Phoenix16

And Ramot, I’ve said my piece to another post however, I do want to say that I have followed and read with interest and joy many things you have posted, I have only lived half the life you have, you never cease to amaze me with your lovely and amazing stories about your life, journey and travels, I think you are amazing. I completely agree, this new legislation is a farce but applying it retrospectively to me is just completely unethical and a disgrace. I know you’re situation is entirely different but by sheer technicality of the farcical visa rules for parents you are caught up in the mess and I really do empathise. My best wishes ans keep strong, your son sounds amazing xxx

I read what you say and I feel sad, then I think hang on a minute, you did actually choose to move half way across the world... we migrated, not particularly a desire then, hubby was headhunted and we loved the idea of the adventure, when we arrived we simply fell in love, gained PR quickly then became citizens. BUT, we took my parents ONLY grandchild with us, yes it’s heart wrenching but we made our choices and for us, we are family, we are number one priority family. Whilst our parents are sad at times and miss us, they have their amazing memories or raising and nurturing us, they are proud of what we are achieving and the life we live, they visit and are allwayd welcome (ignore my moaning thread ha ha!), they never ever wanted us to be beholden to them as adults, their amazing attitudes in raising us was to set us free and for forth and grab our own lives and futures and that is what we have done. I don’t feel guilty, I would feel guilty not having this life and providing what I am for my child. There are major downsides, she left them at w young age and when they visit they think she is still this young age and so it’s hard for her to connect. But, I grew up with my parents, extended family were occasional, it was those times, I don’t see why it should be different, my parents had me and my siblings all to themselves growing up. On special occasions when I’m not there e.g. Mother’s Day, my Dad takes mum out for a special lunch or dinner and thanks her for his 3 amazing children, I think that’s totally appropriate, his children have grown and become mothers themselves, I’m so many miles away and Mother’s Day is special to ME, I’m a mother and I treasure it with my daughter. We all adapt and when she’s a mother, I want her kids to treasure her and she adore that whilst me and hubby fine dine and take pleasure in the wonderful daughter we raised. I’ve gone off on a tangent but in essence I’m saying parents set their children free and take pride in their success and achievements, they don’t expect them to be beholden for the rest of their lives xxxx

#paulie as you requested in your OP I urge you to seek the advice of an experienced MA and I can see you have received links to some highly respected ones. You are connecting with your child and it’s wonderful but with migration there are no guarantees, you did mention a student visa but even I know (and I know very little) that these are getting tougher. OZ will happily take your international student fees, why wouldn’t they? But they will also happily say bye bye and go home at the end of the studies, fees are In return for a level of education and a subsequent degree, MA etc, not a job and a visa, there are far too many Australian graduates to accommodate first. things have changed so much and so quickly, visa advise you may have got 6 months ago is way out of date for example. I feel for you, you have a dream to come to OZ, you have a recently discovered child, the two may not go hand in hand and you may have choices to make you weren’t contemplating a few years ago. I wish you both the best of luck xxxx

i just want to empathise with families in this situation, on one hand you have the 45year old clock ticking for your visa, then you have kids completing A levels and contemplating University. So if you do succeed in attaining dependency (and I really hope you do) then what is next ...? For us we migrated when my child was 2, I can honestly say hand on heart if she was 18, finishing studies and considering uni and that could jeopardise her visa rights it’s a no brainer, I want to spend as much of my life in the same county as her as possible. If we migrated whist she could be a dependant on the visa, the fact that she is in the prime of her educational life and contemplating her future is vital, migrating as PR would mean no international uni fees but it would mean uni fees, paid up front, even commonwealth supported so you’re looking at 20k plus minimum and that needs to be factored in. Im going on my degree, nursing, classed as essential so heavily subsidised but I know other subjects aren’t and the fees are much much higher (e.g med students, 6 figures easily) xx

