I haven't been on PIO for a while but I just wanted to pop on here to thank all the fantastic forum members who've helped us over the years and wish everyone the best of luck in their emigration or repatriation endeavours.
Our five years of waiting for an economical miracle are finally up; our 176 pr visa expires today and we won't be able to make the move to Aus :-(
It's been an emotional journey of over 7 years and realistically once the UK recession started we didn't stand a chance, we reckon we missed selling our house by about 6 months and without the equity from our house sale we simply couldn't afford to go; the housing crash combined with a plummeting pound meant our dream was virtually over before we even got our visa.
Life has taken many twists and turns over the last 5 years and we've come to terms with staying here and are being optimistic about our future (we've even added a new baby to our family). After our validation trip we knew we'd have to ride out the economic storm and knuckled down to life in limbo... but rather than getting down about the whole thing, we both decided that serious change was in order, and both of us now have new careers (in my case I now have a degree and future as a lecturer which is something I would never have dreamed about when I left school 35 years ago without any real qualifications!).
So thank-you PIO once again, as looking back we definitely wouldn't have got our visa without the expert help on this forum, keep up the good work.
Phil & Shaz
