Yes, but Australia has it's own stringent immigration laws applying to Brits who want to move out there.
As you'd have found out if you decided to go there rather than bring your mrs here.
Are you going to blame Europe for that too?
( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Wed 7 Apr 2010, 13:47, 3 replies)

I'm not BLAMING anyone
I just feel that it is slightly unfair....but I suppose I am talking from a prejudiced position.

Maybe if I wasn't in the same situation I'd be saying something different.
(penrose your dog's got tits, Wed 7 Apr 2010, 13:54, closed)

True.
And don't forget that as stringent as the immigration procedure for Brits going to Australia is, it'd be a lot easier for you than for someone from say the Phillipines, it's only in the past year or so that the roo-shaggers started dismantling the internment camps they had set up for immigants and asylum seekers from the Pacific nations.
( stuj (^(^;;^)^) GO TEAM SPIDERS!(^(^;;^)^), Wed 7 Apr 2010, 14:00, closed)

What stuj said
EU countries have reciprocal arrangements, meaning that you could go to Poland or Estonia or wherever and start claiming their dole etc. without having to prove anything beyond your UK citizenship. (That's how it's supposed to work, anyway.)

There's no such reciprocal arrangement with Australia, so Aussies have to tick boxes before they get to live here.
( shinyshinyscalp less a man, more a way of life, Wed 7 Apr 2010, 14:38, closed)

Reciprocal Agreements..
Mostly refer to Employment Rights, Healthcare and Education over the whole of the EU. I'm almost 100% certain that this doesn't extend to State Benefits, although it could encompass UK Tax Credits if you were brave enough to claim them..
(Beer Elf Thought this was like a campfire, anyhow, on, Wed 7 Apr 2010, 20:33, closed)

Not bloody wrong.
Even the Swiss didn't treat us as badly in some ways. I pay tax, yet can claim no family benefits, have to pay an extra $4,500 a year for each kid to go to school and we don't get the same rebate that someone on my wages would if they were a local.
Not to mention them backing out of all sorts of reciprocal healthcare agreements and adding extra conditions to new visas that contravene the few remaining.
Otherwise, we're enjoying it...
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Wed 7 Apr 2010, 14:38, closed)