Cam

Hi Itchy feet, I really feel for your predicament. Family and friends (in my opinion) is always what makes the move hardest, and I think those who manage it most successfully are those who are able to switch off 'guilt' for leaving people behind. The cost and distance mean that you won't see people from the Uk very often. It's also worth considering how good people are with Skype, I always found Skyping my Dad really hard, there would always be something going wrong with it, although in effect there shouldn't have been but it does depend how technical people are. We also had to Skype/ call three different people regularly and with time differences there were certain golden windows which sometimes effected our evening out or our morning's plans. But that is a by the bye. It's worth considering a '1 year trip' to see how it all goes, relatives take this more kindly than 'I could be emigrating'. I feel for you boyfriend he sounds like he's desperate to go and it can eat away at you until you do go. Sometimes just having it on your mind all the time makes the whole thing more, he may go and after a year decide he'd rather be back in the UK. It's hard to know until you go whether it will be right, but also timing is key, would it be right to go now or would it be better to go in a year or two? We wrote long lists of Pro-Uk and Pro-Oz, it helped to think it all through, but I think conversations with everyone will help you understand how they would feel about it and therefore any feelings that you would have. Good luck, I don't envy your dilemma. :daydreaming:

I'm just doing my Oz tax return and wondering whether you have to pay oz taz on UK NI and pension contributions that you made in that year. It's a slightly unique situation, whilst we were in Australia I was receiving maternity pay and then we returned in March this year so had 4 months of full pay in the tax year. I've entered my income and tax paid but can't see where I could off-set the NI & pension as you don't pay tax on those in the UK. I do have to declare all these and other foreign income as we were resident for tax purposes. Anyone know any answers I looked around on the internet and can't see anything relevant. Thanks

It hasn't got me anywhere, finally I thought I was being listened to & there was hope, but no there's always a barrier.

I'm in the same place, whatever I do, I can't change the decision, but it still comes back 2 me that I suggested it in the first place! Now just need to keep strong til we get on the plane in a week & find ways to be positive & block out Oz when we get back. Good luck! I know how much it hurts!

It's funny, I've been taken so much more seriously because I haven't been emotional about it! It really helps to hear about other peoples' experiences, so thanku & to hear from other people who don't have an opinion. A friend's mum, my cousin & my aunt slated us when we said we were going back, & couldn't understand that it was because of cost of living here & mydaughter's homesickness, what they didn't realise was that maybe being supportive & helping us to talk through the issues is what we needed! I think in a way, this is all a bit too late, child-care I have managed to sort, but house leases are so difficult here, if we can't view anywhere tomorrow, then we will probably draw a line underneath it & try to be positive about the UK for the next 5 years. I have threatened my daughter that if she doesn't start behaving when we get back, then I'm getting back on a plane to Oz!

9 days until we fly. Shipping booked, almost packed, daycare cancelled, lease terminated. But I woke up this morning & honestly admitted i want to stay - without the hysterics, husbajd is livid! Just dropped kids off at daycare, they're getting back to me about availability,now for a facing the music. Must be awful to have me as a wife & mum. Somehow, though, nowi've admitted responsibility for starting the idea about the UK, hut know where my heart lies for another year. Yes I want to stsy, hut if we don't I can live with going a little bit more! Very random! Thanks guys!

We fly on 1st march, leaving after 13 months, having ping ponged. We went back at Xmas to introduce our baby to the family & reduce our daughter's homesickness, whilst we were there we decided to return to the UK: better childcare, community, grandparents, more affordable lifestyle. Since coming back I have really struggled with leaving, work have offered me full-time & been looking at a salary rise, when I handed in my notice they said it was a shame as they'd hoped I could move into a more senior position soon. Going back my council employer is going through a major restructure, I'm likely to lose my job & there's unlikely to be any career development. We've had a hard year here & haven't had the experience we had hoped for, didn't appreciate how much life changes with 2 young children. We finally after 6 weeks if struggling to make the decision decided to go back, but I'm still struggling with it & wish we weren't until I speak to my husband who seems to talk me round. Maybe it's giving up a dream? Maybe it's worry about working/ career. Did anyone else feel like this about moving back? How did people get through it. Last time I tried to be really positive, but after a few weeks was really down for about a month, especially because I didn't feel like I was treated fairly by my employer, which could well happen again. Getting another job locally is unlikely to be an option so we would have to move which conflicts with a lot of the reasons for moving back. Just wondering what peoples' experiences were. Thanks

