Marisawright

The AHPRA thing is a pain in the neck, frankly! Processing takes months, and even then you're only approved in principle until you can present yourself in person at their office. Rather than face the prospect of arriving in Australia and being unable to work for up to a year, many nurses make a flying visit to complete their registration before they migrate. If you're at all unsure whether your application will be accepted (say, your qualifications aren't straightforward), then you might want to try for registration before you even apply to migrate, to be sure you're going to be able to work in Australia.

What CalNgary said. If you don't have enough to fill a full container, then you have two options. Most removalists will offer you space in a shared container. The risk with that is that your stuff is in the same container with at least one other family's belongings, and although measures are taken to keep them separate, things are more likely to get mixed up or lost than if you had your own space. For that reason, you're really better off with a sealed mini-container of your own, and that means using a Movecube, which is a product from Seven Seas. There are three sizes to choose from - only the largest one will fit furniture and you need to measure carefully to see what will fit.

Before you decide to leave everything behind, do a trial shop online to see what it will cost to replace everything in Australia. A medium or large Movecube usually works out to be worth the investment, even if you’re bringing stuff that’s a good few years old. Try petersofkensington.com.au for pots, pans, crockery, cutlery. Thegoodguys.com.au for whitegoods and electrical. HarveyNorman.com.au for furniture. If you’re in your sixties like me, you’ve probably amassed a collection of decent housewares over time and don’t realise how much it will cost to replace with the same quality, so a trial shop is a good reality check

Has your employer heard anything or been asked for more information?

Possibly. All you can do is be honest and hope for the best

You said you already have your PR visa, so why are you worried ?

How could they find out? The only possible way they could know is if it’s a model that wasn’t being made over 12 months ago and they’re hardly going to check that kind of thing. Anything that horas obvious signs of wear won’t be questioned

There is no reason that would be acceptable

The question is, if you don’t tell them the used items are less than 12 months old, how would they ever know?

No it won’t cause any problems. You can get your tax file number sorted when you start your first job, just like young Australians do when they start their first job after school. It’s very quick

Have you considered coming over on a WHV and getting a year experience in Australia instead?

The waiting times have blown out as there are tens of thousands of applications received every year, and only around 6000 granted each year. The trouble is that countries do not want to import people who will be a net cost to the taxpayer. Britain, for instance, does not even offer a parent visa for adult children, and New Zealand recently closed their scheme (hopefully just temporarily)

Take a look at the Movecube. There are three sizes to choose from. If you'll have less than half a container, they're a much more sensible choice. It's never too early to pack boxes. I'm sure you've got stuff you don't use every day but you don't want to part with it. Think books, photos, ornaments, spare bedlinen or towels. Just getting a box or two and thinking about what to pack is a good exercise: Look around the house and ask yourself, "what could I manage without for the next 10 months?" or "what haven't I used/worn/looked at in the last 10 months?". Then when you identify stuff, ask yourself why you're keeping it before you pack it! AirBnB is probably the best option for the first few weeks.

If she's only going for the 2 year visa, and you're able to take some extended time off work, you could potentially spend several months of each year with her on tourist visas?

That is a very good point. I lived near Horsham and we always drove to Adelaide, not Melbourne.

The 457 no longer exists, it would be a 482 visa. Are you young enough to get a WHV (Working Holiday Visa)? That would get you a year in Australia with work rights, or 2 years if you're willing to do some regional work (which might bring you up to the same period as her visa, they are usually either 2 or 4 years).

Yes, totally different

As you probably know, the 190 visa is sponsored by the state - however once you have the visa, you can live anywhere in Australia. There is only a "moral obligation" to stay in your sponsoring state. The states are getting fed up of people ignoring the "moral obligation" and leaving as soon as they get their 190 - so they are offering more 489's. I'm guessing this may be what has happened in your case. There's not much you can do about it.

I agree. Sydney is the same. I always felt that great swathes of the outer suburbs didn't deserve to be called "Sydney" at all, because they bore so little relationship to the vibrant inner burbs. That's why I moved, because I couldn't afford to live in the "good bits" of Sydney any more. I can afford the "good bits" of Melbourne and it makes all the difference.

