What Do You Want to Know About Australia?
 

At the risk of being inundated, can readers of this message let me know of any non-visa Australia-related subjects you would like me to cover in news stories on the Go Matilda website?

A reply directly to me or on the newsgroup will be good.

Best regards.



Alan Collett
alan-at-gomatilda-dot-com
Registered Migration Agent Number 0102534
and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales
http://www.gomatilda.com and
http://www.collettandco.co.uk

<pommie-whinge>
Could you re-code your clocks to make them less bandwidth hungry? They seem to be downloading all the gifs with each tick...
</pommie-whinge>

:-)

I'd like to read some more "our story" kind of things - what happens once the plane lands... Guess that just reflects our current situation and what we're worrying about at the moment.

Oh, and how about a news feed from someone like moreover.com?

Mouse.

Re: What Do You Want to Know About Australia?
 

Hi Alan,

I though your posting about house sitting was right on the mark. For my penny's worth a couple of checklist would be useful like

1. What documents to bring with you, e.g.
passport (obviously), birth certificate, last six months bank statements, UK post redirection form, reference from landlord, reference from mortgage society/bank, marriage certificate, copy of your cv (on disc and paper)
(I don't actually know if any of these are useful for the first few days)

2. What you can do from outside Aus before you arrive,
e.g book hotel/flat, arrange for post to be redirected(?) . open a bank account, rent a car, book flights

2. Your first hours/week in Aus, or "what happens when the plane arrives" (refering to anon)
Administration - Medicare, Tax number,
Housing - where to rent furniture, are flats fully furnished or not (on average), have you considered housesitting, what references do you need to rent a flat/house,
Job hunting, the basics - who are the mobile phone service providers, where can you get your cv printed, list of internet cafes, list of headhunters

Some of this is just links to current info, it's more a case of, What did I need to find out in my first week here?

Also Tim on http://emigrate.hotshopping.com.au/ has a whole pile of good stuff. (Thanks Tim)

By the way, great job and thanks for all the help.

Nigel db

Re: What Do You Want to Know About Australia?
 

hi allen what happens to state pensions and stuff like that do you just qualify for an oz pension after 2 yrs (if there is such a thing) or do you still claim part from uk. i do have a personal pension and the adviser assures me that werever i live in the world they will pay it into my local bank account, is there any problems assosiated with this? tax implications and alike
cheers shaun

Re: What Do You Want to Know About Australia?
 

can you still pay in to a personal pension when you are not resident in the uk ?

Re: What Do You Want to Know About Australia?
 

Hello PercyP.

I'll answer this one directly: yes, under the new stakeholder provisions I believe you can pay into a personal pension for the 6 tax years after you cease to be tax-resident in the UK.

But there would be tax issues in Australia were you to do so, which ought to be factored into any such decision.

Advice is needed if you are looking at this as an option ...

Best regards.