When we started our journey into the blogging world, we said we wanted our blog to be the 3Is. Interesting! Informative! And interactive. We have asked for your input on topics you want us to write about and, we must say, you haven’t disappointed! Many of you have asked us to do a “shopping list” style blog that details how much the process costed. So I guess we’re interacting?! Hopefully this would be informative for those who want to migrate to Australia! And as for interesting, 2 out of 3 is a great start ;)!
While we will do our best to give you exact figures, you will have to bare with us because some things were over 4 years ago and we weren’t keeping track of prices as meticulously as we could have; Especially with the smaller things, which can add up! These prices do not account for inflation (I always wanted to say that – AJ) and each MARA agent will probably have their own set fee costings. Also, our agent at Career Up, gave us invaluable advice which we felt was beyond our expectations.
- Initial Consultation in 2015 ($165) £92.97
- Skills assessment Welfare Worker ($1,100) £619.83
- Agents Fee for Preparing and lodging Skills assessment ($1,925) £1,084.71
- Visa Application Charges are as follows;
– $3,670 (£2,070) – Ruth (Main applicant)
– $1,835 (£1,035) – Ahmed
– $920 (£519) for each child under 18 - Professional fees to prepare, submit & monitor visa application – $2,750 (£1,552)
- IELTS (English Proficiency Test) £150 ($267)
- Police Check (DBS 2.0 – Even deeper checks) – £45.00 x3 Adults – total £135 ($240)
- Agents fees for Expression of Interest (EOI) $1,100 (£620)
- Certification of documents in total – £300 ($532)
- As Ruth was climbing the social ladder, she began to rub shoulders with JPs, Judges and other high profile big wigs, hence some of these fees were waved! We had a family conference on whether we should use these contacts and we figured, to get ahead sometimes, you must use your social capital (lol)! Look at us go!
- Working with Vulnerable People’s card – $97 (£55). Ahmed was going to need this to begin work immediately as a primary school teacher.
- Permanent Migration Medical – x2 Adults £640, child 16-18 £320 and child under 11 £100 – total £1,060 ($1,880)
- Savings – when we were initially exploring visa opportunities in Australia, our agent advised us that some states and territories had a stipulation of having $40,000 plus (approx £23,000) savings. This would cover setting up home and the first 3-6 months of living expenses, so we decided to save that amount.
- There may be other costs we have forgotten about. each family’s expenses and chosen visa will vary, however the total cost below in pound sterling and Australian Dollars is for the S190 Visa for JustJallOZ to Australian Capital Territory (Canberra)
- The grand total £32,812.51 ($58,147.73)
- Now, I know what you might be thinking… and yes, you are going to have to flip that couch over and knock the change out that’s been falling into those cracks! But, can you put a price on this?
Peace, Love and Happiness
IG:@justJallOZ
Twitter: @justJallOZ
The Jalloh Family 