Marisawright

Fair enough, but you will still need all your kitchen equipment, washing machine, tumble drier, fridge, bedding, clothing, basic furniture. No point replacing all of that. So, what you do is pack your container so the stuff you'll need for the one-bedroom flat is at the front where you can reach it. Container arrives, essential items are unpacked - then the container is taken to a self-storage facility and the rest of it is unloaded. Result: you have what you need to live. You can access the self-storage facility any time you like, to remove or return items. If you decide to do more travelling, you can put the stuff from your flat into the same place. Next time you need to move, you hire an ordinary removalist. I can't see any point in paying to store an entire, half-empty container, and then paying separately for short-term storage. Self-storage places can be used for both - we have a self-storage unit where we've had books and pictures stored for over five years.

Mark, you've got it back to front. An agent like Raul or WRussell will give you an initial free consultation where they'll give you an idea whether it's worth proceeding or not. So go ahead and do that!

Actually, most people don't have a home to move to. Most migrants spend the first month in AirBnB, then take a long-term rental for six months or so, so they can work out the suburb they want to live in. So your situation isn't any different, except for what you may do after those first months. Why would you not move your house contents into your rented unit/flat? Rental flats are not furnished in Australia, so you'll need furniture, bedding, kitchen equipment, appliances - most of your container contents, in fact. Then you just put the surplus boxes in a self-storage place, there are dozens of them in every capital city, and the contents can be covered by your usual contents insurance.

I can't recall, but I assume you posted on the "Iron Lady" forum to make sure your car is worth bringing with you? The results can be surprising, never assume.

As Ali says, I suggest you take a different approach. Tell your ex and your son that you accept he wants to stay in the UK. So long as you insist on him coming with you, you're going to get no cooperation, so it's not helpful. Explain that you want him to have the best of both worlds, and the best way to do that is to include him in the visa application. That way, he will have the right to live in both the UK and Australia and he can pop back and forth as often as he wants. When the visa is granted, he needs to come with you to Australia to activate his visa - but then he can go back and stay with his dad for a while. Chances are, if his father is unable to look after him and he's used to living with you, he won't last long living at his Dad's and will be ringing you up, wanting to come out to Oz. Whereas if you force him, you're going to create resentment and bad feeling and he may never forgive you.

No, they don't charge anything at all if the money is received from Moneycorp - and Moneycorp won't charge you any fees either.. They will charge if you pay it in using a cheque, bank draft or money order.

Transfer it through Moneycorp instead

Oops, the dangers of the internet. i checked it on the UK pensions site but there must have been another link I failed to notice. In that case, @Liam, you'll need to pay another 4 years to get the maximum pension. It would be worth checking to see how much difference that 4 years makes.

Great news, you can add those ten years which will give you 31 years' contributions, which will give you the full British pension - no need to pay any extra contributions. From memory they ask you to submit evidence so see if you can dig out any references, pay slips, tax returns etc from that time, or even just an old CV showing the dates.

As Tulip1 says, I would suggest holding off on your baby plans for the moment. The baby will have Australian citizenship and presumably, so does the mother - so they will be allowed to stay in Australia. The fact that you're the father will get you no sympathy at all from Immigration. Being the father of an Australian child is no grounds for a visa. It would be awful if your partner does get pregnant, then you have to leave and she's stuck going through her pregnancy alone, with you on the other side of the world.

I haven't done it but we did look into it. You are correct, there are agreements in place, not just with those countries but with most European countries. So if you move there, you will be able to claim the Australian pension while you are resident in one of those countries. It's worth noting that the type of agreement Australia has with Ireland and Spain are the norm - it's the British one that's out of step - and they've been in place for a long time.

