RosieH11

Yes we have an alright life here but I've never felt settled really, probably because since i got back i've had it in my head this is not long term and I was always going back to Australia in a couple of years. it's hard to just give up on the idea. 100% if i had Aussie Citizenship or my TF wasn't expiring soon I would not be making the move now, or even this year I know that for sure. The stress of trying to organise the move right now is awful, but we shall do it, or try at least. Hopefully we don't bankrupt ourselves in the process. If it comes to it & we cant get back, il have to apply for an RRV and pray they grant it. I really hope they will take these currently covid19 circumstances into account, but who really knows, they might just say tough luck. I would not of bothered spending thousands to get PR at the time if i felt i didn't want to make Australia my home. Its just very unfortunate that our time line to emigrate ran inline with a pandemic I don't think people should lose out on what they worked so hard for because of something so awful & out of their control, this goes for people in my circumstances and those who have a deadline to activate PR visa. So much anxiety could be put at ease if only the government would address this issue, it would also stop thousands of people trying to make the move right now, which is clearly what they want. Thank you I hope so too! My partner and I are defiantly the you never know until you try types, i know the grass is greener on the other side or at least it was 3 years ago.... maybe its not anymore!! I have no clue what FOMO means i'm not that young unfortunately!! I hope you get to retire in 10 years your wife will love Australia im sure

Yes we have upgraded, so fingers crossed ! i'm more worried they will just cancel the whole flight though. Yes 50 is crazy, but it gets worse. The Australia ambassadors to Thailand published a video today in which he stated from 20 July flights will be restricted further to just 30 people per plane a cap of 350 people max per day.... so far the UK ambassador hasn't commented on this. Can't help but feel like the end goal is they want these airlines to stop offering flights all together

Thankyou, i just hope we can get on the flight, i heard a rumour today from July 20th the flights will be restricted even further. Im sick with anxiety over it all Partners of Australia Citizens and Permanent Residents that don't currently hold a PR visa themselves can still enter but they have to apply for an exemption and a 600 visa. You have to supply proof of your relationship with the application. We have a 309/100 application pending currently, if i don't get back.. well we will be in big trouble, il no longer have PR status so i wont be able to sponsor him any longer, $7000 visa fee down the drain, homeless, jobless & no longer allowed to live in Australia on my days what a mess

Unfortunately no he isn't, i'm the one with PR he is currently coming in on a 600 with exemption, we lodged an offshore partner visa for him recently. I think honestly if i were in a position where i could for certain obtain an RRV in the future then we wouldn't be trying to make the move now, we would stay in the UK until this is over. We have good secure jobs here and our own home, we are taking a risk in trying to move now if it doesn't happen we've lost jobs and our house will have tenant in it.... so i don't know what we will do Thankyou for your advice regarding Qatar, i shall take a look. Currently we have business class seats book with Emirates, I hope its enough to get us there. 'In my humble opinion the UK is going down the pan fast and the quality of life there is poor unless you're either stinking rich' ..... if you are broke in UK I agree, generally life is not great, i was pretty broke in Australia at one point and i was still happy! I spent my years in Sydney and Noosa on the Sunshine coast.... hard not to be happy in both of these places! I have said this many times to my family and friends who question why I want to leave my comfy life in the UK!! I just want a better quality of life and options for my family and children if i decided to have them. My other half's mother doesn't accept this, she is very unhappy about us leaving and has been for years since we told her the long term plan, i don't think she ever thought we would actually do it. And now here we are trying and I can feel her joy at our current situation, she will be very happy if it all falls through and were are stuck in the UK forever

I don't know too much about Aussie politics these days but it seems that they really don't get along and perhaps this cap on flights is more a political move than anything else. Either way these are real peoples lives being affected, knee jerk reaction is a good term for it, it's certainly hard to make any real plans when the rules can change overnight on a dime and have very real consequences

I never said it didn't make any sense, we are doing the exact same thing here - currently our cases are spiking in Leicester the majority of cases are here and this city is now back in lock down. I hope you keep well in Melbourne i'm sure it'l be under control soon

