Quoll

Sorry, should have read thoroughly, deleted my comment If you can get duplicate passports and it works out cheaper, I would do that. But never let their passports out of your control ever again!

I think the only exemption to the residency rules might be for serving military personnel and (possibly) their dependents, but otherwise, no, nothing like Russia with its blokes in the know!

Only 10 rejections? They'd probably say you're not really trying. Give it 6 months then ask them for permission (with rejections to support) to move interstate. As had been said, it doesn't have to be in your area of specialisation, any job will do to start you off.

You'll need an address in the catchment area generally, especially if it's one of the sought after schools but nothing stopping you flicking them an email and asking what the chances of enrolment are. As you know, in Canberra it ain't what you know! You could try the old sob story "lots of moves /new people, desperate to return to a cohort he knows " etc etc They will need an Australian address for the enrolment process though.

Ditto. Much more time spent outside here in UK than I ever did in Australia. Not just the heat, although that's significant in summer, it's the bitey things for me as well. Last year when I went back - less than an hour after landing in Canberra I got 4 mozzie bites on my legs and I was just doing what I would have been doing here - sitting in the garden enjoying the mid morning sunshine (while waiting for the baggage man to deliver a delayed in transit bag). I can walk any time of day in UK but even in April in Canberra I needed to have left the house by about 7 or it got too hot. I really don't get the better /outdoor lifestyle I'm afraid.

If he will have his A levels he should check and see what the prerequisites are for physio in Australia. He might be able to pick up a TAFE course if his A levels won't be enough.

I think you need to talk to a registered agent, it sounds rather complicated and my guess would be that your 804 has lapsed. You wouldn't have been allowed to leave on a BVA anyway, you'd have needed a BVB. Given that you didn't intend to be a tourist last time but intended to stay you might be in for a bit of a grilling next time to ascertain whether you've lied about being a tourist this time too. But get professional advice, this is an odd situation.

All depending which states /area you go to, you'll probably find more kids in private education in Australia than in UK. In ACT for instance its very close to 50% of kids in HS are private. Overall I think it's between 30&40% of HS kids are in private schools but that's largely because there is a strong parallel Catholic system pretty much everywhere. Figures tend to be a bit lower for primary and in ACT the number drops after HS as the government colleges aren't that bad. In other states where they go through to end yr 12 in HS the figures for maintaining private HS are probably consistently higher.

Foreign country and, within that, several different systems. School ends at the end of year 12 (which is generally the 13th year of school which starts with Kindergarten /Prep or some other nomenclature as opposed to the 14 yes in UK) with a 2 year course (11/12) some of which is examined and some of which is continuous assessment - the percentage of each rather depends on the state. Kids start year 11 as they are just 16. Australian yr 12 results generally tend not to equate too well to A level results for a UK Uni entrance, especially for competitive degrees. There's definitely not the focus on "exams" as there is in UK.

Take a career break just in case! Never quit a job you live unless you have something better in hand.

Did you take a career break from your UK job (I do hope so) in which case you've got 12 months to see how it goes. Personally, my head always told me that Australia was home but my heart never got with the plan - even after 32 years it still hadnt got the message and if I'd known then what I know now I would not have continued to bang my head against the brick wall for quite so long. Sad thing about being a migrant though is the perennial curse that you can never go back to what you had, only move forward to something better. If you can find something better in UK that is going to meet all your needs then move on. There's nothing in the rule book that says you have to love Australia.

Retrain into something that might one day be on a skilled list - but something that you really really want to do for the rest of your days just in case that occupation falls off the list. Failing that, just enjoy the lovely long holidays you get in UK and go for visits. Don't worry if it doesn't happen though, it's just another first world country.

It's so easy to drift past the point of no return. Sometimes you just drift along because it's the easy thing to do then bingo it's too late!

Aw, that had me in tears. I haven't looked but my mum was a hoarder and I wouldn't be surprised if I find my letters to her - I wasn't nearly as good as you, I didn't do it weekly but I suspect they're all here somewhere (dad is still alive, we haven't cleared things yet). My DH wrote to his mum every week in a nice card and she had kept them all so he still has them - almost like a diary for him.

Gosh I've never needed to wait 2 weeks; not for me, my parents or elderly aunt and uncle. I've never not been able to get an appointment on the day when it's been an "emergency" (I use that term loosely) and if I've had to book some time in advance its usually because I'm picky about the doctor I want and the time I want - and I love the online booking option and the online medications renewal. I've found seeing a specialist here has been quite a bit quicker than in Canberra which boasts ghastly waiting times across the board (the Canberra Times is always on about it). I think if you had private cover here it would easily be on a par with private cover in Australia. I'm always astonished at how quick things have been here, especially for my oldies who have been regular users of the service. There have also been some excellent after care provisions although I suspect rural Cambridgeshire is probably better served than, say, rural Devon.

Yup. Everyone has to reinvent their own wheel!

