Moving to Australia

Yep you'll be sweet on your NZ licence. Its only if your here for 3 months or longer you need to change to a QLD.
How long are you here on holidays for??

Nice. Now is a great time to come, as you know. The weather is getting nicer

mummy_becks wrote: Doesn anyone know how it works, do we have to apply for residency? You are entitled to work there as you are NZ citizen, however after 2 years of being there they do ask you to become an Aus resident/citizen

You don't have to become a citizen, you get automatic residency after 2 years of living there. My family have been there since '99, Mum and my sister took up citizenship in '05 coz you have to be a citizen to get Austudy (Student Loans) and Claire was starting uni, and Mum did it just so she could vote seeing as she'd been there so long. Dad is still not an Aus citizen, one brother was born there so is an automatic citizen and the other can't get Aus citizenship as he has a NZ criminal record.

Also, you can only drive on your NZ license there for 3 mths, any longer than that and you have to have a license for the state you are living in. The same goes if you move interstate.

I have no idea about Centrelink stuff, it was my understanding that the 2 year stand down applied to ALL assistance but others have said there are some things that are exempt.

my2angels wrote: I think getting the licence is easy too....you just go into thier AA equivalent and apply...my friends inlaws moved over last week and it was teh first thing they did, easy as..

Its usually done through the state govt's. In QLD its the Dept of Transport and there are branches everywhere in Brisbane/QLD to get your licence changed over.

Yep Emma is right about getting residency after 2 years. Its granted automatically, you dont need to apply. You only need to apply if you want a Special Resident Visa and/or Citizenship for voting and social security (aka Centrelink).

In NSW you have to sit a written test to get your licence if you already have a full NZ licence. I failed it twice

We have just moved back to NZ after living in Melbourne for the last few years. Please feel free to PM me if you want to ask any other questions.

As far as moving over you don't need a VISA or anything. As long as you are a NZ citizen you can live and work overthere no problem.

As far as WFF families you have to be living in Australia for a certain period of time (2 years?) before you can recieve any benefit. You might want to check out the centre link website.

When you get there you will need to get a TFN (Tax File Number) which is like a IRD number. Please note you can start work before you get your number processed but it doesn't take that long to get. A couple of weeks I think?

They have a system called Medicare that anyone can apply for. Its a healthcare subsidy. You will have to pay for your prescription or doctor bill in full and then take you receipt to a Medicare centre to recieve your money back. Kind of a long drawn out process but that is the way its done.

Please remember that you will be making ALOT more money than you are making here so at the end of the day even though your day to day cost may increase your income will increase too. To give you an example I was making $35K more doing the same job in Australia and I had no experience.

If you are working you can pretty much claim everything back in your tax return. Its not like the joke of a tax return we have in NZ. DH and I got $7000 back recently for the last financial year and we only worked half the financial year due to coming back to NZ in December. You can go to an Accountant (it'll cost you about $100) and they'll get money back for your travel expenses and clothes (keep receipts for everything) etc. If you are making more that $50K you'll need to have health insurance. Otherwise you will get taxed at a higher bracket. I guess its just to encourage people to get health insurance. You should have it anyway.

Oh and most of all stock up on Grainwaves, nestle reduced cream and onion soup (for dip), protex soap, nestle scorched almonds, mellowpuffs, pinky bars, girl guide biscuits and pineapple lumps. (Just thinking about everything I had to stock up on whenever we came home )

Oh and most importantly. If you are looking for a similar forum I can reccomend a great one.

I used to get money back every financial year from my tax return.

Where in Aus are you moving to? I'm an Adelaide girl originally but I live in Auckland now because I married a kiwi (seemed like a good idea at the time ).

The only health insurance scheme which has less than 12 months wait on pregnancy care is Latrobe; with them it's 9 months. You have to call them and sign up before you get pregnant, and if you do that you're covered. They're not that expensive either, I used to be with them and was very happy.