Yes i think 56000 I read somewhere, i'm totally for quarantine and happy to pay for it, no problem at all with that, I just hope i can get on a flight....It feels like there is an alternate motive and that is not to cap arrivals but to stop them all together, the politicians know its not economically feasible for an airline to fly with only 30-50 people on board, they are fully aware flights will be cancelled. I guess we shall just have to wait and see how the airlines react to this, i just checked with emirates and they seem to have no flights to anywhere in Australia available to book for the rest on July I guess i will find out this week if my flight is cancelled . sigh

i know they are, it's one of the main reasons i loved living there so much. Especially in Queensland, the difference of leaving Heathrow airport and landing to smiling faces in Brisbane is night and day! But it's hard not to worry when the PM keeps pushing this idea and talking about us like we are irresponsible holidaymakers just taking the piss and trying to get a freebie in a 5 star hotel..... saying we had plenty of time to return... really? Maybe those on holiday had plenty of chance to return yes, but those of us needing to uproot a whole life and immigrate across the world during a pandemic certainly didn't and now we have even less opportunity to return and he's still saying it, and seeing the majority of comments agreeing with him and basically telling us tough luck stay out, don't bring your covid here etc. It's just not nice to see it and it is the majority of comments saying this not just 1 or 2 trolls. I have made an effort to stop looking at these comments on social media and news outlets now. its all very depressing

Yes UK is defiantly more relaxed now, over the past 2-3 weeks things are getting back to 'normal' however we are mostly all making efforts to socially distance etc and the general feel from the government and community is we are all in this together, there is no blaming or anger towards certain groups here, not that i have noticed anyway! In comparison to Australia our daily count is high 400-700 cases day, but to us this feels great as we see the numbers dropping fast from 8000+ a day only a month ago. I guess the difference is we here really had a rough time, with a proper lock down and the world ending feeling that came with it, so now its just huge a sense of relief that it seems to be going in the right direction. I can totally understand why Australian government panics at the first sign of an outbreak no matter how small the numbers, at the same time I cant help but wonder how this approach is sustainable in the long term, this virus is not going away anytime soon, we all have to learn to live with it for a while at least. Id be interested to know what the Aussie governments plan is.... right now it feels its to shut off from the rest of the planet for years to come

Unfortunately i don't think they will grant me a RRV as i don't meet the 2 yr residency requirement and from looking at what they class as substantial ties I don't have any of these either, all i have is my previous years living there but most of these were spent on a 457 and not a PR visa. I tempted to just apply & just beg for leniency given the extreme circumstances, I cant be the only person in this predicament . Who knows if they will take pity on me or not though, its awful but i always worry, i remember all the effort, money and stress my ex and i went through on the pathway to PR, so may hurdles we had to go through - it literally broke us and our relationship and i balled my eyes out n the middle of my workplace when i finally got the email saying it had been approved, it meant so much to me. But now i don't know if i can face begging the Australian government to let me in all over again with the lets blame the overseas peeps saga thats currently popular i'm feeling quite low, and at the moment and questioning if i even really want to return anymore, if i do return are people going to treat us like leppers and abuse us in the streets?! Im sorry i'm so negative at the moment, so depressed over it all, i know for sure i don't have much fight left in me. My partner and i joked tonight that if we turn up for our flights and they are cancelled we will just get on a flight to somewhere open in SE Asia and live there forever as backpackers..... it was a joke but i'm thinking maybe its an option..... its probably irresponsible to do at nearly 40 but hey we have no kids, we will both be jobless and homeless anyways... the savings we had to start a life in Australia may as well be spent somewhere other then on an overpriced tiny rental in London thats for sure

