Looking for info on contracting in Sydney, bonus points for immigrant perspective.<p>This has been covered plenty of times for London (which is where I'm at right now), something like<p>https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9980264<p>and<p>https://github.com/tadast/switching-to-contracting-uk<p>or answers covering the similar concepts is what I'm after.<p>* How hard / easy is it to incorporate and pitfalls?<p>* Typical ways the government would try to make things bad for you (e.g., London's IR35 equivalent)<p>* Is it even worth it, are the rates as significantly higher and / or any tax burdens on dividends etc.? Bonus karma if someone could explain how the whole dividend imputation thing works, since that seems to even everything out to about the current situation in London (i.e., you get shafted for anything above £43k / year here)<p>* Suggestions for services also welcome, painless accountancies and the like<p>* Any links to useful information (that's not obviously google-able) welcome as well<p>From what I could find, the immigrant part shouldn't be a problem. I qualify points-wise, and afaict there are no draconian laws like the H1B in US or similar, at least that I could find, and the points are more about making sure you're not a burden on social services and can actually find work, which as a software dev is obviously not an issue.<p>Thanks!
(Brit who is now a Australian permanent resident through tech employee sponsorship and has lived in both Melbourne and Sydney.)<p>I think your main concern is what kind of visa do you expect to be on?<p>I have never heard of anyone getting sponsored by a company as a contractor. If you are under 31 and can get a working holiday visa for 1 year, then this could be a good route. You can extend the WHV to 2 years years by doing 3 months of work on a farm in rural Australia.<p>The points system can take a long time to get through, up to 18 months, and often they will only grant you a visa for specific states, rather than the state of your choice.<p>If you see your future in Australia, then you might be better off getting sponsored by a company on a 457 visa (mine took 5 months for approval but apparently this is long), then staying with that company for 2+ years and switching to Permanent Residency through Employee Nomination (ENS).
If you want any help with your immigration, I recommend Robert K. Steain in Sydney. <a href="http://www.rksteainmigration.com.au/" rel="nofollow">http://www.rksteainmigration.com.au/</a> He can give a free consultation. (I'm a US citizen with Aussie permanent residency. He helped me with my application.) Top pro, knows all the laws and knows the people in the immigration department.