Quoll

On a WHV take any job you can get - barista, waiting tables, serving drinks, cleaning etc. Primary jobs in the major cities are scarce and a WHV isn't really intended as a career path and you're unlikely to be able to support yourself on CRT especially at the start of the year. There are plenty of young Australian teachers out of work who are all clamouring for those positions. Check out Gumtree for backpacker jobs

Bus? There's probably an airport coach that goes down the coast. Or fly - the travel advice Site says fly to Port Macquarie from Brisbane and get a bus /drive up.

Good luck with your move "home". Many of us long term expats feel just the way you do. I've been lucky enough to have had the past 7 years in UK and I belong, it's been great. When my dad dies we will move on, back to Australia but with grandkids on both sides of the world in not looking forward to it. I hope your move is as fabulous as ours had been! Good luck!

Wow, good to know that! I wouldn't be in the least surprised if they changed the rules so that those who thumb their noses at the state sponsoring them are sanctioned later on but it looks like they might be heading that way anyway.

There is always a possibility that they may change the rules - it's been mooted - because people are not sticking by the moral obligation. There's no telling what they could do - nothing stopping them from refusing citizenship for example down the track. Just because it hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it couldn't potentially happen. States are getting ticked off because people get state sponsored and can't be bothered to even try to settle in the state. Technically at the moment you can do what the hell you like but it has the potential to come back and bite you in the bum down the track if the rules change.

You need to tell them if your circumstances change. I don't think they'd think you'd tried very hard if you nick off after a month. They do say in the blurb that you should have funds to support yourself for 6 months as it could take you that long to find work. Stick it out for the 6 months and if you still can't find work, then ask them to release you.

Give it 6 months and if you are still struggling you need to let them know and see if they are OK with you trying elsewhere but if you're struggling in Melbourne, your chances of getting a job anywhere else are probably going to be rather slim as well. Edited to say, you have the whole of Victoria to choose from, perhaps look state wide. As you already have a visa what has the partner visa got to do with it?

Each state has slightly different eligibility requirements for disability support in schools and immigration will consider assessments (they don't arrange them, they generally ask you to provide them) and make their judgments based on whether the child then meets the eligibility criteria for support. As special Ed support tends to be quite expensive, it's easy for the child to meet the threshold of cost to the Aus tax payer and therefore have a visa declined. If they do give you a visa then expect little to nothing by way of government support but of course there is nothing stopping you from accessing therapies if you pay for them and if you can find a private school which would enrol him then of course you can pay the fees. If a child is likely to be eligible for the NDIS they're likely to fail. All the migration agents can do is look at the assessments and tell you what they think the immigration response to your visa application is likely to be and whether you're going to waste your time and money. It's usually better, when there is a known medical issue to consult the agents before applying for the visa but running the situation past them will give you a better perspective of what your chances are. They'll probably be able to tell you exactly what assessment battery is required.

They may ask you to get the psychometric assessments done. The fact that he is in an early intervention program usually raises some flags and they may assume that he's already had a cognitive assessment and ask you to provide the results of that. They would usually ask for a paediatric diagnosis, cognitive assessment, adaptive behaviour, speech /language assessment, possibly an OT assessment. You can probably find a clinical paediatric psychologist who could do that. Bottom line though, yes, I would be seeking advice from one of the specialists in medical issues. The catch 22 is that if a child is needy enough to be eligible for support in education they are not likely to get a visa and if they get a visa they're likely to not get support in school.

If you've not really been living together with joint accounts, joint rentals, meaning him in your will etc you're going to find it hard to evidence a 12 month cohabitation arrangement so if you go on a WHV you can spend your year building up evidence then apply towards the end of your WHV. Onshore temporary visas (which is what you would then apply for) are taking around 2 years to process and you live in a bridging visa in the interim but that comes with restrictions.