Fair comment but will just say first house we bought in Auz was in Hammy Hill, massive block, gorgeous big pool, awesome big back yard, but house was too small, we had amazing neighbours (still close friends), manning park was yards away, always remember laying round the pool listening to Kate Ceberano rehearsing for the big Cockburn concert at Manning Park. We wanted to extend and renovate massively but was unrealistic cost to resale value, we moved on but the house has just sold again, went within weeks and they made a nice profit in this dire climate. I think Hammy Hill has an undeserved bad reputation, I really do, you are minutes from Freo and there really are some deeireable parts, like anywhere. DD schools in Mosman Park, some roads look like millionaires row but trust me some roads look worse than Hammy Hill, it’s subjective (although I do realise the worst house in the best area is always a good investment!!) xxxxxx

#mext60 hope you’ve settled in ans are enjoying life xxx

I wish you all the best! Moving can be so exciting yet stressful, may I suggest that when you are feeling the stress, take 10 mins to drive down Beeliar Road towards the ocean, maybe pack a small picnic, the moment you get that amazing view of the Indian Ocean and see the glorious beaches it will definitely alleviate some of the stress xxxxx

To give you some positives, you are 10 mins max drive from a beautiful beach and glorious ocean which even has a shark net swimming enclosure,! You have all amenities (shops, restaurants) on your door step, you have direct access to the city within 20 mins via train (and car), you have a brand new leisure centre right next to you Cockburn ARC, you are less than 20 mins drive away from the beautiful city of fremantle....I don’t really understand why you think an apartment is better than a house but that is your preference and I respect that, there are certainly many worse places to live, I actually quite like the area and there is much investment there from the local council. However, Cockburn Central sits on a busy intersection and you will possibly have lots of traffic noise but as I’ve outlined above you have access to much on your doorstep.

I think you have a tough decision to make. It’s nice to come out on a WHV to ‘try before you buy’ but the rules are ever changing and quite frankly it’s getting tougher to get a visa, even with the most sought after professions. We came on a 457 a few years ago with rose tinted glasses and were fortunate to become PR within 12 months we were extremely lucky, that simply would not happen now. I think if you come on your WHV and fall in live you may face severe disappointment about your ability to remain, however, if you get the PR visa, you are certainly more attractive to employers yet you can still ‘try beforehand you buy (the house, the dream, the lifestyle)’, it gives you complete security and gives you total control of your choices and wishes for your future. I am no expert, but I have seen how much visa rules have changed, even obtaining citizenship, it is completely different now and much more difficult than it was when we arrived here which was really only 7 years ago, so much has changed since then and so very quickly, you really cannot be complacent these days, I do wish you all the best xx

Your 14 year old has been granted PR so (from my own ignorance and need of understanding!!) I’m assuming he has full rights to move to OZ and the father considerations were dealt with to satisfaction of Oz government! I would imagine your sons PR gives him complete rights to remain in OZ, take up citizenship eventually if he wishes has no strings attached to his step father, although would hope and assume there is a strong, supportive and nurturing relationship between them regardless!,

Ok, I had to read your post a few times to unravel it! So I’m assuming you’re in the UK sms planning on a move to OZ, with the children you have with your husband, and a child you have from a previous relationship who was also granted PR. First question, do you have authorisation from your eldest child’s father to relocate him to OZ? That’s the initial hurdle you face, assuming you do, you are then asking if your husband, who is your child’s step parent, automatically gains parental rights when you arrive in OZ and as such. Can prevent him from leaving the country against his wishes.... my knee jerk response is no, of course not but I am certainly no expert and could be massively wrong, you poses very interesting question, one I’ve not actually seen before but I wish you all the best and will watch this thread with interest xxxx

This all goes back to when the squat toilets were being researched!!!! One finding I found interesting was that we can’t squat like Asian’s and arabs, apparently were not used to it, have to say I’m my case I wouldn’t argue...oh I can feel the pain I’m my calf’s thinking about it ha ha!!!

