Quoll

Most people apply for their partner visa offshore. The strategy you are proposing is risky - if he lies to immigration and says he’s going to be a tourist when he blatantly is not, he runs the risk of being turned back at the border and getting a 3 year ban. Get his partner visa application in offshore right away and either he waits for it to come through (optimal) or if he needs to be with you then advise your case officer and go for visits on a tourist visa as long as he’s off shore when it’s issued.

Well, it'll either get better or it won't I guess. It sounds like you're doing all the right things and its good that you've taken yourself off to see a counselor but in my experience you'll probably never have those connections that you had "back home" - friendships formed over times of developmental angst stand the test of time better I think. It might help if you don't consciously try and replace those mates with new "best" ones but just resign yourself to having acquaintances and if perchance one of them happens to stick as a friend then you've won but otherwise pride yourself on your independence and self sufficiency. The thing to watch out for though is what do you do if it never fails into place? If after all the "lovely lifestyle" you're still empty inside? At what point do you say enough! And move on. Don't let yourself go past that point of no return so that you find yourself continually empty and resentful - it can happen I assure you. For a couple of decades my head told me that Australia was home and like everyone else I spouted the usual platitudes "great place to bring up kids", "lovely lifestyle", "good jobs", "great opportunities" - all the usual ones that keep getting trotted out - but my stupid heart never got with the plan so that after 32 years in Australia I was clinically depressed with exogenous depression because I was in the wrong place amid the wrong people and no amount of papering over the cracks was going to make it better . If you'd have asked me back at the beginning (40 years ago at the end of this month eek!) I would never in a million years have imagined that happening. So, my one caution would be not to make any irrevocable decisions (I don't know if children feature in your future but they're the number 1 irrevocable) until you're 100% sure that Australia is where you want to grow old and die because once you have them (kids!) you will be trapped and nothing feeds that feeling of empty displacement like being trapped where you don't belong. Look after yourself!!! Good luck.

But the light rail /tram or whatever will be working. Hope it's less of a mess than it was last year.

Good luck! It won't be easy and perhaps the bulk of your job is going to be to get your siblings to step up to the plate and do their bit. We're caring for my dad now - never thought it would be this long when we came 7.5 years ago on holiday and it's the hardest thing I've ever done. I think we are nearly at our tethers end now though and have said we will look at getting him into long term care once we are back from our months holiday in Australia over April. I'm an only child so leaving him here alone (in a caring care home with lots of other people) is going to be hard but we need to look after ourselves too and we've done a lot with zero thanks. I think he will actually be better off but he's trying very hard to be good at the moment since his last episode where I began to fear for my safety and his. We shall see. He's 95 and looking pretty good for it. I've found community support to be quite good so I hope it's good in your area and I absolutely cannot fault the NHS for what they have done not only for my dad but my mum who died 2 years ago and my elderly aunt and uncle. Anyway, all the best, my hat's off to you!

Were you born in Britain? If so they are automatically citizens by descent. Children born to British born mothers have been citizens by descent since 1982 and even those born before that date can become citizens by descent quite easily. As they are obviously post 1982, all you have to do is apply for their passports. If you yourself are a citizen by descent then you can only pass on your citizenship if you have lived in UK for a defined period (think it's 4 or 5 years).

Emigration is neither quick nor cheap these days. There was a time when ACT used to go over to UK every couple of years for child protection workers - the ones they brought in had usually gone home by the next time they went. Haven't heard that they're still doing it but the guy then in charge used to like his trips back to Ireland on business every couple of years. Like many positions in Australia, be careful what you are offered if, indeed, you are ever offered anything whilst overseas. The general rule of thumb is that they will put you in a place that nobody else wants to live - often about as far from the migrant dream as you can get. Really, the best way is to see if your skills are on anyone's list and apply for PR if you can and in the meantime save up a lot of money because you're going to haemorrhage it in the process. Then once you are in country, apply for positions where you think you might want to live.

