and our money transfered over.

Thank you all for the information, and I appreciate your sincere advice.

Actually I'm not from the UK, it's great idea to open an account while still offshore. Could you guide me how can I set up an Aussie bank account while still in my home country. Is it possible to do it online?
Anybody, please!

Which country are you in? You'd probably be better off calling whichever bank you decide to bank with over here and asking them how to go about it in the country you are in. Chances are if they don't know they'll go away and find out for you.

I don't know if the OP is asking the question as they are wondering if it would be a way to avoid tax, ie, if you took in A$9999 each they wouldn't need to pay tax on it?