Quoll

You could have a look at country Victoria (even closer to the family) there are some nice small towns which generally have more of a community feel to them and real estate prices are lower. You'd then have access to Melbourne medical services or any of the smaller towns on the way through. Not sure that anywhere you choose is going to be more retiree focused though the standing joke amongst old Aussies is that everyone goes to the Gold Coast to retire!

Can she not make a quick trip to Australia to validate then come home and she will have 4 years then yo make her move. Just send her off for a long weekend, she doesn't have to stay!

I wouldn’t study in Australia! Too bloody expensive as an international student and you’d have restricted work hours then you’d have to leave at the end of it anyway most likely. Do it in uk - much cheaper!

Mixed demographic I would say. People his age who didn't make an effort the first time around or who found school to be too restrictive/challenging for a range of reasons, new arrivals and slightly older folk who should have done it before and didn't. I don't think he would be that much out of place socially going into year 11 though. You may even find a school which has a talented sports program, where he could get credit for playing competitive cricket, assuming, as has been said before, he's well on that pathway already.

As long as they don't intend to stay for more than the visa period which will be 6 months, stamped in their passport in arrival at Heathrow. Lots of people do it. You're right though, they couldn't do it the other way round because Australia demands an Australian passport of its citizens.

Just rock up. We were away for 9 years due to much the same rationale - caring for the oldies. Add the others have said, just let the UK pension mob know your new address and your pension will be frozen at the date you leave. You might not get an Australian "top up" - is not a "right", it's a welfare payment based on years of residence and assets so don't assume that you will get anything and anything you do get will be a bonus. You should be able to access your Australian super that you've accumulated over the years of residence though, if you haven't already blown that. When we came back we were fortunate to move into our own home that our son had been house sitting for us but it was still quite an expensive little venture getting sorted out - we still haven't bought a car because we have the use of one of his bangers and we don't go anywhere at the moment anyway. Given your health issues, if you decide to get private health insurance do it quickly if you had it before and didn't have the age loading on it otherwise private health cover would be exorbitant. Your Medicare number will be the same but your card may have expired during the time you were away, you'll just need to apply for a new one. Bring copies of your medical issues with you - your GP should produce a report but it might cost you a few quid. Remove yourself from the UK electoral roll and get yourself on the Australian one when you arrive. I keep my UK bank account open - I went to see them before I left and made sure they changed addresses, phone numbers etc some banks are more accommodating than others. I also keep my UK phone on a very cheap contract - keeping it on payg was a nuisance, having to send a text or make a call every few months just to keep it current. Good luck!

Never put your life on hold waiting for something that might never happen. If you want to study, do it now - it'll be much cheaper to do it in UK anyway. Even if your visa does arrive while you are studying you'll still have enough time to finish your course as long as you validate your visa. Australia isn't going to go anywhere and it'll still be here at the end of your course if you get your visa.

And I dont think Australia does it at all - HASS or Humanities (or whatever the state may decide to call it) may cover it I suppose. I agree with you, try and find another major in the Maths/Science area would be much more competitive.

Just to clarify - you say the PGDE is the same as the PGCE - does that mean it was undertaken at a University and not "on the job" training? If it was Uni based then you should be OK, but if it was school based then you won't be accepted as a teacher which requires 4 years Uni based study. In general, experience is counted as work post qualification and it's the work you have done when you apply for the visa so you can't apply before you've achieved it. No, you're not likely to find a government school sponsor, there are already too many teachers for the places that people want to live and work in so it's not likely they will be bringing in foreigners to fill the positions so a PR visa will be best. Once you're here you will have to sell your skills in competition with everyone else but be prepared to go into the country to get your foot in the door. It also helps to develop more than one string to your bow with respect to subject area. Not quite sure where "Modern Studies" fits into the Victorian curriculum but if you can spread across curriculum areas you'd be more competitive https://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au

If you value continuity of care then you probably won't want to try bulk billing. I dont know what it is about the Pom emigrants, they seem to think that bulk billing is what it is all about. Medicare is a co-pay system and bulk billing was designed to be for those who could not afford the co-payment. As a result, most bulk billers are shorter appointments in large medical centres where you will be lucky to get the same doctor more than once - if, indeed you can actually find a place that bulk bills. In some places they aren't very common. If you can find a doctor whose books are open then, yes, you may be able to get an appointment but they usually like to have a long appointment for the first one. My doctor is a co-pay and the system links directly with Medicare so the refund is in my account almost as soon as I have paid for the consultation - no more trekking off to the Medicare office to make a claim like we used to have to do.

He won't be dropping down a year, he will be moving to a foreign country with (several) different education systems. His age cohort will be going into year 12 but you dont want him to do that (it is a 2 year course and getting things converted if you decide to hop in in the middle can leave the student at a real disadvantage), he can either be a bit older and join year 11 or he could look at doing year 11/12 at TAFE where there would be a different cohort. He won't be that much older than the rest of his cohort, some of them will begin to turn 17 in April/May and he will have turned in February. It's not going to be the same as UK. However, the best thing to do would probably leave him in UK to finish his A levels because they do travel quite well to Australia if he wanted to do Uni in Australia and meanwhile he keeps all his options open for doing Uni in UK if that's what he feels like whereas the converse is definitely not true. I would imagine that A levels woul travel well to NZ if that was where his options were better, too.

