jtb

We're just doing what you're planning. We arrived here on a 457 two weeks ago and as we are spending money bringing our cat over we left all our furniture in the UK. For transporting a reduced amount we found Movecube to be good value, we filled a small one which was 420 pounds plus the aussie customs charges. We're renting our house out and storing stuff in the loft, so we didn't need to bring everything or store anything. We've got our rental sorted and are picking the keys up this afternoon. I've spent all week going round the city getting furniture and white goods off Gumtree, good stuff at a good price goes quite quickly, so you need to be on the ball, but it can be done quite cheaply. Out of everything fridges seem expensive here and good cheap ones on gumtree go really, really quickly. Tomorrow we're going to have a look in some of the op (charity) shops that specialise in furniture, hopefully we can pick some bits up there.

I haven't looked into what I'm going to get in Aus yet, so I'm also interested in responses. My UK mobile provider, Three, lets you use your calls, texts and data plans in Australia, to get online and phone home for free, so I'll definitely keep that running for a bit until I'm set up. http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Phones/Feel_At_Home

It looks as though I score 85 on the self assessment points test. Is it worth trying to get state sponsorship for the PR or just go for it?

Thanks, that's useful to know. I'll get on it as soon as I can. If the timing works, it works, if it doesn't we have already planned our contingencies.

Thanks ali. The 2 year visa is due to the way the kind of projects I'm involved in are funded all across Aus. It's govt. funded so they can only offer contracts that match the definite funding available, even though there might be more in the pipeline. I'm not sure if I want to ask my employer for PR sponsorship for my reasons (paternity/maternity) right at the start of the job. I've a feeling that I might do OK in a skills assessment with my current, and especially new job. It's a massive skills shortage area and I'll be a working on what seems to be a high priority area for the WA and Aus governments. Thanks for the heads up on the documents, I've already started a file of any paperwork that might be useful, so I'll read more about the assessment.

It's been an up and down couple of weeks, but I got the job and my wife and I are going to make the move Thanks for the advice above, I didn't post on or come back here as I wanted this to be a decision between us and our families and we were having enough debate between ourselves. I'm glad we have made the decision now, as I haven't slept properly for about a week. Both our families are really supportive and if we do have a child we won't be able to move for grandmothers coming out to help. We've been investigating my wife's employment prospects and they look pretty good. She's putting in an application at the same place that's employing me soon (we wouldn't be working together, it's a very big place) and they've been really encouraging. One quick question. I'm on the 457 temp skilled visa, would it be worth my while trying to go for PR as soon as I get to Perth to try and get some more rights for maternity/paternity? Or do you need to wait a while? The place I'm going to be working at is being great with help and advice so far, but I'm sure I'll be coming back here very soon with more practical questions.

Hi I'm currently in the UK, but have a job interview next week for an organisation in Perth, which I'm feeling fairly confident about. The job is great and it would be getting to do very interesting things that would be a lot harder for me to access in the UK and Perth looks to be a great place. It's a 2 year position and they will sponsor on a 457 visa. When I applied for the position my wife quite liked the concept of going to Perth for 2 years, but now they've shown more of an interest she's got some serious reservations. Currently we have a good life in London, own our own house and earn about £75k between us. My plan with this was to ask my current employer for a career break, which my manager has said could be OK for me, and to rent our house out. The job in Perth is likely to be $90k-$100k and she's worried that won't be enough to support 2 people if she can't find work. From my calculations I think we'd probably be OK if she picked up some part time work. She has lots of experience in project management and general admin. In case she couldn't find work would we both be able to survive comfortably on 90-100k? However the thing that's freaking her out the most is that we're currently trying to start a family, and the extra cost and lack of support network if she was to get pregnant when we're in Perth might be too much for her. I imagine that we wouldn't get any additional support on a 457 visa. Has anyone had experience of starting a family when they've just arrived? My feeling is that it is only 2 years and we can see what happens, but this idea seems to be giving her massive concerns.