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Can I ask that you please don't confuse the role of the sponsor with that of the assurer?! The sponsor clearly cannot be anyone - s/he must be the child of the applicant, or the spouse/partner of the child. Best regards.

After 3 years i went back for a quick trip to sell the house, after 5 years went back for a holiday, see family, catch up with mates and take in a few football matches. Really enjoyed it, but it brought home how much my life had changed for the better and it would a big step backwards to ever live and work there again. I'd always go back to the UK, maybe to live for 4 months over a summer and just tour around..but i don't want to be beholden to the place as i think it's going in the wrong direction for a quality lifestyle.

I found the same thing. I didn't realise how insular the modern British were. I had spent 30 years in Oz travelling and living and could have told some good stories about my wild, crazy, funny experiences. I would have thought there would have been some curiosity but no one showed any interest and no one asked. Talking about football or moaning about the weather or how Britain was going down the drain was all I heard.

If I ever have a finalised partner or skilled visa application refused , I shall let you know.

Saw this and cheered right up. https://www.instagram.com/henrythecoloradodog/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=embed_profile_upsell_test&action=profilevisit

It may be easier to come based on your husband's IT skills and have him as primary applicant.

Its good to hear you are so happy with your move home. I am in the same situation being early 50’s wanting to leave Melb and go home. Very scarey to think sbout but starting to feel like it has to be

Hi Joane, I'm assuming you meaning the 189 skilled independent visa. First things first, how old are you and your husband and how long have you been working in your profession? If you will be the primary applicant then yes, you will be required to complete a skills assessment with AASW. They are the assessing authority for social workers. Whats your husband's exact field of expertise in IT? The 189 visa is the one everyone wants, and you will be up against a lot of other applicants. It's basically a competition of who has more points for the skill select system. There are a few ways of improving your points which is almost mandatory these days to even be in with a chance of being invited for a visa.... But there are lots of visas currently and worthwhile spending some time to browse the home affairs website to get a better understanding of everything

My reading from what’s on the website leads me to think that a parent visa is only granted when the child lives in Australia - otherwise any Australian citizen living outside of Australia anywhere else in the world could enable parents to get the 143 visa without living there themselves? Perhaps the solution is for the son to remain in Australia till the parent visa is granted and therefore also permanent residence? Taken from home affairs website :- Eligibility: You must have a child who is an Australian citizen, a permanent resident or an eligible New Zealand citizen. At least half of your children must live in Australia or more of your children live in Australia than any other country

@NanaJan Thank you - I'll definitely be contacting him this weekend!

i passed!! Can't quite believe it.. I ended up revising sat next to my husband while he watched TV.. I work in an office which probably helps too.. definitely couldn't have done it without the e2 structure advice.. Onto getting an invite now! good luck everyone looking to take the test soon, its not easy. i would say don't rush, even if you finish the question early take the time to get ready for the next question..

Your story reminds of a British guy I used to work with. He went back to Essex after 3 years in Melbourne and went into his old local keen to tell them all about his new life. One of the regulars clocked him and said "alright mate, haven't seen you for a while." When he said "well I've been living in Australia haven't I?, " his mate said "Oh yeah?," and then changed the subject to how West Ham had been getting on! I don't think he's ever been back since then!

After nearly 30 years in Australia and now in my mid-50s, I was waiting for the right time to come home to England and I finally made it! I arrived at Heathrow on 2 March right in the middle of the ‘beast from the east’. My sister couldn’t get out of Somerset to pick me up but thankfully my daughter came from London and collected me and my two dogs and delivered us safely to Dorset. The dogs, by the way, were totally fine and took the journey completely in their stride. They were bemused by the snow though! So it’s close to one month on and I’m so happy I gathered all the courage I didn’t know I had, survived the wobbly moments, and made the move. I’m staying with my very elderly parents which is not the easiest as Mum has dementia and Dad a good few age-related issues too. But to see how much they are enjoying having me home at last and, quite unexpectedly, how much joy the dogs bring them, I can practice all my skills in patience and make the most of this time with them. In my first month I have managed to open a bank account (easier than I’d imagined - Lloyds Bank have been great), buy a car and have an offer accepted on a house near Wimborne. Fingers crossed all goes smoothly! Job hunting is next on the list. I’ve been driving around Dorset to become more familiar with the area as I grew up in Surrey. What a beautiful county this is! I’m in the midst of moving the bulk of my money across now which is the only disappointment so far. With the exchange rate at around .54, I wish I had been able to do this last year when the pound was quite a bit weaker. On the upside, property prices are a lot lower than in Melbourne so it’s swings and roundabouts I guess. So after the ramblings above, the point of my post is to thank this group for their support, advice and insights. Incredibly useful and much appreciated. Also to say to anyone who is wavering about the move home and the enormity of the process, it really isn’t that bad when you break it down to a task by task basis and the rewards are so worth it. Each of our experiences are very different but, from my own perspective, I am so very happy to be home and don’t have a moment of regret. The UK has certainly changed since the 1980s but intrinsically it is still the same beautiful country, people have been so friendly and helpful, and I feel that wonderful sense of belonging again that was missing for so many years. Good luck to all who are on this journey of upheaval and new beginnings, whichever direction you are travelling. It is only those of us who have gone through this that truly understand what is really involved; practically, financially and emotionally.

