Sarahelle

Just read your post and wondered if you're still here in Australia? I completely understand how you feel and those feelings are very hard to get rid of. I've been here for 12 years (never intended to be here this long) and we're desperately trying to save enough to move home so I can spend some time with my - now elderly - parents. Please do what makes you happy and if that is moving back to the UK, find a way to do it. You can't get time back, unfortunately xx

Hey all, In the many different scenarios in which we can return to the UK with my husband being Australian, I wondered this - Can I keep the job I have here in Brisbane and work remotely from the UK? Could I use my income for the financial requirement? I have been in my role for just over 12 months. I would be grateful for any opinions Thanks, Sarah

Marisawright thanks for your reply - yes, I meant superannuation. Moving to Ireland could in fact be an option. I'll look into it, thank you

Hey all, Soo we're looking into moving home (for many reasons) which is proving to be problematic because of course, my husband is Australian. Kids are not a problem as they have British citizenship through me. We absolutely cannot do the cash savings route - we have no house to sell, no wealthy parents and it would take us years and years to save that amount. We also have absolutely no chance of going the Ancestry Visa route. Hubby's grandparents are born and bred Australian and only great grandparents were of British decent so that's a closed door too. The only way we can do it is for me to move back with our youngest daughter and find a job, set up home etc. This is not ideal as I am not the high earner by any stretch So. We have made a good start on savings which is at least one good thing to come out of the whole Covid-19 thing as I was able to access my pension early. It seemed like a good idea as I would lose it if I left anyway. My question is, has anyone had to do this? Being the British one but not the high earner? I'm eager to hear any stories as I'm finding the whole prospect extremely daunting to say the least! Any advice would be very gratefully received Thank you.

So glad you're happy - that must be so exciting! The time for us to leave after 9 years is here also, but we'll have to wait a while. Good Luck!! xx

Thanks so much for your help Marisawright - I'll definitely be looking into it. We've played around with figures before but we're definitely set on trying to get back to UK. Luckily my husband is homesick for the UK too (he lived there nearly ten years) so he's willing which is half the battle. Jemvin: Apologies for hijacking your thread :o. No, no UK/European grandparents unfortunately - only great grandparents. The annoying thing is my husband had ILR but didn't bother getting a passport as we assumed we could do defacto then all the rules changed. I cannot tell you how much we regret that lol.

It's depressing. I just want to go home.

If you don't mind me asking, what route did you take to have your Oz husband approved? I'm looking at this as I also have an Oz hubby. Thanks x

Well it's an option and at least a flight home would only be a couple of hours not to mention a few thousand dollars cheaper lol. Thank you for the advice Marisa, it is appreciated. I'll talk to my husband about it.

Thanks ladies. Unfortunately, despite being here for a long time, we decided not to purchase a house so that isn't an option for us. It would definitely have made life easier, but there you go. So this is one of the reasons why we need to find the money elsewhere. I just don't know what to do. No one I know can 'gift' the money to us. I'm not putting down Australia, but moving here was a big mistake for us sadly. Btw, I thought that the money had to be in your account for six months - has that changed to 12 months now? Thanks x

Hello all, I dip in and out of here just to see where everyone is at So after nearly 9 years of Oz, I want to go home - unfortunately, it is not that easy although my husband is willing. Since my husband is Australian and I don't want to leave half of my family here to go and find a job in the UK (me being the British one) we were wondering how we could come up with the finances to go the savings route instead. I do have a pension in the UK, but that's not enough, so I was wondering if anyone has ever had to use or been in a position to use their inheritance? It's not something I want to do, but since the money only has to sit in my account for a while, I would be willing to do it and if of course, my parents are willing for me to do it. I just can't come up with any other way of possibly coming up with that amount of money (65K or thereabouts) and I'm not really keen on being here until I'm 50 which isn't so far away. Just a thought. Thanks guys xx

Oh I really feel for you. This is me - except I haven't made it back home since 2011. I feel really desperate to leave sometimes, like I could just get on a plane and go home. I can't of course - I have my Oz husband and two little girls who I would never leave. I think the deep need to return home began back in 2013 after the birth of my first baby and it's just getting worse (in fact I'm back on antidepressants again for this first time since 2002) and now my Dad is 78 this year I'm starting to panic that I won't make it back to spend time with him. He's not unwell or anything but definitely getting on in years. I really feel that after 9 years I'm just wasting my life here - I'm just treading water until we can go home which is going to be extremely difficult (oz hubby, kids etc.) I must point out - this is no slight on Australia. It's a lovely country and it has been kind to us. My heart just wants what it wants I guess. I do hope you find some way back xx

Hi Jemvin, I haven't done it myself yet but I'd like to. This is the website you need - https://www.gov.uk/uk-family-visa/partner-spouse Hope all goes well, Sarah

Omg! I'm from Swindon too! Which part are you from? I guess I'm from Wroughton technically but still Swinny ?

It does but it's rarely granted. You have to prove strong ties to UK and having family by marriage is not considered enough.

Australia has been a good home to me, I've had two babies through excellent Medicare and got married here, unfortunately this is not where my heart is and it was affecting my health. How I wish I had a house back in the UK to move back to - I really should have. The move to Australia was so quick my feet didn't touch the ground and in good old hindsight - we should have got my husband a passport since he had had ILR for a few years. Stupid, but then who knew all the rules would suddenly change.

I'm originally from Wiltshire so we're looking to stay within that region. We'll have been here for a just over 9 years by then so 19 - that's a long time. Yes, we've got two girls aged 4 & 13 months. I absolutely agree, I was never really a beach person but my husband (Australian) will miss being by the sea. A recce is a good idea, but I might be going alone first as we have to do the dreaded spouse visa. Why couldn't just one of his Grandparent's been born in the UK? Thanks people for you lovely replies, it's good to know others are planning it too. It's going to be stressful alright, but so worth it ? xx

Hey, I know I'm jumping the gun a bit, but we're planning on moving back home to the South West of England - now we're not actually moving until the end of next year, but I'm already excited ? Is that wrong??? For us, we're going home (well, home for me) because we just don't want to still be here going nowhere when we're nearing 50. The thought that it isn't that far off was a very scary wake up call. Anyone else joining me on the Big Move around that time? I'd love to hear from you and where/why you're moving ? xx

Okay well we have lots of that for evidence. I understand the kind of thing they want as had to do spouse visa for Australia - I wouldn't use text messages anyway - I just wondered if it was strictly necessary to show regular message contact with someone you live with and are married to as I know they are quite particular. Thanks for the info ?

Thank you Begyby, that would be great ? We're starting off by getting our kids British passports and we'll start collecting evidence. They say they accept Skype and Whatsapp records but we don't use any of that - we've been together for 10 years so we only text - got loads and loads of text messages lol. What did you submit for that kind of thing?

So you did the spouse visa Begby - how did you find the whole process? Did you work for six months here and then use the job offer? I'm finding the whole process very daunting and I haven't even really started it yet lol.

If only hubby had a UK born grandparent - everything would be so much more simple ? The bugger of it is that he had ILR when we left but we lost it. Very frustrating.

I don't know, we'd have to look into it. He has experience in both hotel management and he's quite far up the IT chain ?

I haven't been earning for the last year as I have been on maternity leave and then resigned (this was before we started looking into this) so I have not been earning for the last 6 months. . I'm looking for work at the moment but we wouldn't be in a position to apply yet anyway as we need to save first. Unfortunately no Quoll, just great grandparents which is too distant.

I think that's if you're going the savings route. Unfortunately we don't have a house here. That would be so much easier.