Re: Potential move to perth, like the rest of you!
 

Hi

Looked in again and saw your reply.

The reason it could take 3 or 4 years for your mother to follow you is that you would need to be considered 'settled' in order to sponsor her....that usually means you living there for 2 years. The visa would then take some time to process which is about 18 months or so now (could be shorter but could also be longer).

You may want to consider talking to an agent (but make sure they are MARA registered) to get a more accurate estimate of time but I believe there are now quotas for contributory parent visas and once they are full for the year they are full....you may want to check if this is the case. Your mother would be able to visit on a tourist visa but these are of limited duration and she could not live there on one.

I assume you are planning or your mother to live with you as 150K would not buy her a house of her own....and remember the Contributory parent visa will take up a big chunk of that.

The other option is for her to be sponsored to work on a temporary visa until her parent visa is granted but, for that, she would need a skill that is in demand And for some employer to sponsor her and there is no guarantee that she would be able to find work anywhere near where you live.

One positive is that she would be able to work and access medicare on a parent visa....but that is for the future.

Re: Potential move to perth, like the rest of you!
 

That's hectic. Sorry to hear. We are incredibly privileged in the UK to have the NHS, such a shame some people don't realise how lucky they are. I'm always going to need antibiotics approx 4 times pa) costs will spiral out of control. I'm also asthmatic, requiring inhalers every 3 months (tgis is on top of immune issue). Just doesn't seem feasible :-(

Re: Potential move to perth, like the rest of you!
 

Now funnily enough inhalers - the normal ventolin kind -are dirt cheap, you don't need a prescription and you can buy them over the counter in a chemist.:ohmy: I've never understood that one!

Re: Potential move to perth, like the rest of you!
 

Hurrah! Best news I've had, thank you! Very bizarre though!

Re: Potential move to perth, like the rest of you!
 

I know I am at risk of labouring a point, but you already have a reluctant husband who is loving life in one the worlds great cities and you seem intent on Perth. It feels like Sydney or Melbourne could just be a better compromise. I think if I were your hubby, I would dig my feet in if it were Perth or nothing.

I am puzzled by your assessments of the weather, it might be worth you looking at that again. Average winter temperatures in Perth and Sydney are virtually identical and both are of course much warmer than in the UK. During my last winter in Sydney I did not wear a coat once and it is often a pleasant 20C degrees. My husband never, not once wore a coat in Sydney. Sydney and Perth both have boiling hot days in summer.

Melbourne is a little cooler than Sydney and Perth in winter, but only by a few degrees. It has extremely hot days in summer. I am not sure why the Melbourne weather makes it a no go, it was always perfectly pleasant whenever I went and it does have less rainfall than Perth and Sydney.

You are right on the expense of Sydney when it comes to houses, buying or renting. Your money will go further in Melbourne and then further again in Perth. For day to day living costs, Sydney would be cheaper than Perth.

Just picking up another comment, I agree it would be four years or so before your mother could join you on a parent visa. She would not even be able to apply for it until you have been there for two years and then it will take 18 months or so in processing. Then she just needs to sort herself out, sell up etc.

Re: Potential move to perth, like the rest of you!
 

A lot of issues.

First, visa. You would need to speak to a specialist agent such as George Lombard to check the impact of your medical condition on passing the medical for a visa.

Second, your husband. Personally, after watching a lot of marriages disintegrate in circumstances where one party is "persuaded" to make a move they didn't want to make, I think you are playing with fire.

Third, jobs. WA has just announced one in 12 health care staff are to lose their jobs due to cuts. Not a good time. Then engineering is on its knees here with very high unemployment for engineers and getting worse by the day.

Fourth, here you can't just run the sort of business you are thinking of. Properties are zoned and you would need to live in the correct zone.

Lastly lifestyle. It can be easy to think we sit in the sun all day. Well, as I type it is grey, raining and thunder storms rolling in. Which is actually a major improvement on yesterday in which it was so hot I thought I was going to melt. There is a good reason, why, during the school holidays that are just finishing, there were a lot more kids in the library taking part a all summer program playing computer games than there were at the beach which is only meters from the library.

Re: Potential move to perth, like the rest of you!
 

Sydney is cheaper than London in my opinion. Same job in Sydney and London. There would be no point saying I earn more in Sydney than London. Its all down to cost of living.

