Brisbane Bound Singaporean with Questions



G'day Nix,

first of all, I'm sure you have received a lot of acknowledgements for having your blog set up for the rest of us to benefit, but here I am saying kudos for having that site up and running since like forever. Or in simpler terms, thanks a lot for the site!

A little bit about me:
I'm a 35-year old Singaporean married to an Australian for the past 3.5 years. I was born and bred in Singapore, did my national service and reservist and am comfortably working in a German shipping company here. The lack of personal space and the state of things (controlling government and seeing old people working to death) here basically were the push factors for me to leave Singapore.

Also, having been living in Singapore as a PR for the last 3 years, my wife has decided that we should move back to Australia and start a family. I lost my mom last year in April to terminal cancer, and ever since then I no longer have any immediate family members holding me back in Singapore. Dad died when I was 12, and my younger brother is getting married to a local Singaporean this year and will be having his own family.

So back in August last year, I finally started the process of getting the partner visa, and in December, I got the Permanent Partner visa (subclass 100). I was quite surprised at how easy it seemed for me to get the permanent visa, but then again, I had been married for more than 3 years and had the supporting proof of it. Needless to say, the whole paperwork exercise was time-consuming but hey, in the end it was worth it.

So now the dilemma for me is to basically try to get a job in Australia in order to provide for my family (me and wife). It is kind of difficult to leave a well-paying job for an uncertain future but I am dead set on making this work, no matter how scary it is.

I'm in the shipping industry, and you know Singapore is the major shipping hub of the world, and almost all the jobs are here. But I'm also looking at becoming a tradie or even doing something totally not related to my work experience in Singapore. I love carpentry and gardening, all those hands-on stuff, and am even looking at going back to school to get a diploma/degree in physiotherapy.

We are looking at settling down in Brisbane, simply because that's where most of my wife's family is from. It would be great if you have some contacts there for me to get in touch with, just to have a more intimate knowledge of the job prospects as well as living in Brisbane.

Also, just some questions I hope you can enlighten me:

1. As a holder of the permanent partner visa, I am allowed to live and work in Australia without any conditions. Does this mean I am technically a Permanent Resident of Australia now? And as such, I have access to Centerlink and the other social services?

2. I surfed online previously and found out that it was very difficult for holders of the temporary partner visa (subclass 309) to get a job, simply because they were on the temporary visa. Would I as a permanent visa holder, face the same dilemma? The optimist in me says otherwise!

3. In the event that we finally make the move (planning for 2nd half of this year), what's your advice? Do we firstly find a place to rent in Brisbane, and start looking for jobs if by then I still have no offers? Or crash at my in-laws place up in Rockhampton and continue my job search from there?

4. I currently have a HDB flat in Singapore, and obviously I have not met the min 5-years period in order to sell it. As such, my plan is to rent the whole place out and get it to pay itself (the HDB loan) till the 5-years is over and I can sell it off. By then, I would be able to apply for citizenship in Australia, and all going well, I can collect my CPF money then. It seemed very straight-forward, or am I missing something? 

5. So once I'm living and working in Australia, I will be paying the taxes in Australia. How about the taxes in Singapore? I'm guessing I still have to pay the property tax for my flat. But since I'm not working in Singapore, there's no income tax to be paid right?

I know this is a very long-winded email coming from a total stranger, but in any case, I hope to hear from you soon!

Best,
Shafiq



Hi Shafiq,


Sorry to hear about your parents' departure.


My answers to your questions,


1. As a holder of the permanent partner visa, I am allowed to live and work in Australia without any conditions. Does this mean I am technically a Permanent Resident of Australia now? And as such, I have access to Centerlink and the other social services?

Yes you are a PR of Australia, though your initial visa is a temporary one. After a year, your TR will be converted to a PR. And no. As per the immigration website [link], newly arrived residents will have to wait for 104 weeks (2 years) to receive assistance from Centrelink. However, this does not include family assistance payments. So, if you have children here later on, you will have access to family tax benefits and so on.... 


2. I surfed online previously and found out that it was very difficult for holders of the temporary partner visa (subclass 309) to get a job, simply because they were on the temporary visa. Would I as a permanent visa holder, face the same dilemma? The optimist in me says otherwise!

No such thing bro. You are either eligible to work or not. Your type of visa does not give you additional advantage. However, during interviews, it may be harder to impress and land yourself a job over the locals due to obvious reasons. So just try even harder. 


3. In the event that we finally make the move (planning for 2nd half of this year), what's your advice? Do we firstly find a place to rent in Brisbane, and start looking for jobs if by then I still have no offers? Or crash at my in-laws place up in Rockhampton and continue my job search from there?

Crash with in-laws if you can stand them.

4. I currently have a HDB flat in Singapore, and obviously I have not met the min 5-years period in order to sell it. As such, my plan is to rent the whole place out and get it to pay itself (the HDB loan) till the 5-years is over and I can sell it off. By then, I would be able to apply for citizenship in Australia, and all going well, I can collect my CPF money then. It seemed very straight-forward, or am I missing something? 

You can only withdraw funds from your CPF account if you renounce your SG citizenship. You will only be allowed to renounce, under normal circumstances, if you have taken up citizenship of another country. To be eligible for citizenship, you need to be a PR and have stayed in Australia for 4 years. So you do the maths.




5. So once I'm living and working in Australia, I will be paying the taxes in Australia. How about the taxes in Singapore? I'm guessing I still have to pay the property tax for my flat. But since I'm not working in Singapore, there's no income tax to be paid right?

At the moment, Singapore does not tax overseas income. Maybe one day they will, when they are desperate enough. However, that will push many Singaporeans holding Australian PRs give up their Singapore citizenships for sure. Property tax will be ongoing as long as you hold it.


Hope my answers are satisfactory. Good luck and update us when you sell your HDB flat!

1 comment:

  1. If you've not met the 5 year period you can't rent out the entire hdb flat. even if you rent out rooms you need to be physically living in the flat. if you apply for special permission your MOP will extended by the period of that special permission. So there is no way for the flat to sustain itself unless you take the risk (u know what I mean).

    ReplyDelete