CatherineF

I'm trying to decide if my family (myself, my husband and our two young sons) can continue with our plan to emigrate to Australia in the spring/summer of 2009. I'd appreciate any advice and a fresh perspective.

My husband applied for a 175 visa in October 2008. He works in IT and his profession is on the MODL. He is in the process of securing a transfer from his company's Dutch office to a new office they are opening in Sydney.

Our problem is that our savings are going to be minimal due to the current economic situation. We have to sell our house because our mortgage provider will not permit us to rent it out. We have had a number of offers, and all have been lower than we were hoping for. House prices are set to continue to fall through 2009. We will probably only have £2,000 in savings once flights, etc are paid for.

Is it too much of a gamble to emigrate with so little in savings? Even with a permanent job offer? If it was just me and my husband then we'd definitely take the gamble with no hesitation. We're keen to be settled as soon as possible because our eldest son needs to start school soon.

Thanks,
Catherine

Australia_bound?

Needs once landing are home and transport. £2000 isn't going to go far and with Sydney prices all that plus even more will go on deposit for rental.
Wouldn't put my family in that situation? But not my decision to make we've got house and job in place, will have enough to buy a new car and take it from there!
Good luck whatever you decide

caliburn

For an international transfer, your husband's company should take care of relocation and settlement expenses. If this is the case, moving to a new country with a job from day zero may not be much of a gamble. Of course its preferable to have a little more money at hand but one can perhaps take some salary advances if worse comes to worst.

lerato

Hi Catherine,

I guess it depends how careful you are with your money and what kind of lifestyle level you are used to? Personally, I'm moving with just me and will have approx £8 - £9,000 after flights etc. I'm going to Sydney and would feel uncomfortable with less tha £4 or £5k, just for my own peace of mind.

Things can soon add up, if you take private health insurance, costs for your son's schooling (I believe the schooling may be free depending on visa but people say uniform, books and other costs are quite expensive).

Saying all this, I'm sure others have managed with less or similar to yourself. Maybe start tallying up expected costs for when you arrive. Will yourself or partner be earning relatively quickly once there?

lerato

CatherineF

Thanks for the replies. To add some additional information, my husband is investigating whether the company will pay for some relocation expenses. It would certainly help if they did. My husband will be earning immediately. We won't be buying a car - he'll be using public transport. Education will be free because we're applying for a permanent visa, and we won't be getting private health insurance. The major cost is renting, unless I've ignored something important.

Catherine

forts

The cost of living in Australia is, contrary to many other's beliefs, very expensive (comparable to London, however, but more than New York.) Sydney and Brisbane have extreme housing shortages. In Brisbane (don't know about Sydney exactly) when I left the vacancy rate was 0.5%. Can you secure housing before getting there?

Emigrating with only 2,000 pounds is going to be tough, especially with children. You can follow your heart, but I can not logically advise you that you can/should do it unless housing and immigration and transportation costs are paid for.

Good luck, whatever happens.

hevs

You sound like you have done a fair bit of research re PH, Transport etc. The real clincher would be somewhere to live. Do the company have someone who could help out? There are also relocation services, but should think they'd charge for it...but if they got you somewhere to live that would be the main worry out of the way I guess.

Saving for a deposit will be hard though....

easty1976

I think the most important issue is how much your husbands salary will be. If he will be earning well above the cost of living here then I would say go for it; however if you will be living with very little disposable income when bills have been accounted for I would say don't come. Life is hard in the beginning and that is even when you have brought enough savings with you; I think you would be setting yourself up to fail in this scenario. I really wish you all the best.

kporte

the cost of living for us in Brisbane is very slightly cheaper than back in Edinburgh, and Edinburgh is way cheaper than London. can't speak for Sydney.
Big call but some people have brought less and made it. how frugal can you be ços you will have to be very careful

Geelong Gent

new office in this climate

What would happen if the office is closed? Just a blunt question which may need answering before anything else further is considered.

£2k = say $4.5k (no need to be too precise)
Even on a really tight budget you would spend $3K to $4k in one month
So you would be living month to month with no backup apart from credit cards?

On relocation ensure your OH is covered for redundancy (based on time with company not time in Oz). Make sure they repatriate him & family.

If the office was in Melbourne I would say go for it but Sydney from what I am hearing is not the place to be looking for work. We are getting guys flying down for interviews because they cant get work in Sydney - these are local Aussies and taking big paycuts just to get work. $180k down to $120k - none of them have been any good but thats another thread - and we do not pay for their flights and taxis (a recent change in company policy - a bit harsh but a sign of the times)

CatherineF

The intention is to organise accommodation before we arrive. I'm aware of the housing situation in Sydney and our preference has always been to live in Adelaide or Melbourne initially. Adelaide has an arrival services package. My husband may be able to work remotely from outside Sydney in the short term - a few members of the team do so.

My husband works as a technical support manager for a US software company and comparable jobs in Melbourne were offering $80k+ a couple of months back.

Thanks for the tip about redundancy.

Catherine

Dorothy

The arrival service package in Adelaide is not a given. It is something you apply for and only a very small fraction of those who apply are granted on arrival accommodations. Even then, you still need to buy things like blankets/linens, food, transportation, school fees, etc. Adelaide has a lower cost of living than Sydney, however the wages reflect that.

If it were me, I would be very uneasy about coming to another country with such a small amount of money. Especially with children. As someone else has said, there is the possibilty of your husband becoming unemployed, which would leave you in a very tight position. Bear in mind that you will not be entitled to any benefits for the first 2 years, so if he does become unemployed you will have to rely on your savings. Trust me when I say that even those who's jobs are on the MODL or critical skills list face unemployment. We went through it - OH who is an electronics engineer was unemployed for 9 months.

medwaymark

I would say OUR cost of living in Sydney is similar to what it was in the UK (Kent). Some things are more expensive, but other things not. We have a mortgage, so not renting so could be different....Our house here is far better than we had in the UK, but we have a bigger mortgage.

Would agree that 2k isn't a lot to come with. Have you got to buy furniture?

Pollyana

The things to bear in mind are the things that most people with children post about after getting here. State education may be free, but the parents have to provide the books, stationery, contributions to this fund and that fund, uniform etc. Parents have posted on here about the difficulty of getting children to all the things they want to do when they are relying on public transport- I have friends at work that simply couldn't run their kids lives with no car.
Pure set-up costs here aren't cheap, deposits for rental, deposits for utilities, etc. And unless you are shipping EVERYTHING to be here on arrival,you will need to buy stuff here.

£2000 might be feasible with just you and hubby - but with two kids you could have problems. Have a think as to how long you could cope in the UK on that amount of money, the cost of living here is no longer as cheap as it was.

homewardbound

I came here with gbp3000 and made it, plus i had the quarantine money for the dog and the inspection fees for the container put aside - thank god nothing needed to be destroyed or fumigated because I hadnt allowed for that. I stayed 6 weeks at a relatives house in an area that i didnt settle anyway so had to move and the gbp3000 didnt allow for moving in the first 6 weeks, but we did and we made it.... it depends on how desperate you want it and how careful with money you can be!