Your answer to everything is immigration. The irony is you are a failed immigrant.

Course it is, stands to reason dunnit. Stop all these immigrants that's wot I says. Who ever heard of an immigrant being Lord Mayor, wot next, one of 'em 'll be Prime Minister.

What I'm saying is its very easy to establish in peoples minds an image of 'gangs' as a reason for the violence rather than asking the question of who constitutes the gangs, why is this supposed gang culture becoming established and why now, just blaming 'gangs' is easy, it requires no thinking, it just serves to divert attention from the real issues. It's just like the 'Teddy boy' gangs of the 60's so beloved by the 'People' and News of the World' newspapers The Teddy boys and Mods and Rockers were only resolved by spending money on youth provision in the inner cities, properly funded by Councils and not dribs and drabs funded by 5quid raffles for the 'right kind' of 'mumsy' provision

. . For Brizzy dwellers. The gateway Bridge as you've likely never seen it. Took me ages to hunt out this viewpoint Gateway Bridge (1) by Kevin Dickinson, on Flickr Gateway Bridge (2) by Kevin Dickinson, on Flickr Gateway Bridge (3) by Kevin Dickinson, on Flickr Gateway Bridge (4) by Kevin Dickinson, on Flickr

It may well turn out that he spends longer behind bars, or in a psychiatric facility, than he would have had be been sentenced in a criminal trial. This is very common actually.

All good advice as far as I can tell we lived for 10 years in Suburban Perth never saw one snake and very few redbacks (plenty of other spiders though) and then 12 years on a farm in the bush (Near Denmark) we saw quite a few snakes then but never had a problem really even though we lived near a wet area with lots of frogs (snakes like frogs). One scary moment had me go flying off the ride on mower when I ran over a large Tiger snake, I expected him to be wrapped in the mechanisum but he must have ducked as when I looked later there wasn't a sign of him. I did get bitten by a white tail spider and that meant a small dead area on my foot for several years (all gone now). If you are sensible you won't have a problem though I was particularly unlucky and in 22 years not at all bad really. We are heading back to QLD soon might see you there...

There's no one thing which will keep snakes away. Firstly, remember that not all snakes in Queensland are venomous...so you will need to learn which ones you don't need to worry about and which ones you do. As others have said, keep the garden tidy....grass trimmed, bushes trimmed at the base so you can see exactly what is underneath, no piles of rocks or timber or anything lying around which they can hide under. Have fly wire screens over windows and doors so that nothing can crawl in even if the window/door is open for ventilation. Always walk in a clear space....ie. don't walk through long grass or jump over logs without seeing where your feet will be landing. This is important to teach children. If the weather is dry snakes will be attracted to water so don't leave pets' water bowls outside. Most areas have a reptile catching organisation. Once you know where you will be living you can put their number on speed dial in your phone....and they will come and rescue you (and the snake) if you ever need it. PS: Cats and dogs should be kept away from snakes. The cat/dog usually comes off worst.

hopefully this will be addressed as part of the brexit process

If being against many Israeli positions with regard to Gaza, the West Bank, settlements etc is anti-semetic then I guess I must be too. I suppose that is the problem when a government and a religion are co-terminus.

I also used E2launguage for PTE-A on YouTube and found it very useful for explaining the correct structure of each question type. I am English, but practiced pretty much every day for 2 months (on average an hour a day, more on the weekends). Possibly this is overkill for a native speaker, but I wasn't taking any chances. I also purchased the scored mock tests on PTE's website (Gold package), twice!!! These showed me areas that needed improvement, which I then focused on.

Assuming they exist where you're planning to live - Goget (the car hire/share company) hire out vans by the hour. They're designed for one-off furniture pick ups and the like so would be perfect for your situation.

You could do a bit of both. When we moved back, we decided that we wouldn't bring the mattresses or the sofas, but shipped everything else. Our things were shipped on the Friday so we were in an empty house with just the sofas and on mattresses on the floor until we flew on the Monday. We donated the sofas to the kids school (they were setting up little study nooks so had them for them), and arranged for a mattress recycling company to come and collect the mattresses on the Monday morning. We arranged holiday accommodation for when we arrived, and just as ew moved into our new house we went to IKEA and ordered sofas and mattresses to be delivered, and again used them on the floor until the bed frames/rest of our furniture arrived. We also got a couple of cheap side tables, and a plastic garden furniture set to use in the kitchen. It worked out fine to do it like that. The kids enjoyed 'camping out' on the floor.