Just want to say that the requirement to only work and stay in the sponsoring state is only a moral obligation. I don't want to encourage anyone to break the obligation but just sharing my own experience on a 190 visa sponsored by NSW and never having worked or stayed in NSW.

Been 3 years so far, no issues. People say there may be issues with citizenship later but we'll see.

you can enter at the last day of your visa validity....and stay on.....just don't leave until you are eligible for a rrv....

As far as i know, they keep giving you a 1 year RRV but you must satisfy them on why you cannot meet their 2 years out of 5 stay. While on a 1 year rrv visa, they will monitor how long you have stayed in the preceding 5 years - if they are not satisfied that you are serious about staying 2 out of 5 years, they will not grant you any further 1 year RRV - this will in effect mean that you will be forced to stay in Aust until you have fulfilled the 2/5 requirement. When you reflect on this, it means the govt want you to spend at least 40% of your time in Aust.

Guys,... I'm just tapping your opinions here,... would it be a plus if your parents sent you here earlier, say you did your Middle School here ?

YOu would then have had a lot of time to assimilate into the society, and would have made your networks there,...

How will doing high school in Oz help with the points?....

Definitely agree that another 0.25% cut is coming in the next few months but the Aussie has been very resilent at the US67c support level. I have quite a lot of my investments in International shares (it is performing very well as the Aussie falls) but i also have a defined benefit super in mostly Aussie assets (about 60% of my portfolio) which is locked in until i retire. I have been hedging against a falling Aussie dollar by buying the Magellan etf (ASX code: USD) as i always felt that the Aussie will fall to around US65c.

There are a lot of retirees in Sydney (i know a few myself) who will never invest in equities and would only put their money in term deposits - they are currently suffering due to the low interest rates but i just cannot understand their mindset by investing so conservatively!! I have a very aggressive attitude by nature and even if i retire, my portfolio would still be fairly aggressive. I always believe if you have a good basket of stocks, even if it drops sharply, it will eventually go back up to their previous levels. That is why it is a good policy not to gear yourself too highly.

All my Malaysian retiree friends (living in Aust) are very careful with their spending esp the richer ones. All of them have children and i can understand they would like to leave some kind of legacy for their offsprings. This is just typical of our Chinese heritage. Eventhough my income is quite considerable, my wife and i are still quite frugal - we have grown up with that kind of mindset!! We only spoil ourselves with the occasional restaurant meal (a bit more often nowadays as i get closer to retirement). In Sydney, i still drive an older model Honda CRV (belonged to my sister since new and she gave it to me when she retired 8 years ago). My wife and i are so used to being thrifty and we quite enjoy a simpler lifestyle. My wife is now planning our future overseas holidays (when i retire) and even then, we are quite careful that we do not overspend unnecessarily.

It is now nearly bedtime for me (9.15pm Sydney time) so it is time for me to say good night.

Hey guys.

I have a question here, hopefully some one can help regarding the ATO statement below.   

Becoming an Australian resident
When you become an Australian resident (other than a temporary resident), you're taken to have acquired certain assets at the time you became a resident for their market value at that time.
Taken from ATO website LINK

I got my PR early this year but the thing is I have several properties back in Malaysia. Reading the ATO website, it says that we become a resident based on the market value of the properties at the time we got the PR if my understanding is correct.

So I assume, we will have to get a property valuation, am I right?  I've been here for about 6 months now so is it too late to get the property valuation now? Is there a timeframe on when we have to get the valuation?

can anyone advice on this matter?

Is it game over now for IT professionals looking to migrate to australia?

Thanks dude.

I already have a Aussie mobile number that works. No problem working in jobs not related; have always kept an open mind with regards to that as I anticipated the initial difficulty.

Monetary problems mostly. Family here is not very helpful; I'm 1 of the 2 people in this household who has fixed income and with all the stuff to take care of, it's impossible to save anything because people here are selfish.

