leemg78

Hi all,

Few things, I am heading out to Sydney at the end of March. I have a working holiday visa, and am lodging an application with DIAC this week to move on to my partners 457 visa. I am also in the process of applying for skilled migration - application is currently with ACS, I had to go through RPL because I don't have a degree. So a few visa options - lots of forms and messing about and of course money -about 4 grand in total

Before I book my flight, do I need to have a return flight?

Also I have noticed a few people on this forum mention about applying for I.T jobs in Aus. I am a contractor here in the UK and hoping to do the same down under, does anyone have any insight in to I.T market there?, it seems in pretty good shape from what I have read. Have any visa agents noticed a big hike in the number of I.T staff moving out there?

Also How does it work with regard to umbrella companies, having your own ltd company etc and are rates comparable in any way to the UK?

Sorry for the 101 questions but I thought it would be good to hear from people on the ground or in the know to further my own research.

If anyone can provide any details on any of the above would be much appreciated, would love to hear from anyone in I.T already working in Sydney.

Thanks

Lee

MarkMC

Lee

I am also an IT contractor in the UK (ltd company) from what I can tell in Aus you are siply a sole trader and pay the same sort of tax as a normal employee would. ill probably be corrected on this, im not there yet.

Rates I have seen advertised are lower than here, but should still provide a good standard of living.

Mark

leemg78

Thanks Mark,

What area of I.T are you a contractor in?, where abouts in Aus are you heading?

Lee

MarkMC

Unix administrator (hpux and solaris) heading to Sydney, just got back from a visit and cant wait to get back out there.

Where you heading?

leemg78

Sydney as well, I do System admin / support trying to get in to more of a project management / business analyst role - time will tell if I am successfull with that one.

any other I.T bods on here?

MarkMC

Lee

I have been looking at a lot of IT jobs this weekend, and they all say "must have residency" you might want to check whether you can do IT contract work on the working holiday visa ???

Mark

hoofie2002

Most of the contractors I know [myself included] operate under a 'labour for hire' contract. The agency pays you x per hour, and then deducts the relevant super percentage and tax and then pay you the difference directly. [The rate is often specified as x + super at 9%]. There are 'management companies' who can offer some degree of tax offsetting e.g. salary sacrifice. I used to use one of them but gave it up as I thought the money was better off in my pocket, especially with the cost of living rocketing. This is possibly closest to the umbrella company concept. The rules re 'personal services income' here are just as bad as the UK and very, very hard to bypass - I know one couple who could manage it as they were both contractors but at different organisation; but that is a rare exception I think.

Some jobs are advertised PR only but I don't know how often that is actually observed. Certainly the first agency I went with here wanted to see the visa in my passport to confirm I had it. I would have thought though that without a PR visa some jobs will not be available to you [defence 100% unavailable] but I'm sure the hordes will come out to prove me wrong.....