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Apologies in advance for the long post but after some advice or people’s opinions, in case we are missing something or being crazy here. Myself and my partner have been back and forth from Australia for the last 7 years or so, probably have spent 4 years total over there. Currently back in the UK, have a permanent visa application approved (186) and when we applied for said visa, intended our current life in the UK (jobs, house etc.) to be temporary until it’s granted. We’ve unexpectedly been doing ok and are reasonably happy. Would we rather live in Australia (we love the country, weather, outdoor life etc), sure…. but we both earn quite well and are comfortable in the UK at the moment, partner has own business where he’s earning what he’d earn in a week in Australia in a day in the UK, I’m on 40k at 28 which I never thought I’d earn right now, and have some promising further career progression in the next few years. We are renting a nice place in a nice area and could probably buy in a couple of years. Our end game is to be in Australia, but if we had it our way we’d do it in a few years once we’ve had a baby in the UK (with family nearby), got in a better financial position and felt completely ready, and maybe got an investment property in the UK under our belts for back up in future if ever needed. Unfortunately the visa won’t wait longer than a few months from now. For a bit more context we are both wanting to start a family soon due to age (28 F and 37 M) of my partner mainly. Also keen to get a house and settle or make a base somewhere. Our permanent visa application was successful as partner’s old Aussie job agreed to sponsor the permanent visa, but if we reject it now it will be on me and some further education/ work to apply for a permanent visa in a few years when we’re ready, as all his Aussie work experience we used to get the visa will no longer be valid by then. Of course a risk exists that if the skilled lists/ anything else changes before I have everything needed, we might not tick the right boxes in future and lose the chance altogether. The other factors we are considering are that the work I do is quite niche and isn’t really a big thing in Australia at the moment (data protection), and the company he has to work for for a couple of years as a condition of the permanent visa, isn’t great so it will be a bit of a slog until he can leave and until Australia catch up in data protection to create more jobs in the field for me. In the meantime I’d most likely have to pick up unrelated work or struggle for a while to find something. I also love working remotely which I do currently, and heard this is much less common in Australia compared with the UK. The big question is, do we throw this visa opportunity away, which has taken years to get and is notoriously hard to get granted and stay in the UK with the risk of not being able to apply again in future, but be able to settle for a while, have a child and get in a better financial position- or- do we say ‘you only live once’ close partner’s business, quit my job and move to australia with unknown job prospects and feeling not quite ready but loving the country we live in? If we had it our way, we’d put the visa ‘on hold’ for a while as our end game will always be to end up in Australia as we simply love it, as it seems crazy to jump right now but also a risk to wait and throw away this visa. I know only we can truly know all the ins and outs and make the decision, but opinions are very much welcomed as we are totally stuck and worried we are missing something or the bigger picture! To jump or not to jump? Thank you for reading if you got this far