While I have doubts with Aus education, I really disliked the education in Msia - been a crap student all my life and it'll only get you so far if you do not have any additional motivation. Memorizing stuff and regurgitating it out during exams is not my idea of learning. I think as long we raise the kids right they'll have a good mix of our old Msian and Western values. The rest is probably for them to discover by themselves. At least they won't get all the caning I received in school/home 

Hello good gentlemen. Could someone kindly give their estimate that would greatly help me and others. For people who are earning the following salaries in Malaysia:
A: RM 60,000 annual
B: RM 120,000 annual
C: RM 180,000 annual
D: RM 240,000 annual

How much equivalent AUD salary should they expect if they migrate to AUS with the same or better comfort level in life?
Note that their plan is to move to Melb/Syd and stay there till old. Not earn AUD and convert back to MYR. So please avoid the stronger currency justification. As you can see, some of they have earned decent living in KL, they do not plan to restart career from lower level in AU.

Objective: avoiding recruitment lowballer.

Just want to ask, is it ridiclous for malaysian to apply for jobs in australia via seek.com.au? i mean what are the chances to get hired? lets say one got so lucky to be selected, the company there gonna provide a working visa for him or her? anyone care to advise?

With the current political situation, I expect to see renewed interests in this thread....lol

I initially planned to go back to KL next week (tickets all booked) for 2 months and now i am cancelling all travel plans for the next 6 months. Best not to go anywhere.

I was initially planning to retire end of this year and now so many things happening (sharemarkets dropping), i might put off my retirement until things settle down a bit. I have been doing a lot research into the retirement life (for retirees in Msia) and it appears a good proportion of retirees (couples) in Msia survive with less than rm5k/mth. This is a real shock to me!! Aust has old-aged pension so not having so much retirement assets is not so much of a concern (when we get older). Also, you got Medicare to fall back on as well if you don't have private health insurance. In Msia, there is no safety net so we have to be extra careful with our retirement assets (cannot take so much risks like what i have been currently doing).

Sorry to bore you guys with my retirement talk!! People my age all only talk about our retirement issues.

What is a semi gov hospital?

Interesting, is this what the UM hospital is as well? I've always been told they were semi government hospitals.

When i started out in this forum (Jul 2017), i came to LYN to find out the cost of living in KL so naturally threads regarding cost of living really interested me.

I have been back to KL for quite a few times in the past 3 years each time staying about 5-7 weeks. I wrote down everything i spent while in KL but obviously we tend to spend more when we are on holidays and it is quite difficult to judge how much i will need without actually living there. I saw a lot of old people in KL with hardly any savings - shit!! This reqlly scared me as in Aust, we can fall back on the aged-pension. Also, i can see some of my relatives struggling financially (aged in the 70s) and i realise that they will probably expect me to help out as i am financially a lot better. In Aust, there is so much govt welfare relatives usually don't need help from each other. I became a bit insecure (financially) after seeing so many people struggling in KL (esp since i will probably lose my PR as i probably cannot meet the 2/5 years stay requirement). I do not want to end up like these people. Due to this insecurity, i find that it is probably better if i work longer so that there will be a bigger buffer if anything goes wrong in later years.

Good to hear your opinion. Thanks.

Quite ironically I've encountered more racism in Bankstown, with a heavy migrant population. Can't tell accurately where they're from but I'm assuming they're Lebanese due to the heavy population in the area. Few have called me 'Chink' and the other was when myself/wife were checking out a property for sale board - some lady with her kids a the nearby playground said "damn Chinese are here to buy all our houses". Should've said I was here for the whole block and thrown monopoly money into the air. Another 2 incidents were by younger white teenage girls in CBD trying to intimidate me and then leaving when they achieved nothing.

In Msia its a different dynamic: we have veiled racism that's more malicious and the everyday racism. I think now with the newly formed government cabinet, the effects will be slightly worse than before - especially the hardliners who believe it should be this way. As I am quite paranoid whenever in Msia (or scarier suburbs here), I tend to take notice of people's behaviour and you will see this in certain people. I don't think humans will reach a state of discrimination free co-existence in my lifetime.

I guess when converting AUD to MYR one can survive a lot longer and more comfortable. Standard of living in Msia isn't much cheaper either near PJ, my typical chicken/pork rice has increased in price its easily double of when I started buying from them 6-7 years ago.  Most of the shops I used to enjoy are now charging higher price for below average quality. Plus traffic and public transport is still unbearable to me - not the best in Sydney but it feels so much more reliable and consistent. Constantly allocating at least an hour to wait for a bus is far from user friendly. I would be quite happy to be a citizen elsewhere once all ties and family in Msia are no longer present.