They are right, but the "brief period" is TWO YEARS. You can't just arrive in Australia, claim it and then leave again. You must remain in Australia for the full two years, or they'll remove it. I don't know about you, but when I looked into it, I couldn't imagine uprooting myself at 67 to go and live in Australia for two years, then uproot myself at 70 to move back to the UK again. How many years were you working in Australia before 2000? Once you're resident in the UK (not before), you can apply to have those years recognised as counting towards your NI contributions. Unfortunately the years after 2000 don't count. If, after adding those years in, you're still short of a full pension, you can choose to pay extra contributions - for the next 18 months' working, and you can also choose to backpay missed years. As Amber says, you should probably sit down and try to work out what difference it will make. In my case, the amount wasn't that big so I just paid it to be on the safe side! I reckon, even if it only gets me a few extra pounds a month, I'm going to be getting it for the rest of my life so it could pay off. Citizenship has absolutely no bearing on your right to the Australian pension, but the way - it's entirely about residency.

If you haven't discovered it already, homely.com.au is a good resource for checking out suburbs.

Using it for gifts and topping it up - those would count as transactions. I didn't mean to suggest it had to be constantly in use. I'm guessing a few transactions each year would be enough to keep it going.

The company will have to employ an agent to complete their end of the process anyway. It would be foolish of them to try doing it on their own, especially if they've never done it before. So the easiest option would be for them to engage their agent now, and ask the agent for the best way to go about it. The idea of a 482 first may be a good idea but best to get professional advice.

This is interesting and as I suspected. From what I understand, the whole system is meant to be tightening up and demanding proof, but GP surgeries are so overworked and change is slow...which is handy for returning Poms I suppose!

What a nuisance. I'd suggest she gets an agent to look into it, since she has such a short timeframe to sort it out.

All this is really pointless; what is the point of looking for more ways to get to Australia temporarily, when you know none of them can lead to permanent residency? Isn't it time, as you're in a permanent relationship, to think about settling down somewhere you are able to stay long term - like the UK? You asked for a recommendation to a good agent. My recommendation is WRussell. Engage him to give you an honest opinion - maybe he will find something, but then again maybe he won't, but if that happens, you need to accept it. No agent is going to find a magic solution if there isn't one.

One of the great things about Melbourne (unlike Sydney) is that its suburbs still have their own high streets, with restaurants, cafés and shops. So you'll have a lot to choose from. The tram network in Melbourne is excellent and the train isn't bad either. If you can stay within Zone 1 of the tram network then you get the best of both worlds. I really don't know where to start with recommendations as there are so many options, especially as you have a good budget.

I understood it wasn't the balance that mattered, it's whether the account is "active", which means you do need some transactions.

You'll find it much easier to find a nice suburb within your budget in Melbourne. People complain about rents in Melbourne but they are significantly lower than Sydney. We have a 2-bed unit, top floor, with a huge terrace, in a trendy suburb close to the CBD. We pay $560 per week. In Sydney we'd be paying $700 to $800 for the equivalent.

In Australia, it's fairly simple to set up as a "sole trader". You simply apply for an Australian Business Number (ABN) and you are officially in business. Obviously you have to keep track of your income and expenses, but you simply include your business income in your personal income tax return each year. The company can then engage you as a contractor, but instead of paying you a salary, you submit a monthly invoice for your hours. https://www.business.gov.au/planning/business-structures-and-types/business-structures/sole-trader

Might not have been the postie. It's becoming a lot more common in both countries for people to go through letterboxes and pinch stuff. Especially in blocks of flats, where it's so easy to get a master key for the letterboxes.

You just keep it. In fact, I'd recommend you keep it, even if you didn't have those little things to clear up, because a UK bank account can be handy - and with all the new regulations, it's much harder to reopen one later. Let them know you're going overseas. Then once you've got a permanent address in Australia, notify them of it. They may eventually close it if you don't have any transactions, but otherwise they will just let it be.

You may be out of luck. Here's an article explaining why no one is doing it right now: https://www.smh.com.au/money/planning-and-budgeting/thousands-of-aussies-caught-in-tougher-rules-to-transfer-british-pensions-20171012-gyzb6h.html