I can’t argue with any of your comments... you’ve certainly made me think, although I don’t think I’m brave enough to try the washing machine suggestion ?!

I drive past both of those places sandgroper recommended every day, great reccomendations, always get a glimpse of the beautiful Indian Ocean on the journey too, Freo is a pretty special place, you might just fall in love with it and so accessible to CBD xx

only just seen this thread so a little late joining!! but I am going to be controversial here and say its wipes all the way....loo roll is present in all our bathrooms as is a packet of flushable wipes and for us its wipes all the way!! Incredibly, this all came about from a project (a few years ago) that involved researching squat toilets and the pro's/cons (a construction project that was required to factor in diversity needs), the research showed that loo roll didn't clean up as well as wipes, I found the whole thing quite gross but nevertheless reverted to wipes, particularly after attempting to clean up a baby with loo roll when I had run out of wipes and finding that it was virtually impossible without causing a sore bottom through very vigorous scrubbing with dry tissue, it made me think and i was converted, flushable wipes are the way forward!!

Ive also been told that the visa process for nurses has been restricted and is much more difficult, I don't know that for sure but I'm hoping its true xx

Hello Chloe! Congratulations on being a graduate nurse, I will say Im also a graduate nurse and I'm an Australian citizen trained in Australia, don't hold out any hopes of finding employment as a graduate, unfortunately, they are few and far between, actually they don't exist, in the last few weeks I saw only 2 jobs in the whole of WA on their health website (they don't apply anywhere else) and they wanted extensive experience, there are a few pool jobs, 'just looking' kind of stuff, as a graduate you will struggle, obviously and quite rightly Australia now prioritises their own graduates, you will need some pretty unique skills that are not common to Aus to get a look in.

Ive been following your exciting journey and I'm so curious....did you finally make it here and if so, hows it going!!!!

I'm sorry to hear your story Nemesis and it shows just how harsh the rules are, everyone has their own story and everyone lives their lives the way they do and circumstances sometimes dictate that, my hubby moved out into work accommodation (100kms away) 1 day after our child was born, because he needed to focus on his job at a critical time and to be honest it was the best thing at that time although I didn't think that at the time!

Me and my then partner weren't married when we went through the visa process and we had only been together for 4 years but we had a child and we had complete evidence we lived together and were a couple, absolutely everything was joint, it was a total pain to prove it all i.e all of the documentation required but we had no doubts we would get the visa because we did have all of the evidence and we knew we could show it, we then did the silliest thing after all that pain, we got married the day before we flew to Australia!!! PS I only say 'then' partner because now he's my husband!

Just to reassure you really as i'm sure you are worrying but I was granted my visa after 2 DVT's (8 years apart and only explanation for them after many investigations was long haul flights), I've had no further health issues around them, the only issue is my complete reluctance to hop on flights back to the UK!

Wow, you are incredibly rude and your comment is not worth even replying to

There are some significan benefits too. As migrants with families in other parts of the world, there are times, particularly with elderly relatives where we may be required to spend significant amounts of time out of Australia, also, the number of stories I have read of families returning to the uk with children being brought up in OZ choosing to stay here, and years later after PR has lapsed realising they have no rights to return and live in the same country as their children...becoming a citizen ensures that you can always live in the same country as your children and also means you can care for your aged relatives when you need to without loosing your right to return here, and as has been just highlighted, your children can actually go to university without you having to sell your home and all your worldly goods xxx

It does seem rather unfair though that you have paid significant taxes into 2 countries Over the years and neither one will allow your child to undertake a degree as a domestic student. There are a minority who will fall into this situation and I have full empathy for them, it saddens me immensely when parents attempting to give their children better lives and opportunities can find themselves in such a situation.

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/wa-government-slashes-skilled-migration-list-to-18-occupations/news-story/a726eb33941db05da1698e32248b99b9?utm_source=emarsys&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=PerthNow+PM+update+21%2F6%2F17