Anybody got any experience of how it went for you ?

Got told some bad news by my employee last week that my job might not exist this time next year, company is cutting costs and they're starting by getting rid of the management team (i work in retail). Now as i'm qualified in nothing else but retail and most retail companies promote from within im now leaning towards just renting my house out and moving to Australia.

My Girlfriend (house partner of 2 years) but partner for now 8 in total is a qualified Nurse who got her qualification from Manchester Uni, which is one of the best for Nursing in the country. She's had plenty of oppotunities move to Australia in the past but turned it down as my career was taking off. I can move with her on her Visa as we have a mortgage together and shared accounts which show were an official couple.

What jobs would be out there for me, could i get a minimum wage job for the time being or do they prefer Australian Citiziens ? Is the process long and stresfull ?

Really scared about the prospect but also excited, any advice would be great (unless you just wanna slag off Australia and tell me not to bother)

Me and my partner are 25 and 24. Thanks.

A former contributor to southstander.com emigrated to New Zealand last year and seems to love it, maybe if she still browses these boards she may wish to contribute ?

Other than that the only thing I can offer is from advice that a friend of my brother has given, they emigrated to Perth seven or eight years ago with their own business & set up shop there, its worked out ok for them, not "brilliant ok" but just ok to the extent that they won't be coming back anytime soon - don't walk into it with the idea that it will be paradise on earth, its like everywhere else, it can be hard graft, you still have to pay bills and taxes and your family are 24 hours flying time away and not just around the corner.

How about enquiring at the Australian High Commission for more info and guidance, or emailing employment agencies with tentative enquiries as to whether your experience will be of any interest ?

Go and look at Australia first. Check out as many cities as you can. I loved Sydney, but have friends who moved over their prefer Brisbane or Melbourne and can't stand Sydney.

Friends of the wife went over 2 years ago. Sold everything up over here and went. Lasted 6 months and came home. They just could not take to the place.

My experience is in the US, but if you work as a temp in the US and actually go to work to work then you'll automatically be working harder than the vast majority of people there.

I don't think bosses generally care where you're from. They just want people to work.



Is the move to Oz something that you both desperately want? How committed/stable is the relationship? If one of you loves Oz and one of you hates Oz and wants to come home, what are you going to do? Are your finances healthy enough to be able to go to Oz and return without a problem, or will you be in trouble if you go there and don't like it.
Do you have people who will be able to manage the renting of your house and sort out major problems for you?

You are only 25. If living in Oz is something you want to do then it's better to go and do it now than pass up the chance and then regret it later.

Thanks for the replies. Me and my partner are a fully commited couple yes 'love her to bits' as she does me apart from when i leave my dirty dishes

Kids wont be far off either.

Te only slight doubt we have is with my partner because of her mum and dad, she sees them atleast 3 times a week and moving away from them would be heartbreaking for her but something that she knows might be for the best. As they can come and visit whenever they please for there holidays.

Our house should be easy to rent out as its a four bedroom in a nice area and the rent price wont be high for what theyre getting its also only 7 years old so its not falling to pieces just yet but my dad lives 2 mins away and he is a trained electrician who knows everything about plumbing as well, so he will be on hand to sort out any problems.

My partner was working with 3 nurses at Bolton recently who all decided to leave for Melbourne, they all got excepted on the same ward but having looked into things our preference is Brisbane. Our Finances are ok salary wise but one thing we might struggle with is going over there to check things out first before we decide (which my GF is adamant we do before we decide) it's alot of money for just a 2 week holiday.

Thanks for your replies.

If that really is a problem, without wishing to sound condescending, I'd suggest your disposable finances are far from OK

Save up a years worth of income between you, that may sound hard but without at least 20k in the bank it's going to be stressful. Try this site, register and talk on the forums www.expatforum.com/australia speak to people out there

Save up a years worth of income between you, that may sound hard but without at least 20k in the bank it's going to be stressful. Try this site, register and talk on the forums www.expatforum.com/australia speak to people out there

Right heres what I experienced and some advice.

I moved to Sydney with my wife for just over 2 years before returning. The plan was to move permanently but things just didn't work out. My wife is a Nurse also (albeit Australian) the working conditions for Nurses is better out there and there are plenty of jobs especially if she is prepared to be an agency nurse. As for your occupation I don't know much about retail but with any job be prepared to to be unemployed for at least 6 months and when I mean prepared I mean financially, you will need money, a fair bit of it, you need to factor in living costs for at least 6 months for both of you and one thing I can tell you is Australia is expensive, even more so with the current exchange rate, I see you mention Brisbane so that will be a little cheaper than where I moved but it will still seem expensive to you.

Your other half is right, you need to go before moving out there, it isn't England with sun, go have a good holiday, and as one poster said if you can't afford the pre emigration holiday I don't think you can afford to move.

