Quoll

Yeah, of course. I can imagine that someone who has been happily spliced to an Aussie for decades with a couple of Aussie kids would be a tad ticked off but at least it's a less demanding process than for an English woman trying to get their Aussie husband into UK. I know several English citizens who cannot get their foreign spouses into UK even with evidence of being settled and having children. For some, especially women, the salary bar is just a tad too high although I know of one chap who is stuck in Japan, unable to get his wife here and another whose income has excluded his Balinese wife (although he was a bit of a prat and thought he could circumvent rules and found to his disgust that he could not)

Not a scandal at all. Processing times are what they are due to the volume of applications and, perhaps, the number of spurious claims. Every man and his dog wants to move to Australia but there has to be some control. I'd say Dutton does a great job.

No, I didn't cry the first time either, nor the second, third or fourth either but when my parents got old and I wasn't there for them, then I cried. The first few times it was an adventure, the tears started when it stopped being an adventure. Nothing is forever if you don't want it to be! Unlike Bob, I ended up hating the place and even after a lovely holiday in Australia last month I still can't feel that it's home. Weird but that's how it went for me. Hopefully I will be back in adventure mode when my dad pops his clogs and we depart again.

It's not just the freezing of the pension it's the variability of the exchange rate - you could be living like a queen one day and a pauper the next if the pound falls against the dollar. But the freezing certainly doesnt help. I think a bigger concern - as some have found to their cost - is not "when" permanent residency is granted as much as "if" permanent residency is granted. There are all sorts of stories of folk who have found that out the hard way - having been in Australia for a while and sold up everything only to fail the medical to be permanent and then selling their sob stories to the papers. Have you thought about the straightforward CPV and regular visits until its granted?

NSW is a bloody big state, it's not just Sydney so perhaps you might need to adjust your thinking. You could be up very close to Qld if you can find work, if that's the kind of climate you're after. Or you could go inland to places like Wagga, Dubbo, Tamworth or down to Albury. There's a lot of scope there and most of NSW is not big city suburbia. Think outside the capital cities. But I'm not sure there is anywhere with the "laid back lifestyle" - work is work and Aussies work long hours with fewer holidays and generally longer commutes.

Not if that includes rent/mortgage. We are mortgage free and even some time ago, paying everything (except the rates) on the credit card then paying it off, our average monthly spend was $5k - we didn't stint ourselves but neither were we profligate. There are all sorts of things like health insurance, technology, medical costs, holidays, hobbies, gym - they all add up. I'm guessing you wouldn't want to be restricted in any way but that would be about as low as you would want to go for comfort. If you have a mortgage or rent to pay, then all depending on where you are, factor in another $2-3k per month.

If your local state PS school is competitive then go for it but belt and braces and all, perhaps look at putting names down for private for HS, that's when a lot of kids move over. Mine were in private all the time and I've not regretted it but the amount it cost us would have set us up nicely in retirement if we hadn't spent it on them! They don't regret it either and appreciate the different experiences they were offered.

No broadband? No car? No other insurances (contents)? No holidays? No clothes? No medical expenses? Food is probably a bit on the low side given what we spent on food this past month whilst on holiday. You'll probably be ok.

They're public servants and public servants are generally Monday to Friday people. However, if someone fancies overtime or is overly conscientious they might work on Saturdays but emails may arrive on Saturdays (or even Sundays) because there can be delays in bulk sending. However, generally assume that COs aren't at work on the weekends.

If you're like us. Pack backpack. Go. Probably more tricky than that for most though. When I do it again it will be ruthlessly declutter, take career break (if working), rent out home, put things I might one day think I need in storage. Pack backpack. Go. If it all works out then you can return to clear up the odds and ends if you need to. Meanwhile, start applying for jobs you would kill to get. I'm sorry to hear about the trajectory your life had taken off late but remember - the best is yet to come!

Not there yet, just a holiday this time. Back to care for the nonagenarian leaving in an hour for the airport.

Yup. I’ve decided that being a grandparent on the other side of the world sucks! Said goodbye to the girls yesterday - stalwart on the outside on both sides but tears on my inside. And I’m not even an enmeshed grandparent!!!! Last year I met a little girl with her baby sibling and we got chatting she was so excited to be going to see her grandparents and I teared up when all I wanted to say was “and I’m sure your nana will love to see you too!”. Most of the time you cope because you have to, but it’s the little things!!!

Quite normal. You'll either get over it or you won't. Early on I never minded returning to Australia, it was still an adventure but after a while I hated to have to return and on several occasions actually threw up when I had to leave and bawled all the way in the train to the airport. We should have left Aus earlier (but the DH wouldn't) and now, apart from the need to be in UK to care for elderly dad, it isn't financially viable for us to live there permanently - we drifted past the point of no return. Don't be fooled into thinking you HAVE to stay in Australia because so many people think it's the best thing since sliced bread - its your life to do with as you want and there's little to choose between two first world countries. I'm in Australia on holidays now and I still don't feel I belong after 40 years. On the plane over I had a chat with a woman much my age who had lived here almost as long as I had and she was still quite distressed at having to return to Australia after her annual sanity hit in UK - she was on the point of announcing to her family that she was going to move permanently (like me, split kids, some here some there) and was fearing ructions from one of her Australian kids (I hope she weathered the storm). Whatever you do, don't let yourself drift past that point of no return, make active decisions at regular intervals because there's nothing worse than finding yourself trapped at some point.

