Moving to Australia - Part 2

Last week I uploaded 'Moving to Australia - Part 1' which included everything you needed to know before making the move to Australia. This week I'm going to cover everything you need to do once you arrive from opening a bank account to finding a place to stay. Here's everything you need to know!

* Again this is just my experience and everything that I've done so I'm sorry if I missed anything!

1. Australian Bank Account

This is such an easy and quick process. There's obviously lots of different banks you can sign up to but we were recommended Common Wealth Bank so that's what we went with.

There's three things you need when signing up to a bank.

1. Passport

2. Visa details

3. Address to have your card sent to. This doesn't have to be your permanent address, if you're eager to get your bank set up straight away you can easily get your card sent to a friends address and then change the address at a later date on the online banking app.

2. Australian Phone Number

Also very easy. Me and Jake did this one morning in a matter of minutes. We signed up with Vodafone. Again, there's lots of other networks but this price plan suited us the best.

All you need for setting up an Australian number is your photo ID and a bank account (we just set it up with our English bank account and changed it later).

3. Find a Permanent Place to Stay

This process is equally as stressful as it is exciting.

There's so many websites you can find places to rent in Australia which I will list below. Before that, you need to know that you WILL find somewhere. When we arrived I started stressing straight away, I was worried we were never going to find a place but everyone I spoke to said they felt the same. Everything will work out!

Websites to rent in Oz:

- Domain

- Homely

- Irish Around Sydney (Facebook group) - this is your holey grail! We found our apartment here, which I never thought we would. Just ask to join the group on Facebook, it's brilliant for finding anything second hand cars, furniture, events going on, football teams looking for players...

The most popular places to live are Coogee and Bondi but the only way to find out where you like is by visiting these places yourself.

4. Apply for a Tax Number

Please do not make the mistake my boyfriend made and apply on a dodgey website where they charge you $80. All you have to do is apply on the Government website - click here.

It's free and only takes a few minutes.

5. Find a Job

Now, the part I've gotten the most questions about on Instagram.

Seek is going to be your new best friend once you're ready to get a new job. I recommend you enjoy your time in Oz for at least 2 weeks (or longer) before you go looking for a job.

It really depends what you want to do, I'm working in an office environment so Seek was ideal for me. All you need to do is set up a profile with all your experience and skills and from there applying for jobs is just a one click process.

I applied to hundreds of jobs before even getting a response but keep applying! It takes time but do not get disheartened.

You can sign up to recruitment agencies as well which is great if you want to do some temp work to get your feet on the ground.

If your looking for something in hospitality I recommend emailing the cafe/bar/restaurant yourself and express your interest directly or better, call into them and hand your CV in personally.

I hope this is helpful for anyone who's moved over or thinking of moving over. I'm going to do another post soon on my most asked questions about moving which I think will be really helpful for a lot of you.

Besos,

Zoë Elizabeth