Help and advice appreciated

[Terry Cawley]

Hello All

My name is Terry I am 34 years old married with 4 children aged 15,13,11,10
we are looking into moving to Australia around August 2008 just after my daughter finishes her exams.
A few silly Questions.
Do we use the same electrical supply ie 3 pin 240 volts or do we need converters?

With four children I may need a doctor within 2 years how do you go about that with regards insurance?

Did anyone bring pets ie Dogs well I have 3 Dogs 3 Snakes a Lizard and a Hamster?

What did you take as in clothes furniture electrical equipment?

What do you wish you had picked up before you went?

Any regrets but are you glad you did?

What unexpected costs are there?

[tygwyn]

Hi Terry

Welcome to Expat Forum

We emigrated to Australia from the UK 14 months ago so hopefully I'll be able to help you out a fair bit

Your questions arent silly at all - I remember asking very similar questions before our move! Heres the answers

1. All your electrical goods will work fine over here but you'll need travel adaptors. The cheapest place I found to get these was Ebay UK. Its also a good idea to bring UK Multi Plug extension cables with you too because then you only need to use 1 travel plug.

2. I used a doctor pretty much as soon as we arrived. What do you mean about the 2 years? Are you coming on a temporary Visa - if thats the case you can still use the docs - whether you choose to insure or not is entirely up to you - we didnt. If you come here as permanent residents then you have full access to medicare as soon as you arrive which is very much like the NHS.

3. We didnt bring pets but I know that they can be very expensive. Do a quick google search on it and you'll find lots of info. The dog will be fine (assuming he passes the relevant vet checks), not sure about the snake & lizard but the Hamster is def a no no - they're band from the country for some reason?

4. Cant really think of anything I wish I brought with me........apart from all my favourite shops of course!! I miss NEXT & Tesco sooooo much!

5. Regrets.....none

6. Costs........now theres a good one. They seem to add up ridiculously when you first arrive. School fees (if you're on temp visa, rental bond (4 weeks rent), fees for setting up new gas, elec & phone accounts, rego for car, stamp duty for car etc etc etc

HTH

Rach xxxx

[Terry Cawley]

Thank you for your response Rach

I am looking at coming over by way of a company sponsoring me, I am a railway maintenance technician and they are looking for people with my skills in Australia I have not met the company yet its still in its early stages about a week to be honest but we are taking this very seriously and want to know as much as possible.

A friend said you dont get medical care for the first 2 years and need insurance, I am going to go for full residentship if possible but when my brother spoke to the company they said its a 6 year visa at first?

People always talk about the dangerous creepy crawlies, what can you tell me, oh and if you dont mind what area of Australia do you live in?

That will do for now.

Many Thanx
Terry

[tygwyn]

Hi again Terry

It sounds as though they may bring you out on a 457 Temp Visa then (thats how we got here). Australia and the UK have a reciprocal agreement RE medical care which means that you would be covered for 'medical emergencies' only during the time you're on the temp visa. As soon as you're permanent residents though you have full cover. The two years relates to being able to claim benefits such as unemployment etc (you can claim child benefit as soon as you have PR though). We didnt get insurance as we found the reciprocal cover was enough for us. It may be worth speaking to the company who will sponsor you and ask if they will pay for private health insurance if they are sending you out of a temp visa - its very common for the company to cover that (although ours didnt!).

If the company are willing to then it is much better to come out on Permanent Residency (and sometimes doesnt take much longer). When you're on a temp visa you pay the same tax as everyone else but you dont receive the benefits.

Check out Department of Immigration and Citizenship for more info - do a search on 457 Visa and you should find out all you need to know.

It would also be worth asking the company if they offer LAFHA (living away from home allowance) - this can make a huge difference to your salary - it isnt compulsary though and needs to be negotiated before a contract is signed.

We live in NSW and before we came out I was **** scared of spiders etc. Now I'm just used to them and they really dont bother me (even to the point where I put my hand up an outdoor tap a couple of months ago to pull a web out only to find that it was a female redbacks web - with eggs in!!! I didnt even think about the danger - thats how much you get used to them. No big deal honestly and you really dont see much of them.

If you've got any more questions feel free to ask

Rach xxxx