Phil & Vikki

For us, we have thought about this lone and hard. What is it that is driving us to go back to the UK, back "Home" The main thing is that after 7 years, we all still class the UK as home. The second reason is that after a few years you can see how much family and friends are ageing. Unfortunately, some people you know pass away and you realise that time once it goes cannot be got back. Friends and relations go and you cannot get them back. The third reason is that no matter how bad the UK may be, when you spend time in another place, you realise that everywhere is the same. No matter where you go it has it issues, termism, stabbings, murders, gangs and so on. The rose tinted glasses that a fair few come over to Australia with fade after a bit. This is only our opinion though.

Personally, we thought about this and came to the decision that if we didn't get the passport, the last 5 - 10 years effort would of been for nothing. If we went back without the passport yes, we would of had a few years out in Australia, but that would of been it. Without the passport, due to our age, we would not be able to come back to Oz as anything more that a tourist. We thought that is we have gone through all of the effort, saving, heartache and trouble, it best to hold out another year or two and that way the kids have the option to come back to Australia if they want in the future. Also if we decide that the UK is not for us, we can become ping pong poms:huh:. Either way, with the passport you have the option. If we tried to come back out (in say ten years) we would not be able to get far due to age, but with our own passports there will not be an issue.

It does sound a bit of a bad situation you are in and hopefully, it will get better soon. For us it was always about the passport and getting that. That way we can come and go as we want and the kids have a passport, if they need it later on in life. It maybe hard to come back at the moment, but it seems such a waste to not get the passport after the years you have already spent here. It will not take too long to get it and then it is yours. You never know that a few years down the line you may want to come out again and having the passport will be such a bonus. In short, if we were you, we wuld stick it out for it. Time will fly and if you have a plan that you are working towards, you may feel better, counting down the weeks/months. Hope this helps.

At the moment we have not looked at any companies for the shipping, as it is still in the early days of planning for us. That seems to be the thing to do thought throw it away or sell it to cut down on the costs of transporting things back. There are certain things that you want to ship back, but things like clothing, furniture and the majority of white goods may not may not even make it on the boat.

That is the kind of thing that we are thinking. We are looking around and we looking at all the stuff that we can get shot of. There are a few things that we brought out, that we just have not used in a long time or just do not need anymore. Yes it will be a smaller container back. Thanks for confirming what we thought was the case.

Was thinking about this topic a few days and thinking what to write. I think it is a combination of factors. Currently it is the clock watching, to see when friends in the UK will be up. So that I can talk to them at a decent time. People who you have shared many a fond memory with and who you have things in common with. Talking about things like a rusty car and the work that needs doing on her We watch programs about the UK and think what if. We are already looking forward to our holiday in the UK and have a counter app to tell us how long it will be. Don't get it wrong, we like Australia and know that there will be things that we will miss about it. However, now we have the passport, if we decide to come back later, we can. Just at the moment, it does not feel right to be here.

We were thinking about it the other day and wondered if many people have taken back with them, less than what they came out with? When we came out here, we brought everything, including what felt like the kitchen sink. Left most of it in the boxes they came out with and have just packed them in the garage. A few weeks ago, we had a big sort out of the stored boxes and throw a fair bit away. So the old saying is true, if you have not used it within the last year, it is probably not needed. So with this in mind if we went back, we think we will be shipping less back with us, than what we came out with. This would hopefully be less on shipping costs. We would also have a look at what we have and possible throw out a bit more. Is this something that anyone who has moved back to the UK found? That you took less back with you than what you brought out? Or did you end up taking more back with you?

We are looking at taking our car back. We brought it out with us. We were told it would not be be worth it and to sell it. However, car for some people car are so much more than financial. I personally would pay what it took to get it out with us and will pay to get it back. Hopefully, due to the fact that it came from the UK and is going back home, there should not be too much of an issue. Totally agree though it is the smiles and not the miles per hour with some cars At the end of the day if you want to take them back, do it.

Oh dear that is a shame that you find yourself in this position and that you have to leave. Will you have the option of being able to come back later down the like (passport granted) or will this be it? Always believe that thing happen for a reason and you might not be able to see that now, but it will become clear later down the line. The good thing is that you will be able to go back to your old life and your family and friends. We were thinking of shipping and what we would take with us. Do you think you will be taking less back with you, or are you looking at more than what you came over with?

To a certain extent, when you decide that you are going to go back, there is such a weight lifted of your mind. True there is the uncertainty of the move and if you will be able to get jobs, a place to live, cars, money and all that. However, if you go back to where your family and friends are and the areas that you know, it will not feel like you are doing everything on your own. Like it can here sometimes.

