Wanderer Returns

As a professional who works with teenagers every day, I can assure you that migration (in any direction) is a major upheaval to their lives, regardless of whether they say they are 'up for it' or not. A new country, culture, school, friends etc - it's a massive adjustment. This is especially true if they have lived their entire formative years in one place - in this case, Australia. To say that you have 'done' Australia suggest that you still have the mindset of a backpacker or traveller who never intended their move here to be permanent. This may be the reason why you have not been successful in settling in Australia, even though you have been here 11 years already. Whatever problems you have experienced probably have a lot more do to with your own life choices rather than what you perceive to be wrong with Australia. Your father-in-law has offered you some pearls of wisdom and not without good reason. If you've found it tough here in the last few years, you would have found it 10 times harder back in the UK. You've no idea how much things have changed since you left - and not for the better. I also left the UK in 2003 and have been back on several occasions, so have witnessed these changes personally. It's not been pretty. Good luck with whatever you decide to do. I firmly believe you'll find what you're looking for a lot closer to home than the UK, Canada or the next exotic destination. Martin.

It might possibly be that Melbourne is a bit over-hyped! (Cue hate mail from Melbournians and that bloke who writes the world's most livable cities column (with Melbourne #1) every year). Melbourne is a lovely city but now hellishly expensive to live anywhere in the lovely part and the weather is unpleasantly capricious. Sydney is superior in most respects, except the even more exorbitant price tag. I spent 6 months in Melbourne when i first arrived in Oz (mainly due to a love interest), a year in Sydney, 7 years in Brisbane and the last 3 years in Cairns. In my (very humble) opinion, Brisbane was the best experience and I'd still be there now if it wasn't for work having taken me to Cairns. Whenever I visit Brisbane (and we did yesterday to submit my wife's visa application) I feel like I am 'coming home', whereas Melbourne and Sydney are just another big city(s). As coincidence would have it, we are also planning to move back to UK in December to take care of an aging parent, although at this stage my wife and I see a return to the lucky country in our future plans. We are using http://www.discountfreight.com.au/ to send back three tea chests for about $300, which seems a pretty good deal. We are just going to either sell or give away the rest of our stuff, not that we really have too much.

Hi, I completed a 40SP and 47SP for my wife's partner visa application two years ago. The Stat Decs definitely need to completed by an Australian Citizen or permanent resident. The police check needs to be done in the applicant's usual country of residence and translated to English (if not already in English). DIAC usually ask for for the police check just prior to making a decision, but you can pre-empt the situation and submit it with your application. The only problem with doing it in advance is that police certificate may go out of date if your application takes a long time to process. We did everything at the time of application and it worked out fine. I can't help you with the 'on-line' question because we submitted the paper forms at the time. I hope this helps and good luck! Martin.

I know it's a bit of a cliché but generally we regret the things we didn't do in life rather than the things we did, that didn't work out quite right. I wanted to do the 'big trip' when I was in my 20s and bowed to parental pressure at the time. In the end I did it after finishing my degree when I was 32. I had a wonderful time except that I felt a bit old as most other travellers seemed to be in their mid 20s and my father died whilst I was in Australia - both situations would've been avoided if I'd followed my instincts and gone when I was a bit younger. I went on to emigrate and have been in Oz for 11 years and my only regret is that I didn't do it 10 years sooner. The only downside you may experience is that once you arrive here, you'll have such a great time that you'll not want to go home! Do it now before it's too late (and while you're still young enough to get a working holiday visa). Martin.

Thanks for the heads up on that. I don't think it'll be an issue as we'll be staying with my mum on arrival and she lives in a fairly big place on her own.

It's an idea, but considering the cost of food and accommodation it'd probably be easier for her just to go back to Thailand, where she could stay with family for free :-)

Hi Chicken66, many thanks for your reply. You have pre-empted my next step, which was to get the advice of a migration agent. In effect, the UK now has the same system in place as Australia in that a person needs to be outside the country when their partner visa is applied for. It does makes it hard for people who want to move back as a couple because it's very difficult to get offered employment when you're on the other side of the world! It will make it imperative to get that job offer before leaving Australia - no pressure! :-) Martin.

Dear all, I'm a Pom who has lived in Oz for 11 years and has both Australian and British citizenship. My wife is on a Thai passport and she also has Australian residency. We have no children. We are returning to the UK in December (flights already booked) to take care of my mum who is now 85 and struggling to live independently. She has no remaining family left in the UK, so we really feel this is our moral duty. Mum has hardly been out of the house since the start of the year and I've had to get social services involved, which has not been easy when coordinating from the other side of the world! Once we arrive, my wife plans to take care of my mum whilst I return to teaching in the UK. I'm fortunate in that I've been granted unpaid leave of absence for up to 3 years from my current position with Education Queensland meaning that I'll have a job to return to here, assuming we're back in Australia by January 2018. I don't foresee any problem finding a teaching position once we arrive in the UK, as I understand there's a shortage of teachers there at the moment. However, finding a job prior to arrival is proving more problematic as unsurprisingly, most schools don't want to employ anyone they haven't interviewed in person. Therein lies the dilemma in that we probably won't be able to apply for my wife's UK partner/settlement visa prior to arrival in the UK, so she'll need to enter on a tourist visa and 'upgrade' to a partner visa afterwards - is this possible? I don't have 60+ grand in assets, so the employment route is the only way for us to stay. What I really want to avoid is a situation whereby my wife cannot apply for a UK partner/settlement visa because she is already in the UK on a tourist visa. This was the case when she came to Australia and she had to return to Thailand whilst her Australian partner visa was granted. For the record, I've already emailed UK immigration through the GOV.UK website and received a very poorly-worded reply (from someone with a limited command of English), to the effect that they couldn't give specific advice on individual cases and referred me back to the website! What is the country coming to?! Clearly this is a common situation a lot of Brits must face when they want to return to the UK with a non-British or European partner. It'd be great to hear from anyone with experience of this :-) Many thanks, Martin.

