Quoll

Would your husband be prepared to go back? If he says no then you don't have any choice. Your 13 year old is probably the victim of the Queen Bees and wannabes. Yr 8/9 girls can be absolute bitches and if they are not letting her into their cliques then she's in for a very miserable few years. In UK she'd be about to start her GCSE course wouldn't she? Perhaps she needs to go back and get on that merry go round while the rest of you make up your mind. She could stay with whoever your son is living with, perhaps. Your youngest son doesn't really have a leg to stand on he just gets to go with the adult flow and if his parents are staying then he gets to stay too but it's probably grieving the loss of his whole family.

Flew to UK on my own with a 12 week old baby and back when he was 5 months - and with a 3 yr old in tow as well. Looking back I still can't believe I did it but it wasn't that bad while I was doing it - apart from my altercation with a BA bimbo flight attendant who took 45 minutes to bring me a cup of tea in the middle of the night because she was chatting up a bloke further down the cabin and then tried to blame my sleeping 3 yr old for turning the call light on. My tips are to travel as light as possible, you don't need the kitchen sink. We never had a stroller for the kids anyway but the sling I used was invaluable on the plane - much better if you need to stand /walk to be able to pop them in the carrier and keep your hands free. If you're BF then it's a doddle (and don't be afraid to get up and demand a cup of tea before you start!), never used bottles so no idea how that works but if you take the basics the cabin crew are usually good at helping out. The loos have a pull down change table which works well and now that everyone uses disposable nappies is a hell of a lot easier than when we flew to Australia the very first time with DS1 at 6 months before they'd been invented! If there are two of you it's much easier to tag team so that one of you can sleep at a time but otherwise it's a case of "when baby sleeps we all sleep " but don't be afraid to walk the aisles, that's preferable to having a screaming kid for all concerned. Feed on take off and landing - swallowing equalises ear pressures otherwise you'll have a kid with hurting ears - and that's easy because the baby is strapped to your seat belt with an extension. Bottom line though, have faith in your parenting, it's just like dealing with the bub on the ground. Book your bassinet ahead of time and with kids under 6 months you'll be prioritised and they're generally fine for the kids to sleep in but if your child is a co-sleeper you'll need to get them used to sleeping alone before you fly (one of my granddaughters struggled with that when she flew as my d-i-l was an earth mother kinda gal and thought co-sleep was the thing to do.) Biggest problem you're likely to have is jet lag - theirs, not so much yours. They will have just got into some kind of waking/sleeping rhythm and you will totally screw that up and it took a long time for my son to change - we were still disrupted well over a week from memory. Then he got disrupted again on the way back to Aus poor kid. Good luck, it'll be fine just don't stress about it too much.

This

Have you seen the posts on this and other boards about the oversupply of nurses in Australia with new graduates being churned out and unable to find jobs. Usual advice is to train in something you are absolutely busting to do, not because it might one day get you a visa for another first world country.

It's pro rata so you'll only be paying for the time he's in school.but it is up front payment - by the term I think.

27 years ago! - I wouldn't assume that she will get a RRV at all. If she had skills to migrate in her own right then she might be better off going for a totally new application and putting her kids as dependents (providing the eldest is still in full time education and totally dependent on her). She might also find that as she had been over on holidays - one assumes on visitor visas - that they have superceded her PR so that it's no longer valid. Another issue might be the kids' father - would she have his permission to remove them from the country? You definitely need to talk to a MARA agent because I think it's far from certain she would be allowed to return after a quarter of a century and much of that as an adult with free will. I doubt you will find that there are many options for the kids at all.

Do you have his card or a card on his account that you're using to shop or are you using your Australian card? I have a card in my name on my dad's account and so the billing address is my dad's address. If it's your own card you're using, what happens if you have the billing address the same as the delivery address? Is it rejected at that point? (You'd want to have a word with your bank before you try so they know it isn't an unauthorised item on your card). I've sometimes had to put a UK address in the billing field (we have an Australian cc) and it's gone through OK with the delivery address. I was wondering whether the post office might be an option for cash for him too - if that's easier to get to, it should be possible - I know the old lady across the road from us has her pension paid into a post office account or at least she has someone pick it up from the post office for her.