When we were in the process of coming out here. We always said that if it didn't work out where we moved to originally, we would try other places within Australia. If that didn't work out and we moved back to the UK, we would try another area. Not the one that we moved away from. As that seemed like moving back to what we moved away from. However, as time went by we started to realize that it is the area, family and friends that we missed. We go back to the UK as much as we can and look forward to going to the old places. The places where the memories were created, the place that may have its issues, but still feels like home. Friends who you may not of seen for ages but when you do it is just like a few days have passed.

It is so good to hear that you have been able to get home and the you feel like "you" again. The sunshine bit is good news though. Sometimes it is nice to go away, but even nicer to come back. When you feel like that you know you are home.

Hoping that someone can help us. Can we still pay into our uk pensions whilst living in oz? Although we are here on a pr visa we may be returning to the uk to live at some point in the future and would like to continue our payments but we have heard that this is not allowed whilst you are not a uk resident. Thank you

It sounds like a very depressing situation that has forced you to move back and for that we are sorry and hope that things start to get better soon. Being away from family members after the loss of a loved one can put great emotional strain on the people in Australia, who just want to be there for their family back in the UK. I must agree with the other post here, would it not be best to let your tenants see out their term and then move in? If you can rent something close to the area where you want to live, that may be the best option. It will really take a long time and a lot or heartache to get them out, not to mention cost. Could you not stay with family for a few months to get your feet back on the ground? It will take a few months for your stuff to be shipped over, if you are bringing things back. You said that you would be hoping for a judge to look favorably on your situation, but what if they look favorably on your tenants? If they have not done any damage, paid on time and been the 'ideal tenants' the judge cool look on it that they are the victims here and not order them out. Have they got kids too? If they have, that would put a twist in it as the judge will not order them out on to the street with young kids. There are two sides to this and it is always good to look at both. On the one hand you were happy to let the tenants sign for another two years and give you the stability you may of wanted. However, now your situation has changed and wants to end this, if the tenant has not done anything wrong until now you may have a lot of trouble getting them out, as the situation change is not of their making. On the other hand your tenants also signed for a longer period and were happy for the security this brought them. Now to be told you want it back through no fault of theirs, they are going to try and put road blocks up. If you were in their situation would you move out as easy as you want your tenants to? If you do try to kick them out the relationship is going to go downhill and they may not be as careful in your house as what you would like. They could say why we should care if our landlord does not about us. That is a situation you really do not want to be in as they could do a lot of damage to your property. The word ‘fair’ has been used in this post and for good reason. As landlords we always want the tenant to be fair with our property, but on the other hand as landlords we should be fair to the tenants too. If they are willing to move out if they can find something else, you could assist them in their search and make it look like you are being fair. Acts such as this, a judge would hopefully look good on.

When you say soon, like it has been mentioned before, this is not a quick process. When we did out visa's it took us a couple of years. Admitting we were dragging our heels slightly to make sure every loose end was tied up in the UK before we left, but taking that out of the equation it would of taken two years (ish) to sort out. If you are not sure of which option to go for, as it is true there are a few out there, why not go through an agent? We did and they took care of everything for us. They passed us the forms when it was time to fill out and sign and sorted the rest out. The best things was that they know what to do and what was the best option for us. That took away the uncertainty that you are experiencing at the moment with not know what to go for. Yes it does cost, but this move is not going to be a cheap one, in terms of everything. There are good and bad agents out there, so have a look around. Most offer a free check to see if you have what is needed and if it would be worth setting the ball rolling. We are not anything to do with any agents and we would not tell you which ones to go for, but we had a good overall experience with ours and can they helped us out a great deal. With ours, any issues/questions we have had since getting our visa, we have been able to contact them and they have helped us out no end.

To answer your question about the driving license, due tot he fact that you have a UK one you can change it to an Australian one without any issue. Just go into the RTA and pay the money, have your photo taken and do the eye test and there you go, you have an Australian driving license. With regards to the rental and being able to knock them down, you can try, but you would do better trying to sell ice to the Eskimos. There are so many people looking for a place they do not need to drop the price. If anything, we have heard that couples/people wanting it get into a bit of a bidding war and often pay more than what it was originally quoted at. Went past a few placed and there was around 15 to 20 couples looking at them. Not only can the price go up, but often the places that go for the high prices are really not worth what they are asking. Do not be surprised if your dreams/wants of a nice house to rent are dashed slightly and you have to settle for something less than what you want. Landlords can often select on a funny criteria, when it comes to reading the letters you write them. We have heard that people did not get the place they wanted because they had pets, were single, a young couple, had kids (that could muck up the place) generally anything could go against you. May sound hard, but this is the market that you are going to be coming into, so if you get what you want straight away then great, just be prepared to have a few knock backs and possibly have to settle for less than what you originally wanted.

