Rainman

Dear Sue and for anyone else stressing over sending their Pets to the UK, they'll be fine. We sent our Dog and Cat over last Thursday. The stress we had worrying about how they would handle the trip was unbelievable but when I picked them up at the Animal Reception Centre at Heathrow on Friday, they were no worse for wear. Of course, it's an unpleasant trip and they weren't themselves to begin with but a couple of hours later they settled down and all was fine.Though I still find it hard to think about how uncomfortable they were on the journey over but they are fine now and no harm done. My Cat's 13 and Dog, 5, btw. We're nearly at our the end of our ordeal moving back to the UK. I cannot underestimate the stress and expense of moving back home. Make sure you have weighed up the reasons for returning!! For me, despite the stress and worry and knowing it won't all be sunshine and roses, I'm home. It feels like home and it smells like home and despite the crappy news lately, I'm bloody glad I'm home!!! There are problems ahead, I know. My kids only know Australia, despite being born in the UK but it's important to me for them to get to know their homeland and to decide where they want to live. The odds don't look good for Britain right now but time will tell. This is still a great country and has a few surprises yet. Us Brits work best under pressure!! Good luck to you all making the move back home.

We paid $7000 for a 20' sole use container with Chess. We were very happy with their service. Informative, unlike other moving company's we received quotes from, they mentioned the new ToR (transfer of residence) process into the UK., which is not exactly straightforward and gave us time to research what was involved (imported pets need to be included on this form). We had a huge amount of stuff and they packed in as much they could. They sent a great team to pack our stuff. We used Letton Percival for insurance though. It is definitely worth getting yor own Marine insurance and not being lazy using the shipping company to arrange it- you wil save hundreds. I used Letton Percival after reading about them on Pomsinoz. Hopefully we won't need to claim but I will report on their perfomance regarding claims as I will report on how things go when when our stuff arrives in the UK. Watch this space...

I arrived in the UK 2 months ago. I called Aviva, explained my situation, emailed them my no claims cert. from my Aussie insurance. Very helpful, they recognised my no claims and despite no credit history I could pay over 12 months. I'll stick with them for a year then start looking around but they're a good company to initially deal with.

I totally recommend Dogtainers. We just had our Dog and Cat sent from Brisbane to Heathrow, arrived Friday. They provided an excellent service, professional but caring. At no point did they make us feel we were a nuisance when we were asking questions they would have answered a hundred times. Just make sure your pets paperwork is correct. There was some confusion at the UK end due to the Aussie Governement Vet putting the wrong date for when the Pets had their microchip's put in. It didn't stop them coming into the country but caused a bit of panic for a while. This was nothing to do with Dogtainers though. Lovely company to deal with.

My Wife is in the process of completing the online form at the moment. What do you need to know?

I found this link to guidance notes about filling in the ToR form. Hope it helps. http://bar.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/ToR-BAR-document-22Dec2016-1.pdf Very helpful thread by the way, Scottiegirl

Since posting this Chess did get back to me regarding some of my concerns. I can't complain about them so far but it's always good to get a bit of feedback. Thanks.

We've chosen Chess Moving in Brisbane to handle our move back to the UK. Since then we've been reading mixed reviews about the company and since dealing with them have not found them quick to respond to questions about our move. I'd appreciate any feedback about them before we get too far that we can't use someone else. Thanks.

Hi ScotlandBound, I'm hoping that you still come on to these forums. We're starting the process of applying for my wife's Ancestry Visa. Given your recent experience with this type of Visa application, I'd appreciate your assistance. Looking through the application form VAF2 (which I hope is the correct form), one of the questions is, will you have enough funds to support yourself and supply bank statements. How much is considered as being enough to satisfy this question? Also, as I will be working in the UK and my salary is enough to support my wife and our kids, should I include documents showing my earnings, even though technically this is not a Visa that requires me to sponsor her? Have you now arrived in the UK and if so, how are you finding it? Cheers,

I forgot to ask, has anyone else felt more anxiety and worry moving back to the UK than they felt when leaving the UK for a new country?

