The part of the move nobody tells you about, and where to find real answers before you land.
Our main job on a matter finishes when the visa is granted. The client’s job starts about then, and the questions that come up in that first month are almost never migration questions. They are about opening a bank account, getting a rental application accepted, working out when Medicare actually starts, and deciding whether shipping a household across the world is worth what it costs. I can tell you what your visa permits and what will put it at risk. I am not the person to tell you which bank to use in Brisbane.
Jason Benseman has built something that covers that part properly. Move Between Guide sets out the practical detail for moving between Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, written for the specific route you are taking rather than in general terms. He offered to write a piece about it for our clients and I took him up on it. It is below, in his words.
Andrew Heathcote
Registered Migration Agent, MARN 0850840
Move Between Guide
Getting your Australian visa approved is a genuine milestone. If you have worked with a migration agent like MigrationBuro to get there, you already know how much detail goes into that process, the forms, the evidence, the waiting. But there is a moment right after approval when a different set of questions shows up, and they are not the kind a migration agent handles. Which bank makes sense for a newcomer. What a rental application in an unfamiliar city actually requires. How Medicare works when you are used to a different healthcare system entirely. What it really costs to ship your life across an ocean, or whether it is cheaper to sell up and start again.
This is the gap Move Between Guide was built to fill.
Why we built it
I’m a Kiwi who’s personally been through the visa process into the UK, Australia and Canada, not just researched it from the outside. Each move came with its own maze of forms, timelines and half-answered questions, and I remember exactly how it felt to not know what I didn’t know. Later I spent three months in Canada surrounded by people going through the same thing, mostly figuring it out one frustrating Google search at a time. What struck me wasn’t that the information didn’t exist, it was that it was scattered across forums, outdated blog posts and government pages that assume you already know the local system. There was nowhere that just laid out the practical, current answer for someone moving between Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK. So I built one.
What is on the site
Move Between Guide (movebetweenguide.com) is free, practical, evidence-based content covering every direction of movement between those four countries: banking, housing, healthcare, jobs, shipping and cost of living, written for the specific corridor you are moving through, not generic advice that half-applies. Every fact is sourced and dated, we do not guess at visa fees or bank charges, we check them.
On top of the free content, there is a paid guide built around an actual timeline, six to twelve months before you leave, through your first few months settled, so you know what to action and when, rather than discovering a step you missed after it is too late to fix cheaply.
A few things worth knowing before you land
- Open your new bank account before you leave if the corridor allows it. Some banks let overseas applicants start the process remotely, which saves a frustrating first week.
- Get quotes on shipping or freight early. Costs vary far more than people expect depending on volume and timing, and last-minute bookings are reliably the most expensive option.
- Healthcare registration timing matters. In several corridors there is a gap between landing and being fully covered under the local system, worth knowing in advance rather than finding out at a doctor’s office.
These are the kind of practical details covered corridor by corridor on the site, the part that starts the moment your visa comes through and a migration agent’s job is done.
Where to find it
Everything is free to read at movebetweenguide.com. If you have recently had a visa approved through MigrationBuro, it is worth a look before you book flights, not after.
Jason Benseman
Founder, Move Between Guide