The cost of the rental was the first thing that shocked us about Australia. Remember looking on the real estate websites and on the first one or two pages thinking that they must of written the PW does wrong and what they really meant to say was PM. However, after reading a bit further we realized that the price was in fact per week and not per month. First shock before we had even touched down in the country lol. The heat was the second thing that shocked us. Yes we know it was going to be hot, but on our first weekend we had a rude awakening as to how hot. We left the UK and it was around 2-4 in the sun. We got here spent the first day catching up on sleep and then decided to go for a walk on the bridge. We had got half way, drank all the water we had got, were sweating and thinking what the hell. It ended up being one of the hottest days that year reaching 46 and we had decided to go for a walk when the locals were all in the shopping centres with the air con. What is that saying about ‘mad dogs and English men go out in the midday sun’ it was true for us that day. We then were shocked by the lack of choice when it comes to supermarkets. No places like Tesco’s, Asda, just four or so main players. As a result the good offers and deals we were used to were not to be found from now on. Coming from a small town in Worcester to a big city like Sydney, took us a bit to get used to. We were not used to the big city mentality. The speed of things and the amount of people going about their everyday lives as fast as they can took us a bit to get used to. One shock to this day is the general disregard drivers have for both people walking and on bikes. They seem to think I am in a car, I am going to go. Often you find yourself asking do cars here come with breaks as they do not seem to get used much in Sydney. If people see you on the crossing they will speed up rather than just stopping for a few seconds to let you cross. We have had situations where people will drive across the pedestrian crossing when you have started walking on it and when you have a pram. That is wrong and is it work the possibility of seriously hurting a family or possibly killing them, just so you can get a bit further down the road??? When we were in the UK we would slow down or even stop to allow ladies to cross with prams. Just see it as being a decent human act towards another fellow human. That does not seem to be the case that often here though. We personally love Asia and anything to do with it so the strong Asian community, shops and events like the Chinese New Year celebrations are really great for us. We love walking around all of the shops and looking what they have for sale. Often we cannot make out what they are and in a few situations we wish we had not discovered what it was, but love looking. We have also found the delights of China Town and its food courts. Oh and wow how nice is Laksa. Never had one before but now we totally love it. Talking about that sugar cane just is so nice. Always shocked by the cost of flights to anywhere from here. Was so used to cheap flights out of the UK and then realising the cost of flights from Australia was a shock. Love the family ticket you can buy in Sydney on a Sunday, pleasantly shocked at how much good value it is and where you can travel with it. Love that one.

From reading your post, it does sound rather unfair for your parents to be putting you through all of this extra pressure in what is a highly pressured time on its own. When we said we were going to make the move, none of or parents said anything like that. Yes, they said that they were going to miss us and did not want us to go, but that is it. They didn’t keep on or make us feel bad. They didn’t say anything to the kids. Putting the ‘guilt trip’ on you is bad enough, but involving the kids is not right in the slightest. Like others have put, you sould tell them to stop with the comments to our kids. With the crying you could always say that hearing that is making you cry all the time and that it may be best if you did not see them as much to stop the crying circle. Tell them it is a hard enough time for you as it is without the extra pressure and ask them if it would be easier if you didn't see them as often. Turn it around and let them know you are going and they cannot stop that, but if they don't stop the guilt trips, they could push you all away and as a result see less of you before you do go. Sometimes you have to be crule to be kind and think this is one of them situations for all of you.

The trouble here is that time keeps on going by and you never know what is around the corner. Had pretty much the same thoughts when we went back to the UK this Christmas, about our parents and were considering moving back so that they can be closer to their grandchildren. We didn't think that it was nice of us to take their grandchildren so far away from them, when they had been looking forward to being grandparents for so long. However, out of the blue my father passed away. We never saw that one coming and would of said there was easily another 10+ years left in him. You never know though when your time is up on the list of life. Now we have to live with the regrets that we never moved back or acted sooner to try and sort things out. This is our story, but it is something that may happen to anyone in this position.

By a forest :wink:

If you are looking at moving back for good, then it would be better to change all the plugs over. We used adapters on the stuff we brought from the UK here for the first year or so and it really started betting a pain in the side. If you are going to buy adapters for all the stuff, you might as well spend a few hours getting UK plugs and changing them all over. It will also be safer

Really do not want to sound nasty here, but if he needs to earn a minimum of $140 to cover your outgoings, would it not be best to look your outgoings and trying to cut them down? We had to do this process and it is surprising what you can cut down when you need too. If you are able to, your hubby can go for a little less money or you may be able to stay longer to get to the June plus mark. If you are not working at the min, could you not consider stopping daycare and doing it yourself. Like you say they are not cheap and this could be a bit of a saving for you all. If you want to stay it sounds like if no work is coming along yet, cuts will need to be made to make the dollar's that you have got that bit further. It may also come to the case that you have to work rather than being prepared to work. This is going to sound hard and it is going to put a few peoples backs up, which it is not meant to. However, these are hard times and some hard decisions need to be made for us all. Good luck with everything though, we wish you the very best and hope it works out for you guys.