Ah Mate!

Don't know how old you are but I was 37 when we decided it was time to take the family overseas for what I expected would be 2 years. Daughters were 9 & 12 when we moved Down Under. (Start to finish it took 10 months to get a work visa in 2007)

I wrote my epic novel on things you need to consider here:
https://texags.com/forums/56/topics/3116157

I originally wrote that during early California Covid so I'll re-read it and see if I've got anything else to add now that I'm safely wedged into Texas for the rest of my life.

On re-read, given the fact that we're in a US Election year, expect to get a lot of questions about US Politics. Either about Donald Trump should he get elected or Kamala Harris should she get elected. Foreigners will be curious either way.

I went to Austria in 2003 and moved to Australia in 2007. In both situations, I got lots of questions about George Bush and the war in Iraq.

Otherwise, I can't emphasize enough that you need a plan for how you're getting in - work, school, funding, etc. And also a plan (ironically since I just mentioned the US invasion of Iraq) you need a plan for how and when you're getting out.

Lastly, you need to be committed to the cause. I've seen a lot of Americans go overseas (both to Saudi Arabia and even to Australia) and they don't last a year. First sign of difficulty and they're gone.

I had an American girl in my office in Sydney who couldn't deal and among her complaints were the fact that they didn't have items she was used to like - Crest toothpaste. I really had to keep from laughing on that one.

Another American guy struggled and was gone from Sydney after 10 months because he wasn't committed to building relationships. He expected things to be much more transactional. You put a good business value proposal in front of the customer, they spend a few million dollars with you. And that's not how the Australian culture works. They're not obsessed with the bottom line the way US corporations are.

I was successful in stopping one guy from transferring to Sydney (from our office in KC, MO) once I explained to him that he wouldn't be able to bring his Honda Odyssey mini-van. That was the deal breaker for him. Also, there was the bit about paying $5,000/yr per child for his 5 kids to attend the public school. So he was starting out $25,000 (after tax dollars) in the hole every year as an expat.

You're welcome.
No, I'm not there any longer. I pulled the pin on Australia in January 2020 and moved back to my house in California.
In mid-late 2023, I sold out of California and moved to Galveston.

I've live abroad with my family for about 5 years now… won't be forever but we've loved it. What I will say is if you do it, plan to do it for longer than a year or 2 especially if you have a family. Living and working abroad with a family is so much different than doing it as a student. Work for you and school for the kids is generally the same grind as the States. You won't have near the time you probably think you will in your head to travel, explore, or drink wine in cafes as you probably have in your head. I can tell you at this point we've gotten our travels and enjoying our locale in where when we leave, my itch will feel scratched. No way that would have been the case 3 years ago though.

And as HollywoodBQ says (seen his writing on all of this in the past and he's got great tips and commentary on this), you have to really think through the financial implications to all of it. Localizing in another place is a big deal. Healthcare, retirement accounts etc etc all work differently in different locations. Don't think about just the short term implications but also what the long term implications are. Even small things you don't think about like you don't have a credit history outside of the US initially costs you for example.

CanyonAg77 said:

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Curious about the $5000 per child for school. Do Australians pay that, or was that just a fee for immigrants?

I wont derail with a discussion as to how that differs vs the US and immigrants both legal and illegal, but it is interesting

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It is just for immigrants on a work visa.

The Australian attitude is:

• You're not going to stay here so why should we pay for your education?
• You haven't paid into the system your whole life even though you're paying now so you've got some catching up to do.

Once you gain Permanent Residency (think Green Card), then the $5,000 per child per year goes away.

The other factor (which is what led me to fully Private for my kids) is that they have a Magnet type school system called "Selective Schools" where the kids are tested in Year 5 (5th Grade) as to whether they're going to be admitted to the top public High Schools with the other smart kids (who are mostly Chinese and Indonesian). Note that in Australia, High School is Years 7-12.

One of the caveats for the Selective School system is that you must already be a Permanent Resident before your kid is in Year 5. So both of my girls missed the cutoff and I wound up paying about $250,000 for them to go to Private High School and get a great education versus being left to fend for themselves with the kids whose only ambition in life is to go surfing and finish up at the local RSL Club to knock back a few tinnies or schooners at the end of the week - because all the best students had already been siphoned off of the top of the local school.

As a "temporary resident" on a work visa, one other minor deal was that my children couldn't ride public transport for free so I had to buy them a bus pass. In Sydney, they don't have school busses, the students just ride the regular busses or trains or ferries as needed. One funny thing is that students - since they're riding for free - are supposed to get up and surrender their seat if an adult boards the bus and wants to sit down. And remarkably, they do with very little friction.

EDIT: Looks like the fees have gone up to $6,000 for Primary School (K-6) and $7,000 for High School (7-12) and rising again for 2025.
https://www.deinternational.nsw.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0013/16402/16402-Education-Fees.pdf

One other thing I forgot to add was that I had to bring a letter signed off by the New South Wales Department of Training & Education that showed that my children were eligible to enroll in school in Australia and that I had paid the fees for them upfront for the whole year. Only after that was the Registrar allowed to speak with them about enrollment.

Yeah, I had forgotten about some of those details.

Can you imagine if they tried to make H-1B visa holders, and/or illegals pay $5,000/yr per student to attend our American public schools? Anyway - we can save that whole discussion for the Politics Board.

But bottom line - yes, Australia discriminates against immigrants and not just Africans, Vietnamese and Iraqis, they discriminate against Americans too.

I spent a couple of years in China on a corporate expat assignment. It was a great experience, both culturally and financially. They had a couple of really good international schools where i was living (a US school and a Canadian school). Learned to speak Mandarin reasonably well - you learn a lot quicker when most of the population doesn't speak English.

I'm married to a Thai woman, so we spend a couple months a year in Thailand. I haven't stayed there longer than 2 months at any given time, but it still feels like a pseudo-expat experience due to having property, family, and friends there. We'll be increasing our stays to ~6 months/year once I retire in the next 6-8 years.

Just my opinion, but I recommend choosing a non-western country that has a non-english native language so that you and your family can have a more interesting cultural experience and pick up a new language.