No, you’re right, it’s not Britain with sunshine, it’s a foreign country that happens to speak English (after a fashion ;-) and drive on the left. I think too many migrants forget that things are done differently and the Aussies don’t take kindly to folk from elsewhere rocking in and pontificating on “back home we ...”

I'd agree with PiP, your age and lack of Australian experience certainly won't be helping you, neither would the fact that for much of your time trying things would have been shut down or certainly wound right down over the summer. Don't take the lack of feedback personally, that's pretty endemic. Have you had an appointment with a recruitment agent in your field specifically to talk application strategy? I know some of them will talk to you about cvs, response to job selection criteria etc. Sydney always appears to me to be a pretty Asian place and I would imagine in IT that would be especially strong so you are probably up against some well established "who you know" networks of which you are unlikely to be a member. Failing that, the pragmatic thing is to go where the work is - apply wider than Sydney, apply for jobs you would give your eye teeth for and be prepared to jump for the one that says yes - if that's in London, then so be it.

Good luck with it! It'll be fine! They'll come back for visits and if you're able to visit them you'll have those nice concentrated periods of time with the grandkids. You will be miffed occasionally though when your friends relate their daily interactions with their grandkids - it can get rather wearing I must admit! But, then, I'm almost in the same situation as my friends who have never married and have no kids let alone grandkids, the incessant chat about grandchildren must drive them nuts! I'm just facing the prospect at 70 of leaving my 95 year old dad - something my hard heart is wrestling with. We've been caring for him in UK for 7.5 years now - we never intended it to be this long but we kept mum at home for 4 years and dad for 7.5 but his needs are such that we have no freedom and he really needs specialised care but that means he will have to sell the home we all live in, to fund his care. He's pissed off that his body isn't doing what it ought and we are both chafing at our total loss of freedom - not what we expected from retirement. Only child-ness sucks! When we do leave that will mean that we no longer see the grandson we generally see once a month but we will see the grandkids in the other side, who, currently, only get us for 4 weeks a year. No easy answers for any of us really, there are always going to be swings and roundabouts and the best we can do is to live our own lives and enjoy every minute of them.

Did he love it or tolerate it? And does he love where he is better? Its easy to put our own interpretation onto someone else's motives. I know that for many years my DH would have thought that I loved Australia just because he did - I didn't, I tolerated it because I thought there was a chance that down the track we would move on and I could escape. It came as quite a shock to him that I didn't love it the way he did. Another thing to bear in mind is your age - I've no idea how old you are but the older you get the harder it is to get work in Australia - see the post on here about people having to return to UK because they're over the hill in Aussie terms. So your DH might be being pragmatic there. Your compromise might be, like mine was, an annual sanity hit with a visit whenever you need to. Not ideal but better than no marriage. Don't diss the ideas of counselling, sometimes it helps to clarify things and stop you going round in circles, doesn't mean your marriage is on the rocks

Sadly, if you come on a temporary or provisional visa you should always assume that the default position is that you return home at the end of it, much as you may like it in Australia. If your profession was taken off the list for PR it was always going to be a risk because it can't be in that much demand.

I think you miss the point. You don't have a "right" to stay in Australia. Obviously you arrived on a visa which allowed you into the country temporarily. If you wanted to stay permanently then you should have applied for a permanent visa before you arrived in the country. Doesn't matter if you've paid your taxes - that's your responsibility as a guest worker in the country and just because you've complied, doesn't mean it gives you the right to stay nor the right to whinge about the process you have embarked upon. If you'd stayed at home and applied for a permanent visa straight up then you wouldn't be in the situation you are in. Nobody is making you stay, what is happening to you is the result of the approach you have taken to getting into the country and you should, perhaps, have done it differently.

I sympathise, being in a mixed marriage always, sadly, has the potential for one to have it all and the other to have nothing of what they want - for me it was the other direction but the feelings are the same and just as debilitating. If your fixation on Australia begins to interfere with your every day life then you might want to consider counselling for yourself (my preference is CBT but others prefer more mindfulness techniques) but I think marriage counselling for the pair of you is probably the way to go so that you can have an impartial third party help you work out a compromise situation. Either way, you're lucky in that your choice is between two first world countries, so that's a bit of a bonus.

You could try and find an IB course somewhere or he could do A levels through distance learning. He's older than his cohort starting year 11 and the Australian yr 12 results generally don't travel back to UK awfully well if he wanted something competitive. Have you thought about leaving him in UK to follow the program he'd planned and he could visit you in the holidays. That way he would be sure not to get stung with international student fees for Uni when he gets there.

Are you applying as a community worker or a psychologist? If a psychologist (or even if you call yourself thus or indicate that you are engaging in psychological practice) then you will need to be registered with AHPRA before you can get any employment using the term "psychologist" and jumping through the AHPRA hoops is a nightmare in spades. Sorry, can't help you with the community worker skills if that is what you aspire to be.