Given the time the Mail is taking these days (unless they’re sending it expedited delivery), I think I would be going for an emergency travel document if you can - if your passport arrives in time then you’ve done a bit of belt and braces. We’ve had this discussion before but I’ve never had to give my passport number when Ive booked so I think as long as you rock up with a document which allows you to travel they won’t care (the name will be the same) - and you’d want to be sure that your document is connected with your visa as I assume you will want to be coming back. Good luck!

So you lied to the people at quarantine. Not very clever really, was it?

You won't be paying her for it will you? So essentially she will be a visitor. If you imply that you are going to employ her as help, then she is more likely to be refused I would have thought. Most of us get along without needing family over to help.

She really needs to get professional advice from a registered agent. She should have notified Immigration when her circumstances changed so she could be in trouble for that - they both could be in breach of their agreement. If she is aiming for a spouse visa with someone else it will obviously have been quite a long separation from her husband.

First stages of grief probably - anger, denial etc. It's easy to say but not so easy to do. It takes a strong grandparent to wave farewell to their grandkids without a backward glance. Some of my friends are incredibly enmeshed with their grandkids - we aren't, and in that way we are unusual I think. If any of my friends were faced with their kids nicking off with their grandkids they would be utterly devastated. One friend actually has an Australian son in law and though she says that her daughter will never leave her, I think at the back of her mind is always the "what if she changes her mind?" The Australian grandparents of that family are always subtly (and not so subtly) niggling that it is about time they came "home" - dont know how much spine the son in law actually has. I must be incredibly selfish because I can honestly say I never gave a thought to the impact of taking my parents only grandchild away from them - mind you, I never thought it would be forever. I took the initiative to take the kids back regularly - until my parents retired and decided they would do a 6/6 visit - which they did for 16 years. It worked well. We copped the most flak for leaving our Australian granddaughters - from our son's ex. I got into trouble because I had planned to return to UK to welcome our other son back from Afghanistan at just the time that granddaughter number 2 was born - the ex was ropeable. Didnt matter, I did it anyway. Then when we were faced with needing to stay in UK to care for my parents, the ex gave me a hard time with the guilting again (she missed having us as resident baby sitters!!!). So, bottom line, it is easy to say but so much harder to actually do it - I won't say "wait until you're in their position" but when you are in their position, attitudes do tend to bend a bit.

Not an unusual response. I have a friend who had the temerity to marry an Australian (eventually she essentially eloped with him) and her parents were just ghastly - they'll disinherit her, won't visit, never talk to her again etc etc. One grandchild later and they were visiting every year or two - they got over it. They were so bad, they refused to even meet him before they got married and she took him up regularly just in case. Only issue I would have is if your kids are late high school level - chopping and changing them at that age can be a bit fraught - the two systems aren't quite in synch and there are issues about returning with kids for Uni and all that but otherwise, as the others have said, it's likely to be only temporary (and if it isn't, they will get used to it). You have to be very self sufficient and more than a little bit selfish (not in the pejorative sense) to be a successful migrant because if you worried about what everyone else thought of your actions you would never do anything. I agree with Ausvisitor - you are moving away so it will be up to you to do the visits to see them and keep up the contacts. My parents flew out every year until they were 80 so I wouldn't worry about a 60 something making the flight - I happily do it in my 70s. But be prepared for them to pull the plug on you - some people do weird things - it's kind of a grief that something will be taken from their lives (your siblings will probably be spitting chips because care of the parent will then devolve to them) and though most people learn to live with it, others dont.

You won't get any help with care should they need it and they won't have full medicare. Have you thought about going back and supporting them in their home so they dont have to uproot and will be assured of good medical coverage and won't have to leave all that they have known.

Franklin

Won't they get travel insurance from UK? Mine always did. Someone like Staysure

First question is will you get a visa?

You will need more than a holiday rental address. Don't sweat getting the kids into school until you've got a longer term rental, nobody will give a toss if you don't get them into school for a month or two. It very much depends on whether the school is one of those which might be swamped with out of area enrolments or whether they are struggling for numbers as to whether they accept out of area kids but you probably won't want to be trekking them around town when push comes to shove so find your house first and the school can follow. Edited to say, don't worry if they aren't enrolled right at the beginning of the term, kids move all the time and they will be assured of a place in their local school.

Declare your next tax return as your last tax return. Take a copy of your no claims car insurance with you - it may help getting a NCB when you land. Remove any insurances from your superannuation, you will just need to let them accumulate (hopefully) until you can claim them at preservation age without premiums eroding them. Might be useful to hang on to an Australian bank account for a while at least but beware they steal inactive ones after a few years. Enjoy the ride!!!

Gee, wish you lived near me, we would probably get along! For me its knitting and family history - and, Praise the Lord, air conditioning (my DH finally agreed we should get it!!!)

Nah, don't try and sleep, imagine yourself in your new time zone and then you'll sleep like a baby all through the flight! Safe travels!