Quoll

They say that you can't but I'm guessing that if you don't get someone who is assiduous at searching you might slip through the crack. If they're not going until next year they've got plenty of time to renew their passports. My son let his passport lapse in about 2010 and recently he renewed it without any hassle - it was much quicker than he thought it would be. As for a trip to the High Commission (not embassy) - inconvenient and expensive but make a trip of it and enjoy London if you can't get one of the outreach appointments. Much the easiest solution even if it is unpalatable.

So sorry to hear that. In your shoes I'd be on a flight tomorrow if I could. Hopefully he will get better but pneumonia is a difficult thing and you never know, especially the older they get. I couldn't be there for my dad - Covid and all that but I still feel the odd twinge of guilt that I didn't at least try. Fingers crossed for you. Distance is a bugger.

Would they have needed disability support in childhood???

Yes and no. Under a certain age and I'd suggest the kids in this case are still under that age, parents make the decisions. Once the kids have finished school education then they can make their own decisions about where they want to be, and it's a 50/50: they may choose Australia or they may choose UK. I think parents who make the big move should expect that their kids might well end up on the other side of the world from where they are and, as parents, we should be proud that we've given them the wings and the confidence to fly solo no matter how uncomfortable it is for us as parents. However, adults need to make decisions based on their adult lives and living somewhere you don't being doesn't make for happy parents and good models of happy adults. If the thought of ending your days in Australia fills you with dread then moving on is probably done sooner rather than later because the older you are, the harder it becomes to get yourself organised ready for retirement. As always, being a parent isn't easy.

I'm not on top of GCSEs but going by my grandson's age, I think they may start studying for GCSEs when they are 14 (going into year 10) so a move back to UK should be sorted before a child gets on the GCSE merry go round otherwise they are going to be behind the 8 ball so the window of opportunity might not be quite as large. I agree with everything else that has been said though!!! Basically, if you dont go now you will never find the right time to go.

General rule of thumb is that if a child has a disability which is significant enough to attract disability support then they wont get a visa and vice versa, if you get a visa you are unlikely to get any additional support

Yup, my husband just got his notice.

Ah, ok, he will be the right age to go into year 10 when you move mid 2024. Ignore any thing you may have got from the UK system either year level names or qualifications, they'll mean nothing here.

16 is the key age here - be prepared for them to be placed with a cohort which could be 12-18 months younger than they are, or look at alternatives to school, like TAFE but whatever you do do not enrol them half way through either years 11 or 12. If you can leave them in UK until they have finished A levels all the better.

How could you possibly forget the Big Potato - although there was debate amongst my gin soaked mates whether it was actually the Big Turd rather than the Big Potato

Sounds something like my son who left Aus in 2002 "for a year" - he wont be coming home. Like you he's on a good whack, has a nice house, growing son and whereas once he thought he would like his kids to have the same childhood he had, he has chosen to continue with the career he loves and it is unlikely he will ever come back - hasnt been back since 2010 and though he thought he might like to come back for Christmas his job will be changing so that wont be possible. His wife is unlikely to want to leave TBH although at the start of their relationship she was all for it and couldnt wait (yeah right, she never was! anything outside the M25 is too far away for her) If what you have is working then dont try and fix it - the area you are living in is beautiful and it sounds like you have it better than most tbh. Nothing much here worth coming over for and my impression of Canberra education gets worse by the day, unfortunately so I wouldnt say that it offered much of a better future for a child - different probably but not better from my observations. Contrary to what you think might be better - ie living near your rellies I would suggest quite the opposite. We lived 12 hour drive from my husband's folk and 24 hour flight away from mine - that worked out well. I think if I were closer to his family the resentment that he had it all and I had none of mine would have set in and where we were, we were a family unit doing it together. I see you are close to your in-laws - is it that you resent them having it all (even if they arent making good use of it) and your folk missing out? I know what it is to have the goal posts changed on you though - I never imagined the rest of my life in Canberra and if you had told me that back at the start I would have been on the next plane home and there is a certain resentment that I am stuck here so I hope that doesnt happen to you. We just went with the flow until we, unfortunately, went past the point of no return. So if you really feel duped and that your goalposts have been changed then either you need to address that and make changes or, like me, you work out your least worst position and live with it. As far as your time frame goes - could be any time really. Your kids will be citizens by descent so they may decide to move once you have retired, that would still be OK.

Lots of people do it in reverse! Get the job first because you don't want the granddaddy of commutes then look at the suburbs that are going to be so within commute range then narrow it down with the odd eyeball test (check out the neighbourhood - hoons in cars, boarded up shops, less than lovely folk littering the streets etc) then see what rentals are within your budget. You'll find that the schools sort of slot into place - if you dont want to live in a suburb you really don't want your kids to go to school in that suburb. The schools tend to reflect the SES of the suburb and if you dont find the government option appealing you can try the parallel Catholic system. TBH nobody gives a toss if a kid is out of school for 2-3 months while you get sorted.

Welcome to the club, we did the same back in 2011 and, for us, it was 9 years!!!! As to moving stuff, I can't say enough good things about Move Cube. They come in different sizes and we found them really easy to deal with. We got ours when we returned to Australia but you can get them in the reverse direction. It'd be easier than sending a few odd things which is what we did when we stayed in UK - for us that was a real pain because it was such a small shipment we were at the bottom of their priority list. As it happens, much of the stuff we sent over never got used anyway! I assume you have someone here who can do the packing and sending for you. I also assume you have citizenship which makes variable time frames a while lot easier to manage. Good luck!!!!!!!

Nope sure as hell does not.

Since 1979 for me and no friends. Plenty of acquaintances but no "call at 2am" friends. Went back to UK in 2011 and lived there for 9 years - no problems making really good friends. Might have been because I went back to my home town so I belonged there but add I hadn't lived there since 1970 that was a bit of a stretch. TBH nowadays I don't particularly want to get over the top of anyone's wall, I just don't get on with them.