How long have you been in the relationship? The offshore partner visa is a 309/100 and processing times from London were very short at the beginning of the year but you're unlikely to get one before December, they're taking several months now - but you could put in your application and see, then delay your departure if necessary. Assuming you have all the requirements for proving the relationship of course. If you're only recently into the relationship then it's an 820 onshore visa you would need not the 801 which is a permanent visa and usually only issued if you've been in a long term relationship, have Aussie kids together etc. and processing time for that are kicking out to about 2 years at the moment. You can go on a WHV and as long as you have the evidence of relationship you can apply before your WHV expires and go onto a bridging visa then live in limbo for a couple of years.

Yup, but I struck lucky and my very recalcitrant Australian husband took one look at my ageing parents on one of those very rare visits he deigned to make (our son's wedding) and said "we can't leave them here alone!" So we've been here for 7 years now carrying for increasingly frail parents (now down to one) but I've promised to return when dad dies. He has promised we will get air conditioning as a priority on our return. I think I can live with that but I belong in England and as we have a grandson here we will always be back and forward. That said, I was watching Secret City on Netflix yesterday and actually felt a pang of homesickness for Canberra - I think, actually, it's more of a pang for adventure rather than being tired 24/7 to an old man. I don't think there is a magic answer to be honest and you could find yourself actually unable to live in UK with your Australian husband anyway, it's he entitled to a visa? They can be hard to come by. My DH fortunately had a UK born mother and the rules changed in 2010 to allow him to get citizenship. Good luck!

Register with the Department of Education and put your hands up for positions in that area. The further out you go the higher the chances of them having vacancies to fill and with NSW it'll stand you in good stead anyway as you get points for having done regional postings should you ever try and apply for something in an area that people actually want to live in.

I don't think you're going to have too much trouble providing the proof given your situation. I'd say you are going to find it very straightforward given the length of your relationship and having two Aussie kids from your marriage.

Why don't you just rent out your house if you can't sell it and go as soon as you can? You can sell it down the track if Australia works out for you otherwise you've got something to return to.

Immigration aren’t obliged to rush things through. They’re bureaucrats and their job is to fill visas in areas and skills which are required by Australia. They’re under an obligation to the Australian tax payer not to someone who is applying to enter. If they just went open slather and processed everyone without due care and attention then there would be a flood and that wouldn’t be good for the Aussie community. It may not be what you want but you always have the right to revoke your visa application, no one is forcing you to move to Australia. Living in Australia is unfortunately not a God given right for everyone. Peter Dutton was the best Immigration minister we’ve had in a long while.

I’d be taking the “better weather we’d be outside all the time” with a bit of a pinch of salt as well. It’s just as hard to be outside when the sun is blazing enough to frazzle you and you’re slathered in sunscreen and covered up to stop sunburn. It all depends where you go, of course, but the heat and sunshine can be just as restrictive as the “8 months of rain” that is supposed to pervade Britain (a move to East Anglia might be cheaper and easier, weather isn’t like that here). Aussie kids are wedded to their Wiis just as much as English kids and trawling the malls is a national high school sport.

You could, of course, leave your daughter with her dad and you come and visit her or have her visit you for holidays if you are desperate to go.

No need to post the same query on different parts of the forum! Once should be enough. In general, no, public servants don’t work on Saturdays or Sundays but you never know, you might get one who fancies a bit of overtime. So, assume no you won’t get a visa issued but if you do get notification over the weekend then that’s a bonus!

Have you got your visa? That is potentially stumbling block number 1. I don’t know if lateral transfers get preferential treatment but a significant disability in one family member for regular visa applications usually results in all applications being rejected. http://education.qld.gov.au/schools/disability/early-childhood-development-services.html (assuming he will not be eligible for school initially) http://education.qld.gov.au/studentservices/learning/disability/parentguide/index.html (for school age) Are good places to start for a kid with a disability. You will also have to come to terms with the vagaries of the very dysfunctional NDIS. IIRC at one stage, Queensland did all their own assessments and wouldn’t take diagnoses from other jurisdictions but that’s probably changed by now. Assuming you get a visa then there’s not much you can do until you know where you will be posted and living.