Thankyou AliQ, I hope you manage to get on a flight soon to x

Yes honestly i think Covid situation whether is affects us directly or not is the main reason for major anxiety for millions of people right now, i have been fortunate to be working throughout it all all so have somewhat kept my mind busy, however i still feel like what am i working for? We earn money for what end if we cannot enjoy life? Nothing to look forward to? then i went down a really dark hole of feeling guilty as their are people in terrible situation in countries where there is no hope for freedoms even way before Covid. i know this sounds very dramatic but honestly i started just feeling like working all hour god sends is pointless. But then i felt i had to tell someone how i felt and i mentioned this to some of my work mates and friends and they all said they felt the same way! Its defiantly having our freedoms restricted has caused this.Lets just hope it only temporary x My long term relationship broke down, we had just got our PR a month before, we were i though on cloud 9 and then i caught him cheating on me and that was it, over, I kicked him out! it was truely awful time. A few months went by and i realised i was just so depressed and I just needed to get away, i went on holiday to Thailand on my own and decided i was going to travel for a while and i just never went back. I spent 5 months travelling then came back to the UK to visit family... fully intended to go back to Aus and start life again but then I met a boy in the UK, fell in love and got stuck for now 3 years ... this boy was an old school friend from 15 years ago! its funny how life turns out ! Still i never really felt settled in the UK and i miss the beach! There some nice beaches in UK but they are so packed all the time... i miss big empty beaches of Queensland! We want to return together but its proving quite difficult in the current climate. One piece of advice il give you is if you don't yet have Aussie citizenship, and your in the position to get it and soon then please get it before you leave! At least then you can always come back if you do decide to leave, I didn't get mine and i regret it now as returning for me will get a lot harder very soon I feel for you Its a tough decision to make, you have to follow your gut, sometimes its just a phase we go through and right now its a high stress time so keep that in mind also. I to had a pet cat with my Ex, broke my heart to leave him behind, that cat got me through some of the darkest days of my break-up. My ex has him now and actually i think it turned out well as it gave him something to take responsibility for and we still keep in touch (mainly because of the cat!)

Do you have family in the UK? It may be anxiety reaction related to this awful situation we all find ourselves in, your'e feeling of being out of control in a dangerous situation and home (UK) is pulling you back as it where your family are. It also may be a subconscious reaction to the fact that you are likely trapped in Australia due to the ban on leaving the country. I feel similar to be honest, but it the opposite for me as i already left Australia 3 yers ago to return to UK and pretty much for 3 years regretted that decision and wanted to go back...this year was the year for return but our plans are now in the air....... since Covid started my absolute certainty of wanting to return to Aus has started to fade, i'm not longer sure it the right choice and the pressure of making the decision is giving me Anxiety like i've never experienced in my life Do you feel trapped by your relationship? If your not happy with them perhaps this is the reason also, when we break up with someone we crave familiar surroundings and friends/family. I know i did when i left my ex in Australia. I hope you feel abit better soon. I keep reminding myself that nothing in life is permanent and better days will come

I hope i'm wrong but Im started to think he doesn't actually want people to get home at all, this whole thing is just a way of stopping the flights completely without actually coming out and saying it. What airlines can afford to fly for just 30-50 people on board they will just stop flying to Australia all together. Im booked on a flight in two weeks time, so far its not cancelled, however i suspect it soon will be We have already handed notice in with our jobs & found a tenant to rent our house, paper work is all signed so if we cant get on the flight we too will be jobless & homeless. If we can't get on any flight it'l be even worse as i will lose my Australian PR! the travel facility runs out August 27th. We were supposed to come in April but thought we were doing to right thing by staying put amongst all the chaos, i wished we'd just said stuff it, took the risk of catching this thing and flown when we had the chance. Now we are paying for this mistake big time financially and in stress, anxiety levels are through the roof . If we can't get back before end of August I think i'm done, i just don't have the energy left in me to go through applying again for another visa to try to reinstate my PR or fight my corner. The stress of the last few months is just too much. And seeing the way those of us outside Australia are being bashed daily in the news, social media and by officials is really upsetting. We are pulling together in the UK and beating this awful thing, the sense of community here right now is really lovely! Maybe its just because i'm outside looking in but it feels like Australia is not pulling together but turning against eachother, looking to point fingers and blame, its not the Australian way, it makes me really sad I wish they would make some concessions for PR holders on a deadline, those of us who either need to activate visas or maintain PR - give us an extension on these deadlines so we are not forced to travel right now, just until this hell is over. We don't want to travel now but we have no choice, else we risk losing everything we worked so hard to get, its not fair and would be so simple to solve if only someone in government gave us a second thought.

https://www.workvisalawyers.com.au/news/all/gsm-closed-indefinitely.html