bencrom81

mine took 6 months door-to-door. why the rush to leave over the matter of a few months? you will always regret it if you don't get the passport, it'll be june before you know it.

it means a great deal that they did provide you with comfort. seeing my dad in pain isn't very nice but its my duty to be here for him and take him for a pint/s tonight. being a dad doesn't look easy and he did his best, so to me that's more important than instagramming on bondi beach. ive done all that. don't be hard on yourself for being a good bloke and supporting your family. jesus, I took that a bit deep didn't I! sorry all.

fully agree, I was there 7 years. when LAFHA was available I was in a modern apartment overlooking the harbour and it was mega. but anywhere outside the city or eastern suburbs, isn't anywhere youd choose to live. unless youre loaded, you wont live any place even near to your preconceptions. that's why its great for young, single people to rip into the eastern subs and enjoy a carefree lifestyle and party existence.. but maybe middle aged with children.. unless youre willing to move to northern beaches which I find soulless and generic, then I wouldn't recommend it. never got to perth as people said it was dull so wasn't worth the trip. Adelaide is so dull. Its a big retirement village. Always struck me as somewhere people ended up that couldn't make it in syd/melb. sounds harsh but just my assumption. better for families I guess as cheaper and Henley beach is nice, but is it worth emigrating for?

would agree with that. im further up north in Manchester, which is surrounded by small town dumps. however there are amazing pockets between it all away from the scumbags. having said that, anywhere outside of the city/eastern subs/parts of northern beaches in Sydney were depressing sh1tholes too. blue mountains full of weirdo drunks, northern beaches so painfully generic it had zero soul (like Adelaide) and worked down south in Wollongong for a year which was teeming with unemployment, drug addicts and undesirables. nowhere is utopia, especially where large numbers of people gather!

its just like splitting up with a girlfriend and then noticing she had a cracking arse and then you start remembering the good times, not the times where you dreaded seeing her or where she was snoring or stealing the covers.. if you've been spouting on here for the last year or so complaining about oz, don't then come on and say, oh we had a lovely weekend in cairns. of course you did! I had a cracking weekend in rome before Christmas, its because I didn't have to go to work, do my commute or the rest of everyday life. the people that cant distinguish between a holiday and a working day really need to consider these fundamental differences or they will go completely crackers. I miss the beach, sunshine, some Sydney pals and regular places id eat and drink but that's all in the past now and it was part of an adventure. it wasn't always great. im back now and am grateful I have family and pals here. the adventure feels like its stopped and ive had to adjust but I don't miss being so far away and things like being able to say goodbye to my nan who passed away last week and then support my dad means its all worth it. for the time being!

I understand all this reasoning as recently moved back to the UK after 7.5 years in Sydney. I, like you, would have lived those years in Sydney as it broadened my horizons a touch and gave me a taste of a different country. once I got past the honeymoon phase of 3-4 years, you do take stock, look around and wonder if the place is for you, especially with mates and family all back at home. Few things that wore me down to finally deciding to leave were: - stifling heat of the summer - I hate summer. I had a permanent film of perspiration on my body, found it draining and drowsy, getting on trains like saunas and taking 2 hours at my desk to cool down after the commute is not missed. some people love it. ive decided I like getting rugged up and into the cold. appreciate im in the tiny minority here! - I'd done what I wanted to do - like george70, I'd felt id done Sydney. id been to all the beaches, eaten at all the cafes, drank at all the pubs.. done weekends in southern highlands, jervis bay, palm beach, blue mountains.. my breaks were starting to get repetitive, which is fine as these are wonderful places. but repetition isn't an adventure and it signalled mine was over really. almost embarrassed to say I was growing bored of the place. not a lot around Sydney - Melbourne/Brisbane are just average cities to be honest. Adelaide I wouldn't recommend. whitsundays beautiful, Tasmania very nice to visit.. NZ and Fiji and bali all nice.. can these places compare to their European equivalents? no. - variety - the harbour is wonderful, circular quay and the opera house areas are touristy but I never grew tired of them. around the harbour, its just a normal city..the inner/west is to be avoided. culture - admittedly, I found Australians (in Sydney) to be cliquey and lacking a similar sense of humour and personality that English have. I could never get over not saying hello to people in lifts/corridors until 5 years in. as ive said before, I found bondi/eastern subs to have a false sense of optimism and positivity that I dare say wasn't entirely true.. cost - housing, cars, living - all very expensive, too much for my average wage of 130k. in my thirties now and would have to be settling away from eastern subs and the north/central.. which isn't really Sydney anyway, so that decision was made. overrated - aussies, which could be seen as an admirable trait, view their country as the best and are extremely patriotic. therefore they see their city/country as the 'best'. Australians think their country is better than is actually is, brits see theirs as worse than it is. all comes down to sense of humour in a way! content - I feel content now ive 'done' my stint in oz. I never expected it to be easy, therefore when it went wrong at times, I hung in there and knew things would work out. too many people think its an easy relocate, it isn't, but it has its rewards.

