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 http://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 http://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...