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ok, i kow this has been discussed on numerous occasions but i felt the need to share our storey; we gained our visa early last year (2008), sold our house and car, pack up work and moved to nsw in september, we know of 2 families in oz and 1 of them live in nsw and laid on a stretch limo to collect us from sydney. i had a job and after a rocky start we found good schools for our 2 daughters. i honestly thought all was going well and to plan, i was loving every day. i would often stand outside the front of where i worked (on an industrial estate) and look at the clear sky, rows of palm trees and gums, exotic birds all round and think to myself "this is the life". (sadly, i even recorded a drive home from work as it was so breath taking!) slowly tracey became more down and sad, escalating to a "worst christmas day of our lives!". After millions of conversations throughout that christmas break we decided to call it a day and return to uk. as a husband & father my duty laid with the wellbeing of my family. i handed in my notice at work, we reloaded up our belongings into yet another 20ft container and flew home on 26th jan 09. colleagues at work suggested i send tracey and girls back to UK for a short holiday, my boss even kindly offered to pay for the flight! i got my old job back, taking advantage of the current market we bought a lovely house. after an exausting campaign we managed to get the girls back into their old school and rejoined after school clubs etc. last month (july) tracey informs me that she wishes to return to nsw!!! now its not all tracey's fault, she said had she of returned for a holiday to the uk it would not have been long enough as it has taken her 5 months to realise she should have stayed in oz and stuck it out! plus circumstances and various pressures in oz all played a part to leaving. migrating is a HUGE step and not be be taken lightly, it drains all your energies and emotions not to mention your expences! as i said before i loved every day but i torn between my heart shouting out "YES" i going back and dispair at reliving the whole process giving fresh heartache to 2 sets of grandparents etc. if will go back it will be next summer as we intend to let our eldest finish school next may and go to her prom. our visa expires in 2013 phew,hope that all makes sense. i suppose what im looking for by writing this thread is; have people been in the same situation?, did they go back? did it work or not? thanks for reading, hope it doesn't all sound like gobbledegook. mark.

anyone moved back and kinda knew they would be moving back to OZ before they got on the plane?:swoon:

we moved back to the uk in Dec 2010 after nearly 2 years in Brisbane, we was home sick and my daughter was still studying in the uk. we got our PR then went back to the uk, didnt miss oz one bit until now! the uk is 'home' but there is nothing in this country for us and for my children so we are pondering if we should up root and move back to Oz, but we was thinking trying Melbourne this time as Brisbane was a little to hot for us, whats peoples thoughts ?? thanks

Hi We moved to Oz in Sept 2009 and moved back to the Uk in April 2010. Been home over a year now and having thoughts of giving Oz another go next year before our Permanent visa runs out in Jan 2013. Would really love to hear the stories of other ping pong poms who have been back and forth to Oz and whether things have finally worked out how they wanted or envisaged and what made it work the second (or third) time around, if it did. Our sons are due to finish A levels and GCSEs in July next year and that feels a much better time for us to try again. There were a number of reasons it didn't work out for us at the time but we feel that we have a better understanding now of the whole process and hope we can overcome the feelings of home sickness with the benefit of hindsight and make a good go of it second time around.

Hi All Have any Ping Pongers regretted there move back to Oz ? We returned in Jan but have a burning desire (we think) to return back to Oz......nicx

Has anyone returned to the UK from Oz and regretted it ? If so....why did u leave Oz in the first place and why was it a mistake !! Col x

It would be interesting to here from our PIO members that have emigrated to Australia and found it's not for them, then once returning home finding out they have made a mistake and wanting to return to oz, How long did you stay in oz before you returned home? How long did it take you to find out you made a mistake by coming home? What state do you prefer? proview

Just curious, how many on here are ping pongs? what's your story? :cool:

