{"id":743887,"date":"2026-06-18T06:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T06:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/743887\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T06:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T06:15:08","slug":"true-cost-of-moving-to-australia-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/743887\/","title":{"rendered":"True cost of moving to Australia revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Jonny Gbla is desperate to gain permanent residency in Australia and has been saving money by living out of his car. Picture: Supplied<\/p>\n

An English migrant has detailed the insane cost and living conditions he has endured in a bid to gain permanent residency in Australia and find a home.<\/p>\n

Jonny Gbla moved to Australia in his early 20s and says he has spent at least $12,000 jumping through immigration hoops to try and remain in the country.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old podiatrist\u2019s current visa will expire in November and, despite doing everything he can to stay, has yet to receive any confirmation from Australian authorities about his eligibility to do so.<\/p>\n

Gbla has even gone to extreme lengths to raise the cash needed to pay for the various visas, medical exams, police checks and English tests required by immigration authorities.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Jonny Gbla has been sleeping on an air mattress at his place of business. Picture: Supplied<\/p>\n

The English national has, at times, sublet his own apartment while staying at his girlfriend\u2019s home or slept on an air mattress at a studio business he rents.<\/p>\n

He has even lived out of his car and still stores his entire wardrobe in the vehicle to save on story costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in limbo. These visas, they\u2019re so f***ing expensive,\u201d Gbla told Yahoo News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if I wanted to do it with an agent, probably looking at maybe like $9,000, and this is not even factoring in an English test I had to do, which was $300.\u201d<\/p>\n

A video posted by Gbla to TikTok saw him calling on anyone who would listen to help him out.<\/p>\n

\u201cFive years, nothing. Still no security of staying in the country you\u2019ve lived in after five years \u2026 I\u2019ve spent so much money, I\u2019m over it.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Jonny Gbla has not heard back from authorities on his visa application in more than six months Picture: Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to stay here, man. I pay my taxes. I\u2019m a good man. I don\u2019t smoke, I don\u2019t drink, hardly go out, like at this point I\u2019m begging.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gbla chose Australia as his home of choice after falling in love with the country\u2019s beach lifestyle.<\/p>\n

He moved to Queensland on a working holiday visa but is currently trying to obtain a skilled independent visa.<\/p>\n

He has not heard back from the Department of Home Affairs despite submitting his application late last year.<\/p>\n

Gbla is not alone in his bid to call Australia home.<\/p>\n

Australian Bureau of Statistics data for 2024 revealed more than 40,000 UK and Irish migrants arrived Down Under that year \u2013 the highest 12-month intake in more than a decade.<\/p>\n

Despite an influx of Indian and Chinese migrants to Australia, the UK remains the highest contributor of immigration to Australia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jonny Gbla is desperate to gain permanent residency in Australia and has been saving money by living out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":743888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-743887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=743887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/743888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}