OzinEire

Our dog is flying out from Dublin to Melbourne tomorrow! It's been a long process but we couldn't have left her behind. She's my husband's shadow. She's crate trained since a pup so shouldn't be too distressed from that end. We've made sure her hair is short for this side in the heat and the 12 hour stopover in Doha where they're let out for a break, stretch their legs and a small bit of food. We have the vet bedding in the bottom of the crate so that if she does have to pee then the wet will be wicked away and she'll have her last meal tonight and then we'll walk her early tomorrow so hopefully she's pooped before she takes off. We also have the water bowl just inside the door. I've seen people use the water pipe things used for guinea pigs and the like but unless they're trained to drink from them then they're pretty useless on the crate. We saved some money by doing the rabies and PEQ booking ourselves but they constantly bring in new rules so if you're not confident with lots of paperwork then you're better off paying a pet shipping company I think. Good luck!

Amazing! Congrats!

DH's 309 finally granted after applying in July 2019. We applied for the 600 visa last week cause we wanted to make sure he'd be able to at least get in the country before we sold our house, booked dogs into mickelham quarantine facility and booked our own flights for July/August. Actually can't believe it finally came through

I've seen these areas being recommended on different groups. Are they fire prone areas?

At the expense of other Australians though and taking away their legal right to return. No-one is asking to fly home and get off the plane and start mixing with people. Everyone I've spoken to is happy to do and pay for the quarantine. The government have other options which they refuse to entertain and keep passing the buck to individual states. The lack of compassion that people have for their fellow countrymen is really disappointing. I guess this is a pointless conversation to have with people that have no idea what it's like to be locked out of your own country.

But the problem is with the people running and working the quarantine system then, not the people returning who are locked in hotel rooms for 14 days. Wild to me that the people greeting returning travellers at the airport without even a mask on. Like they're immune to catching and spreading it within the community.

My home country is Australia. I just happened to have married someone from a different country. Our plan has always been to raise our children in Australia. The casual racism you're throwing out there has not been missed. My youngest was 2 months old with no passport and his Australian citizenship took 8 months to be processed. Should I have left him behind because he wasn't "Australian"? It takes 7 months to get pets ready to ship to Australia, should I have left them behind too?

As an aussie who has been living abroad but planning to move back home for 2 years now with my family, some of the responses here are a disgrace. People don't want to fly home on the government's dime and skip quarantine and risk the Australian populations health. We just want to come home. We want to be able to book our flights that aren't 10x the normal price because the government has put caps on flights. The government's advice in March was come home OR if you have a job and a place to stay overseas, then stay put. People have since lost their jobs due to covid or contracts ending or people have dying family members or an infinite number of other reasons. All of which are actually irrelevant because you should be able to return to your own home country! I've been living in various stages of lockdown since March, 2m social distancing everywhere, wearing masks to the shops, on school run, public transport, basically anywhere we could come in contact with people outside our immediate family. The Australian government has turned the general public against people returning from abroad making them out to be a massive risk but in reality we've been living with all these precautions for most of the year. To say we should just wait it out for how long??? instead of pointing out the obvious that the government should pull their finger out and listen to the experts they hired for advice on getting aussies back home. They're great at telling you they've helped get 40k aussies home but in reality 95% of those people have got themselves home, not on repatriation flights and the government has put them into quarantine and then gave themselves a pat on the back for doing the whole job. So sick of hearing "should've come back in March".

No way! What are the chances lol. Congrats!!!

Great to see some movement again. No updates for us still. Applied July 2019 and received RFI February 2020. Nothing since. Quite disheartening. We've delayed moving plans indefinitely now cause we've no idea what's going on. ETA we supplied police checks August 2019 and hubby did his medical Nov 2019 so I'm guessing they'll have to be done again. Hoping there's more leway considering covid delaying everything.

@Lauren L fingere crossed for us both! @kazronicus and @Kayse thank you! Didn't even cross my mind to reply to the email. Just done it now

We're still hoping to move to oz by the end of the year. Does anyone know where to find or who to email to let them know and hopefully keep the ball rolling on the visa process. We had just had an RFI to approve permanent visa before everything was put on hold!!!

I was going to say check your wife is an eligible NZ citizen but honestly I don't think she'll able to apply as a new Zealander if she has Australian citizenship. They're quite strict.

Having to rethink our moving timeline with the current state of the world. Once the visa is approved, can the applicant fly to Australia to activate without the Australian spouse? Then do they have 5 years to migrate? We've 3 kids under 5 so a holiday would cost a fortune and I'd be reluctant to have them on a flight anytime in the next 12 months.

What do people think is going to happen with offshore spouse visas with everything going on? Was hoping to move to oz around the end of the year but worried about the economy now. Likely they'll extend the 12 month entry period from approval date?