Australian E3 visa

Silverdragon102, BSN · Oct 13, 2009

Hopefully ghillbert will see this as they are in the US on a E3 visa

allnurses Guide · Oct 13, 2009

Nothing to do with the temporary nature of the visa, but of course there are credit issues as you won't have any as a newcomer. Most places will take a deposit in lieu of credit history. I just got a letter from Sprint that my deposit is being returned after 1.5yrs of good payment history. I did not try to get a car loan, I just bought an older car for cash. Most contracts for phone, cable etc are for 1-2 years, so it works fine with the 2yr visa.

I don't have kids so I can't comment on that. Whether you're classed as an international student will depend on the university's rules. Sometimes you need to have been resident in-state for a certain period of time, sometimes you need a PR visa. It's usually on the uni website.

Health care fees via an employer's healthcare group plan are the same for everyone. The hassle is finding the dentist, doctor, etc.

space woman · Oct 15, 2009

Many thanks for your response!

Glad you got your deposit back hope it was worth waiting for!

Mainly as a warning to others coming to Australia...

Be aware that moving to Australia on a temporary Visa can mean many restrictions; I know as me and my family migrated to Australia through this method.

We have 5 kids and one on the way so if there is a restriction we find it affects one of the members of the family. Here as you may know there is 'Centerlink'; if you have kids you are entitled to many benifits even if you have a resonable wage, we couldn't get any help until we had permanant residency (We came with enough money for this to not be a problem but some people come from poor countries and aren't just here for experience and they have no saftey net).

We also found that to get reduced college fees my eldest son wasn't entitled to help until we had had our perminant residency for two years.

Also we only had emergency health cover on our temp. Visa (not a problem at the time but you never know what may happen).

We couldn't sign to get a mobile phone contract because of our Visa. We had perfect credit history in England but that didn't count. We had to just buy new SIM cards for our old phones!

Buying a house is also not so simple on a temp. Visa, things such as the first home owners grant that is avalible to others isn't given on a temp visa.

I think this is all fair if you come to a new country but if you plan to stay any lengh of time on a temp. Visa then you need to be careful; that was my worry on the E3 for the US.

allnurses Guide · Oct 16, 2009

To be fair, there should be restrictions on almost all the things you mentioned for people visiting on temporary visa - I know you said you think it's fair, but you don't sound like you think so...

- Child benefits: if you haven't been paying into the system and just arrived, why would anyone able to access social security benefits or reduced college fees (or think they would be able to)? Why emigrate if you can't support your children?

- Likewise with health cover - you get FREE limited health cover on temporary visa in Australia which you do NOT get in the US. You are of course welcome to purchase affordable comprehensive private health insurance at any time in Australia, which you cannot do in the US (affordably) unless you are on an employer group health plan.

- Why, if you haven't been an Australian tax payer, would you be able to receive the first home owner's grant? As a matter of a fact, due to technicalities I did not qualify, although I paid taxes for the last 20 years there.

Totally agree that it is a good idea to research these things before you get there and realize it's more difficult than you thought!