Moving to the UK from Australia with your family

Visas for Australian families

Australians visit the UK on an electronic travel authorisation, which costs £20 and covers visits of up to six months. That's enough for a scouting trip, but visitors can't work, and children can't enrol in a state school on a visitor route. Living in the UK means a visa.

Start with the UK Ancestry visa if one of your grandparents was born in the UK, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man, or in Ireland before 31 March 1922. You need to be a Commonwealth citizen aged 17 or over who can and plans to work, and you have to support yourselves without public funds. It costs £726, lasts five years, and you can bring your partner and children. You can't switch into it from inside the UK, so apply from Australia; decisions usually take about three weeks. After five years gov.uk says you can extend or apply to settle.

Without a British grandparent, most families go through work. The Skilled Worker visa needs a job offer from a licensed sponsor and a salary of at least £41,700 a year or the going rate for the role, whichever is higher. The fee from outside the UK is £819 for up to three years or £1,618 for longer, and you need £1,270 in savings held for 28 days unless your employer certifies your first month's costs. Your partner and children can apply as dependants.

If one of you is British, check that first. A child born abroad to a parent who is British otherwise than by descent is usually British automatically. Where the parent is British by descent, a child under 18 may be able to register, sometimes after the family has lived in the UK for three years. A British partner can sponsor you on a family visa, which needs income of at least £29,000 a year under the rules in force since 11 April 2024.

The Youth Mobility Scheme won't work for parents, because you can't apply with children under 18 living with you. It's useful for older kids, though. Australians aged 18 to 35 can stay for two years and extend for a third, for £340 plus £2,530 in savings.

This isn't legal advice. Fees and thresholds change, so check gov.uk or a qualified immigration adviser before you apply.

• The Immigration Health Surcharge, paid up front for the whole visa: £1,035 a year for each adult, £776 for each child under 18
• Birth certificates for the whole family, plus your grandparent's and parent's for an Ancestry visa
• Your marriage certificate if your partner is coming as a dependant
• Bank statements showing savings held for the required period

Cost of living: Australia compared with the UK

London rents are in the same league as Sydney's, and they drop a long way once you look at other cities. Childcare is the line that surprises a lot of Australian parents, and the visa costs add up before you've paid for a flat. A family of four on a five-year visa pays the health surcharge for all four people for all five years, up front.

Remember flights home too. Plan for at least one trip back a year if family is in Australia. Try our cost-of-living calculator to compare your city with the ones you're considering.

Schools and the different school year

Australian schools run on the calendar year and English schools start in September, so your kids will land partway through a year whichever way you time it. In England most children start reception full time in the September after they turn four.

You apply for a state school through your local council. Children of parents on a work visa can usually attend state schools, and gov.uk tells councils not to insist you already live in the area before passing on an in-year application from abroad. You will need an address, though: a signed lease or an employer letter with a transfer date are among the evidence gov.uk lists. Ask the school which year group your child will go into.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own admissions.

The NHS, the surcharge and Medicare

Once you've paid the Immigration Health Surcharge and your visa starts, you use the NHS on the same basis as a permanent resident. Register with a GP soon after you arrive. You still pay for prescriptions, dental treatment and eye tests, the same as UK residents.

Australians have paid the surcharge since 6 April 2016. Before that, the reciprocal health care agreement meant they didn't. That agreement still exists, but Services Australia limits it to medically necessary care that can't wait until you get home, in the NHS, within six months of arriving, and it excludes dental. Treat it as cover for a scouting trip, not a move.

Driving, money and paperwork

Australia is a designated country for UK licence exchange. Once you're resident you can drive on your Australian licence for up to 12 months, and you have five years from becoming resident to swap it for a British one without a test. Leave it longer than that and you'll need to pass the theory and practical tests. Some Australian licences don't show whether you passed in a manual car, and without proof you get an automatic-only licence, so find your test paperwork before you go.

Open a UK bank account early, and keep your tenancy agreement or an employer letter handy as proof of address.

Tax and super

The UK decides residence with the statutory residence test. You're automatically UK resident if you spend 183 days or more in the UK in a tax year (6 April to 5 April), if your only home is in the UK for at least 91 days in a row, or if you work full time there for a year. In the year you arrive, the tax year is usually split, so you're only taxed as a resident from the date you move.

If you haven't been UK resident for at least 10 consecutive tax years, the foreign income and gains regime, introduced on 6 April 2025, lets you claim UK tax relief on foreign income and gains for up to your first four years. You claim year by year on your Self Assessment return, and claiming costs you your personal allowance and capital gains annual exempt amount for that year, so run the numbers first.

On the Australian side, the ATO looks at where you actually live, your domicile and your days in Australia. Its own example of a family moving overseas for a three-year contract and renting out the house treats them as foreign residents. The UK and Australia double taxation convention has been in force since 17 December 2003, so the same income shouldn't be taxed in full twice.

Your super generally stays in Australia. The Departing Australia superannuation payment is for people who worked in Australia on temporary visas, not for citizens, and the only overseas transfer the ATO describes is the trans-Tasman one with New Zealand. How the UK taxes super when you eventually draw it depends on your situation. This isn't tax advice, so speak to an adviser who knows both systems before you move money or sell property.

A realistic timeline

1. 12 months out

   Work out your visa route. Gather birth certificates, including your grandparent's if you're going for an Ancestry visa.

2. 9 months out

   If you're going for a job, start applying to licensed sponsors. Look at areas and schools.

3. 6 months out

   Check passports, find your driving test paperwork and get savings in place for the required 28 days.

4. 3 months out

   Apply for visas (Ancestry applications can go in up to 3 months before you travel) and pay the health surcharge.

5. 6 weeks out

   Line up a lease or an employer letter so you can make in-year school applications.

6. First month in the UK

   Register with a GP, open a bank account, apply for school places and sort your National Insurance number.

7. By month 12

   Exchange your Australian licence for a British one.