Hi everyone,

In July 2008, just for fun, I decided to move from the south of France to London. It was hard, I had just finished studying, had absolutely no money, but I managed to find a good job, after eating pasta for about 2 months.

A bit over a year down the line, I'm settled in pretty nicely, been traveling a lot for work, and all in all, it's been an absolute blast.

Thursday, I got a phone call from my bosses, and they asked me if I'd be interested in relocating to Australia in order to take the lead on one of our projects, rather than hiring someone over there. Of course, having no real attachments here (no family, kids or wife), I was very happy to say yes. There's going to be a lot of negotiation with regards to salary, and relocation packages and such, but I was hoping if there was someone who went through the same thing, roughly, who could maybe share their experience.

I've looked into visas, and there are two that come to mind. The first one was the "Working Holiday" visa, but sadly, that requires me to change employers after 6 months, which is a big no no. The other one is the Temporary Business (Long Stay) visa, which would allow me to stay up to 4 years, with the same employer. This seems to me like it's a winner.

The timeline is pretty short. My company would, ideally, like to see me there begin or mid-January. In the meantime, I have to spend a month in California (not the subject of discussion, I'm used to going there) for training, and there's the Christmas holidays as well, which would be a good opportunity to say a big goodbye to my dear Europeans.

A few questions for any possible locals or expats:

• Do you know of any good moving company from London to Brisbane?
  I don't have very much. A sound system, PS3, and the rest will be mainly clothes. So in total, I'm expecting just a few boxes. I know this is counted in cubic meters, so I'll have to see how much I have to pack and such.
  
• I'm young, 23, and I like to go out. Which area of Brisbane would you recommend?
  I read and saw that Fortitude Valley is nice, however, I'm also an avid cyclist, thus being able to go to some tracks or hills is a bonus.
  
• Are there companies that can take care of all the paperwork in my stead, with regards to the visa?
  
• I'll get temporary accommodation for the first few weeks (part of negotiation), how long would be the minimum?
  I need to take care of finding transport (cheap car or bike), or alternative ways, such as public transport. Is that any good in Brisbane? I also need to find a flat. How long does it usually take to find a place?
  
• If I don't have a place before my stuff arrives from the UK, I'll need to get a storage unit. Anyone have any recommendations on this as well?

I know those are quite vague and I'm a bit all over the place, so thanks for reading.

-S.[/list]

 

I sure did, I'm right there as I'm writing this. However, I've decided to resign and am moving back to the south of France. Mainly for personal reasons, but also because the job wasn't as good as I expected.

I used Allied Pickfords for the moving company. It was recommended to me by a friend as one of the cheapest from the UK (he moved from the UK to NZ a few months earlier). They had a very good service, were able to collect my stuff on very short notice (24h), and the pricing was very competitive. The ship arrived in Brisbane on Saturday, and I'm waiting for customs to let it through, inspection and everything. A few days before arrival, a local person from Allied Pickfords contacted me and will assist me for the delivery of my stuff at the address of my choice.

My company contracted with a lawfirm that specialises in immigration. The lawyer filled in all the paperwork for me, I just had to spend an hour or two answering his questions. Nothing easier really. The visa came through early February. Knowing that the whole process was started in late Decembre, that seems pretty reasonable. I visited Brisbane before getting my long-term visa under a temporary business visa which permits 3 month visits, as long as you are not performing any ongoing work (ie: work the job you'll be doing later on). Also, under that visa you're not allowed to rent houses or flats, open bank accounts. The work I did was pretty close to ongoing, but that's easily disputable ("I was getting trained to do my job, not performing my job") -- it's a fine line to walk however. As long as there is no inspection I guess you'd be fine though. If I remember correctly the temporary visa permits up to 6 weeks of work every 3 months. This should mainly be for seminars, conferences and consultancy. Something that the Aussie government qualifies as "not actual work".

I visited some flats in the area. The average price for nice 1 bedroom appartments is roughly $500 per week (Australian dollars). That's slap bam in the middle of the city, in the trendy areas. You can get cheaper things, around $400 without too many problems and still remain in the city. Around $300 per week, you'll be either getting crappy quality, or have to move around a bit.

There's one important difference. In the UK, you can pretty much rent anything you want as long as you keep up the payments, and have a relatively good credit history. In Oz -- at least in Queensland -- they will ask for your salary, calculate taxes, and divide that number by 3. Let's take an example: $120k yearly, or $2.5k a week before tax, so roughly $1700 after tax. Divide it up by 3, and the max I'm allowed to apply for is $550 per week. If I apply for anything above that, I'll get my application denied very quickly. They don't care if it means you won't need a car nor pay any kind of transport, if it's more than a third of your net income, you won't get it.

Nearly all (if not all) the real estate companies display the available units on a single website: http://www.realestate.com.au
This makes things a bit easier, as you can easily find things across all market segments. I found that the quality of the adverts is pretty bad altogether (horrendous pictures, little information about size and location or furnishing), so sometimes you think you like something and when you get there you're just disgusted.

The way it works in Brissie is that the real-estate agent will book a specific time and day for visits. Everyone who is interested in the unit has to go and visit at the same time, so you directly see your competition. Once you've visited, if you like it, you need to submit an application (which is usually a double-sided piece of paper, 2-3 forms of ID, gas and electricity bills, etc). On average you'll be competing with 10 other applicants per visit. It's a very frustrating way of doing things, let me tell you that. As a foreigner, you most likely don't have half of the information they ask for, so you need to bid higher than the list price to remain in the competition.

Getting accomodation is a pretty painful process. If you can, do flatsharing with some friends, it will make it a lot cheaper and easier.

Brisbane is a very nice city for people who have or want a social life. The night scene is very active, animations and things to do are aplenty, and overall it really feels like a very dynamic city.