Sarahkatiee

My husband and i would like to move our family (us and 2 children) to Australia in the next few years however we are currently living in married quarters and have no savings. How much would we need to save to be able to get on the property ladder out there (looking at brisbane but open to different areas. Husband currently earns around £2000 a month and is a marine engineer, i am a stay at home mum) and to pay for visas, travel, moving all belongings ect ect. If anyone can help that would be fab as only just started to research it all!

verystormy

The current visa fee for you all would be $7200 - though this will increase in July.


On top of which he would need a skills assessment - allow between £500 and £1000. Then, most people find they need to take English exams to top up points. A few hundred. Then medicals and police checks - allow best part of a thousand.


Then shipping your belongings, about £4 - 5 thousand.


Then temporary accommodation for a few weeks which will be about £1000. Then first months rent and bond for a place to live long term. That depends on which part of Australia you are heading for. But, as an average of say $500 a week, so about £2500.


There will then be a lot of incidentals such as buying a car, buying things to see you through until your container arrives and others - the first weeks seem to leech money.


Then the expensive part. You need enough money to pay the bills, rent, food and everything else while he finds a job. I always recommend you have enough funds to survive at least 3 months and ideally 6 months. So, at least £8000 and ideally £16000.


But, the first thing he needs to do is see if he qualifies for a visa. The rest is academic until then.

Sarahkatiee

Thanks alot thats really helpful! We will have to start saving then i guess. Im pretty sure he will be accepted, but it doesnt cost anything to find that bit out does it?

Dorothy

Australian Government Department of Immigration and Border Protection is the place to look. Is Marine Engineer on one of the skills lists?

Sarahkatiee

They have alot of engineer type jobs on the list but as he is in the navy he has done a bit of everything so there may be a way around it? We may see if he can transfer to the RAN anyway so thats another option

GarryP

I think I'd be looking at job ads for the submarines in Adelaide - see if he could get sponsored. If not, it would be damn hard.

Sarahkatiee

Yes i noticed they are looking for submariners, will have to look into that. Today is the first day of looking into it all and we dont plan on actually making the move for atleast 3 or 4 years yet!