So, basically what you're saying is that you don't like temporary visas. If employers didn't like employing temporary visa holders they wouldnt employ them. Seems pretty good policy to me, why import people when you can train up local talent to do the job.

Well, I guess if people don't understand the concept "temporary" then that really is not the fault of Immigration. A lot of people are quite happy to take contractual work and move on whether for their cv or an adventure. There is no reason why temporary should become permanent just because someone loves the country. No one is under any obligation to take a temporary role if they don't want to, but to take it assuming that the rules will change and it will miraculously become permanent and then whinge when it doesn't is, itself disingenuous.

Interesting about the pneumonia jab - I'm planning on getting mine when I go back to UK along with the shingles jab, for which I will then be eligible. I knocked back the pneumonia jab a few years ago but think I should have had it. I had shingles at 21 and I would rather not get them again - very painful, hence the rush to jab. Flu shots rarely knock me about.

Grey House Spider?

You can’t cuddle a country. I left a life I loved for the man I loved and with him in a place I hated was less worse than without him in a place I loved. Need to talk to the GF and see if you both plan on growing old with each other. If you do then you take the best compromise situation. If you don’t then you do what the heck you want.

Hard to say. Personally I think you know if you belong or not and there's nothing magical about the 2 year thing. However, belt and braces and all that - if you can hack it for 4 years and get citizenship then you can come and go at will. But, you said your kids just can't settle and that's probably key here - if they're teens then it's a hard gig to move to a foreign country on the other side of the world and some cliques in HS can be monsters towards new migrants. If it's only been 6 months you stand some chance of getting much of your life back. Leave it much longer and the world back home has got on without you and there is no going back, only moving forward. End of the day, there's nothing in the rule book that says you have to love and live in Australia, it's just another first world country and the UK has just as much to offer. You may end up with curse of the expat and have perennially itchy feet or you may just get back and feel like a pig in mud, you're not going to know which it will be until you do it. Personally I would not be buying a new home until you're 100% certain that your future lies in Australia - nothing like a bloody great mill stone around your neck to make you hate the place even more if there is no semblance of escape possible.

Is your BA a 4 yr degree? If it is then you can register with the state you're proposing to live in. Whether you get work is another matter altogether. If your degree is only 3 years then you won't be being a teacher as you need 4 years of a University course with the right number of supervised practice hours. Teacher aide positions are low paid, erratic and often given to those who are known to the schools. Not much required by way of qualifications although more and more are getting cert 3s to bolster their cvs. Quite a lot are teachers who just want party time work while their own kids are little. You might be better off aiming for private tutoring if you want to stay teaching or into office work of some description of you're flexible about how you want to spend your time.

Easy, they go home, lodge off shore and wait. They can visit every now and again. That's what they're supposed to do, rather than rocking up as tourists, lying to immigration about their intentions and hanging out on a bridging visa for aeons.

Most of the flexibility about year levels is when an older child wants to move down a year. If you want a younger child to be up a year then you would have to demonstrate extreme giftedness along with comparable social and emotional development and even then, it’s not a decision taken lightly at all. The rules state age peer placement (except for when younger kids are very close to cut off and the recommendations would then most likely be to wait - especially in NSW which has the latest cut off ). Why should they have special rules for kids coming from foreign countries? Returnees to U.K. have generally reported that their kids go back into their age peer groups and schools have been very helpful in ensuring that kids are supported to help them catch up.

Foreign country, several different education systems but an August birthday anywhere is going to put a child turning 6 in August into Kindergarten (or equivalent thereof). Why should a foreign education system bend their rules just because you think your child should have preferential treatment? That’s a Pandora’s box that NSW definitely isn’t keen to open. Early entry usually requires a full psychoeducational assessment including adaptive behaviour and social/emotional assessment with a profile demonstrating extreme giftedness, not just that a kid has had better early childhood teaching in a foreign jurisdiction. Put him with his age peers, it’ll all work out in the end. BTW he wouldn’t be “repeating” anything, he hasn’t done K in Australia at all.

Put in your off shore application in July and if it comes through in time then you win. If not, you can go over and visit on a tourist visa until your pr comes through, then you just have to leave the country for a few days while it’s issued. Arriving on a tourist visa, lying to immigration about your intentions is never a good idea and you run the risk of being turned around at the border. So just do it the straightforward way to start with. Then you have the choice - either he reapplies for a UK extension, or he goes and you wait or you go as a bone fide tourist while you wait. It’s no hardship to stay in one first world country while waiting on a visa . It’s inky going to be a few months whichever way you look at it.

That wasn't the weather I ordered for my holiday! Should have brought more jumpers. Didn't much appreciate being woken up at some ungodly o'clock with one of the brightest lightning flashes and loudest Thunderclaps either shortly after some dammed possum landed on the tin roof and skittered down the slope. It'd better warm up or I will go home for some nicer weather lol