comet555

We'll be going to New South Wales in May. I know we can give them our Canadian license and they'll exchange it for a NSW one very easily. But my question is... do they literally exchange them and keep your old license? Or do you get to keep your old license?

If you do get to keep your old license do they alter it so that it isn't useable anymore? I'm just wondering because we're planning on visiting for a month and looking for a job while we are there. If my husband gets a job we will stay. If he doesn't then we're coming back to Canada and will return when he has a job offer.

So I don't really want to exchange licenses unless I can use my old one again (or exchange NSW one for Canadian one).

Any ideas?

Swerv-o

No, they give you both back. They used to punch a hole through your overseas one, but they don't anymore, as you apparently then have a right to ask them to take the difference off of the value of your overseas licence compared to your NSW one.

If you're only visiting for a month, then technically you don't need to exchange anyway, as you won't be breaching the three month ruling, though the driving licence really is the de-facto piece of ID to have in NSW - everybody asks for it, and it makes life easy when the pubs and bars are having a crackdown and asking for everybodys age. Yes, even people who are so obviously over 18, as they did on Australia Day...

S

comet555

Good to hear. I know about the 3 month rule but since we may end up staying it would probably be easier just to get a new license right away. Plus my husband will most likely need to have proof of a license if he gets a job. Also, as you said it will come in very handy for ID purposes.

Thanks.

JAJ

If just visiting it may not be possible to get a NSW licence in the first place, as they do look for proof of residence, normally.

Swerv-o

Yes, it's probably worth doing, as it gives you an invaluable piece of ID. It only takes about 20 minutes at the RTA, and you walk out with the photocard in your hand. It's pretty efficient. I had to wait about an hour, but the computers had crashed, so there was a backlog.

S

comet555

We'll be staying in a holiday rental for about a month so we'll have an address to use. Before we go we will have sold our house and put everything in storage, so it would technically be our only address.

Hopefully we will end up staying, that's the plan. But if the job hunting proves unsuccessful then we'll come back to Canada for a little longer and then return later.

bridie

Yes, but you usually have to take in a bill as proof of address, I would have thought all electricity etc was included in the cost of the rental? Plus would you really want to give them the address of a holiday rental in case they need to get in touch and send you mail there?

There's no rush to get a licence so why not wait until you either know you're there permanently or when you get back? Especially since I assume that they use a similar system to the one here in WA where you pay for a certain period of licence, so if you say pay for 5 years then it takes you a year to come back you've basically paid for a year not used.

comet555

We might very well wait until we know if we are staying. I am not really in a rush, I just thought it would help for ID purposes and for having on the resume.

Some good points made for both sides so I'll just have to see how it goes I guess. I'm hoping there will be a job lined up before we go so we can plan things out a little better.

Thanks everyone.

JoandStuV

A receipt from a holiday rental/hotel/caravan park is sufficient as proof of residence, just make sure it has both yours and your husbands names on it if you both plan to apply for licences, otherwise he will have to apply first and validate you as a person! This happened to me and my hubby and it was annoying, lol!

If you are worried about future mail the best thing to do is set up a post office box in NSW, you can then use that as your postal address and the holiday let as the residential address. Costs about $150 odd dollars a year (give or take) to rent a small box and it will be useful to have when you return to live in NSW for good (assuming you do go back to Canada). It can also be used to apply for your tax file numbers so you don't keep paying non-resident tax on any savings over here.

Good luck with the job hunting!

Jo

Dorothy

You'll need something with your photo like your passport along with something with your name and address like a rent receipt or phone bill. What Ron did was get our mobile phones a couple of days after we arrived and then used the contract from Telstra as proof of address. Like someone else said, don't worry about a driver's license. The only ID any HR people are interested in is the PR visa in your passport. It's positive ID for both proof of visa status and with the lovely photo of who you are.

comet555

Thanks for the tips guys. We will definitely put both of our names on the contract just in case. We will also be getting a pay as you go type cell phone while we are there.

I had thought about the post office box but somehow it didn't occur to me that I could use it as a mailing address for a license . Anyone know if I can get one set up while in Canada?

Thanks for the tip Dorothy, if it's not important for employment then we could just use our passports for ID until we know if we are staying for sure. That is probably the easiest solution, and one less thing to do while on holiday.

So looks like we're be setting up bank account, getting cell phone, getting a TFN. I suppose the license and medicare can wait until we know if we are staying.

Thanks again.

Mctree

We exchanged Canadian Licence for NSW one. They give you your Canada one back no problems. Only thing we found is check when your Canadian one was issued (it's on the license), because they are renewable every five years, and you have to have held a full driving license for at least 3 years to exchange it for a NSW one. You may need additional proof of when you passed your test.

Isn't it illegal to hold two driving license in Canada?

comet555

Thanks for the tip. We may have to renew ours before we go then, I'll have to check on that though.

I'm not sure if it's legal or not. I know my brother lives in the US (for the last 7 years) and I think he still has an Ontario drivers license. So I've always figured it would be ok, my brothers usually a very by the book kind of guy. But I will definitely check it out to know for sure.

Also I'm thinking it is probably best just to wait on switching the licenses over until we know what our plans our. We have 3 months we might as well use it. I guess we'll just have to use our passports for important stuff.

Swerv-o

You can open a bank account within days of landing using just your passport. If you're not sure about your tenure here, I would suggest opening an HSBC account, which is fee free. This way you won't be incurring any monthly fees and charges that will be difficult to pay if you should leave the country again. I deally you wouldn't want to be clocking up fees on an account that you are not using in a country where you are not living!

Not so sure about Medicare - I had a right game registering with them, as I had to prove that I wasn't going to leave the country again, which was quite hard. Needed no end of documentation for this - employment contract, TFN advice, bank statements, super opening documentation etc.

I hope some of this makes sense.

S

JoandStuV

^ That's really strange re Medicare, we had no problems whatsoever and just used our passports as ID, they certainly didn't ask for any proof that we were staying in the country and as we were travelling we didn't even have a permanent address at that point. Weird.

The most hassle we had was trying to register the car we had brought in our names, they wanted no end of paperwork for that and were very strict on what counted and what didn't.