3FatCats

I would take the job, but that is me, as we can't afford to contemplate being out of work for a long time. Also, how old are you? Your age may play a part i.e. if you are young you probably have plenty of time to figure out what to do, plan a return to Oz or not?

It happens all the time. In the UK I even had a consultant "use" my ideas, that was probably the icing on the cake! :laugh:

Another one is to email everything as a pdf, with your name on it. If they ask for word or excel, ask "why?".

We have to stay in the sense that we need to stay in the job, because it would be employer sponsored 186... we don't qualify for any other option.

Thanks to all who have replied. Seems most agree with us going for PR. It sounds good on paper, the reality means putting up with working here for (potentially) up to another year for the necessary paperwork and processing. I guess we both have to decide if we can face it for that long. It would be a killer to suffer another year and after all that end up going home! :laugh: I am pretty sure that if we decide to head home we won't be ping-ponging, and based on that I have to decide if the whole PR thing is worth it, or not. Will do some more thinking over the next few days.

Do they have the same boss? if so, and there is a good rapport, a quiet word may help. If not, the only option is to protect her outputs and herself more! Each time she has an idea, keep to herself and share only with the boss. Or share it openly in a meeting so there will be no doubt as to the originator. This happens all the time, and happened to me a lot back in the UK. Sometimes you have to just get smart!

Thanks Quoll. No progress when applying from this side of the globe unfortunately. They all (understandably) only take you seriously when you are actually in the UK. It is likely I will have to bite the bullet, go over on a trip and see how I/we feel, then take it from there.....

Thanks Melza, our UK base is in Cheshire so really a nice place tbh. We wouldn't have any problems with the place, it is more the worry around securing employment and all the upheave, all over again...I still need to mull it over a bit more I think....

Thanks everyone, a lot of food for thought.....

Yeah, all of those lol! :laugh: I think we might go back for a visit around Easter time, that will be helpful (need to see sick oldies too). We'd love Tasmania but understand it might be a bit of a dream, or somewhere in VIC. From lodgement they are saying anything from 6-9 months, although friends got theirs in 3 weeks. You just can't tell. We deffo wouldn't apply from the UK, as we need the sponsorship to get the 186 anyway, so need to stay here in the job.

Thanks Kate. It is such a 50-50 situation, which is why I'm all over the place. Have changed my mind roughly every 2 hours so far!

Thanks Marta! I really appreciate your reply. I am so divided at the moment.....

Seems like I can't make a decision and stick to it as something is always coming up! Just need to bounce this off you kind folk... After almost 3 years here we had practically decided that I would move back to UK this year, stay with kind friends for a while and look for work. OH would have stayed in Oz for the interim and would have joined me when I found a job, so we always had/have one salary on the go. Our decision to go back is/was based on a few things, the most important being that we are on a 457 which runs out next year, with no prospects of it transforming into PR (v. complicated set of circumstances) plus we haven't really settled here 100% as some really happy migrants seem to have, mainly due to work and feeling trapped. Then, out of the blue, a skills assessment I put in around 1 year ago and had been advised would likely not be approved turned up, and it is positive.... So now everything has been thrown up in the air and all sorts of thoughts are going through my mind and generally shaking everything up.:wacko: Do we go for the PR and move on with life here? If we are able to part from the company we both work for (tied to due to 457 and sponsorship) I am sure that in a happier place of employment we would both feel and be happier. When you are happy in work you are generally happy in life? This would also leave us free to move away from Sydney (which we don't like much) and in reality we could go anywhere, work permitting of course. The OH thinks we should just stick to the original plan and go home. I think he is fed up of life being in limbo mode and although I was very much the most anti-Oz person in the family, this new development has started me off on a thinking spree... :wideeyed: PR would mean freedom. It would mean us finally choosing what we want to do, where we want to work and live. It would also mean we could still go home and come back (if we wanted to/could afford to), of course there is Super to consider and cost of moving etc. Opinions, thoughts, helpful advice for a poor, bewildered woman?? :cry:

The dentist.........I am still traumatised .......... :shocked:

Yes, I sympathise... 10kg for me.... I frequently say the Trueman Show comment to my OH! Hang in there x

Condolences to you and your family. If you can afford it, go home and be with your wife. You may want to say goodbye yourself. Good luck x

Hi and welcome. Your life in Cumbria sounds nice, can I swap lol? :laugh: Seriously, we often read of people wanting to move to give kids more/better/different opportunities. I don't have kids, and my parents made minimal efforts whilst I was growing up, so I salute anyone who puts their children's future before their own choices. However, there is a comment above by LR which says it all, where your kids decide to go when they are older is up to them... I am sure that an experience in another country will be amazing for them, but you may move to Oz and they may find a career path in America (just an example) or meet a life partner from another country and move. If you have the travel bug, feel like a change and can afford it (don't underestimate), don't think of it as a life changing, forever thing. Try to live it in the now, take it at face value, and enjoy the journey. Life is what you make it, although that sounds harsh and even stupid to those having a hard time, it is true really, and so isn't about a particular country but more about how and where you are as people and as a family. Good luck with your choice! x

From memory, once reggo has expired you get a blue slip done, then hand in plates at RTA and get new reggo (and plates) there and then. If you call the RTA they will put you right.

Flippin eck, you've been through the ringer! Shocking, shocking set of circumstances. If I were you I would not hesitate in going home and trying to make life better again, surrounded by people who you can rely on. Good luck and lots of hugs x

Well done! Guess you are sticking around then?

Going further out there is Dural, Richmond, Windsor, or Sutherland area? Commuting may not be fantastic, you should find more choice of houses with green spaces though. I'm in the Hills district, it takes me 10 mins to drive out to Dural. You could always leave a car in the Hills somewhere and take bus/train into the City.

So what did you write then?

Hey, I also have a BIG birthday in May!! :biggrin: Maybe it will be our year?! Been here since August 2011, and I don't actually know when I will be heading home, it is all rather complicated with my situation (or I am just finding excuses as my counsellor says..). In theory, I semi-plan to try and head over in June sometime, stay with friends and look for work. My OH would stay behind here until I find my feet, and keep earning $ to keep us going. All in theory until I can find the courage to make that step...gulp...

The one in the picture is a small one...sorry! So, we've been here nearly 3 years and in all this time we have had one small huntsman in our old house. Old, very crappy house with lots of holes to crawl through, so no surprise there. The OH dispatched it with a can of spray and that was that. One other small huntsman inside our mail box. That was a surprise!! Very territorial of his little house too, would scoot down the side and then go back in once we had retrieved the post, with a stick. We found him dead one day, think the postman had had enough. Then there was one very large huntsman in my office...now this one was a chunky customer. There are lots of gum trees around this particular building and we get quite a few spiders coming inside. A kind colleague collected it in a jug and got rid of it, I would not have handled that one myself. In the end, you just get used to all the critters, I am no longer screaming afraid of spiders, they are just there. The one thing that bugs me most of all are the cockroaches, I hate them with a passion, they make me want to heave....yuck! We spray the house and bomb every 3 months, and with our cats indoors we still find roaches. They are the worst bug really, not the spiders at all.

It's because the Gumtree scammers use fake Paypal accounts, lots of info on Google from folk who have been scammed. Through Ebay it is regulated.