I think that's generally because English people are self depreciating and read too much daily mail. Aussies have it drummed into them that they are 'the lucky country' and their's is 'the best country in the world mate'. how does a country become the best in the world? ive no idea what that even means! usually spouted by bogans whove never been outside of Australia. English people view Australia as non stop sunshine, lazing on beaches with koalas all day, high fiving kangaroos as you head home for a dip in your pool after a BBQ. Its just normal life, only generally with warmer weather, worse drivers and expensive beer. you still pay taxes, work most of the time and encounter not so nice people. people get disappointed when they go to oz as their expectations were too high.

youre not wrong. something magical about autumn into winter - amazing colours everywhere. love getting my coat and scarf on and a coffee and heading out.. had a bit of a shock on the way to work this morning when a huge red fox burst out of a mound of leaves and scarpered past me. its all very nice when its not raining and thankfully its been relatively dry recently. I do not miss the stifling drowsy heat in Sydney one bit and being looked at like an alien if I didn't say it was amazing.

Agreed. not sure about wattsy but I 'stuck it out' for my citizenship because: a- I have a habit of taking the easy way out of things and it is proof that I can hang in there when times get a bit hard. b- if I didn't get it, id want it. now I have it, I barely think about it. I, for one am much happier now Im home. as a northerner, the relentless fake sincerity and upbeat positivity of the place wore heavily on me. it was uplifting to encounter a sour misery and realism back home and engage in prolonged moaning. I feel the eastern suburbs was full of false optimism and I couldn't handle any more!

pretty much sums up the reasons why people head back. ive been back for a few months now and get asked by friends, friends of friends, barbers, colleagues, strangers, why I would leave utopia to come back to the cold? and to them its hard to comprehend why you would swap sunshine and insatgram photos of the opera house for home - they cant because they've never had to comprehend homesickness, missing weddings, funerals, birthdays, going through tough times by yourself on the other side of the world. the queasy tension I felt for so long whilst in Sydney, which I tried to pretend wasn't there, has gone since ive been back.

a good mate of mine lives there (from UK). To be harshly upfront, its full of people who couldn't get sorted in Sydney or Melbourne. everything looks like it was built on the cheap in 1992. its Milton Keynes with a beach. I have absolutely no idea why people would relocate to Adelaide unless you fancied your final years in a bit of sun. I went once then told him I wasn't visiting again, it made my soul cry. happy Friday everyone.

no offence but I'd rather live with fire breathing T-Rex's than Adelaide. the worlds first outdoor retirement village where everyones lawn has the same length grass! more culture in my yoghurt I had this morning..

yes brexit has caused chaos back at home. every UK born citizen must share their bed with a refugee (towels optional but encouraged). there are only 85 jobs left in England and these are mainly paper rounds, with sharp inclines on the routes. all women now have moustaches and rationed lunch consists HP sauce sandwiches or a mouldy apple. Added to this, there are herds of fire breathing T-Rex wandering the country attacking anything they see and mainly eating cute kittens and old people. I hope Farage is happy. Nah, nothing has changed. stop panicking and crack on.

im the same. love winter. winter was my favourite month in Sydney (fresh, bright, quieter, could walk 200m without looking like id run 1km).. same here. love getting my coat and scarf on and finding solace in a cup of coffee, a cup of tea whilst the rain lashes at the window or a nice pint by a roaring fire.. give me those things any day over working in an office whilst its 40degrees in the city, riding a packed train home with sweat beading down me or lying on a beach frying myself when I never enjoyed that anyway. depends whether youre a cold weather person or not I guess.

People more friendly in Australia than the UK! sorry, just fell off my chair. I love a stereotype but this is generalising to biblical proportions! try the eastern suburbs of Sydney and find me a friendly person. very private school cliquey and materialistic, it is not a fosters advert..i found the vast majority of Australians bereft of sense of humour, in fact its a common joke with ex pats there.. and of course they have progressive ideas on harmonious race relations! do me a favour. I used to get in a lift with people in Sydney and say hello, nothing back. people go out of their way in Manchester to say hello. Litter and dirty streets? Sydney is filthy! maybe Adelaide is clean, but maybe a bit of litter would give it some character.. p.s. Adelaide has more homeless/drug addicts than any other Australian city.. maybe they don't live on clean streets? define better outdoor life? getting melanomas on a busy beach whilst swatting flies? if people like staying indoors and watching telly, it doesn't matter where you are. I was golfing up at turnberry last week - freezing, windy.. but amazing! depends what you like..

indeed, its only since ive arrived back home that I realised how disillusioned and unhappy I was in Australia. I cracked on with things as the citizenship was a target to aim for and kept me going. Australia seems to have a wonderful image/façade, for instance Bondi itself, but look a bit closer and its sunshine glossing over cheap shops, shabby buildings, narcissistic people and lack of substance. And late 20's ex-pats getting drunk & sunburned all weekend & living in a shoebox, spouting to anyone that will listen about the 'amazing lifestyle'. Admittedly its not for everyone and I needed the time away from home to appreciate the U.K. again. The adventure had ended for me a couple years before I got my passport and was seeing the bad things about the place (clearly) and not the good. it became pretty obvious saying farewell to my teary eyed parents in the airport earlier this year that it just wasn't worth doing that to them again and my mind was pretty much made up. good luck with the move and enjoy your last aussie summer!

