Advice on moving to Sydney

Hi

Are you thinking of  immigrating to Australia? (or immigrating to any country for that matter)

Here is some advice on moving or immigrating to Sydney from someone who has moved to Sydney, but also has moved country many times - and this with family in tow.

Actually this advice applies to anyone immigrating from any country to any other country.

There is a very very very large chance it will fail - either due to lack of work, spouse or children being unhappy.

I have met some families where the mother cant speak any English and due to this afraid to let her 15 year old daughter out the house. The kid is practically a prisoner in a foreign country with no friends. Whenever the mothers goes out to shop or whatever the daughter is used as the interpreter and help and support crutch. Its no ideal. I am not judging but it can be horrendous for the children.

This is a highly complex issue and we are highly complex beings whose well-being is formed by things like attitude, values, friends, familiar places, shops, religion, family, money, climate(yes really)

Don't burn your bridges. Don't spend all your money. Don't sell your house, parrot, boat, whatever :)

Put it in storage with your family or just pay for storage.

Go to your new destination with eyes wide open.

It WILL be a holiday for the first six months - after that not so much, no friends, - just getting a pair of jeans or other item that fits and is to your taste is an issue.

Take at least a year maybe two before your pull all your assets over to your new country.

Go cheap, rent cheap, (close your eyes at the crappy rental house, and shabby carpets) - have cash left over to use for travel, weekend trips, do spoil your family.

You will need cash for a car or two. Especially if you have family.

If you are from the upper class in some other country - scale it down and be very prepared to scale it down. You need to drop down a level in order to start again.

You wont succeed if your family is unhappy. (did I mention that)

Make a 250 percent effort to spoil and cherish your spouse and children. Burn your assets on this for years - Remember, a house does not make your family happy - doing things, getting out, events, parties, clubs, learning activities, some sort of friendship network - this makes adults and children happy.

Send your family home - one, two or all for long holidays, don't mind if the holidays overrun the Australian school terms. Let them recharge, make it happen, think out the box.

I recently enjoyed the opportunity to work in another country (I left Sydney for two years) and now that we are to go back to Sydney its a frightening situation.

Money is tight in Sydney- things are very expensive -especially rentals. The feeling in the family is one of dread. Everything was under a budget.

If you have some cash, and buy a property, that's a good option as rentals in Sydney are very high and normally eat up a large chunk of the income.

Sydney is a great place don't get me wrong, its safe comparatively, has a fairly good infrastructure and schooling. But nothing is good if its too expensive to go out or you have no family or friends to share your experiences with.

A lot of people have posted on how hard they have found it to get a job in Sydney. They wasted large amounts of money moving, immigrating buying furniture and cars. Some people did all this and ran out of cash after some period - One commenter (on this blog) looked for six months and he was highly qualified - and still did not find work - not even an interview.


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