Marisawright

Many, many, many people realise they made the wrong decision. About half of all migrants end up going home again. Australia is a foreign country, after all. Having said that, you might just be suffering from the initial shock of the move and will be fine once you've had a chance to settle down. Only you can work it out. I think it's easy to get the wrong impression of Australia when you're on a working holiday visa because it's all so new and exciting. Even if you're working full-time, you have a sense of freedom because you know you're not trapped in the job, and you don't have to make long-term commitments.

I agree, don't let them bully you into closing the account. You will find a UK bank account handy for a lot of things. If you keep getting your UK pension paid into the account, it will remain "active' so it should be in no danger of getting closed down.

This is why you need to hire Paul to do the submission for you. At first glance, your "substantial ties" don't sound that substantial. An agent will know how to tweak the wording to present the strongest possible case. Your oh doesn't need a compelling reason for why he left. He needs a compelling reason for why he stayed for so long. He had a "window" of several years, during which he could easily have returned, but he chose to let his PR lapse. If he values his connection to Australia, he wouldn't have let that happen, so he must have a very strong reason why it was impossible for him to return till now. Again, I think you could be on shaky ground there, so it would be worth getting an agent who can write the submission in the strongest way possible.

Yes, Sydney is horrendously expensive for housing. If you're already living in London, you would probably find the prices acceptable - anyone else would struggle. Melbourne is a close second. Everywhere else in Australia is substantially cheaper. It's very hard to recommend an area without knowing why you want to come to Australia. What are you looking for? You can't assume you'll like living in, say, Adelaide because you liked Sydney. That's like someone saying they enjoyed living in London so they're bound to love Aberdeen.

Sevenseas was the cheapest one I found. Be careful when comparing costs, because there are always charges to pay on arrival in the UK as well as the upfront fee. Some companies keep quiet about that so their quote looks cheaper, but isn't! The problem is that smaller your consignment is, the more they'll charge you per square metre. So you may actually find it more cost effective to ship a wee bit more and get the smallest Movecube.

Ah, I see the misunderstanding. It doesn't matter which one of you was the main applicant, that's in the past. Once you arrived in Australia, each one of you got a full PR visa in your own right. It wouldn't even matter if you got divorced now, your husband and your children would still keep their PR. You're the only one with a problem, because if you leave it till after 6th March, you won't be able to get home to your children. So either get on the plane or get your application in! It doesn't matter whether your home is owned or rented, the fact that you've established a home in Australia and that your husband and children are living there, does mean you have "strong ties". So it's not likely you'd have any trouble getting a one year RRV which will be enough time for you to get back to them. It would be wise for your husband and children to apply for a RRV too, just in case there is another family emergency and you need to go overseas.

If you are still in the UK after 6th March 2019, you will not be allowed to enter Australia. Your PR will be expired. You'll be stuck in the UK until you can get a RRV, which could take several months. I suggest getting your application in right now, even if you plan to return before 6th March. You won't get the automatic 5-year RRV because you haven't lived in Australia long enough. However, if you have already established a home and jobs there,, those count as "substantial ties" so you should be able to get a one year RRV (but that's all). When that RRV expires, you will need to apply for another one to allow you to leave and enter Australia, and so on until you meet the 2 year residency (after which time you'll be able to get a 5 year one).

You need to get your visa before you start worrying about employment. These days, few employers are willing to hire you from overseas. The great majority of migrants wait until they've arrived in Australia before they start looking for work. It's a complicated process and it would be worth having a consultation with a migration agent to get your head around it. Basically, one of you must have skills that are on the list of occupations, then you need to check whether you can get enough points to be eligible to apply. It is possible to get an employer-sponsored visa, BUT it's just a temporary contract for 2 to 4 years, and then you go home at the end (for some professions, there is a chance that you can stay on and get a permanent visa at the end, but it's far from guaranteed).

What makes you think that?

I know you understand it. Having been on a 410, you understand first-hand the size of the cost to Medicare, since you've had to foot your own bill for medical expenses all this time! I was explaining it for the benefit of the OP. I think you're right about the possibility of major changes. The fact that New Zealand suspended parent visas for so long, is a bit of a red flag IMO.

