Are you new to OZ? Welcome!! Planning to Settle down in Sydney? 👋

Life in Australia is truly good with a mix of culture around! You can see the country celebrating every ethnicity! For me, Sydney takes number 1 due to its well connected transport system! Hurray Sydney Trains!! 👏 Are you planning to settle down in Sydney?

Here are some useful tips from my own experience!! Since I live in Sydney, I am more biased, but all these generic processes are common to all Oz States and Territories.

You must remember to try out these things apart from what Govt has given you 🙂

1. Apply for Medicare, the public health system – https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/medicare
2. Visit Centrelink to check if you will be available for any benefits, they can also help with other options, need to visit them to find it out.
3. Look for second hand items or cheaper ones in gumtree
4. Look for accommodation in gumtree, shared ones if you want affordable renting
5. Establishing a local address is important

Banking Tips

1. You can open a bank account. Search for options before opening. There are various banks which would give you a joining bonus like 50$ or something when you open an account. Try with somebody if they have a referral code, you might help them and yourself too. Feel free to check with me too! 😉 Banks like ING, St George, Westpac etc. gives referral bonus to both the parties!🤓 For all of the above, sites like Finder.com.au could help you with details.
2. Same holds good if you are applying for a credit card too. There are numerous offers in the market. Some of them have a first year no-annual-fee card. Few give you double points for every $ spent. Some cards give travel insurance, qantas / velocity points whilst some do not charge conversion fee and there are few which does all these plus many more! Coles master card, Woolies Everyday card, Qantas card, Citibank card etc. are some of the cards with good benefits. Finder.com.au can help you with choosing all these offers! 😎

Renting tips

1. You need to choose a suburb where you want to rent, book an inspection or visit them at the available spots. You need to physically inspect before you could apply for that property. realestate.com.au, domain.com.au are few sites to look at.
2. You need to submit 100 point check. There are some documents which would help you score 100! (Wah! scoring 100 is possible at-least in here, lol :D) Your passport would help! You can show a local ID by taking an ID card from Servicenow or if you are an experienced driver, you can take Lerners from Servicenow too! Visit them to understand better.

Looking for jobs?

1. Apply for TFN — ATO is the site to refer – https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Tax-file-number/Apply-for-a-TFN/
2. Take a free course in TAFE and add it to your resume — https://www.tafensw.edu.au/courses
3. Try casual jobs to gain some local experience
4. If you are an experienced driver, look for ways to get your drivers license. This could help you get some jobs including Uber and Ola drivers.
5. Refer to my earn money from home post for more details.

Coming with Family?

1. You might need to check with Centrelink for benefits for children
2. You need to settle down to find a local school. School system is a different topic altogether – there are public, private and semi-private schools. Again primary (kindy to 6) and secondary schools. Under Secondary schools, there are selective schools. You can find any good school and decide your suburb or whichever suits you better — https://education.nsw.gov.au/
3. You might also want to find day-care of pre-school depending on your need. There are also ku pre-schools which can be looked at. Again, there are Govt/ subsidies for each of these, please refer to Govt. sites for rebates and other details. You can refer to these sites – https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/centrelink Bonus — Cenrelink, Medicare, Health record, ATO all come under mygov! All of these are available online, You can manage them via https://my.gov.au/LoginServices/main/login?execution=e1s1#/

Bonus Tips

1. If you are ordering any food online, look for coupon code online or look for discounts on first time order or something. All this would help you pocket some cash. Uber-eats delivery available which is very comfortable during winter!
2. If you are looking for furnitures, gumtree is good, you can also search for some garage sale where you could go directly pick up at lower price. To pickup, you might need to hire an Ute, available at Bunnings at a reasonable rate.

Driver’s License

1. DKT – (Drivers Knowledge Test) is the first step — (subjected to age criteria, proper ID, eye-sight etc.) https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/getting-nsw-driver-licence
2. Take a crash course or proper training from an instructor (Please contact me privately if you are looking for a trainer)
3. Driving test – Book online for slots.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of places to visit and enjoy! Don’t miss to enjoy the city when you are settling down 🙂

I think my mind needs some rest 😉 Will furnish more details later… 🙂

Disclaimer – All of the above information are from my own experiences, I am not preaching or demanding anything here. The suggestions / views / ideas presented in here solely represent my opinion. Please use them as a reference and make your own decision. I claim no responsibility for your decisio