Is this a stupid question? Probably....

I'd imagine that you can't apply to emigrate to one country when you owe money in another, but wondered if there's a way you can still repay when abroad? Or, maybe with student loan debts your application wouldn't even be looked at.

Your student loan will have no impact on your application, if you check the student loan website there is info on there about moving abroad, you can still defer repaying it from Australia.

Jon

I';ve seen that in the SL info, it wasn't them as much as Oz not wanting someone with debts. If thats true then wow! I've been wondering for a while but an emigration specialist said they would have to be paid before applying....

Australia doesn't ask about debts in the UK. You do have to declare if you owe money to the Australian government, but whoever told you that UK debts must be paid before emigrating is wrong. Plenty of us continue to pay loans and credit cards from over here.

The curious thing is that it was Ian Harrop......a well known emigration specialist.....

I guess it may be possible that for something like a business owners visa any outstanding debts have to be declared, but Australia certainly won't refuse migration because someone has an outstanding loan or credit card - including student loans, and for most visa types you don't even have to declare them.. We've had hundreds of threads over the years about how to pay of UK debts from Aus, so if you do a search you will find the ways that people have done it. Student loan repayment details are on the forum somewhere several times

I was wondering about my student loan for when we move. How do we go about repaying it? Would it be taken from our salary, like it is now, or would be have to set up a direct debit of some kind?

Also, do we have to pay if we aren't earning (like in the UK), or do we have to pay every month regardless?

Thanks

There is info here: http://www.slc.co.uk/thresholds/index.html

I filled in the form and sent them a letter detailing my situation (going over on a WHV but will probably stay longer) and said that I would contact them again when I had some proof of income.

Somewhere on that site it says that you need a UK bank account to make payments, so I guess they either take direct debits, or maybe they'll ask for a lump sum at the end of the tax year when you can prove your income.

To be honest when I phoned them up about it they didn't seem that bothered - I think most people just bugger off without telling them!

Personally wouldn't recommend leaving a student loan.

I'm not recommending it either, just saying that I don't think everyone is as diligent about contacting the SLC before going overseas.

Not saying you had. Just making comment that 'I' wouldn't recommend just leaving student loans Is different to other debt as owed to UK gov.

Theres a whole piece on this in one of the debt threads. If the loan is pre 1998 it isn't government owned. After this date then it is government owned.

Basically an older style loan is a consumer debt whereas the newer ones are civil debts.

I continue to pay my SLC Loans from here - I transfer money using www.tranzfers.com.au to my UK HSBC account and it is sorted using a direct debit from there. I did defer the loan for a few years while I was studying and not earning enough, but now I'm earning I have to pay (the total was split into 60 monthly payments so it's not too bad.

I usually stick a large amount in at the beginning of the year to cover the payments as each transfer costs $15 (which is pretty cheap) and I also have made good use of the current exchange rate!

Google is a wonderful thing...

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Educatio...98/DG_10034872

And no, your debts in the UK have no bearing whatsoever on your visa application to Australia. For example, if you didn't settle your credit cards, had a bank loan defaulted on and stopped paying a student loan, none of that has anything to do with your visa application.

I noticed this yesterday on the link that I posted - http://www.slc.co.uk/thresholds/index.html - but the penny's only just dropped: the repayment threshold for people living in Australia is now £12,000 compared to £15,000 in the UK. Last time I checked the two amounts were the same. The website states that:

"To take account of differences in living costs, the repayment threshold in a foreign country will not necessarily be the same as in the UK. We will update the thresholds each year to take account of price changes."

Does that mean that it's one-fifth cheaper to live in Australia than the UK?