Thanks guys.

I will ask these questions.

We know we will need to pay for a bit of the relocation costs ourselves. We are going to keep most of our stuff here in storage and just buy a basic 5 - 10k apt furniture set-up over there and then ship stuff over after a yr if it looks as though it will be long term. Will have 5-10k AUD coming in from our tax return from Aus so will be using that for furniture etc.

bzcat, the wife isnt really qualified in anything, and with the job market over there do you think there is actually likelihood of her picking up part time work in retail or similar?