Don't underestimate how much you will miss home, I was fine for 6 months as it was a honeymoon period but when you are just doing the normal daily grind, not having family and friends around you can be incredibly difficult.

But would I do it all again, yes, it was a fantastic experience, and luckily we did OK out of the exchange rate so it didn't really cost us anything in monetary terms, so my advice would be do it, but do it with your eyes wide open.

The process was fairly simple but thats because my wife is Australian but if you want to know more specific details PM me and Ill be happy to give you spme advice.

Also just to add, you mention maybe having kids in the near future, just bear in mind how much help grandparents and friends can be when you have kids and they wont be there!

Bloody emigrants. Going over there, taking their jobs...

But think of the MASSIVE Prawns! (shameless Stewart Lee reference)

I moved over to New Zealand almost 8 years ago now and I've never really looked back in all honesty. I was living in Auckland to begin with but it wasn't really for me so I moved down to the South Island. After spending a while working in Christchurch & Nelson I finally settled down in Queenstown and I love it here. I'm a passionate fly fisherman and love the outdoor lifestyle so I'm in my element here, it's great. Other than missing people back home the downsides are that it can be expensive, if you want to visit anywhere outside of New Zealand is can be extortionate, even visiting Australia is expensive. The price of a pint is about £4 on average and isn't really the best quality, I actually brew my own these days.

The places you mention are giving me pangs of (admittedly only holiday) memories.
When we visited NZ, I said that if I'd gone there in my early twenties, I'd have made it permanent.
We love walking and, inter alia, we did the Routeburn track whilst there, that sort of thing would have been my equivalent of your fly fishing.
Same applies to Tasmania for me, wide open, under-populated and people who mostly have a straightforward attitude.

Drink wine far better than beer

As others have said, you probably need an extended holiday in wherever you are thinking of going before making any decisions.

Best of luck with whatever you decide to do.

Canada is also worthy of consideration. (Plus they seem to have a high % of seriously attractive women!)

If you do decide on Oz I hope you can stand the weather. I am working in Cyprus for a couple of months. It's 35 degrees almost every day and expected to get hotter. Not pleasant to work in when you are used to a western European climate.

Any particular reason Aus over NZ?

One reason I ask is NZ is obviously more compact. Fancy a trip from Perth to Sydney? - Take the plane. Fancy a trip form Auckland to Wellington? It's less than 400 miles. NZ is quite like the UK in that respect though going inter-island requires a car ferry. It's still easier to get to places. Perth in Aus for example is pretty much in the middle of nowhere.

So in this respect I think NZ would be an easier place to acclimatise to in that sense IMO. I found it a friendlier place as well.

At your age you've got nothing to lose.

You've had some great advice on here but tbh I wouldn't bother coming for a holiday first, you're not going to learn whats its like to live here.

Australia has had growth for an unprecedented 21 years and is expected to have a bit of a dip but I wouldn't worry too much. Especially with your partners profession. I know a few people who've worked in retail before at a management level and they've found work easily enough, some even getting sponsored.

If I was in your position i'd choose a city to move too, rent a room in a shared house in a good area, apply to every agency for work and get a season ticket for your local NRL side.

Personally I wouldn't move anywhere without visiting first, obviously you don't get the full idea of how it is to live there but unless it was a working holiday type thing Id check out a few places first before deciding on where to move.

Having said that, it didn't help me as I came back, although going before we moved made me realise I wouldnt ever want to live in Perth (my wife is from there).

You can do all the planning in the world and it might not turn out how you think, they're young so the worst that happens is that it doesn't work out and they move back home. I don't see the point in investing thousands of pounds in visiting, sending all their stuff over and sorting out accom when they could move over without the massive commitment.

I don't get why you'd go for a vacation first. Buy an open return ticket, if it sucks then you try a few different places and jobs. If it still sucks you come home. The vacation isn't going to be that informative, and it would seem to be to just be a waste of time and money to go over there for a holiday.

I do actually agree with a lot of what you say, especially the last part, In their shoes and at their age I would definitely not sell the house or ship everything over straight away.

Maybe a working holiday for a year or two would be a good idea work 3 months in a different city then move one, I would imagine it's possible, I suppose a lot depends on how quick they want to properly settle down with kids and such things.

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Stop fannying about and go for it.

Do a fly-drive for a month, open return

I drink wine too Peggy and I'm rather fond of a Central Otago Pinot Noir but it just doesn't quench the thirst on a hot summers day the way a beer does.

The Routeburn is lovely and fish the Routeburn river on a regular basis. Sadly they are in danger of spoiling the tranquility of the area if the proposed plan of the Routeburn tunnel goes ahead. They plan on building a tunnel complete with a monorail going from Glenorchy to Milford Sound through the Routeburn valley. There's a massive uproar about it at the moment and nobody wants it to happen so hopefully it won't get the green light.