Moved to Australia. Problems.

[danioj]

Hi All.

I came out to Australia on a 417 (working holiday) visa over a year ago primaraly to use the holiday time to live with my partner over here and see if the relationship would work. I decided some months ago that the relationship was worth investing in so I applied for a job and obtained a 457 (temporary 4 year business) visa earning $110k (AUD).

I am now over here and have effectivley been living with my partner at her mothers home for over 12 months (the duration of the 417 visa) and plan on applying for the partner visa shorty as we now satisfy the 1 year requirment for living together. We share bank accounts credit cards living costs etc.

Unfortunatly in my haste at moving over a year ago I did not look at everything.

I still have approximatly 3k debt (which I dont want to pay off with my savings) in the UK and 35k in savings I would like to transfer.

I have tried to trigger the transfer from the UK bank to my AUS account but I have been told I have to 'visit a branch' or 'submit my request in writing' and the exchange rate will be determined once they process it. This I find totally unacceptable.

Also can I negociate for the credit card debts to be transfered to AUS credit cards?

Are there any other cheap ways or any problems people see with my situation??

[amanda]

Hi,

Not sure about the debt problems but would also be very interested to know how you are getting on with that.

But maybe you could help me with something, I have a son on a rsidency visa but because my partner has children in the uk we dont meet the balance of family test to come in as parents, however we are not married and if I severed all ties to my partner bank accounts etc.I could apply for a contributory parent visa come over on my own and stay with my son
my partner tony would have to come over later on a visiting visa but would need to keep exiting the country and then later on i could sponsor him we could marry, how does this 12 month thing work? we are both above the age of 45 so other visas such as a 457 are out, would you or any one else have any ideas or info

[synthia]

Welcome, both of you.

danioj - These aren't Australia-specific answers but...

No one is going to agree to transfer funds at a fixed rate in advance. You will have to accept the rate that is current at the time you transfer. If that is totally unacceptable, and you must transfer funds to obtain your visa, you are probably out of luck.

As far as the debt goes, do you have an Australian credit card? And have you asked the company about a balance transfer? If they can't do that (there will be fees, of course, and no guarantee of the exchange rate), then you may need to pay it off even if you don't want to.

[cmallon]

There are various foreign exchange companies that you can do transfers with and if you do a forward exchange you can book a rate for a set period of time, I think 6 months. The company I have registered with, but not yet used, is hifx. I registered online and they then called me to confirm things and explain my options. What they said was I could tell them that I wanted to transfer x amount of money in x months time, I would get the rate booked now but would have to pay 10% of my funds as a deposit. When the time to transfer the money ifI still wasn't ready I could roll it over till the following month but I can't bring it forward. The other option is to take a gamble and hope you get a good rate. They don't charge for the transfer although your bank may charge you to transfer the money to hifx in the first place. The Australian branch is in Sydney and the website is HiFX Inc : Foreign currency exchange specialists
I think that you are better to just pay the £3000 off on the cards if you already have £35000 savings and a well paid job. Surely it's better to just wipe it off rather than paying interest on the balance every month?