smurf

Hi there,

My husband and I will be visiting Sydney in May for 10 days to valid our residency visas.

At this point in time we do not see ourselves moving over to Sydney for at least another 18 months.

However to make the most of our visit is there any advice on what we can investigate such as jobs, places to settle, schools (no kids yet, but no doubt will be by the time we move over)?

As background, we are both Londoners in our late 20s, I am an investment banker and my husband is an I.T. project manager ...so in terms of location I guess we can put up with an hour journey to where the jobs are i.e. financial district.

I have relatives near Sutherland, is this a good location to settle in?

Is it worth visiting job agencies whilst we are there to get a realistic view on the types of jobs and salaries we could expect, who are they key players?

Importantly, are there any areas which we should stay clear from?!!!!

With so many things to investigate, essentially, what we want is to prioritise them and have a starting point!

Many thanks

PS. Refreshing to see so much activity on this forum, compared to Go Matilda.

markeh

Hiya,
lots of questions

I'd start by getting a good flight, nice hotell and hiring a car, once you have found your feet.

I'm sure others will help as well.

Bye
Mark

mlbonner

Hi there,

I'm in Brisbane, so can't help with Sydney stuff.. but things you could do when you get here included;

- Getting a TFN, this can be applied for online once your visa is validated
- Getting a medicare card - apply a few days after you arrive at the a medicare office
- Open a bank a/c - you need to do this withing 6 weeks of arriving so your passport counts for the full 100point ID check
- Start looking at jobs online, places such as Seek or Hays Banking & Finance might be a good start
- With only ten you probably want to look more into the area's of day-to-day life that to much touristy stuff; make a list before you go out for things like, houses, car prices, shops locality, public transport, what its like at night/rushhour etc, entertainment etc etc and then check these off for your short-listed suburbs. A good place to look for Real Estate is here.

MrFlibbleUK

No help whatsoever I know but the whole thing of validating just brought back memories....I guess after all the pain and waiting I expected more when validating the visa.....maybe a fanfare..someone to shake my hand...a free tinnie to get me started :-). Immigration went through the usuall speal about why visiting and then turned around and said 'oh right, well you can do what you like!'....must admit that was worth it (and knowing that for one fleeting minute I had the power over MrsFlibble as she couldnt go before me...wooohaha).

smurf

Thanks for the replies.
Are there any good books to read before we go to help us sort out what to do when we go on this visit?
All the advice I've seen either relates to getting the visa or actually from people that are living there.
Thanks

Flying Banana

I made a trip over last March to validate my visa and wanted to make the most of my time.

I'd say get a hire car and a decent map, use something like realestate.com.au to get some ideas of houses you like the look of just before you come and do some drive bys have a good drive round the areas you think you might be settling in, they always are different to what you've heard/read/expect.

Do some driving about in rush hour, not fun sometimes but will give you an idea if the areas you are thinking of will be ok for travel when you are working and living here.

Go to some estate agents get their property lists, have a chat with them they know the areas and will usually be pretty helpful suggesting the places to look at (after all if you're not buying right now there isn't any cash at stake so they are more inclined to be honest)

Have a look at some car dealers and get a feel for prices, what you like etc, once you've driven over here you will have an idea of what you think you need.

You mentioned about books, one I got over here is the Aussie Homebuyers guide (think it might be published by penguin not sure) available at all Dymocks shops lots of info about costs, process of buying over here etc. Also worth getting is a map by a company called HEMA. The one I have is called 'Melbourne and Region' I assume they do one for Sydney. Found it invaluable when looking at realestate websites back in the UK. One side is a regional map covering about two hours driving out of city, on the other side is a map of the city with reasonable detail (trains, major roads etc) with an alphabetical listing of all the suburbs at the bottom. This side will have a closeup of the CBD on it)

As someone else mentioned, if you can open a bank account here, will make life much easier, not sure if you are able to apply for a tax file number till you take up residnecy but worth it if you can.

Most of all get out and about away from tourist distractions and speak to people, I found everyone always willing to offer some helpful advice.

Would say main thing is try and imagine you are living here, what do you need to know for day to day living, research stuff like that and you can't go far wrong.

dracupg

Do your driving test. You will need an Oz postal address. When they issue it they are supposed to put a hole in it to invalidate your UK licence. When you get back to UK apply for a new licence and say you have lost the old one. When you come out for real you can use your UK licence to collect any nasty points you get.

mlbonner

Erm... well, not every office seems to put a hole in the licence, some will try and take it off you! As for putting points on your UK licence, that would only work for the first three months if you have PR, after that it's illegal to drive on anything but an Aussie licence anyway.

If you're in WA, NSW or Vic its a straight swap, otherwise you will need to take the theory test.