Hi Guys Just after a bit of advise. We are returning to Melbourne in November and have already been there once on a single ticket and validated our visa - we flew with Emirates and were given double luggage allowance. Although we still ended up 19kg over weight & had to send a case with Sky Cargo. So when we go this time round, for good this time again on a one way ticket, does anyone know if we can get the double allowance again, were flying with Singapore this time. We are shipping our furniture & belongings over a month before we fly out and so the dilemma, here it will be winter & in Oz it will be Summer so im going to need completely different clothing. So Im sure we will end up with lots of stuff to take on the flight! :arghh:

Are we the champion ping pong poms? can anyone beat this? 4 times in 10 years. 2000-2002 QLD 2002-2005 UK 2005-2007 QLD 2007-2008 UK 2008-2009 QLD 2009-2010 UK 2010-???? QLD again maybe soon!!!! Bet you can't!!!!:goofy:

We moved back to the UK last Aug ,family of three , with car, dog etc but have decided to move back to OZ . I really dont want to put anyone off and mine is just another story and I read plenty of others before embarking on this decision so if it helps at all here goes: We left Australia after 20yrs , with one son 12 we were mostly happy there but over the years often felt like would like to live again in the UK mostly because of family there but also missing the usual stuff , like the culture and history , being close to Europe, lovely countryside etc. Its such a hard decision but finally timing seemed right with a good exchange rate and son about to go to HS it seemed a good time to finally make the move. We moved to a lovely house in a very pretty village but we all so miss Australia, our friends and the lifestyle we had there. I personally feel that it is really hard to start over after 20yrs , we do have friends here and family who have been fantastic and really tried so hard and we tried too , went to social events in the village and joined local cricket and football clubs , it just hasnt worked out . The main reason overall though is the job situation it is so bad here and without regular employment too hard and that soon overtakes everything else Maybe it would have been different if we had moved back a few years ago when things were not so bad here and our son was still in Primary as he has struggled here - I thought 12 was okay but I really underestimated how established he was at school with friends and activities here he is spending lots of time on his own . I am glad we came as I especially always wanted too and I have really enjoyed spending lots of family time but in the end its not enough to keep living here , at least we tried so it has answered that feeling once and for all Have sold our house and now starting the whole process again - but I will always come back as lots to like about the Uk but a visit will do in future:arghh:

:biggrin:hi all, well history is repeating itself and for the 2nd time in as many years my wife and i are placing our home on the market for sale. estate agents are visiting on friday 22nd jan to value and pic take. i have been d.i.y'ing this weekend in readyness and have next thurs / fri off for last minute panic fixing n cleaning :eek: we will keep you posted with how we get on :wacko:

Hello. We had visas that expired in 2008 :embarrassed: Never got round to going back after a family death. Nor did we make the 2 years :embarrassed:. I take it we have to re-apply again ? Will this mean doing all the stuff again ?? How long is it taking for sparks? I am thinking things have changed alot in the past years since we first started all this :err: Things seem a bit more daunting this time or perhaps its because we are older and kids are older etc...

Hey guys Don't know if there are any old timers on the boards who remember me, but we shipped out to Oz in October 2006 - then fled back home in january 2007. Well, guess what. We were talking at the weekend and it's come to light that Mrs Choobs and i both feel we've made a horrible mistake and would quite like to give it another go. The visa lasts until 2011, after all. Except this time we don't have house equity and the current policiy of 'if it moves, tax it; if it doesn't tax it anyway' that Britain is labouring under is likely to make it very difficult to save. So, in the words of Homer Simpson - 'D'oH!' All you guys over in Oz who may be feeling homesick - don't give into it - it'll be a lot harder to get back the second time :-/ John

We have been watching down under revisited. And realise how much we really want to go back to Oz. We flew out on the 5th June 2007 to Brisbane and returned becasue we were on a 457 visa but the sponsor didnt stick to the deal. The thing is when we went out last time we were not very confident that we would get in didint think my partner had enough expereince etc. Now we are wanting to return as a PR, we have applied for TRA. My partner is convinced we wont get in because we returned last time and immigration might say no because of this. I want to know how many ping pong poms there are, that have gone back and forth and either did return or were refused. Any help appreciated