Expat Interview With Dean Francis

After journeying to Australia on a couple of occasion, doing a bit of homework and searching for the best site, Dean would start up the Bat N Ball. But not everything was as smooth sailing as he may have pictured.

Needing Experience

I owned three pubs in London so I had the experience. You need relevant experience basically. I also brought my brother over and I sponsored him as well as my manager. That was part of the package as well. I’m just trying to think what else would be relevant.

The Journey To Australia

I really did come over here with a backpack. If I was going to get in and to be honest with you, the first couple of years it really was touch and go. It was like a holiday but with a lot on the line. The first few years, I lived on the attitude “well I should be alright but if it’s not, I’ll have to take it”.

I came over for a visit and looked into self-sponsorship on a 457. I don’t know how much has changed but I think it’s pretty similar. In those days you had to have, I think it was $250,000 minimum to put into a business. You had to meet a lot of criteria on the business level and then you could sponsor yourself effectively. I buy the business and the business sponsors me. That’s the essence of it.

Immigration Agent Horror Story

It reached the stage at one point where I was actually down the immigration office, being and my immigration guy and the immigration person got into a stand up row right in front of me, a screaming match. I didn’t understand what was going on and I was sitting there thinking “well this doesn’t look good for me”. I walked out of the office and said to my immigration guy “you can go, mate. I’m not having that.” I phoned the other guy up and I said “I’m so sorry.” He said “look mate, it isn’t your fault. I advise you to get rid of him.” I said “done” and I said
“would be practical for me to just do it myself?” He said “yeah.” So I did it all myself from there on in.

Words of Advice

It’s really tough to buy a business from England in Australia unless you’ve got someone on the ground. And there’s only so much time people can come over here and look. You can’t come over for a couple of weeks and expect to find a business. So decide the business you want, decide the area you want. Get over here on a three month holiday visa and then keep going.

There is so much untouched potential, it’s exciting! So as it goes as advice, you need a clear idea of what you want to do, an area you want to be in and just do research and research and research and just have as much info as you can. It’s valuable to have someone on the ground you can talk to. If anyone was going to come over, there are immigration agents all over the place but to find an honest one is so hard.

Bat N Ball

Address: 495 Cleveland Street, Surry Hills
Website: www.parksidebar.com.au
Phone: +61 2 8399 0303