There are two ways to apply for a visa. Note that the visa number may vary, depending whether you want to apply "offshore" (in the UK) or "onshore" (in Australia), so make sure you know which is which. It's wise to consult an agent like Westly Russell (above), but bear in mind their job is to advise how to get into Australia, not to advise on the practical implications of the various visas on your lives. Method 1. Apply from the UK and wait in the UK for the application to be approved. If you take this route, you can still get holiday visas to visit your daughter while you're waiting. Method 2. Arrive in Australia on a tourist visa and then apply for a parent visa once you're settled. If you take this route, you'll get a bridging visa which allows you to stay in Australia while you're waiting. Since the waiting time for a Contributory Parent Visa is something like 8 years, it would seem like a no-brainer to choose option 2. However there are a few snags, so you need to be well aware of them before you make the decision. While you're on a bridging visa, you are not legally resident in Australia - you are just a visitor, even if you're on that bridging visa for ten years. That limits your rights and benefits, including things like your right to buy a house or travel, and your access to medical care. At the same time, you will cease to be a legal resident of the UK and lose access to some rights and benefits there (including access to the NHS). In other words, you're in limbo. Personally, I'd say apply while you're still in the UK and wait in the comfort of your own home, with no complications and restrictions. You can visit your daughter each year on a tourist visa, knowing that by the time you're getting too old for all the travelling, you'll have your permanent visa and can relocate. Even with the air fares, that's likely to be the cheapest solution. To provide a bit more detail about restrictions on a bridging visa: If you want to buy a house, you'll be treated as a "foreign investor". You'll have to apply for special permission to buy a place (for a fee of course), and then you'll have to pay extra stamp duty as well - double, in some states. We had someone post recently who had to pay an extra $45,000 in stamp duty You can't leave Australia. If you want to leave the country, you have to apply for a separate visa (a BVB). You'll get the BVB for a specific period of weeks or months, and the next time you want to travel, you'll have to apply again. If you're receiving the British aged pension, it will be frozen forever at whatever rate you're getting when you leave the UK - so the earlier you leave the UK, the lower your pension will be. While you're on the bridging visa, you won't be entitled to any Australian pension, seniors' benefits or aged care. I don't know your ages but it's worth considering that when your application finally reaches the head of the queue, you'll have to pass medicals. What will your health be like by then? If you fail the medical, you'll have to pack up and move back to the UK. If there's a risk you might fail the medical, then you have to weigh up the pro's and con's - on the one hand, you could say that at least you managed to get a few years living in Oz with your daughter, but on the other hand, you might regret having disposed of your home and possessions for a temporary move. Finally, medical costs. This is a grey area, and may or may not be a problem on the bridging visa. If you read the Immigration website, it says that as a British resident, you will have access to Medicare but only for "essential services", not elective surgery. That may not sound too bad - but consider, what if you need a hip replacement? That's elective surgery. You can't hop back to the UK to get it done either, because if you're no longer resident in the UK, you'll lose access to the NHS. So if you're sensible, you'll get private health insurance - but it's not like private cover in the UK, because it only covers part of the cost. To give you an idea, I had an op on my neck which cost $35,000. The insurance only paid for $25,000. However, we've had a few instances recently where parents on bridging visas have been issued with an interim Medicare card and been able to access the full range of treatments. Whether that's a mistake or a loophole I have no idea.

That's a question your agent should be able to help you with, because he/she should have an idea how the points have fluctuated in recent years. Points do go up and down - if they're flooded with applicants, they'll set the threshold higher - but your agent should have some idea of the last time it dropped low enough to meet your numbers.

If you are eligible to apply for a 189 or 190 visa in your own right, then you can apply (on your own) any time you like, you don't have to wait and work out your whole 482 visa. If you want to apply for an employer sponsored PR visa, then I don't know. Normally you would need to wait until you'd done your two years on the 482 visa. However I think you're asking, can you count the time you worked for that employer while you were on your WHV? If you're thinking of doing that, I'd get an agent's advice to make sure it does count, otherwise you could waste your money.

As Quoll says, there is no option for you to migrate in your own right. The age cut-off is 45. You are correct that the parents' visa is horrendously expensive. There's no way around that. It's expensive because the government is seeking to recover the money you're going to cost the Australian taxpayer in your old age. Let's say you moved today - you'd be working and contributing tax for another 13 years. But then you'd retire and you'd be eligible for the full Australian aged pension and full cover under Medicare (NHS equivalent) and other social security benefits for the rest of your life, and you could live till you're 90. Obviously your 13 years of tax isn't going to pay for 25 years of pension/Medicare/aged care, especially as people generally need a lot more medications and procedures the older they get. Hence the high fee you're asked to pay upfront. Also be aware that even if you apply, there is a very long wait ahead of you. Tens of thousands of parents apply every year, but only a few thousand visas are granted, so it takes a long time to get to the head of the queue. You're probably looking at an eight year wait. If all that sounds harsh, bear in mind that if you were an Australian parent wanting to join your son in Britain, you'd be out of luck - there is no parent visa for an adult child. Ditto New Zealand - they do have a parent visa but they've closed it to new applications. As your daughter is 25 and working full-time, you won't be able to include her in your parent visa. There is a "last remaining relative" visa but the wait time is even worse than the parent visa - it's currently 30 years. Yes, thirty.

Don't rush to put them in school, then? The reality is that it's almost impossible to pick suburbs remotely. We've seen so many people post here to say they spent hours poring over Google Maps and real estate sites - but once they were able to actually drive round the suburbs, they realised that you can't tell the vibe of a suburb from the internet, and they had to start again. You're going to have to book four weeks in a holiday place anyway.

Probably not