The government doesn't see these visas as money-spinners at all - quite the reverse. The price of these visas is high because the applicants are elderly and therefore expected to be a burden on Medicare and other government benefit programs. Also, parents who are on the permanent CPV will be eligible for the Australian pension after ten years, so that's another cost to the taxpayer. Therefore the fees are meant to go towards paying those costs. When you consider one hip replacement costs the government around $35,000, you see where the fee comes from.

Why did you apply again, with the same information, when you had already been refused once? What gave you reason to believe the outcome would be any different? Sadly, I think you just have to accept that your qualifications are not acceptable for a 187 visa. Raul has confirmed that fact, and he is a highly experienced agent. I know it's frustrating. I know a few accountants and IMO diploma-qualified accountants are often much better at their jobs than degree-qualified, because their training is so much more real-world. But rules are rules.

It's not so much what he's actually earning but what he could be earning that matters. We had someone on the forums recently whose daughter was at university - their application got rejected because the daughter was judged capable of funding her study independently. I'd say having a steady job of any kind is risky. However I think it would be worth the money to consult an agent on that specific issue, given how crucial it is

You need to ensure he stays completely dependent on you until you get the visa granted. If he does anything more than the occasional holiday job, they will regard him as "able to work" and therefore no longer dependent on you. So that may mean enrolling him in a further course somewhere.

No

I think the point is that when you get to that degree of specificity, you're beyond the point of being able to get advice on these forums - you need to pay a professional. Since your sponsor will have to engage a migration agent to lead them through the complex process, I suggest that would be the first step, because I'm sure the business will choose the pathway based on what makes most sense for their business. Then it will be up to you to decide whether that pathway suits you enough to accept the position.

So you are staying in France? To be honest, I think that sounds like a wise decision. You're established there and you know how everything works - plus you won't have the huge costs of moving to the other side of the world. I understand the initial reaction of wanting to be close to your daughter, now you don't have your beloved partner by your side - but if you loved living in France before, then it would be a shame to leave it now. I did worry about you moving to Tasmania too - while It sounds close to Melbourne in theory, in practice I suspect your daughter would have travelled back and forth less often than you think. So you might still have found yourself isolated. Good luck with your move.

I had to look it up, so I learned something. If you're British , you get a "Working Holiday Visa" (417) whereas a few other countries get a "Work and Holiday Visa" (462) instead. There seems to be very little difference between them.

You mentioned earlier that you were using a migration agent, and he was the one who told you to apply with less than 3 years experience. If that's the case, and you are now having problems, you are entitled to go back to him to demand an explanation - at NO extra cost.

So, you have never had a Working Holiday Visa before? If not, and you're still within the eligible age range, then surely it would be the obvious solution. It would give you a full year of extra experience

I think the specialist was a private one. Just because it was a public hospital doesn't mean the specialist was working in the public system. That's one of the problems with the Australian system. Unless you're obviously hard up, most GP's automatically refer you to a private specialist without even asking. They won't tell you that you've got the option to see someone in the public system. So I think a lot of people are in the dark about specialists being available in the public system, as I was until recently - they think that specialists cost money and that's that.

Oh no, Libby! I hope the change of plans is good news and not bad news. Are you still coming to Australia?

Things have changed so much since I arrived in Australia 30 years ago. I trained as a secretary, and in the UK, that's all I would ever have been. In those days, people equated "secretary" with "typist" and moving up into an admin role was out of the question. I arrived in Australia and greatly daring, applied for three office manager jobs - and got offered all three of them. All three were a big step up, supervising staff and managing supplier contracts, but companies were desperate for staff in those days and they had to be willing to give people a chance. I suspect a lot of people arrive from the UK thinking Australia is still like that - a new country desperate for skilled people. It's not. It's a first world country the same as any other. I think people need to ask themselves, how long would it take a foreigner to break into the job market in the UK?

You say you got PR in 2015. I assume you are planning to move to Australia soon, so you don't lose your right to live in Australia? Is that why you want to get the visa? As a NZ citizen, your child already has a right to enter Australia to live, so he doesn't need a 101 visa.

They stand to make money if there’s a way for you to get sponsored, so if they’re telling you it can’t be done, then it’s true