01. Determine Your (and Your Spouse’s) Eligibility
Before you decide to buy a property as your house in Australia, you will need to know about the existing restriction on who is allow to buy a house in Australia, especially when you and/or your spouse may belong to any of the following categories: (a) Australian citizen, (b) Australian PR, (c) waiting for your Australian PR, (d) expatriates, or (e) students.
If you intent to buy a house in
1) you have an Australian spouse who is buying the house with you as joint tenants; or
2) you and your spouse hold a “special category visa”, e.g. a
3) you are a student from a recognised tertiary institution with a student visa valid for at least the next 12 months.
If you do not fall under any of the category above, you will need to submit your application in writing to Foreign Investment Review Board (“FIRB”), and the form can be downloaded from http://www.firb.gov.au/content/application_form.asp?NavID=46. The form may take about 40 to 90 days to be processed, but FIRB is also known to have expedited the approval process to about 5 days if you inform them about your need/situation. Thus, if you are entering into a contract prior receiving the approval from FIRB, it will be paramount for you to ensure that the contract you are signing is conditional upon you obtaining foreign investment approval to avoid a breach of the Australian statute. On the same note, you should not engage yourself in any auction sales as auction bid are not conditional by nature; therefore breaking the law (and risk imprisonment) and be subjected to legal action from the vendor.
The topic next week will be on “determine your budget for the home”, unless there are feedbacks from readers via this website and/or friends directly on other points highlighted above. Have a great week ahead.
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