DickDePilot

Me and my OH have been looking at the possibility of emigrating for the past 6 months. She is a nurse and I am a helicopter pilot. From the initial euphoria of disappearing off to a new life we have found ourselves seriously considering whether we would be better off than we are now. I am 46 and she is about to turn 44. She can get employment and is eligible for a 136 visa. I am not on the skills shortage list. She can get a job anywhere, my prospects are geographically limited. She can secure a job before a move, I would have to wait for a move or definate date to apply for anything. We would have 1 son travelling with us and leaving behind (with his blessing) 1 son who is at Uni. I am the one who is the main driver for any new project, idea etc, my OH is the one with her feet planted firmly into reality (a great combination). We would have about £160,000 equity to take with us but, with the house price boom that has happened in Oz the old idea of moving to a similar sized house and becoming virtually mortgage free seems to have disappeared. I am the main breadwinner here in the UK so our current lifestyle and financial committments are based around that fact. My OH would see a small increase in take home pay, from what I have seen I would take a drop of around $AU45,000pa. Her arguement lately (and I'm not having a dig at her) is that a move would find us in a similar financial position as we are now (no benefit) in a land without friends and having to work as much as we are now which sort of kills the idea of having more leisure time together because we wouldn't have to work as much to meet our financial committments! Anyone done a cost comparrision lately? Don't care where we move to though the eastern side does offer more employment opportunities for me and, as we coudn't survive on her wages alone it would be where we ended up.

asher

I'm sorry I don't really have any idea but I'm sure someone will, I just wanted to say Hi and welcome to the forum

Centurion

Your wifes assessment is probably spot on I'm afraid. The cost of living is the same given swings and roundabouts when compared to salaries. This isnt a cheap place to live despite what people may think although housing is cheaper when compared to the UK, but not by silly amounts.

terriefarrell

....but there is so much more to it then that though, not just money, if you're moving thinking it'll be cheaper DON'T...if you're moving because you want a different lifestyle DO. Welcome, i'm a newbie too and learning so much on here. Can't wait to go although i'm a long way off that at the moment. X

DickDePilot

Terrie, we would love to have a better lifestyle but, as my wife said "to enjoy time together we have to have time together". Going mortgage free would have allowed the OH to have gone part time once I had secured employment. That would give us more time together to enjoy the lifestyle we dreamed of. We currently work to service our financial committments, it would appear that the opportunity of relatively cheaper properties that would have allowed us to have worked less to service a much lower level of financial committment has passed.

p l d k

Is your Pilots licence fully recognised in Australia, would they expect you to do further flight hours tests etc? I have found both personally and through talking to people the more specialised you are the worse it gets and that it is more likely that there will be some kind of hitch regarding a permit or license that will come up when you actually apply for it.

I dont think working on a remote farm hurding and rounding up to get flight hours and Ozzie experience would be a good start to a new life down under.

Have you been here on a holiday?

nurselindsey

If you do decide to apply for a visa them the actual application needs to be submitted before your wife becomes 45. Initially she will need an assessment from the ANMC - Sorry cant get the link to attatch - Must learn how to do that! When we did ours this took about 4 weeks to be approved. Then is the actual visa submissiion (which is pretty straightforward - just make sure you read it thoroughly and tick all boxes correctly!)
Good Luck with whatever you decide

Lindsey

Nu-Shooz

Your age could be against you on a 136 visa.

doub

I believe the OP would be ok as the CPL/H in UK demands more flying time and as I understand it, more stringent exams - worth checking though .... If you have plenty of hours under your belt, there are ever more opportunities - you shouldn't need to be scaring cattle in a R22 out bush!
I know a few people in the Gold Coast heli business; I could ask around, although the best way to make an impact is to turn up in person and get to know a few people


good luck - whatever you decide to do

Mark

Bunna_Wabbit

....Well they don't accept a JAR Private Pilots Licence here ( www.casa.gov.au) you have to take the Aus PPL test. In fact, it seems that you need a licence here for just about any form of trade and of course, they happily take your dollars off you to maintain it. The other thing is I thought age 45 was about the limit for applying for a PR visa ? In my experience, I now have a much better lifestyle than I ever had in the UK: Bigger house, pool, boat, two cars, wife not having to work etc. More than I could ever wish for over there - in fact, I think it just would'nt have been possible to achieve that there and yet I am still in the same trade over here. It was hard for the first year or so, I think it all boils down to getting a decent job. You might have to take some lesser paid jobs to get on 'employment ladder' at first. GBP160k is around $400k here and the cost of moving is not cheap so depending on location that may buy an average house unless you're looking at a mortgage. I think you would have to consider it very carefully. If either of you has a job offer it may well be worth it.

HCJ

You also need to tell the UK CAA well in advance that you authorise them to release details of your licence to CASA. I was going to convert my ATPL when we move but the wages (with Australian domestic operators to whom I talked) are piss poor compared to Europe so I'm just going to work around SE Asia and put up with the commute.

DickDePilot

I hold a UK CAA ATPL/H but no IR. Have around 4500hrs ME under my belt of which around 4000hrs is as Captain. CHC have stated that they would be interested but I'd have to be resident first which means jumping ship without a lifebelt and hoping to come across one. Not something that I feel too comfortable about. Doing the IREX and having to operate as a co-pilot holds no problems for me, it's just that I'd feel a lot safer knowing I had a job to go to first that way my OH could apply to Nurse in the same area. Not being able to apply until I'm there leaves us with a sort of dart throwing session at the map in the hope that the job I need is local.

HCJ

I had a similar situation with the Australian airlines with whom I had discussions. I already had my PR visa but I just lied and told them I was already living in Australia. I rented a PO Box in Brisbane and got an Australian SkypeIn number to complete the illusion. I got an offer from one of them but the money was derisory so I didn't pursue it any further.

Wol

Have you thought of KAL or EVA? You might be able to live in Oz and commute to Taiwan or Seoul.

Of course if long-haul is the way forward you won't have much home life anyway!

louie

It is - but his wife would be the applicant, not him, and she is 44.

To the OP - how easy would it be to come back to the UK and start again if it doesn't work out? Would a job as good as the one you have now be easy enough to get if you came back? Maybe think about investing your equity or even keeping your house in the UK and renting it out until you know whether you can make a success of it in Oz.

As many have said, you do tend to regret the things you didn't do more than the ones you did. If you try it and it doesn't work out the way you hoped, at least you know it wasn't for you rather than wondering forevermore.

Good luck either way