If you are planning to migrate from England to South Australia, here is some information that you might find useful. There is also a page of links to other sites that may also help.
Preparation, Paperwork, Selling up, Packing, Insurance, Tax, Getting there, Arriving.
First, think about it. You will be leaving behind your family
and friends, and the culture that you know, to live in a totally new place where
you will have nothing - no credit history, no home or car, no knowledge of place
names and their relative positions, no experience of tv/radio personalities
or comedians, new sport and of course the new culture.
If you have the slightest doubt, then you really need to thoroughly resolve
it before you start arranging things.
If you think in any way that migrating will be like being on holiday - forget
it. The lifestyle is much better and more relaxed here, but you will still enjoy
your 4 weeks off work a year.
Next, be prepared to wait. Not for the Australian side of things, but for the English side. It can take months to get your Police report back, and the medical tests can have long appointment waits. Then you need to sell your non-movable assets. This includes your home, larger furniture and most probably car (plus caravan, boat, trailers, etc.).
Finally, be prepared for a massive upheaval, and at least 6 months of trying to settle in to a new country. You will have to learn new things about the way that basic stuff works, like banking, medical care, rent, salaries, bureaucracy and paperwork - everything is different (in most cases better and more efficient when compared to England - but different). It may take a while to get a good home arranged, and a job may take a few months and your finances will take a battering.
There are several different methods to migrate to Australia, which I won't go into here - and each one has different requirements, so you might be eligable for more than one method of application. The costs for applying are for each application submission - if they reject your application because you have insufficient paperwork, then you will need to pay again.
We used the spouse migration visa. My wife Ann "sponsored" me, even though we were migrating together. We had to get statutory declarations from people around us that they knew our relationship was genuine and continuing. I needed to get a Police background check, and a medical (including chest x-ray and AIDS test).
Our entire migration costs came to around £5200 (visa application £570, UK paperwork £130, flights £2000, international removers £2500). That was for one spouse visa application and three people flying. Luckily we were able to stay with family once we arrived, but a month later we had to put a $1200 bond (deposit) on our rented house, so make sure you have plenty of funds.
Sell everything you can. Sell furniture, crockery, rugs, cars,
garden tools, cutlery. You can't bring to Australia anything that is made from
wood or wicker, or that has been in soil (like garden tools) - there are very
few diseases and pests here, and most of the wildlife and crops have no defence
from infection that can be brought from overseas.
Selling kitchen wares is a good idea - it can take months for your posessions
to be sent from England to Australia, and in that time you will need to buy
kitchen stuff - so don't bother bringing it from the UK. The same applies to
anything else that you will need immediately - sell it in the UK. Sell items
like a vacuum cleaner, duvets, sofas ('lounges' in Australian) even desktop
computers.
Most international removal companies will charge by volume, meaning that large
items like a sofa may cost more to transport than buying a new one in Australia.
If you want to get rid of that gift from your mother-in-law, now is a good time.
Try Ebay or classified ads - even a car boot sale. Turn as much of your assets
into cash as possible.
If you use an international removal company, try to use their
packing service. This normally means that their insurance covers your items,
and it is considerably quicker than doing it yourself. The one drawback from
having them pack is that you can't sort or dispose of items that you did not
know you had.
We brought our flat-pack MFI and Ikea furniture with us, and dismantled it before
packing. There is an Ikea
in SA, and Freedom
furniture and Casual
Living are good value in Adelaide.
You can take all your electrical goods (read the page on electrical
goods), but you may not want to take your TV, Video, Playstation/XBox (unless
you have a SCART cable for it).
Don't bother taking items that you will need within the first few months, because
you will have to buy them in Australia (see selling up
above).
Don't forget to send over more clothes (see section on clothes).
We used both sea-freight and air-freight. We sent a 6ft cube of clothes, papers, photos, my computer and baby toys. We had it collected 2 weeks before we flew, and it arrived 2 days after we did. It was great to have more clothes and our own duvet and the baby's toys! Air freight is considerably more expensive than sea freight, it cost the same for all our furniture and home goods as the 6ft cube. Luckily my father paid for our air freight.
All travel insurance will state that you must start and end
in the same country. One-way travel will not be covered by your usual insurance.
We took out American Express one-way travel insurance, and it covered us for
the journey and the first 7 days, for a cost of £77.
When travelling, be careful that you are carrying everything that proves you exist (birth certificates, marriage certificate, passports, old UK bills, etc.) and all your cash. Do not let anyone see how much you are carrying, and be aware of anyone trying to distract you away from their friend pickpocketing you. A money belt is a great idea, but only use it for the documents that you don't need - don't let someone see that all you have is in one place. Try to split documents between hand luggage of your entire party.
If you leave England, you might be entitled to a tax refund. To do this, you should submit a tax return, and a P85. I was advised to do retrospective tax returns for the previous 5 financial years, and got £800 deposited into my UK bank account 6 months after being in Australia.
Ann and I flew direct from Heathrow to Adelaide on Malaysian Airlines. We chose to go directly to Adelaide instead of Sydney, because your immigration is handled in your first place of arrival in Australia. We expected that Sydney would be busy and that there would be other families migrating, so we chose Adelaide to make it quicker. Malaysian Airlines was also the only airline that would do one-way flights for less than a return flight.
When you arrive in Australia, be very careful with the customs
declaration. They ask you to fill out a form with the usual questions about
criminal past and terrorist intentions, but also about foods, wooden items and
soil.
You will get through customs quicker if you declare something. We told them
about the baby formula and muddy shoes, and it was all fine. On my first visit,
I assumed that my mint imperials and herbal vitamin supplements were not foods,
but their x-ray of my bag showed them and I was detained for longer as they
searched everything in all of my bags. They want to know about processed foods,
prepackaged foods (even if they were given to you on the plane), fruits and
anything else that you may have. If in any doubt at all - go through the red
channel.
Once you have arrived in Australia, we have a few tips
on settling in
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