As a proportion of my salary, rent (the biggest spend) is less in Sydney, in a pad the same distance I lived from the city in London, a similar standard area, but for the pleasure I get a bigger pad with pool.

The rest of the spend goes in round abouts as to what is more but at the end of the day I have more savings left over in Sydney than I did in London.

Skiing tends to be a big expense for me now. No longer can I nip into Europe for a frolic in the alps. I now have to spend up. Oh well.

It really all boils down to the individual and how they spend in both Sydney and London and what they can earn. If you are into finance and museums, London might be the go, if you are into engineering and outdoors lifestyle, Sydney could be the go.

Re: Potential move to perth, like the rest of you!
 

To be honest those medical costs look low from where I am sitting.

Re: Potential move to perth, like the rest of you!
 

Note if you see a public specialist in a public hospital outpatients it is fully covered by medicare. Medicare only partly covers appointments to see private specialists.

Re: Potential move to perth, like the rest of you!
 

Medical costs here are not out of control IMO

Dental can be very expensive. Quality of treatment is very high

The UK can no longer afford its health system in its current form. Australia's is more sustainable

Re: Potential move to perth, like the rest of you!
 

Yes, I find overall COL to be roughly the same. Probably a bit more here

Our standard of living is higher in Australia

Re: Potential move to perth, like the rest of you!
 

We are lucky enough to have good health generally, but on the occasions when we had to use medical resources, it was an absolute pleasure in Australia compared to using the NHS. And I agree that it is partly to do with the method of funding, but not completely down to that either, some of it is to do with less bureaucracy.

Want to see a doctor in Australia, ring one up and go, probably on same day at a time of your choosing! In UK have to be with a doctor where you live, have to ring at certain times, probably take you half a day to get through, then run the gauntlet of receptionists who believe it is their responsibility to make it as difficult as possible for anyone to see a doctor.

As for the asthma thing, my OH has mild asthma, never has asthma attacks, just the short breath from time to time. In Australia as somebody said he bought inhalers over counter. In UK have to see a doctor every year at least, contact doctors every month, visit to pick up a prescription which used to mean taking a half day off work (before I started to work at home), go and collect prescription. Amazing that somebdoy thinks this is a perfectly rational process and the Australian one of buying an inhaler is odd! :lol:

Re: Potential move to perth, like the rest of you!
 

I think it's very location dependent in the UK. In Godalming (Surrey) you did have to ring up between 8-9.30 for a non urgent appt but you would always get seen that day, always. They had about 8 Drs on staff at any time. Ungent appts and house calls were zero problem at all. (we could walk to the surgery in 5 mins).

In Winchester, we have only been with one surgery since we lived here but always have had an appt the same day or next day (we can ring any time) but when they're real busy, the triage nurse will ring back first. Anything with kids is pretty much straight in. But for sure they are getting busier.

In Somerset at my hometown, crazy easy. Ring up for the Dr there and you get asked what time you'd like to come in mostly and job done.

I've heard some absolute horror stories about other areas.

In Sydney, when I lived in Narrabeen it was pretty easy to see the Dr but got harder and longer as the years went by. In Lane Cove, it was a nightmare because a lot of the little family Drs weren't taking on any more bulk billers and the alternative was a massive medical Ctr at Mac Park (where we worked), you'd get given a time and you'd be lucky if you were seen within 2hrs of that time and rushed out of the door almost as soon as you were in.

In Cronulla, things were great Dr wise, but that was a long time ago.

In terms of hospital treatments, on balance, I think the procedures Ive had done with the NHS have been fine. Not really had anything done under Medicare as I've always had private through my employer. My experience of private in Aus vs UK is that UK is far and away better. No stupid gap payments and treated like a someone that has chosen to have private, rather than forced to. i've had private work done in Guildford, Windsor and Winchester, always the same feeling.

I truly believe it's a postcode lottery and the closer to metropolis you are, the worse it is in the UK.

Re: Potential move to perth, like the rest of you!
 

Yes won't argue with that on private healthcare. In the UK it works very well, in Australia you are punished for having it seems to me. Only reason I had it was for tax, in that you are punished for not having it as well!

I guess most of my NHS woes were when I lived in London. But now I live very rural and it is still a complete palaver getting an appointment for a working person and always entails a half day off work, even a full day sometimes!

Re: Potential move to perth, like the rest of you!
 

In Australia the postcode lottery generally works out the opposite to that from what I can tell.