jm01 Posted February 13, 2013 Report Share Posted February 13, 2013 It has taken a long time,maybe too long to have made my disition.I am busy applying for my visa for Oz and hope all goes well.I have read most of the topics and i am using veteran immegrants thoughts and experiances to giude myself throught the steps.I am using migration 4 us to assist with paperwork and the application prosess.Still there is quite a bit of other things to do and structure like selling a bussiness,keeping houses and property in my trust or sell everything and start over.Shipping my furniture abroad or buy everything once i am there.The biggest issue would be buying property there.It seems like i will have to sell 3 Standard size homes here to buy 1 there.No that i have decided the future of me,my wife and my 2 year old son i would like to have your imput and experiances you had and currently have to make sure i am going about the correct way.I think it is human to expect the worst and prepare for it,witch is not always a bad thing.Seeing South Africa go backwards the way it does and not being aible to do anything about it realy is painful.I am sure that all of you that read this feel the same way and might be thinking what life would be like if you stayed.Believe me,you are missing nothing.Watching Carte Blanch every Sunday evening makes you realise how ridiccoulos our situation has become.Its almost like a naughty child,you know you are not supposed to do it,but you are doing it anyway.It would be great to meet or chat with a couple of people that was in my position,to maybe get a better knowledge of what to do and what works.By now at least i have learned to keep everything a secret and rather have the bomb explode at the very end.Some of my office staff learnt about my idea to leave SA and wanted to look for other work straight away.Seems like i will have to nurse everybody into the thought at the end.What advice could you give me for the next 100 steps leading to my departure.I will appreciate each and everyones input and ideas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GideonVD Posted February 13, 2013 Report Share Posted February 13, 2013 Welcome and good luck. You've come to the right place. The search function is a wonderful tool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jm01 Posted February 13, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2013 Thanx,now all i need is some advice and guidance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HadEnoughofJuju Posted February 13, 2013 Report Share Posted February 13, 2013 (edited) Hi jm01, welcome to the forum and good luck with the rest of the process. It is a mine field of new experiences and it will test and stretch you character further than ever before but once you have that visa and are on your way you will realise that it is all worth the trouble and inconvenience of leaving everything behind. I would be inclined to sell everything and start over again in Australia, look at the exchange rate and where it's going. If you hang on to property now in 5 to 10 years from now even if you do sell at a profit that profit will get eaten up but the loss against exchange rate, but that's just a personal opinion though and easy for someone who doesn't have much to get rid of. We have decided to ship all our goodies over with us so that we at least have a piece of familiarity in Australia. Replacing things there is expensive especially if you like solid wood furniture.Read this post you might find it useful completing those 100 steps. http://www.saaustralia.org/index.php/topic/9251-the-100-step-process-to-immigrating-to-australia-from-south-africa/If you want to meet people there is a section of the forum called Coffee Clubs where you can arrange meets, we attended a few ourselves and it was really nice to meet people in the same boat as us, we have even made some really good friends through this process. Edited February 13, 2013 by HadEnoughofJuju Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HadEnoughofJuju Posted February 13, 2013 Report Share Posted February 13, 2013 P.S. You will find many of the answers you are looking for on this forum you just need to search and read and read some more. There are many people who have gone through the process and no 2 stories are the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jordy Posted February 13, 2013 Report Share Posted February 13, 2013 (edited) For the next 100 steps read the thread HEOJJ refers to above called "100 steps...."As for keeping your property in a trust...why would you want to retain any property in RSA? As a back door or in case you return? Certainly not for investment purposes. You mention that you need to sell 3 standard houses to buy one Aus house - thats due to the pathetic Rand. When we came over it was R7/$1. Now approaching R10/$1. And its going downhill all the time. In ten years I would hate to think what it will be. Also managing property from another country is a nightmare. So I would advise you to sell up lock stock and barrel and shift all cash over. Edited February 13, 2013 by Mara Just to add we got R2,40/$1 19 years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jm01 Posted February 13, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2013 Thanx,I thought of it in the same way. I think deep inside there is a little voice telling me that the rand will gain strength.maybe that's Zuma comming up with another one of his great speeches or just great adiocy.i will have to have a chat with the book keeper to see what I must do.anybody ever broke a trust to take the money abroad?i guess my biggest issue will have to be getting rid of the business,stock and tools at a fair price.my bookkeeper is a trustee that can manage the rent and selling off the houses at a market related price so that no hasty desitions is made at a loss.Thanx for the input.anyone else?Pardon my spelling,I am Afrikaans and my English spelling is like the sa goverment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tisha Posted February 14, 2013 Report Share Posted February 14, 2013 Hi jm01 Best wishes for the hard work that lies ahead. My advice would be to make to-do lists and update them regularly and read, read... read! There are tons of great advice given by many people who either are or who were in the same situation as we are now, you just have to take the time and sift through all the info. When it comes to shipping your belongings or selling it, there really is no right or wrong answers as it just boils down to your personal preferences, and what will work best for you. So don't frett, either way its going to cost you a arm and a leg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GideonVD Posted February 14, 2013 Report Share Posted February 14, 2013 As for keeping your property in a trust...why would you want to retain any property in RSA? As a back door or in case you return? Certainly not for investment purposes. We might keep ours just to be able to re-coop what we have invested in the place, I don't like selling things for a loss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HadEnoughofJuju Posted February 14, 2013 Report Share Posted February 14, 2013 We might keep ours just to be able to re-coop what we have invested in the place, I don't like selling things for a loss.With the way the exchange rate is going you may end up loosing far more in foreign exchange when you do sell it. We were fortunate enough to have bought at the right time and find a buyer willing to pay our price for the house. I have read so many horror stories of people keeping house, moving to Australia and trying to sell 2/3 years down the line and having to take huge losses because the tenants didn't look after the place and repairs that needed doing. Not sure which is worse, loosing money because of damage or loosing money because of an ever declining rand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goFly Posted February 14, 2013 Report Share Posted February 14, 2013 Pardon my spelling,I am Afrikaans and my English spelling is like the sa goverment.Geez, don't be so hard on yourself, your spelling isn't THAT bad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MandC Posted February 14, 2013 Report Share Posted February 14, 2013 Geez, don't be so hard on yourself, your spelling isn't THAT bad Agreed.I have to say, I also have to use the spellchecker more than I would like to. The curse of being a boertjie....I did pass IELTS though, so it can't be all bad... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HadEnoughofJuju Posted February 14, 2013 Report Share Posted February 14, 2013 Agreed.I have to say, I also have to use the spellchecker more than I would like to. The curse of being a boertjie....I did pass IELTS though, so it can't be all bad...Use Google Chrome, it has a built in spell checker, I even found an Afrikaans dictionary and installed it, works like a bomb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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