This will be our third move, the other being UK/NZ, NZ/OZ. I didn't feel like I do now with the other moves. Mainly because we were younger, we had more hopes than fears and we were viewing it as an adventure, going to live in a sub tropical climate. In New Zealand, I'd go sailing and would see Blue Penguins swimming around or when driving across the North Island, going past active Volcanoes. In Australia, I remember driving along the Pacific motorway thinking what a great name for a road, (even though it is also called the M1). I loved seeing the road sign for Cairns, 1680kms. Or seeing a Kangaroo for the first time though they're a pain in the a*se now having had a few jump in front of my car at night over the years but back then, we were living in Australia! So exotic and exciting. But returning to the UK, my homeland and as much as I love it, it's hard to look at this move as adventure, we know what to expect and then some...but, having said that we will be moving to a different area to where we lived before, we will try to view it as a new country and embrace everything that makes the UK great and unique. We are determined to do things we didn't do before and do the things we missed doing while being overseas. We will enjoy being able to visit family when we feel like and look forward to getting a bit drunk with them over the Christmas period! One thing that does worry me is the state of the NHS. Though a few of my UK family have recently had experiences of the NHS either for surgery or as Out Patients, they generally have good things to say, the cracks are definitely showing. One thing I cannot complain about is the level of health care here (in Brisbane, anyway). If there are problems I haven't witnessed any. The stories I hear about the NHS these days is concerning and it worries me that where we choose to live dictates the level of healthcare we receive. Surely the solution has to be an Australian Medicare style system. While it can be expensive and frustrating such as when having to pay to see a GP for a follow up appointment, there is a partial rebate on what you've paid out and it prevents people from turning up unnecessarily, clogging up the system. It must be the way to go. Pointless thing to say but I just wish we could fast forward 6 months, get the crap we have to go through out of the way so we can start living our normal lives again and enjoy our new country.

Can I ask, how your children have found it being back in Britain and do you think it has had or will have a negative impact on their lives? One of the reasons I wanted to return is for my kids to enjoy time with their extended family and to live in a country with a lot more culture than there is in Old, plus the closeness of Europe. But I now wonder was that really a good enough reason for uprooting a family that was happy where they were, regardless of how I was feeling?

Thanks :smile:

We're moving back in a few months. Now it's getting close, I am struggling to feel positive about the move. Before we had made the decision to move back we kept talking about the positives but now it's happening all I can see are the negatives, though my wife remains upbeat. Reading your post hasn't helped as in some ways it is confirming my fears. I have never viewed the UK through rose tinted glasses, I have been back for visits too many times but living and working there again as opposed to a few weeks holiday is so different. I am scared we are making the wrong decision but it's too late now as I have handed in my notice at work so it's like we're being carried along on a wave. The stress of not knowing if we are doing the right thing or not is doing my head in :confused: The problem is it's something we won't know until we get there...

I’d say 99% of us who are thinking about returning home with kids are feeling scared and undecided. When we started questioning where we wanted to be, Australia or UK, that's when we should have gone back, in our case 2008 and I have regretted not going ever since. Our kids were still young, 10 & 7, plenty of time to make new friends in a new school in Britain and grow up with their cousins of the same age but we were asking ourselves the same as you, how will they settle in the UK after living in this beautiful country. How could they possibly be happy in cold, dreary Britain? That fact is, people's experiences have shown they will be fine and the younger they are, the quicker they adapt and settle. If you leave it even a couple more years when your oldest is 12, it could make it more stressful for them, then you'll worry whether you should wait until they've finished school. If there is ever a right time to move countries, I'd say it's when your kids are at the age they are now. It's easy to say "you can always come back" as many people do. That's fine, if you've got plenty of money to waste and enjoy the stress of moving countries but in reality you can. Now you have citizenship, you can come back, but more importantly your children have the choice one day in the future to come back or even live in New Zealand. If you are not happy now, trust me, speaking from experience you will be unhappier in 5 or 10 years time when you realise how much you and your kids have missed out with their family in the UK. Then you may feel guilt and regret for not doing it sooner, like I do. Our kids are 19 and 16 and I am still questioning whether it is right to return now after having lived overseas for 15 years but I feel it's important they reconnect with their extended family in the UK while they are still young enough. They are happy to go. My wife and I have promised there will always be money set aside for a ticket back to Australia if they need to return, short or long term. We have family here so they have somewhere to stay if they want. What pushed us to make the move now was I able to return to my firm in London. The fact that your Husband has a job to go to is a big hurdle overcome. I think if you let this opportunity slide by you may regret it. Good luck with whatever you decide.