Hi, our son was born in oz in 2012, we got him an oz passport straight away as we knew we were going to have to make the obligatory trip back to the UK with him. Did the usual - forms, booked an appointment at the post office & it took 4 weeks. Flew to UK at Xmas & filled out landing card on arrival for visitor visa - all good. Now we are returning to UK & don't hv enough time to get him a UK passport, so we are planning to do the same again & apply for a uk passport as soon as we arrive. We've checked all websites, called UK & Australian passport numbers, all have been useless but in theory he should be ok. If u don't want to be worrying, as soon as he's born apply for the UK passport to travel to the UK - don't forget to get UK photos done, but you may have to wait for his birth certificate to come through & they take a few weeks. Australian passports r really easy & quick to get in the UK providing u can get to London or another specified place for your appointment. Do give yourselves enough time though, baby does zap you so much in the first months & the oz processing isn't that quick. Good luck!

Hi Waitingawhile, I'll tell you a secret, I really wish we weren't going back, I don't think our time is done yet, but we need to fit into others' timescales, unfortunately we pingponged at the wrong time for us & if I could convince my daughter that we could make her happy and my husband too and that the cost of everything wasn't ridiculous then I reckon we'd stay. I don't think this is the last though, we need to go back for longer and try to give it a good go, which we can do if we can both get work.... But who knows about the future. One of our friends once said: 'Once you have lived in more than one country it's very hard to settle somewhere, you can always remember the good points of the other country.....' Good luck!!

Good luck Lockets, we're in the same boat!

Thanks everyone!

Thanks Michael, fingers crossed then!!

Thanks!! My husband will be with me, so there's no chance of me running away!!!:wink:

I had the same concerns about moving out beyond the Shire - I grew up in London and we live in Bristol so we're used to a bit of action and good commuting times. Engadine sounds fantastic but just too far for everyday. I love the Inner West, we should have moved there 6 months ago but persuading my husband was hard, he wanted to be near to the beaches - and we don't have a car, because they're so expensive. I work in Camperdown and the area I look after is Inner West. Ironically though it's hard to find anything for under 700,000. Again it's the compromise, I'd be happy with a 3 bed unit, but my husband says that for that amount of money we should have a house and if we're moving to this side of the world then we should at least have some of what we're used to in the UK. We've had a few drives around (hired a car) and cycled to a few places. Went over to Arncliffe on Thursday, it ticks the boxes house prices (just) and commuting, but just weren't quite sure. But Cooks river is beautiful. Oatley sounds great on Street Advisor, we should have got a car earlier I think it would have opened up our eyes more to Sydney, you see so much less when you travel by bus!! Damn! Anyway sadly, we've decided not to continue the search I think we started it too late with too short a deadline, and there are too many risks, so we are returning to the UK, whether it's the right decision or not we will have to make it that way, at least for the next 5 years, as we owe it to our children to be settled somewhere and to make some solid friendships.

Hi, This will sound really stupid to the outsider, however it's our situation!! My son was born in Oz 10 months ago and so is an Australian citizen. Both parents are British citizens 'otherwise than by descent'. My daughter and I are lucky enough to be dual citizens. He is eligible for British Citizenship by Descent and therefore we can/ should automatically apply for a British passport for him. However, we have taken so long to make our final decision to move back to the UK and been so clouded by the process that we didn't realize that it would take 4-6 weeks for his British passport to come through, and the website says ideally allow 6 weeks (because it's a first passport). I guess I based it on the fact that it took 2 weeks for my daughter's first Australian passport in the UK. And any previous renewal of our passports irrespective of nationality have all been returned within 2 weeks. We need to return before then as I am due back at work on 18th February. We went back to the UK for a month in December, and so he was given a standard holiday visa for our trip on arrival. Ironically we traveled on our Australian passports all the way as I had been told that you shouldn't swap your passports over in the air?!!! Anyway there were no worries either way as we were visiting family for a holiday. Is it possible for us to travel on our respective passports, I'm guessing all of us on our British but him on his Australian - him on a 6 month holiday visa, but as soon as he arrives we apply for his British passport and therefore no problem with him staying. I have read on previous forums, issues around Border control and him not leaving the country within 6 months would mean that he would be classed as 'overstaying'. We could have a short holiday in France within that time and him leave the UK on his Australian and then return on his UK. I we were to declare that we are returning for good but he doesn't have the British proof and they don't feel that we should give him a holiday/ visiting family visa would we be in alot of trouble? Would there be a problem with him entering twice for the same reason within the last 3 months? He obviously has no proof of being British except for our proof: birth certificates, passports, etc. - and we'd have out passport application form and supporting material with us. We tried contacting the relevant organizations in both countries but keep on being re-directed to the website which don't answer this specific question, and yet I'm sure we're not the first or last. The inlaws have said that they would post the application for us (as it would be much quicker and then they could sent the passport to us) but I think we need to attend an interview for a first passport, and if someone else goes instead of us with proof of ID and consent we still need to be in the country. Anyway, has anyone had any similar experiences? Thanks loads.

