Marisawright

You have to remember that your employer has paid fees for your visa and also done a lot of administrative work so you could get your visa. In return for that, they expected you to keep your promise to work for them as required by that visa. If you do not keep that commitment, they may get angry and report you to immigration. Only you can judge whether your employer will be angry enough to report you.

I notice that you say you've had some wonderful times here, so I wonder if Australia is really the problem. I have a friend who's going through a very similar experience. She's Australian, but her parents live in another city and her husband's in the forces - and she's bringing up a toddler. She adores her little boy but she's struggling, and this is what she posted on a social network recently: "Having a baby has meant losing ME. It’s not forever, it’s just for a little while but it’s still a very difficult, never talked about, lonely place to be. If you have a mamma in your life - no matter what age she is or you are, please let her know that you ‘see’ her. It’ll feel like a BIG hug to her, trust me." You might also like this article: https://www.todaysparent.com/blogs/opinion/open-letter-to-mom-who-feels-like-she-did-nothing-today/ It sounds as though you urgently need to see a counsellor, even if it's just to have someone's shoulder to cry on. Try to persuade your husband to come to the sessions. Men are often resistant to the idea of counselling, because it suggests there's something wrong with them - a good strategy is to say, "my counsellor thinks it would help ME sort myself out if you could come along to a couple of sessions".

Cost of living overall is about the same. Housing, on the other hand, is hugely more expensive. Check the median house price - for Brisbane it's around $490,000 whereas for Sydney it's $785,000. When you say North Shore, how far north? We used to live South (Oatley). Our 2-bedroom townhouse with postage-stamp garden is now worth about $1.2 million. If it was in the equivalent location on the North Shore, it would be more.

Of course the lack of security is a downside of renting. No one is saying renting is better than buying. The original question was from someone who's planning to stay in Cairns for a few years. In that situation, if they buy a property, they will likely be much worse off financially than if they rent. It's up to them to decide whether security of tenure is worth that extra cost. We've made the decision that it's not worth it for us. If our landlord turns round and gives us notice tomorrow, we'll find somewhere else. It's a bit of a nuisance but there's just the two of us and we don't have a lot of stuff, apart from my husband's book collection. There's plenty of unit blocks in our suburb so we won't have trouble finding somewhere else that's just as nice. I know that won't suit some people. Some people are homebodies and aren't happy until they've "put their stamp" on a home. Others would find the prospect of moving every few years too stressful. I also know that in some cities (e.g. Sydney), people are nosey about property and will look down on you if you're "just renting". I'm lucky that I'm in Melbourne where the subject doesn't even come up - most of my acquaintances probably just assume we own our place. So overall, it suits us. Each to their own.

I'm not sure I'd bank on that. It's much harder now because everything's electronic and governments are all getting smarter about reporting international transactions.

Snap! When my parents were alive, that used to be me. I saved up all my leave and went on a six-week holiday every two years. It never felt like a holiday, it was just a succession of visits to relatives with endless cups of tea, telling the same stories again and again. After the first few times, I pretended to cut the holiday to five weeks. In fact, I did take the extra week's leave but I spent that week on a beach somewhere in Europe, to have a real holiday to get over my fake holiday!

I think people often forget to add in the insurance and maintenance costs for a house. If it's a unit then there's strata fees instead. Then there's rates, and also water rates (which renters don't pay in some states). Plus the cost of selling the property (fees, agent's commission) as well as the cost of buying (fees, stamp duty). The other thing people don't realise is that for the first 5 or so years of a mortgage, you're not paying off much, if at all. It's nearly all fees and interest. So if you sell after 5 years, you'll owe much the same as at the beginning - meaning all your mortgage payments were just as much "dead money" as renting is. The only reason people don't notice it, is because in the past, house prices have always risen in that 5 years so they do get some profit. And what they also don't consider is, if they hadn't bought the house, they could have put that money in investments and it would have earned a profit, too.

If the landlord isn’t fixing stuff, you take them to the tribunal or you find another rental. Putting up with a bad rental is something people do when they’re too poor to buy and don’t have a choice. That’s not the case for the OP. It’s true you’re limited on what you can do to the place and you don’t have long term security, that’s the bargain you make

Was the lawyer MARA registered? If you paid him for advice then he should have told you whether a court order was necessary for Immigration or not, so I would go back and ask him - you paid him after all

Me too. When I migrated 30 years ago, it was a no-brainer - better job opportunities, cheap housing, good salaries, the beach lifestyle. Nowadays - unemployment is about the same as the UK, and migrants are advised to allow 6 months out of work when they first arrive (probably with no benefits payable). Housing is expensive, so the average person in the big cities can't afford to live anywhere near the beach. Wages have stagnated: some occupations are still well-paid, but many aren't, and childcare is so expensive it can almost wipe out your paycheck. The whole "better life for the kids" thing is debatable too - their leisure time can be fantastic, but the range of higher education is more limited than the UK and ditto job opportunities. Living in another country can be a wonderful opportunity to experience a different culture and widen your horizons, but is that worth investing a huge chunk of your savings for? I know I'm sounding negative but I'm playing devil's advocate here. If you can read the negatives and still feel that Australia is the right thing to do, then you're just having last minute nerves and you'll be fine. If they make you feel angry and upset, then it's likely you've got your own doubts and you're pushing them aside to please your oh - that's a recipe for disaster. Personally, I prefer living in Australia, but it is down to personal preferences, things like the kind of life you enjoy, and the attitudes and sense of humour you identify with. It's something that's really hard to judge until you've lived in both countries for a while - and even then, it's impossible to say one country is better than the other. All you can say is that you feel more comfortable in one than the other. They both have their good points and bad points and they balance out.

