melbournesunshine

Dear All, THANK YOU so much for all of your replies - it really makes a difference to hear back from you all.

Any advice from all of you out there?! We came over here from the UK with husband's work September 2011, on a 457, sponsored by the company. This same company has now hit hard times and they're starting to announce redundancy packages. My OH has been told to 'expect the worst'! Another 3 months and we could be applying for PR which means we could both get jobs more easily, but right now I have been struggling to find work and OH has been told (by recruitment agencies) that he's unlikely to find another sponsor (457) and his best chance of finding work is to try to get PR. If his current company are feeling nice, they may let us stay with the company to see us get PR, but then what? Could we manage to live here with maybe only one salary and scraping the barrel just to get through each day? In the UK without work, we know we could survive for a bit because our mortgage is relatively low whereas staying here, having paid for PR and then having to pay the rent ($500 a week) could be a serious strain on resources and really stressful. We live in Melbourne and really enjoy it here - our two boys are AFL crazy and love their school, and all the sports on offer here and that makes me really concerned about returning to the UK. I know we used to do lots of sports there too, but the outside life here would be sorely missed by us all. We have no family here and we do miss our friends back in the UK, and the British humour but I feel I would be forever missing Melbourne if we left and I really want us to stay. But would the stress be worth it? Or could we both get jobs more easily as Permanent Residents? Or does having PR make little impact on the number of job offers? How can we stop being kicked out of the country? Me and OH both work in magazines/communications/publishing, an area I don't think is very forthcoming with the 457 visas right now! Personally, I'm getting nervous about the UK, just because I really appreciate the space here in Melbourne, the lovely community I belong to and the weather being warmer. Any suggestions about how we can find a solution without putting ourselves in a very stressful financial situation would be so much appreciated.