School leaving age in Australia is 17 so she will have to be in full time education somewhere until she is 17. As she's not heading to Uni she should probably enrol in TAFE - Australian employers are still going to ask for Year 12 so she could do some yr 12 subjects at TAFE and then add something career specific as well. I wouldn't bother with a school in this instance as she will be a year behind her peers, HSC is stressful and she will be looking towards employment rather than study. I wouldn't be too concerned about the friends - they're all going to go their separate ways at the end of year 12 anyway and she could make friends in other venues like sports, arts, other interest.

Impacted me too even though I’m on the other side of the world at the mo. I worked on the Gippsland recovery much overshadowed by Marysville at the time and almost forgotten now. The stories from some of the survivors were harrowing. Then my son got burned out about 5 years ago in Gippy too. That followed Canberra’s experience years before. Hope you and yours are ok with the trauma revisited. Fires scare the pants off me now!

Good luck! I've tended to move with backpack only. Declutter and be ruthless.

Nope, very clearly states 4 years course from a university.

The agreement covers "medically necessary" care - pregnancy would sort of fall into that although it is neither illness nor accident (generally:-)). Australia has a co-pay system and though a lot of UK migrants seem intent on replicating the NHS and demanding free medical treatment, the bulk of Aussies co-pay, so each GP and specialist visit will cost you something and some scans could cost you something. Under medicare you get the doctor you get and you get treatment in public hospitals. Private health cover usually has the 12 months waiting period before cover for pregnancy. You could self insure of course and pay for any private cover and choose your own doctor and get a private room in hospital

NSW, SA and ACT charge, more than WA generally too. It’s the cost you will incur after you return to U.K. that should give you pause. International Uni fees are eye watering and even if Aus yr 12 scores could get your daughter into a course she might have to do a Foundation year and pay international fees throughout.

I would add that your kids’ ages are against you too, they’re coming up to crucial education time and though the 13 year old might just squeak through and return without deficit, the 15 yr old would be up for international student fees if they decided to try for Uni at 18 after 3 yrs in Australia. In WA the school fees would be about $4k per family, in Vic temporary residents aren’t charged. If you left your eldest in U.K. to get through GCSE and A levels she’d probably be better off than trying to get into Uni with an Australian yr 12 cert then paying international fees.g As for employment - my paramedic niece has had to leave Victoria because jobs are hard to come by and she’s gone down to Tassie. I think there’s rather a glut of paramedics. Ditto what has already been said about visas and sponsorship.

I came back to Cambridge because that’s where the olds are. Lovely area but eye watering expensive unfortunately. It’s rural enough but close enough to everything you’re ever likely to need. Our village has a good community thing going on as well. No hills if you need some undulating in your life but that’s my only niggle. However, we’ve been all over the place and I’d say you’re spoiled for choice, there’s lots of places I’d be happy to live in.

Equally, if one person in a relationship has mental health issues which could be ameliorated by moving elsewhere is it not selfish of their partner to facilitate that move. Compromise is always key but to fail to acknowledge or work with a partner who has exogenous depression - as the OP may well - is abuse. As for giving birth in UK - I think you just declare that as your habitual place of residence and you have the baby there, they can't force you to return the baby to Australia. However, the ramifications of splitting up siblings is not a situation to be taken lightly. I guess it all depends on your state of desperation.

Immigration law isn't about fairness. It's a set of rules put in place to cover everyone. A lot of people are denied pr visas because of medical conditions and they can whine all they like but the rules are there to be followed. You seem to think there is an assumption of entitlement to pr just because you've been temporary which is not the case. We would be in a right mess if immigration were governed by emotional blackmail. I thought the medical treatment visa is for when you aren't fit enough to leave the country and so couldn't be repatriated but would be visa -less if you had to stay. If you're currently on a temporary visa and have health insurance why is there a problem?