As Paul1Perth mentions, public sector pensions in Australia used to be the same. Then they realised how much index-lining was costing - way more than the provisions made - and they got phased out. If you've already got 16 years of NI contributions then you'd get some UK pension (it's pro rata).

Of course it's always possible you won't be able to return at all. Once the children are in Australia, you can't take them home without written permission from your husband. So if he wants to stay in Australia, then all he has to do is refuse to let you take the kids, and you'll be trapped - you'll have to stay forever too, even if you divorce. We've had several members stuck in exactly that situation.

Yes, we've had several members who have tried migration, didn't like it and ended up back in the UK having spent all their savings and some of the equity from their house, so they were far worse off than they were before they left the UK. How much it costs depends on how long you stay. If you stay long enough to buy a house, then you'll lose at least $30,000 when you sell it, because of all the stamp duty and fees you've shelled out. Whatever it's costing you to ship all your household goods, you'll have the same cost to come back. If you've bought a new car, you''ll make a big loss when you sell it. If you've got a car on a lease, you can't sell it and you'll have to negotiate some kind of deal with the finance company, and it's likely to be expensive. Plus air fares, holiday accommodation when you get back (unless you can stay with family), and money to survive until you can find jobs again.

It depends entirely on why they weren't on your visa in the first place. If it's simply that you've had two babies since you applied, then it should be fairly straightforward. If it's for any other reason, (adoption, child from another relationship, children over 18 who initially didn't want to move) then it's more complex.

No one is getting invited with 65 points so you're right to give up on the 189. If you're a nurse, you'll need to get your registration sorted before applying for a 190. We had someone recently who applied for a 190 and got invited very quickly, but they gave her three months to provide proof of registration. It takes a lot longer than that to get registered, so she lost the invite.

It's true that you MOSTLY don't need a job offer, but some states do. You need to check the state websites carefully.

You may be in luck because they don't pursue small debts overseas. The only question is whether the car company sees $35,000 as "small". However the question is, what did you do with the car? You should have told them you couldn't pay the balance and surrendered the car (which would have gone part way to clearing the debt). If they don't have the money OR the car, they might take that more seriously (the car is their property). The Australian debt won't affect your UK credit rating but I hope you're not planning to return to Australia to live, as you would have huge difficulty getting any credit in Oz after such a bad debt - and even if it's several years later, they could pursue you for the debt if you return.

But the bottom line is that they need that work experience, there's no way around it. If they are in trades then they probably can't get that work experience by coming to Australia on a WHV, because they won't be licensed to work in Australia and it will take time to get that sorted, meaning they won't get the full year in. And they will also have to take time off to work regionally in order to get a second year. That's why I said they'd be better off sticking in their current jobs and getting the work experience over and done faster.

I'm confused. When you left your old job, did you lose your pension altogether? That doesn't seem fair. If you didn't lose it, then why can't you receive that pension while you are resident in Australia? You will also claim the UK govt pension, of course. Again, you can claim that in either country - but in Australia, it will be frozen at the rate you start at. Then you'll also have your Australian superannuation - make sure it's all in one fund and you've chosen a good low-cost fund (not just the one your employer dumped you in). Again, payable whichever country you're in, though it will be subject to tax if you're living in the UK (it's tax-free if you're living in Australia). If all of that isn't enough, then you can claim the Australian govt pension if you stay in Australia. If you go back to the UK you need to have 35 years residency, BUT if you are living in Australia, you only need to have been here for 10 years. It's means-tested so you should view it as a safety net if and when your other funds run low.

Australian private pensions used to be like that too (I think they were called 'defined benefit" schemes). I'm not sure they were index-linked though. As I understand it, it's no longer compulsory for British pensions to be taken as an annuity either. I can see why they've changed it. With life expectancy extending and extending, it must have been getting uneconomic to provide a guaranteed, index-linked pension. After all, someone retiring at 55 could be retired for as many years as they worked!

Right

It used to be much the same across all states but things do change, you could well be right.

That used to be the case but less so now. Untaken leave is a liability on the balance sheet so most companies have rules - if you don't take your leave within a certain timeframe (usually at the end of the following year), you forfeit it, or it will be paid out. If you're a very valued employee you can sometimes talk your way around that but it's not automatic. I used to save my leave and take a six-week break every two years (to visit my family in the UK). That's still possible. Long service leave is still a thing but very few people ever claim it these days. There are thresholds at 5 and 10 years, but you don't actually get to take any leave at that point - it just means you will get the extra money if you get made redundant. You have to stick it out till you reach the 15 year mark before you can actually take the leave.

No, I wouldn't recommend commuting from Geelong to Melbourne, though some people do commute to Western Melbourne from there. The point is that Geelong is a large city in its own right, and there would be jobs there too. The advantage of Geelong is that housing is much cheaper, and everything is much closer together, so there's potential to live not too far from the beach and not too far from the city centre and have all the amenities you need. It's less congested than Melbourne too with a slightly more relaxed pace of life. Migrants often overlook the smaller cities in Australia but Geelong has a population of over 250,000 people - it's almost the same size as Newcastle in England.

I’m not sure those still exist in the UK either.