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I'm afraid I don't have anything more to add as to where you can look for houses or cars, other than to suggest Googling for location specific results. But I wanted to reply anyway so that at least someone has replied to you.

I'm not sure we could move somewhere simply because we liked the house. But good on you for being so spontaneous.

When we move back, it'll need to be somewhere with a good digital industry, as that's what we both do for work. We're thinking Portsmouth at the moment, as I have lived there before and very much liked the small city vibe, being near the sea, plus it has great connections to London.

Yep, this is a no brainer. Wait & get your citizenship, all about keeping your options open and providing options for your kids/future kids.

 

I was planning on moving back to Dublin in 2006, needed to wait a further 6 months for citizenship and did so. Got my citizenship and passport and moved home in 2007. Wasn't planning on coming back in the short-medium term. The crash happened in Ireland, the bank I worked for closed and there was no work available. Made the decision to move back for work and came back in 2011 for good.

 

Even if I hadn't moved back in 2011, I would always have had the option and my kids would have had options too. The way the world is going, it isn't going to get any easier or cheaper to gain rights to live and work legally in another jurisdiction. Take the opportunity while you can. For a few hundred $ and a year, it's definitely worth it

Are you happy with your decision to move back permanently? Do you miss Ireland at all?

From reading your post, there are quite a few similarities in your situation and ours. We too have good jobs, a great apartment in a fantastic location but not too many friends here. We too have made the decision to move back to the UK and have given our self-12 months to do it, but in all reality it may take longer.

Do you know why it is that you don't feel settled? Is it having too few friends? Missing family?

Firstly, with regards to applying citizenship and getting the passport, do it.

We've decided that we're definitely going to get passports before we leave. As everyone has said, it keeps that door open permanently, which is good to know, because one of our greatest concerns is regretting our decision to return.

You say that you are going to do your place up before you sell it. We have decided to try and rent our place out when we move. This way we will have a place to come back too, if we do decide to return in a few years. We just need to sort out the rental of it and get a bit of money in the bank to cover any costs. If you do sell, what are the chances of getting back on the property ladder (with the way house prices are going up) if you do return. If you have not got a place of your own to return too, the options when you come back are renting or hotels. Both of which are very costly.

I don't think renting our apartment is an option. As amazing as it is, where the rental return would likely cover the mortgage, it wouldn't cover the body corporate or rates. So we'd have to pay those out of pocket every year. Not to mention, it'd tie up the money we'd use for a house deposit.

That being said, they are building a huge number of apartments in Brisbane at the moment, so if we cannot achieve what we paid for our apartment, plus hopefully the money we've spent renovating it, we'll likely keep a hold of it for a couple of years until we'd be ready to buy in the UK again.

Thank you everyone for your replies. Everything you've each said makes perfect sense and it seems that the consensus is entirely in favour of staying in Australia to gain citizenship before moving on.

For those that have moved back to the UK, or plan to do so, how did you decide where to live when you moved back? Obviously, proximity to family is very important, but having lived on the opposite side of the planet, anywhere in the UK is significantly closer.

Keen to hear your stories, if you're willing to share

Hi all,

I've been living in Australia with my wife for a little more than 3 years. We're both from the UK, and had never been to Australia before coming over here on a WHV and gaining PR on a 189 visa.

This past Christmas, my in-laws came to visit for about 6 weeks, and it really highlighted to us both how much we miss family. We have visited the UK once since we moved out, and that was only for a week. For everything this amazing country has to offer, it doesn't have family. If I'm honest, I've always felt a little unsettled here. I've not been able to put my finger on it. We both have great friends, good jobs and an awesome apartment in a fantastic location. But something is missing.

And with that, we're now giving serious thought to moving back to the UK in the next 12 to 18 months. We're thinking of this sort of timescale because we still want to explore more of Australia, New Zealand and we have to finish renovating and sell our apartment.

What we don't know is whether we should wait and apply for citizenship, before we leave?

Firstly it feels a little disingenuous to apply for citizenship when we know we plan to leave soon after. Although, we wouldn't rule out moving back at some point in the future - we'd like to keep that option open. Secondly, if we wait until we've been here for 4 years, and then apply, from what I've read it can take up to 6 months to get a citizenship ceremony, plus more time for a passport application to be processed.

What have other people done? Is it wrong to apply for citizenship, with the intention of moving back to the UK? If we want to return, would a residents return visa be enough to regain PR, 10 or 20 years from now?

Sorry for all of the questions. And if anyone else has any input on moving back, or what not, I would welcome your opinions and advice.

Cheers.

I'm not a tradie, nor do I work in the industry, but just by the sheer number of skyscrapers and apartment buildings being developed in and around the CBD, I would hazard a guess at the industry being booming.

As for the weather, it still gets cold even this far north of Melbourne, and has been pretty chilly for the past couple of months.

I had all of my documents certified by a Justice of the Peace.

I too came to say that there is a tremendous amount of construction happening in Brisbane at the moment, with a number of other huge developments planned for 2017.

Good luck with whatever you choose to do.

I based my statutory declaration off of the details in section 12 of the Assessment Guidelines, and the example on page 13.

If I recall correctly you can only claim on your EOI what has been confirmed as valid experience by ACS.

Hey, my wife (Anni, 27) and I (Rob, 29) moved to Brisbane at the beginning of the year. We live in the Valley and are always up for meeting new people. Give us a shout if you fancy meeting up for a drink one evening during the week or over the Christmas period.

We stayed at the Powerhouse Apartments. They're nothing special, but suited our short term needs and they were available from one day up to 3 months for short term agreements. Based in New Farm with good access to ferry and bus links.

Valerie and Maria are the property managers. Both were very helpful with advice and local knowledge.

If it's any help - I'm with Optus on a sim only deal. I pay $30 a month and get unlimited Australia calls to landlines and mobiles, unlimited texts, 500mb internet and 250 international minutes to around 30 different countries.

We moved with £12.5k. I got a job after 6 weeks, but didn't get paid until we'd been here for 10 weeks. The money we brought over kept us going until then, paying for 3 months rent, plus a 4 week bond and 4 weeks rent on a new apartment, a used car ($4k), fridge freezer, washing machine and furniture for our apartment.

Alex, I'm a web developer in Brisbane and I've recently been granted a 189 visa.

QS. Is that quantity surveyor? If so, I would think that job would be high in demand given the huge amount of building work going on in Brisbane at the moment.

If you are invited to apply and then apply for a PR visa, I believe you are automatically given a bridging visa A, which lasts the duration of the process, either until you're granted or rejected for a PR visa. That was certainly the case for us and we were both on WHV, but in our case the PR visa came through well before the WHV expired.

On a bridiging visa A however, you cannot leave the country. You'd need to apply for a bridging visa B if you needed to leave and return whilst the 190 was being processed.

I provided the sample template to my previous employers and I had no issues whatsoever.

We had our visa granted today!

It took me 9 weeks.

@paisleylass, thank you.

@paisleylass, what was the name of the hotel you stayed at in Bryon Bay, please? And would you recommend it? Thanks.

If it's already unlocked and you can use a sim card for any network in the UK, you should be fine to do the same in Oz.

If you're in any doubt, call your network and ask to get it unlocked. There is usually a fee for doing this though.

I think they mean when your arrive, although my wife and I were never asked for proof, which is fortunate as we'd both completely forgotten and so had no proof to offer!