Weren't her kids on her original pr application? If not then she could struggle to get them over. There's no guarantee she will get a RRV either - just having family there isn't really enough seeing as she couldn't be bothered to move to Australia within the time frame given. She can apply for a RRV and see what she gets. She should have had her kids on her previous pr in which case they apply for their RRV too. If she didn't have them on her previous application she will be hard pushed to explain why she's magically now got teenage kids. But they will need 101 visas (the eldest needs to be in full time education and totally dependent as he's over 18)

Yup, very lucky! A few miles up the road from Macquarie Uni and the teachers would have been going "huh???"

Sorry I had trouble following your question. Do you mean she had a visa but she didn't enter by the date required in which case it had lapsed? In that case, unless she had spent a significant time in Australia and has ties there like house /relatives etc then she will need to reapply for a visa and get kids will be on the new visa as dependents. If she is still eligible to apply that is.

I don't know the answers to your questions but interested in hearing the advice you will be given. I'm in UK and generally have had to trek around with POA in hot clammy little hand to get institutions to talk to me. Recently though a couple of agencies have accepted scanned POA documents and have been really helpful. If you have POA on his bank account you should have a card of your own in your name such should be quite ok for ordering groceries on line I would have thought. It might be that you need a one off trip back to get everything sorted and as much on line as possible. If you have a health and medical POA be sure that is registered with his GP as well, otherwise they won't talk to you if needed. Good luck, it's far from easy wherever you are.

It's recognised of course, but not as a funded disability - except perhaps in SA, I know they used to do things a bit differently. Otherwise it's very much luck of the draw how kids are supported through school funding and support is often through accommodation such as increased time for exams, access to alternate technology (although everyone probably had that now) etc

Probably not going to be an issue but with medical conditions the recommendation is to always talk to one of the agents who specialise in medical conditions - George Lombard or Peter Bollard are the two most usually mentioned but I know others now have medical specialists. The issue may be if she is statemented - however, kids with dyslexia don't attract additional support from disability programs in Australia so she won't be getting any additional support unless the school uses its own resources hence she wouldn't be a burden on the tax payer. They may need to be sure that there isn't an underlying cognitive impairment which would make her eligible for disability support. Hopefully the assessments will include an iq test which would indicate intellectual disability (or not!) but if they can also do an adaptive behaviour test and current level of functioning that would also add to the battery of information. Also, if her eyes haven't been tested you could try a developmental optometrist (I assume they have them in England) as functional vision deficits (Like tracking or fatigue) often go hand in hand with reading difficulties. But all reports are helpful to make the case.

It used to be a way in through the back door but not so much now and certainly not something to be recommended. If you're going to retrain in something then train in UK and hope it's still on the skills in demand list when you've qualified but only choose something that you really want to do in life, not just because it might one day happen to get you a visa to another first world country.

You'll need an Australian passport. It doesn't take long and you can apply to have it expedited at an extra cost. If you're not going o/s until next month you've got at least a week to get it but you will need to get your skates on.

Think you have to be either a citizen or have permanent residence to get an apprenticeship Apprenticeships

Have you thought about leaving the child in UK to finish A levels? Either that or put them into year 10 if you arrive in term 3 and let them do the full 2 year WACE course. Personally I'd do the former, it keeps all their options open for further education in either country just in case.

I think part of the problem is that you're expecting to slot back into your old life and very few people can do that. You have to treat it like a move forward, as if you are emigrating to a new place - its harder work but worth it. Find the things you want to do and go for it. I doubt one place is inherently better than the other (neither would really appeal to me I must admit) and what you're probably experiencing now is the anticlimax feeling / like the adventure is over, now what???