Hi Paul - I was in oz for 7 years and frequently had those feelings. The way I dealt with it was treating my whole time there as an adventure and once I felt the time was right, to leave. I could never see myself having a family there, although im a person that takes the easy way out of a lot of things and must admit, sticking through the tough times and loneliness actually did me good. as soon as I got PR, I could see the finish line and decided to stay. this made things a whole lot easier, as I had approx. 18 months to see and do everything I wanted before I got the passport. I came home a few months back and feel content and at home - I may not have sunshine, beaches and the harbour but I have other things and crucially, no regrets. I cant help but feel if you head home after 2 years, you will feel like you still had more adventure left in you. p.s. steer clear of aussie women if you do stay as I did this a couple of times and the thought of having no option but to stay made me freak out a wee bit!

how long have you lived in Australia for? with respect, its not just a day on a plane. its thousands of in airfares and most of your annual 20-day leave standard in aus. for the most, it may aswell be on the moon.

if everyone spouted generic middle of the road politically correct answers on here, there would be no website. opinions are the things that drive it and its clear people prefer one place or the other. the clue is in the website title. from my brief 7 yr experience, I believe people return to the UK to fill a void that can only be filled by a feeling of belonging, family, old friends and the individual beauty of the UK and the adjacency of Europe. Some people are willing to sacrifice these things for sunshine and beaches which is their prerogative. That's fine. Then I suspect there are a number who are anchored to Australia without their desire and are now trying to fill the void by pretending their life in the southern hemisphere is better. When really, Im not entirely sure that's the case. Im glad I experienced the place and returned. But that's just me. There just isn't sufficient there to sacrifice the isolation.

golf courses in perth better than Scotland.. St Andrews, Royal Troon, Carnoustie, Turnberry, Muirfield, Gullane, Loch Lomond, Prestwick, Gleneagles. Probably the finest cluster of golfing acreage on the planet. This disturbs me. no idea what 'opportunities' lie in Germany that aren't in the UK. Maybe youre comparing Berlin with Scarborough here. Im in Manchester and the city is buzzing. I am still bemused by the anti UK stances of British people on here generally. I think ultimately peoples reasoning revolves around the need to be in permanent sunshine. when that doesn't occur in Australia anyway.

George you cant compare a cultural desert like perth to mighty Manchester! ive come back to mcr from Sydney and the place has really impressed me. the place seems to be thriving - new buildings flying up everywhere, an expanding tram system, the new spinningfields area is better than anything I saw in Sydney. good luck with the move back

hello all, just thought id pass my experience over from my recent move back to england. I moved back from Sydney to Manchester 6 weeks ago after approx. 7 yrs in NSW. I got my passport prior to departing, and am so happy I made the choice. it feels like home, something a beach or a 35 degree day or a good coffee can replace. Have already done a trip to Ireland (galway/Dublin), trip to the Lakes, Harrogate, seen grandparents, parents, cousins, old mates. its a comforting feeling being back. There's nothing ill miss, in fact the thought of returning to Oz makes me recoil. The fact I can return has taken the 'what if' out of proceedings, and the fact I gave it a good run and got it all out of my system means I have absolutely no regrets or pining for Australia. all the facebook posts from Bondi beach in the sunshine are lovely from mates there. do I miss it? no, ive swam there umpteen times and theres better beaches in Europe which I aim to get stuck into next summer. Manchester is fantastic, has changed so much in the last 7 years. its a really modern looking city, great restaurants, cafes, old pubs, beautiful old buildings. been to old Trafford (not so great I admit) with the lads, had some amazing indian food (was craving this massively!) and just had plenty of family time. im in construction and got a job at the first interview and there is plenty of work in the North west. for the remainder of the year, im looking forward to the colder months - a cold Christmas and off skiing to france in December. despite this being a pro UK post, its reassurance to people who have that nagging 20% doubt moving back. just do it, its worth it. Will

depends what you want though hey quoll. I work 50 hours a week max, do my job well, but only pull $130k in Sydney. not a great deal, but have sufficient time and dosh to enjoy the city. I just don't have the drive to push for more money, responsibility or stress. pretty content but that's just me. most people in Sydney aren't happy until theyre so burnt out they need to wrap themselves in yoga courses and therapy! ha

Gone through the citizenship process recently, it was exactly 18 months from receiving my PR approval to attending my ceremony. that's probably quite good timing too, having seen some recent caper with the process on here. but once you have PR, its pretty pointless not getting the passport as PR is the major hurdle, process and cost wise. 18 hour days? i'd expect 7 figures for those. not a very healthy way to live, your kids don't see you now and in all honesty, may not see too much of you in the future if you carry on. it all catches up to you, physically and mentally.

thankyou marisa. looking at the few quotes ive received thus far, this seems by far the cheapest and most legit. ill be using them for sure. cheers