If you have access to extensive speech therapy before you leave I’d take advantage of that because it’s not likely that your lad will get “extensive” support when he arrives - early intervention is very much state specific and often very patchy. You will probably be better paying for private ST services.

It’ll be interesting to see if you continue to love Australia or whether you will find (and maybe find uncomfortable) that you don’t get that feeling of belonging. I think for many of us the longer you stay the more you realise you don’t belong and so when you click with the place/people/emotion that you do “belong” everything else then begins to pall after a while. If OTOH when you get back you do get that feeling of “this is home” then you’re good to stick with it. For me, my head always said “Australia is home” but my heart never got with the plan and though I was happy enough there for about 20 years or so, eventually the gloss wore off and I craved the belonging. In hindsight, I wish we had moved back at least 10 years before retirement - maybe after the kids left school or even (and I think one son in particular would have had a much better future) for the boys’ HS years. As it is, we are back in retirement to care for my elderly dad and I’ve promised to return to Aus when he dies. Whether I will be able to cope with the lack of belonging then I have no idea but we both have dual citizenship so theoretically we have the freedom to come and go at will. If you keep all your options open just “be” where your best place is at the time. Good luck.

Bendigo is OK. Ballarat is closer to Melbourne by about an hour. Bendigo has some good second hand bookshops and the owner of one said he chose Bendigo for its easy access to cricket events (dunno about that but that was his rationale). Castlemaine probably has less going for it on the surface, it always seems a bit single streetish to me and whenever I go there, I’m done within half an hour. Bendigo has more to offer imho and my brother in law has lived there for about 25 years and he quite likes it but he doesn’t have kids and nor do we any more. I think for range of education options I’d probably go for Ballarat if I were looking at a regional Victorian town.

It sure does. I’ve had both those procedures mentioned and in Canberra I was told there would be an 18 month wait for gall bladder removal (I paid for it within 4 weeks and that was because he was the best surgeon around) and my wonderful gynaecologist said that I would never have got to the top of the waiting list for a hysterectomy although my reasons, in the same way as your friend, would have rendered me suicidal before too long! (She was amazing, it was done within 2 weeks) I saw on the front page of the Canberra Times recently, the waiting list for urology was 6 years!!! Fortunately here in Cambridge my dad got a urology specialist appointment within 6 days and was well on the road to recovery after a minor op within 6 weeks (and that included Christmas!). My uncle had a carpal tunnel op within a couple of months that I would, again, never have got to the top of the list for in Canberra.

Nope, there isn’t an easy option. You either develop a very thick skin and say “bugger it, it’s my life” or you Re prioritize and maybe put yourself on the back burner while you do whatever makes you able to live with your conscience. I’ve cried more times than I can remember as I farewelled my aged parents for about 7 years before my DH who was “never going to live in England ever again” took one look at my aged parents and said “we can’t leave them here alone like this”. That was 7 years ago yesterday. He’s really enjoyed England but part of that is because he knows that as soon as my dad dies we will be back to Aus. I’m a hard hearted Hannah but leaving my parents vulnerable on the other side of the world (I’m an only) was beyond even me. We lost mum last year and now dad is cracking on at 94 needing 24/7 care. We have tried to persuade him that a care home would offer more than we can but he wants to die in his own home. My only suggestion would be that you get them settled into supported accommodation somewhere so that you know someone is keeping an eye but realistically the chances of you being there when they go is statistically quite remote. I wasn’t there with my mum as we had to put her demented self into care 18 months before. She was only 4 miles down the road but I wasn’t there. Good luck, I don’t envy you, it’s a noxious position to find yourself in but try and keep things flexible, get your citizenship, be prepared to move if you need to, have a contingency plan with your brother - at least you have one who can pull his equal weight- and see how the chips fall.