Marisawright

Getting a qualification won’t make you eligible for a skilled visa as you need post-qualification experience too. Also the age cutoff for a skilled visa is 45 so you’d need to look at whether you could complete both the course and the experience before that age

If it remains your principal place of residence then no capital gains tax is payable in Australia. If you buy a home in Australia then it ceases to be your principal place of residence and is liable, but only on the profit you made since you ceased living in it - so make sure to get an independent valuation when you leave, so you know exactly what your profit is. If you don't buy a property in Australia but decide to rent instead, then you can continue to claim your home in the UK as your principal place of residence for 6 years, so no capital gains payable if you sell within that time. I'm not an accountant but have held investment properties and have paid capital gains (ouch)

You are misunderstanding the double taxation agreement. It doesn't mean you're only taxed in only one country. You will have to submit a tax return in the UK and you may treated as a foreign investor (unlike in Australia, citizens do get some concessions, so worth checking exactly what the tax rate will be, including capital gains liability). When you submit your Australian tax return, you declare your income from the UK and also declare the tax paid in the UK. The ATO will then work out what tax you would normally be due to pay in Australia, and then deduct what you've already paid in the UK.

Anyone can get a ABN. You don’t need to earn a minimum amount. I think you may be confusing it with GST. That’s a tax which you have to pay if you earn above a certain amount

I think you will need to set yourself up as a "sole trader". You will need to get a ABN (Australian Business Number). I don't know whether any businesses have a need for such skills, but perhaps you could have a market stall, and perhaps create a website to sell online?

Why wouldn't they?

Probably because it's only a temporary visa and it doesn't have a pathway to PR, so it's not popular. You have to wonder why any employer would jump through all the hoops to get this visa to train an employee, when it's quite possible he'll have to leave at the end of it. As stated on another thread, when this visa first came out, some people saw it as a way around the expense of the 482 visa. However the government has clamped down on that now and the requirements are very demanding.

It doesn't reduce by an exactly equivalent amount, though. So you still end up better off.

Here's the calculator. You can try punching in different possible figures and see where it gets you http://www.yourpension.com.au/APCalc/

If it's closed, then no.

Good example of what we're talking about. For couples like that, applying without an agent isn't worth the risk.

If you apply for PR, Immigration will look at the "lifetime cost" of your condition. That is, how much the government will need to subsidise the cost of your medicines and treatment over your lifetime. There is a threshold, which I think is $40,000 - if your costs are likely to go above that, then you will not get PR. $40,000 is not a high threshold when you consider how many years you are likely to live, so I think you are right to be concerned. As Quoll says, you need to talk to one of the agents who specialise in medical conditions and they will be able to give you an honest assessment of your chances.

Yes it would

The problem is that I don't think you'd be able to get a visa.

Tea-chest size boxes are quite expensive to ship now, you'll find a small or medium Movecube is much better value

I think you will regret it. As i said, the Central Coast is about 2 hours drive from Cronulla, and worse at busy times. If you look 2 hours away from Cronulla in any other direction, you will easily find homes the same price as the Central Coast.

I think of here as 'home too, but I don't think the OP is unusual. Before I joined these forums, I would've found it strange that the OP thinks of the UK as home. Not now. I've learned there are legions of Brits living in Australia who never ever settled, but stayed for whatever reason. Their attitude has nothing to do with quality of life - Australia could be a paradise and they'd still feel the same way. They just can't shake their homesickness, and it gets worse as they get older. By that time it's much more difficult to move countries and they may feel trapped, which makes it feel much, much worse. In fact I have a strong suspicion that we're the unusual ones. Those of us who migrate and settle completely in our new country, enough to call it "home", are in the minority. I'm sure you know many happy migrants, but consider how many people either never feel the urge to leave their hometown, and how many migrants who try it but head home (said to be more than half). That's why I can come across as negative sometimes in my responses to newbies. Australia has a lot to offer, but it's hard to predict who's going to feel that "connection to homeland" which could ruin the whole thing. When I see people saying their husband/wife has talked them into it, or about being in floods of tears over leaving their family or their beloved home, alarm bells go off in my head!

All of those examples are of couples who have lived apart for large chunks of their relationship, which is what I'm talking about. So we're in agreement.

Precisely the reason why I think he needs to go for it. You're speaking from the perspective of someone who's happy with their life in Australia, like me. I don't think it's reasonable to discount the deep longing some people have for the land of their birth, just because we haven't experienced it. It may be psychological but it's very real to the people who suffer from it, and it can be very debilitating, even driving people to suicidal thoughts. The OP clearly still thinks of the UK as "home" and says leaving it is still "an open wound". You may be right, that he's going to have to settle for a retirement in Australia, but he's not there yet. He's 54 not 64! He's got time to go home and, if he's lucky, put those feelings to bed so he can return and actually enjoy his old age, instead of lying on his death bed wondering what might have been.

The only thing I'd worry about is that the employer won't wait for you, if there's competition. If you nearly got the job before and dithered, they may be worried that you'll dither again. They don't want someone who's going to muck them around! Therefore I'd say you need to tell them you're ready to jump now, all you need to do is give a month's notice and you can be there. You certainly don't want to even hint at things like, "I'll need a bit more time because I want to buy a place before I go, and talk to my employer about getting a sabbatical, and ....."

There's several on these forums. The fact that they're so generous with their advice is a recommendation, IMO.

Make sure you research how long AHPRA is taking, from what I've seen it takes several months. Also, I was trying to find a post by one nurse who got an invite from one state, but shortly after, she was asked to provide her registration details - which she couldn't do by their deadline because AHPRA takes so long. So she didn't get her visa. I'm pretty sure it wasn't NSW but it's something to be aware of.

Hard to advise what to take and what to leave, because it depends on the condition of what you've got. Personally, I'd say if your furniture isn't crash hot, then leave it behind - but take all the small stuff. A Movecube is perfect for that, and comes in a choice of three sizes. When we moved back, we weren't sure we'd stay, and so left everything in storage in Oz. I found setting up house from scratch very stressful. No time to browse the furniture shops finding exactly the right sofa - it was a case of find the shops, see what they had and settle for the least-worst one. Most furniture shops these days keep very little in stock and order as they need, so it's a six week wait - you might as well wait for your shipment. Ditto whitegoods, and then endless trips to the shops, filling trolleys with bedlinen, towels, crockery, cutlery, pots and pans, gadgets, tools, etc etc etc. A good idea is to get online now and do a "trial shop' at the stores you're likely to use when you get back to Kent. "Add to Cart" everything you'll need and see how much it comes to. Then compare that to the cost of shipping.

Refusals for partner visas are very high, but a large proportion of those is due to people committing fraud (faking a partnership to get a visa), not because genuine relationships are refused. People who have lived apart for large chunks of their relationship should always use an agent, IMO. Although the documentation says time apart is OK if you have good reasons, I've known two genuine couples who've been refused in those circumstances, so in that case I think expert help is wise. But it sounds like that doesn't apply to you. Another reason for refusal is that couples don't understand the process. They think their marriage certificate and a few bills is enough, which it isn't. You need to provide solid evidence for your whole relationship. If you feel able to do that, then you probably don't need an agent.

The Shires - near the coast so sea breezes and a shortish drive to the beaches. The Hills - where young professionals go to live when they start a family because that’s the only place they can afford a proper house.