Hi,

Me and my girlfriend are looking at moving to Australia for 1 year in about 18 months for a change of scenery.

I work for a UK based company from home. And my work schedule is flexible so I could easily work in the Australian time zone.

I've identified the visitor visa as the right visa for me which grants me up to 12 months in the country before having to renew.

As stated, I will be looking to continue working from my current UK based company. My questions is, does anyone know if my current company would have to do anything in regard to paperwork with me moving to Aus? Or do they not have to worry about anything in that regard.

Appreciate any help on this.

A visitor visa will not allow you to work in Australia - are you young enough for a working holiday visa?

As Old.sparkles says, you'll be a bit limited on a visitor visa. I'd make very sure that you stay within the limits of your visa.

These details are from a very similar post, and were posted by a respected migration agent (Paul Hand):If you hold an eVisitor visa or ETA, then you are restricted to ‘business visitor activity’ -

(a) means any of the following activities undertaken by a person:

(i) making a general business or employment enquiry;

(ii) investigating, negotiating, entering into, or reviewing a business contract;

(iii) an activity carried out as part of an official government to government visit;

(iv) participation in a conference, trade fair or seminar in Australia unless the person is being paid by an organiser for participation; but

(b) does not include either of the following activities:

(i) an activity that is, or includes, undertaking work for, or supplying services to, an organisation or other person based in Australia;

(ii) an activity that is, or includes, the sale of goods or services directly to the general public.

Note: An example for paragraph (b) is making a general business enquiry of an organisation based in Australia and also undertaking work for the organisation as part of investigating a business opportunity“

Might be tax implications if you work in Australia for a year.

If you are actually located in Australia while working, but are on the UK payroll, you will be pay taxes and social charges (NI) in the wrong country. This question is fairly common across several BE forums, and the person asking typically has no awareness of the tax (and NI) related mess they are facing.

In short, it is never as easy as they think. The best case scenario is usually to become an independent contractor in the UK (i.e. come off the UK payroll), then make arrangements to pay taxes where you are actually working, effectively as "self-employed".

If you rock up at Immigration on a visitor visa and Immigration twig you plan to work even remotely you will be on a plane going back asap - they do not screw around.

And yes they have ways of finding this stuff out don't chance it.