For once I tend to disagree with Bunbury - its your life, live it (that's what everyone always says to those who want to move to Australia and take kids and grandkids away from parents - family doesn't seem so important then!). Your son can come with you if he doesn't want to be without you, ditto your daughters if they struggle with independence. I think at your age you've got a chance of making it work for the longer term but if you leave it much longer you will be past the point of no return and you might never be able to leave because of finances, family etc but now you have a chance of getting set up for old age in UK if that is what you want. I think it's perfectly ok to suck it and see. If it works, you win and if it doesn't then you move on. As long as you have citizenship you can come and go at will. Your kids might decide to follow you, who knows. Good luck! Sometimes being in a place you belong can work wonders on a struggling mental health.

Someone raised the Certificate of Employment thing a while ago and the general response was eh??? I don't know if they mean a certificate which says you are no longer employed by anyone or whether they need a skills assessment that you are what you say you are. Sounds a bit odd but there will probably be an agent along in a minute who knows exactly what they are on about. Sponsorship isn't As big as it used to be, why not just get yourself a pr visa and cut out the middle bit?

Plenty of tourist visas allow you to stay for a few months, that shouldn’t be a problem but keeping a kid out of school in UK for such a period seems more problematic. Your age is certainly going to be against you and as had been noted on here several times, Australia is quite an ageist country. Talk to an agent about the possibilities for you although none have a crystal ball to be able to say whether nursing will still be on the list then, nor whether you would have whatever experience may be required by that point - it'd be down to the wire age wise. Im not sure what you think would constitute a “better life" in Australia - it's just another first world country with all the first world country problems that beset the UK. If something is lacking in your life where you are maybe you can better it by a move somewhere closer. Whatever you do, though, don't put your life on hold in hopes that you may one day move.

Please tell it to cool down. We arrive in 2 weeks and anything over 23 is too warm LOL Even in dry Canberra!

Many years ago my parents did that for 16 years when they retired. They built a granny flat on our block and golfed in perpetual summer until the trip got too onerous and the travel insurance too prohibitive. They arranged for someone to inhabit their house in U.K. every so often to comply with insurance, sometimes having a house sitter all the time. They didn’t have a problem with the NHS but things have cracked down since then but they had their house there and it was their place of residence so I guess it would still be ok for NHS purposes. They considered moving to Australia - they loved it more than I do - but decided they didn’t want to even though I am an only child.

Your son will be in Prep which is the first year of full time school. Your daughter in year 2. Schools very much reflect the suburb they serve so if you wouldn’t want to live in a suburb you probably wouldn’t want to send your kid to school there. General rule of thumb, find a house you’re prepared to live in 24/7 and the school will fall into place. They’re really much of a muchness - no frantic Ofstead chasing in Australia. So, find your home for all the things that tick your boxes - size, availability, cost, accessibility, proximity to other important things. Once you’ve got your home, rock up to the local school with visas, evidence of residence and vaccination records and theoretically the kids can start there and then but they usually ask you to wait a day or two so they can organise. If you don’t like the local school you can apply to any other school you fancy but they are under no obligation to take you - they may, they may not. Or you can look at private schools - some have long waiting lists others don’t. There’s pretty much a parallel Catholic system. Take your time to find your home. Nobody’s going to give a toss if the kids aren’t in school while you get organised.

I agree, the onshore route is more risky, why would you risk being turned around at the border and being issued with a 3 year ban because you’re caught lying to immigration? You won’t have to drop everything and fly off instantly as long as you enter for the first time within 12 months of your medical/police check. And even then, if it’s in line with the skilled visa, you don’t need to stay, you’ve got 5 years to make the move permanent so you can pop over for the day, if desperate, to activate the visa then come home again. While you wait, you should make sure that your DH gets his British citizenship if he doesn’t already have it. You never know if and when you might want to move back to U.K. and it makes life much easier.