Of course it's fair. Not that that fairness per se should be the issue anyway. You know when you sign up to be a temporary resident that you will be a temporary resident and expect to return to your home country when your temporary residence is done. If you don't want to do that then don't bother becoming a temporary resident. It wouldn't be fair on the Australian tax payer to foot the bill for a non permanent resident - and now you want to bring your family in to help too. You can get health insurance in your home country if that's what you've had before. One hours that you also have private health insurance in Australia to cover your bills.

Oh dear. Hate to say it but you're screwed. Not only may you not leave the country with your kids, your ex can restrict exactly where you do live - so if you're in Sydney and would get better support in Melbourne you can't. Apart from sympathy there isn't much else unkess he's been abusive to either you or the kids and you feel for your safety in which case some of the women's services may help. So sorry for your predicament but we do warn of it fairly constantly. Edited to say, as your desire to leave is so strong and will be impacting on your daily life, a few sessions with a counselor might help equip you with the tools to cope with each and every day you are trapped.

No its not unfair to follow a process that you were aware of when you entered Australia temporarily. Of course you should go home for treatment where you will have the wider support of family and friends. That's what temporary means. It's the choice you made.

Curse of the Expat! Itchy Feet-itis. I think there is that sense of life no longer being an adventure when you've moved on but that happens no matter where you are given time. There's always a sense of anticlimax when you're faced with actually settling down.

Property is still very expensive and, much as I am a Canberran and I defend it, my concern with Canberra would be employment. It's very much a PS town and the bulk of positions require citizenship and for someone in their mid 40s who isn't a citizen, there could be a challenge to get into the workforce if their background is public service IT. Canberra also has a very high percentage of HS private school kids (the Ed Dept claims is because parents are wealthy and up themselves but it's probably more because they don't like the gov school options) so education could be a bit hmm. But if you have to live anywhere in Australia, it's not that bad a place to be.

Can your boyfriend not come over on a 2 year Youth visa to UK or perhaps he might have some UK ancestry in his background which would allow him an Ancestry visa? You dont have to be the one to move, at least in the first instance

Ditto, seek advice from an agent who specialises in medical conditions. The ADHD probably not a deal breaker because it doesnt get any support from disability programs, kids just muddle through in mainstream and don't attract any additional resources, especially not in Victoria, that most draconian of states. Speech Language disorder though could potentially be the problem area - as soon as you enter into the realms of additional support through therapies or in class support or even special classes or special schools then the $ signs keep on rising. Get updated assessments from your SLT and, if you can, any additional psycho educational assessments including cognitive ability, adaptive behaviour and current skill levels and present them to George or one of the other agents and see what they say. No one can give you a yes/no answer on here but in general terms, if a kid is getting support in UK schools, in terms of STA or therapeutic input there is a greater likelihood that they will fail to get a visa. Victoria, as I have said, is particularly tight with its disability funding.

What a roller coaster indeed but good on you for redirecting your life down a pathway of your own choosing to something that love doing. You never know your luck down the track you might get a compromise hiatus period from your wife for at least a sabbatical in UK or a longer term compromise of a move elsewhere in the country (but it's still Australia). Crunch point though, you have to look after your mental health and if Australia is irritating it, the irritation had to be excised but don't leave it until you are past the point of no return. Good luck!

Personally, I think your concerns are quite valid. I guess it rather depends on what your kids want to do with their lives - you trek them to Australia, they could, like one of mine end up back in UK where his future turned out to be considerably brighter than if he'd have stayed in Australia (owns his own home in London). Equally, if you stay in Warwickshire, once they've done with a good UK education the world will be their oyster and they could find themselves in Australia at some point - or Canada or anywhere else from Alaska to Zanzibar for that matter. You're right to be worrying about your own longer term future too - earning enough for a comfortable retirement they reckon takes about 40 years of work and the pressure is certainly on for independence in retirement not relying on Centrelink benefits. Also, as far as moving goes - I have no idea how old you are but there have been several posts on here of late about how hard it is to crack into the workforce when you're late 40s and over 50 is over the hill. That said, if your wife's mental health is suffering because she's in the wrong place then sometimes you just have to stuck it up to make it better. Sydney would be way down the list of my choices though.