From Los Angeles to Sydney...

[Michael711]

Hello everyone! This is a great site and I wish I had found it sooner! You all are very helpful and descriptive which I am sure is greatly appreciated by everyone on this site.

My situation:

I am in the process of helping my mother emigrate to Sydney. The majority of our family currently resides in Sydney, including her mother (my grandmother). My mother decided to move because she is lonely over here and I am her only child. I am an entrepreneur and have a very busy schedule and live 1.5 hours away from her. I don't get to spend as much time with her as I would like to

I could really use everyone's input on my situation and any good advice will be appreciated.

First, I am trying to figure out what type of visa would be sufficient for her? Since her mother, brothers and sisters live in Sydney, can she get a 6-12 month tourist visa and go there and set everything up while in Sydney?

Also, we will be shipping all of her furniture and household items in a 20 foot container. The best quote I have received is just under $8,000. We will not be shipping her car because I've heard it will be a hassle and expensive to switch the vehicle over to meet AUS standards.

I am unsure if our refridgerator, washer, dryer and other household appliances and electronics will work in AUS? I am sure that the televisions and other small electronics will work with power inverters/adapters (I hope).

I am also considering taking a trip to Sydney to be there when the furniture arrives. I might store it in my aunt's home and a storage facility.

I would like to purchase a home for my mother. I have been doing a bit of research on the housing market over there and it seems like prices are high in Sydney, but slowly going down due to interest rates and forclosures (correct me if I'm wrong).

Would there be any difficulty in me purchasing a home over there? What type of documentation would I have to provide? I have really good credit and finances over here in the U.S., but I know I would not have any credit in AUS nor would my mother.

How can we purchase a home as quickly as possible over there?

Would there be any special immigration/visa requirements to fulfill to be able to purchase a home?

Would a 10-20% downpayment on the purchase of a home help establish our credit worthiness to banks?

My mother and I have a joint bank account at Westpac there in Sydney that we have had for a couple of years. We have only made deposits and the money is sitting there so that we will have a down payment for the home. I hope this helps!

Please advise...

Michael

[kaz101]

Originally Posted by Michael711

Hi Michael,

Welcome to the forum.

My situation:

I am in the process of helping my mother emigrate to Sydney. The majority of our family currently resides in Sydney, including her mother (my grandmother). My mother decided to move because she is lonely over here and I am her only child. I am an entrepreneur and have a very busy schedule and live 1.5 hours away from her. I don't get to spend as much time with her as I would like to

So do you live in the USA still? I just wanted to confirm that since a parents visa is not possible if you are not a resident of Australia.

Originally Posted by Michael711

First, I am trying to figure out what type of visa would be sufficient for her? Since her mother, brothers and sisters live in Sydney, can she get a 6-12 month tourist visa and go there and set everything up while in Sydney?

Have you been through the family visa types? There is a link in the "PLEASE READ...." sticky post or the "Thinking of emigrating" post. Most people I know of move to Oz either with their parents, or bring them over later so I'm not sure which visa is appropriate. You could always check with a migration agent since there are a few of them on the forum now.

Originally Posted by Michael711

I am unsure if our refridgerator, washer, dryer and other household appliances and electronics will work in AUS? I am sure that the televisions and other small electronics will work with power inverters/adapters (I hope).

We left everything like fridge, washer and dryer in the UK. The television works from the UK with a set top box but I'm not sure about stuff from the USA working over here. I think that the current is different from the USA so that fridges and everything else electrical will all need adapters / power inverters.

Originally Posted by Michael711

Would there be any difficulty in me purchasing a home over there? What type of documentation would I have to provide? I have really good credit and finances over here in the U.S., but I know I would not have any credit in AUS nor would my mother.

How can we purchase a home as quickly as possible over there?

Would there be any special immigration/visa requirements to fulfill to be able to purchase a home?

Would a 10-20% downpayment on the purchase of a home help establish our credit worthiness to banks?

My mother and I have a joint bank account at Westpac there in Sydney that we have had for a couple of years. We have only made deposits and the money is sitting there so that we will have a down payment for the home. I hope this helps!

Assuming you are a non-resident you can purchase a property that has FIRB (Foreign Investment Review Board approval - see "PLEASE READ...." sticky post for the link & more info) or get FIRB approval. Usually as a non-resident you can get a maximum of 70% LVR home loan. This means you will need a 30% down payment. We had to provide details of income since here in Australia they seem to care more about income than assets.

Not sure how easy it is to buy from abroad when looking for something as personal as a home. We were buying investment properties and we went for apartments since they already had FIRB approval.

Regards,
Karen

[Michael711]

Karen, thank you very much for your reply.

To clarify a couple of things...

I am not moving to AUS. My mother is moving there alone from the U.S., but we have family in Sydney. My grandmother, aunts and uncles are citizens of AUS, but my mother is a U.S. citizen. Both of us are still here in Los Angeles, but we are hoping to get her moved within the next few months.

[kaz101]

Originally Posted by Michael711

Karen, thank you very much for your reply.

To clarify a couple of things...

I am not moving to AUS. My mother is moving there alone from the U.S., but we have family in Sydney. My grandmother, aunts and uncles are citizens of AUS, but my mother is a U.S. citizen. Both of us are still here in Los Angeles, but we are hoping to get her moved within the next few months.

That's what I assumed from your post. I'm just not sure what visa would be suitable but looking at the visa types should help you or of course contacting a migration agent.

Regards,
Karen

[Jimmys]

Hi Michael

We are also moving to Sydney once my house get sold. I am also trying to find out how to ship my stuff to Sydney. I live in Walnut 91789. Email me or call me so that we can help each other.

Jimmy
626.715.0385

[kaz101]

Originally Posted by Jimmys

Hi Michael

We are also moving to Sydney once my house get sold. I am also trying to find out how to ship my stuff to Sydney. I live in Walnut 91789. Email me or call me so that we can help each other.

Jimmy
626.715.0385

Please be careful about putting personal info on this forum since this is an open forum so anyone can have access to it!

Regards,
Karen