Thanks for your posts guys. I've looked into this a bit since my original post and (assuming you don't have sufficient savings to meet the requirement that way) there are basically two options for returning British citizens with their non-British/EU partners. If you've been earning more than the equivalent of 18,600 pounds in Australia for at least 6 months, you can sponsor your partner if you can provide evidence of a job offer in the UK. The job needs to start within 3 months of the visa application date. Alternatively you can return to the UK alone, find a job and then sponsor you partner once you've been in that job for 6 months. They need to be out of the UK when the visa application is made and granted. Pros and cons: It's probably much easier to find a job in the UK when you are living there, but you'll have to accept some time apart. For my wife and I it's not an option because she's not presently working, so I need to find a job in the UK before we can apply. Whether it's unfair or not is highly subjective. The UK has many social problems, some of which are clearly linked to its immigration policies so it's not surprising they are now tightening up. I believe that you can still apply under the old regulations but your application will be put on hold until a decision is made about the legality of the new rules. You could be waiting months/years if you went down that route, so I would suggest making an application under the new rules once you can meet the criteria. Well if it takes us a little while longer to get back then never mind - there are worse places to be stuck in the world than beautiful Cairns! :-)

Hi and thanks for your posts. I'd also been considering this route as it quite nicely circumvents the financial requirements and we have a genuine reason with my mum needing care. However, I need to look into whether it's possible for me to apply to be my mum's carer before leaving my job in Australia or arriving back in the UK. I would imagine that to apply to be a carer I would actually need to be resident in the UK first. Apart from that, our plan is for my wife to do that and claim the carer's allowance, whilst I would find a more appropriate job. Good idea though - thanks! :-)

Hi Marisa, thanks for your reply. I think the issue for us will be meeting the new financial requirements because it will now be necessary for me to obtain a job in the UK paying more than GBP 18,600 per annum before I can sponsor my wife. As a school teacher my salary would be more than that, but finding a job whilst still residing in Australia will be more of a challenge. The dilemma is that if I leave my current position and return to the UK, then I will no longer fulfill the other requirement of being in gainful employment for the 6 months prior to making the application. Chicken and egg really. It would seem that these new regulations introduced a year or so ago put returning UK citizens and their families at a disadvantage, while the flow of European migrants into the country seems to continue unrestricted. I’d be interested to hear from anyone who has first-hand experience of returning to the UK from Australia in the last year or so with a non-European partner and whether it was problematic. Kind regards, Mart.

I totally agree, Bunbury. It's the modern way to shove the oldies into a home and even though some don't mind going into residential care the majority, including my mum, want to stay in their own home, which she has lived in for 30 years. With the best will in the world she'll probably only be with us for another 5-10 years, after which we can return to Australia, should we choose. Education Queensland will even keep my job open with unpaid leave of absence for up to 3 years, which is pretty good really. I was reading the link that Snifter sent me (thanks!) and it seems that if I can get a job in the UK (paying more than £18,600) before I arrive, then we can apply for my wife's visa straight away rather than having to wait 6 months, because I'm currently employed full-time in Australia. Of course, getting a job in the UK whilst still in Australia is easier said than done, although probably still a lot easier than trying to do it the other way around! Cheers, Mart.

Hi and a very Happy New Year to one and all! I've been living in Aus for 10 years and I'm now both an Australian and British citizen. My wife is on a Thai passport and also has Australian residency. We want to return to the UK in 2014 to take care of my mum who is now 84 and struggling to live independently - she has no other family here in the UK. My wife wants to be my mum's carer and I will return to teaching in the UK (am I mad?!) having spent the last 3 years working for Education Queensland. I appreciate that I will need to read up on this in some detail, but I was hoping some of you may have done this recently and have a few ideas about the easiest way for my wife to obtain residency in the UK? As I'm no longer a resident in the UK myself, I don't think I'll be able to sponsor her as I did when she first came to Australia. Any and all suggestions are welcome! Regards, Mart.

Thanks to you all for getting back so quickly. It would seem that an extended absence from Aus won't be too much of an issue for us. We applied for my wife's visa in August 2012, so from what you've said she will become a permanent resident in August 2014? This would be good, as we will still be in Australia then so the process should (hopefully) go pretty smoothly.

Hello, My apologies if this subject or similar has already been posted but I couldn't find a relevant thread in the forum. My wife joined me in Cairns in March 2013 after she was granted a Partner Visa (subclass 309), where I currently live and work. At the moment we are in the UK, visiting my ageing mother who is now 85. Both my wife and I agree that my mum is no longer capable of caring for herself effectively and that we should try and move back to the UK to take care of her, rather than her going into an old folks home. I've been in Australia since 2003, I'm now an Aussie citizen and I do feel it's where our future lies. I'm more than happy to move back to the UK for a few years to take care of mum, but I want to be able to move back to Australia afterwards without too much fuss. We don't own property in either country so logistically it's not too difficult. If we stayed in Australia, my wife's temporary partner visa would become permanent in March 2015. My question for the forum is does anyone know what could happen if we left Australia before this date and then returned several years in the future? Would my wife's temporary visa be rescinded and we would have to complete the whole partner visa process again, before she can return to Australia? Would there be a significant benefit in waiting until my wife had Australian permanent residency before returning to the UK? This would mean staying in Australia for another 15-18 months, which might be okay as far as my mum's concerned. Wishing you all a very Happy New Year and a prosperous 2014! Mart.