Hi Bridget, We're working on a list. We r looking at leaving end of Feb/ early March so I guess r only concern is that it may be available b4 u get a house. Not sure what it's like looking 4 houses in that area. Also would we be too far: Kingsford? Thanks, Camilla

The nurseries here open anywhere between 7.30 & 9. & people put their kids down @ conception! Interested 2 know y u wish u'd chosen Sydney instead. Part of me thinks we should hv.tried somewhere else but Sydney has always bn the safe option!

I'd visit the school and get a gauge, with you having an educational background you'd know straight away. From our experience of childcare and our daughter now going into pre-school the standards are really low, however this most likely varies between establishment. We were talking the other day to a lady who said that the goal at the end of Kindy year is that all children should be able to count to 20. I was shocked!! Just from comparing our daughter now to her friends in the UK she is way behind, they aren't doing much around writing letters or anything, whereas her UK friends are all writing their names and the siblings names, etc. bearing in mind she's almost 4. We were concerned that putting her into school here and then moving back to the UK that she may be behind at school in the UK. But that's only from what we've seen at a couple of childcare centres.

Thanks Mad Cow, close to transport that would take less than 30 mins to CBD? In an nutshell what are the different areas like? I know I could categorise sydney into different area: Inner West: very cosmopolitan, similarities to Camden (London), Eastern Suburbs: expensive, not particularly friendly, etc.

Hi, I know this is risky posting this in a WA area, but if I posted it in NSW, I know what the answer would be. We've been living in Sydney a year now & have to make the decision whether to go back to the UK or stay, long story short we have jobs in the UK and we need to be back in March for our daughter to get into our local schools that are really good. Sydney we are finally 'over' I think. We're looking for a work-life balance, with affordable housing, good community, good childcare, good schools and not a long commute. Currently Sydney is not winning on these (and we find it quite pretentious and unfriendly, but we do live close to the Eastern suburbs), hence why we are thinking of moving back to the UK as we have a big tick on all of the above. HOwever Oz was always our dream, partly because I have citizenship and have spent 18 months and 8 months in Sydney on other occasions. However, when we've decided on going back, there's still something nagging in the back of our minds, what if we'd done something different, everybody is always dreaming about going to Oz, when people talk about it I get jealous. I have a friend who loves Perth, but now lives further out, and she wouldn't live anywhere else. I know it's quite a bad time in our lives for moving which is why we need to get it right, we had our second child out here this year and oldest will start to school either Sep/ Jan, so that may well attribute to us not loving Sydney anymore. So, to the end of a long blurb. What is Perth like? How multicultural is it? Can you get homes that are within 30 mins public transport to CBD for 650,000 dollars? What is the market for IT jobs - my husband has had no problems getting work here. And friendliness, community, childcare, schools, childcare waiting lists, kids activities?.... I guess hearing pros and cons always help. Thanks loads :biggrin:

Wish I'd seen this a couple of week ago, never mind!! Thought you could get some decent homes for 650,000 on domain.

Just to say, I have no probs whatsoever with my or my husband's current commute, I know we're really lucky, we could even cycle it if we didn't have to drop off the kids. We're just looking for a family-friendly, good schools/ childcare and affordable suburb.

Hi Murta, Childcare is in huge demand. I pay 110 dollars for my 9 month old and 100 dollars for my almost 4 year old. We get CCR which is a huge help, but just found out yesterday that it's capped so you can actually only get the rebate for about 2.5-3 days a week per child, which is going to be a huge factor when I go fulltime. If this is something you'd like to do, go for it, there are so not enough places. I would be over the moon to move my kids from our childcare centre as it's just like a bad quality babysitting service. You can set yourself up through the council or there are a couple of other private organisations who offer an umbrella service for 'family daycare'. Check out 'careforkids' this will give you a really good idea of what is available and also how many places do not have any space available. We've been on waiting lists for other places for over a year and nothing has come up and on enquiry they say 'not likely'. People put their kids down at conception - I'm not joking!!! But this could be an Eastern suburbs thing!!! My cousin is setting herself up, and there are stringent rules for the property etc. but I imagine all achievable.

Ironically as I'm travelling across Sydney East to Inner West the traffic doesn't hugely affect my commute!!! Very happy to go to a train station. We don't have trains in Eastern suburbs, hence why we're wondering about having a look around.