# How hard is it to earn money in Australia as an immigrant?



## jm21 (May 4, 2011)

Hi folks,

I live in the US and my fiance is an Australian permanent resident. We are thinking very seriously about moving to Australia in a year or so so that she can finish off getting her citizenship. However, I'm pretty worried about making money over there. I don't want to be stranded in Australia with no income flow. Our savings would only last maybe 6 months. Probably she'd move over first and look for work to ease the burden a bit. 

I'm an attorney here in the US but just a young small town attorney...not much money. Maybe $40-50k/year. Don't really like my job and would be fine giving it up but worried that it may be hard to find work as an immigrant in Australia. Also worried that I may be considered over-qualified for a lot of jobs. 

Crunching numbers, Australia has a very high minimum wage, and even if I could only find a minimum wage job that would be about $30k/year which is not horrible, even given the cost of living is a bit higher in Australia. But how hard is it to get a full time job? My fiance is from Taiwan originally and in 5-6 months there she still could not find a full time position and her engineering degree (she was a software engineer at fortune 500 company) was worthless. Is that pretty common? Or did she suffer a bit extra because she's not a native English speaker?

Any input would be greatly appreciated. I've got a house here that I would rent out and maybe sell eventually that would pretty much be a wash. Student loans but can get a deferment initially or go on the income based retirement if we don't end up making much. The biggest thing would be finding a job once over there.


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## amaslam (Sep 25, 2008)

It's fairly easy to find work here. The unemployment rate is hovering around 5%, if you re-train for the mining and resources industries (I know I know you're going blue collar) you will be pulling 6 figures again (not kidding, truck drivers in mines are pulling that regularly). 



jm21 said:


> Hi folks,
> 
> I live in the US and my fiance is an Australian permanent resident. We are thinking very seriously about moving to Australia in a year or so so that she can finish off getting her citizenship. However, I'm pretty worried about making money over there. I don't want to be stranded in Australia with no income flow. Our savings would only last maybe 6 months. Probably she'd move over first and look for work to ease the burden a bit.
> 
> ...


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## Darla.R (Mar 27, 2011)

amaslam said:


> It's fairly easy to find work here. The unemployment rate is hovering around 5%, if you re-train for the mining and resources industries (I know I know you're going blue collar) you will be pulling 6 figures again (not kidding, truck drivers in mines are pulling that regularly).


They earn shed loads up there. I'd do this myself if I could drive a truck :clap2:


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## stormgal (Sep 30, 2009)

Darla.R said:


> They earn shed loads up there. I'd do this myself if I could drive a truck :clap2:


Oh I know! I was thinking of tagging along as JM21's annoying tomboy kid sister!


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## amaslam (Sep 25, 2008)

If you want eye-popping look up the salaries for marine welders in AU. Not easy nor that safe, but seriously above $250k 



stormgal said:


> Oh I know! I was thinking of tagging along as JM21's annoying tomboy kid sister!


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## jm21 (May 4, 2011)

I don't mind re-training so long as it's not too expensive. Seems like you don't get access to centrelink or TAFE resources as a spouse for the first 2 years? I'm a little tired of investing a lot in education at this point. Not sure I'd be a good truck driver as my eyesight, particularly my night vision, is pretty bad. I do have quite a bit of experience SCUBA diving so marine welder doesn't seem horrible. I'm basically a divorce attorney here and we get killed more than most people think. Talked with a number of older attorneys who got out of the divorce field when they had multiple colleagues murdered by angry husbands within 2-3 weeks of each other. 

I'm willing to do just about anything though and so is my fiance She doesn't like the idea of working where I live as the wages she would get here are a pittance, but was more than willing to work as a dishwasher and meat packer when she was in AUS. I would almost certainly be going blue collar, at least at first. Doesn't seem like many of my credentials would transfer over. 

It's very hard for me to accept that with all the time, money, and effort I invested in my education, the rewards have been rather slim, but I'm slowly accepting it. A very frustrating process to be sure. My best friend took out $60k in student loans, spent several years of his life in college, and the janitors at his work make more than him. Definitely losing faith in the American system. 

Thanks for all the input! Hopefully other will chime in as well.


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## wintermute (Sep 27, 2010)

Seriously seconding the mining / resources thing. I work in an ancillary industry, a company that makes locos for the mines. I was a project coordinator in the UK, here I am just working as a project admin, but making more money. I'm on a 417 WHV so to me this is a career break, working below my skillset doesn't bother me too much. If I decided to get sponsored and stay I'd be making mad bank (until the mining boom dries up!)

Remember, you work to live, not the other way around.


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## amaslam (Sep 25, 2008)

Law never transfers, even between same states in a country it's an ordeal.

The main jobs that transfer well across borders: Finance, Management, Engineering, IT, and Medical (nursing, Dr.s).

The one possibility you have for your law degree is to work in the Foreign law dept. of an AU firm that is large. This is more common for UK lawyers than for others. You can practice US law in those depts, but not AU law. For AU law you'd need to go to school again and go through exams and such.

There are some threads from last year regarding this (do a search for lawyer, solicitor).




jm21 said:


> I don't mind re-training so long as it's not too expensive. Seems like you don't get access to centrelink or TAFE resources as a spouse for the first 2 years? I'm a little tired of investing a lot in education at this point. Not sure I'd be a good truck driver as my eyesight, particularly my night vision, is pretty bad. I do have quite a bit of experience SCUBA diving so marine welder doesn't seem horrible. I'm basically a divorce attorney here and we get killed more than most people think. Talked with a number of older attorneys who got out of the divorce field when they had multiple colleagues murdered by angry husbands within 2-3 weeks of each other.
> 
> I'm willing to do just about anything though and so is my fiance She doesn't like the idea of working where I live as the wages she would get here are a pittance, but was more than willing to work as a dishwasher and meat packer when she was in AUS. I would almost certainly be going blue collar, at least at first. Doesn't seem like many of my credentials would transfer over.
> 
> ...


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## Weebie (Sep 16, 2009)

I wouldn't bother going down the law route to be honest.

Just get a job doing anything. You'll get $20ph easily perhaps maybe even more.


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## lisecnz (Mar 4, 2010)

I agree with all said above and would add that the mining sector is huge in Queensland, Western Australia and Northern Terriorty. With the mining sector, there are plenty of jobs that don't require a specific skill set, especially if you or your finance are looking at office based jobs.

There is also plenty of work for cleaning corporate offices and landscaping, at least in the Queensland area. The best thing to do would be to look at Seek or Careers One and see what jobs are available. I'd also suggest making contact with some recruitement agencies over here and see what they can do for you (it's free) and go from there.

There is definitely plenty of opportunity and with the unemployment rate sitting around 5%, as long as you have a valid visa to work in Australia, you will find work.

Good luck
Lise


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## jm21 (May 4, 2011)

Thank you everyone for the advice!

I wouldn't want to practice law in AUS. One of the reasons to move would be to try some different routes. Not exactly delighted with my chosen field, to put it lightly. 

I found Seek and have browsed through the jobs on there. My fiance sent me a link from there yesterday about some law enforcement jobs [edit: entry-level constable]...pay was pretty good + 7 weeks vacation (which seems insane)....would use my training/education a bit more than most jobs and I could see a lot of the skills transferring back to the US. Don't know how stringent the application process is but the requirements were pretty low. 

She'd like to live near Darwin but seems so damn hot to me....


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