hello my name is janice and my family and i are looking to emigrate to austrailia..... but just dont know where to start!! I m a nurse so people have told me that i will be snapped up! Is this true? My husband is in Management at the moment but has a geography degree and would like to maybe work for the Rivers Authority.... if there is such a thing over there!! We have 2 children too ... aged 7 and 15.. so any info on state education etc would be helpful.Also, nice areas for us to start out in. Could we buy a nice 4 bedroomed house for £150 000 ?With a pool of course ??!! Any advice would be welcomed thankyou! OOOHHH also do we need a migration specialist to sort all the paperwork and can anyone recommend anyone and estimate costs. Thanks a lot!!!

Best bet is the Oz Forum thread...

You start at http://www.immi.gov.au

Be prepared to do a lot of research on your own unless you want to hire an agent to do it for you. Nurses do have a good chance of getting permanent residence in most cases but there are traps there - for example, if you have been working less than 20 hours a week you will encounter problems with the rules for some visas.

Also remember - Australia's a nice place but it has many of the same problems as the UK. Those who go there with unrealistic expectations (like many Brits do) often end up coming back disllusioned to the UK a year or two later.

Think carefully about the reasons for migrating and the extent to which you'll miss things like family, your friends, the British landscape etc.

Jeremy