Quoll

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.

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.