Cheery Thistle Posted February 27, 2023 Share Posted February 27, 2023 Seeking a bit of reassurance…..at the grand old age of 42 (hubby being 50), I am considering applying for an Australian Visa. It is something I always wanted to do but we couldn’t as my husband has 2 sons (now grown up) from a previous marriage. We also have a 10 year old daughter. We have a good life in the UK with a nice house, relatively low mortgage and I have a good job. Hubby is a self-employed gas engineer with established business. He also has a HGV licence. Husband had an operation a couple of years ago which led to complications and (long story short) he almost died. It has given us the opinion that you only live once etc etc. He is now fully recovered with no lasting effects thank goodness. I just wondered if others had made the move at this stage of life and had it been successful/‘worth it’? We are both positive ‘get up and go’ people and we have both re-trained relatively lte in careers, so we are up for a change and a challenge. I am a qualified and experienced secondary teacher (left the profession 4 years ago and now work in corporate L and D). Would have to take professional advice on visas and the moving process I think. Thoughts (both positive and negative) welcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausvisitor Posted February 27, 2023 Share Posted February 27, 2023 You will certainly need professional advice. Generally a teacher of your age with years of experience would be fine (sometime a long wait but generally it's a when not an if application) Your move out of teaching to industry though is probably going to cause an issue as the skills assessment requires a minimum amount of time in the nominated career in the last few years. Also one key issue for UK teachers is how did you qualify. If you didn't do a 4 year course you don't meet the Australian definition of qualified teacher (so a degree plus PGCE or a specific teaching 4 year degree) you also need to be able to show your training involved a substantial amount of classroom experience and not just lecture room theory. Get a call in with an agent quickly, time isn't on your side and you will be waiting in the process long enough without effectively also waiting now but having no idea if you would be successful or not. We applied when I was 44 (not teaching) we assumed we didn't have a chance given age, called an agent their view was time against us but worth a try, less than 9 months later (and the day before my 45th birthday) I woke up to a shiny visa grant letter in the email inbox Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheery Thistle Posted February 27, 2023 Author Share Posted February 27, 2023 Great thanks for this. My qualifications are good, I have a 4 year honours degree plus a one year PGDE and a further post-graduate diploma. However, I have been out of the classroom for 4 years. I will get a call scheduled with an agent for next couple of weeks. If Oz is out our plan B is Lanzarote, but hubby will have to get an Irish passport through ancestry for that to happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheery Thistle Posted February 27, 2023 Author Share Posted February 27, 2023 Interested in how you settled and adjusted at that stage of life - did you feel you were ‘starting again’ or was it an adventure? Don’t get me wrong I’m not sure I want to return to the classroom at all but I realise that’s the pathway for the visa (probably). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted February 27, 2023 Share Posted February 27, 2023 35 minutes ago, Cheery Thistle said: Great thanks for this. My qualifications are good, I have a 4 year honours degree plus a one year PGDE and a further post-graduate diploma. However, I have been out of the classroom for 4 years. I will get a call scheduled with an agent for next couple of weeks. If Oz is out our plan B is Lanzarote, but hubby will have to get an Irish passport through ancestry for that to happen. Getting an Irish passport for your hubby will be a dawdle compared to the one or two years it will take to get an Australian visa. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheery Thistle Posted February 27, 2023 Author Share Posted February 27, 2023 32 minutes ago, Marisawright said: Getting an Irish passport for your hubby will be a dawdle compared to the one or two years it will take to get an Australian visa. There is a 2 year wait to just get on to the foreign birth register, then you have to go through the citizenship application process. It’s not as straightforward as just getting a passport unfortunately. Brexit has meant that lots of people want the Irish passport/citizenship to get access to the EU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted February 27, 2023 Share Posted February 27, 2023 3 minutes ago, Cheery Thistle said: There is a 2 year wait to just get on to the foreign birth register, then you have to go through the citizenship application process. It’s not as straightforward as just getting a passport unfortunately. Brexit has meant that lots of people want the Irish passport/citizenship to get access to the EU. Gosh, that's much worse than it used to be. It would be worth starting the process now, in that case, even if you do decide to go for Australia. Remember, the Australian visa system is a competition, exactly like applying for a job, and it's pretty fierce. You may have exactly the qualifications and experience they're asking for, BUT so do hundreds of other applicants. Immigration cherry-picks, as you'd expect them to do. There is a fixed quota every year. The result is that many people, who are good candidates for a visa on paper, never get invited. Since you've already lost some points due to age, you may be at a disadvantage, unless you teach a subject that's in very high demand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheery Thistle Posted February 27, 2023 Author Share Posted February 27, 2023 Unfortunately not a subject that’s in demand - languages! But handy for our plan B as I speak French, Spanish and Italian as well as English and a smidge of Portuguese. Latterly I was teaching mainly RE and PSE (though not qualified) and I was my dept head. I understand it’s competitive and we are old (relatively). Indeed, the plan is to go for both options and what’s for you won’t go by you as my mum would have said. The wonderful side effects of Covid and Brexit mean that the Irish route is not as fast as it was before. There are other routes for Spain though (such as digital Nomad which has just been brought in). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted February 28, 2023 Share Posted February 28, 2023 Be aware that your DH may struggle. Australia is a very ageist country and over 50 is over the hill even though he may think he is super qualified - as a gas engineer he would have to re-certify in whichever state you might want to work and then start at the bottom again. Most people are winding down by 50 and you are going to struggle to have amassed a reasonable superannuation pot by the time you are thinking about retiring - the average super pot is around the $500k mark and that is borderline beans on toast territory when you retire and you'd be struggling to get that in the next 10 years (for your DH). It'd have to be something stunning, surely, to give up a nice house with a low mortgage and a good job and a good life. Your husband's now adult sons are likely to give him grandkids before too long - wont he want to be around for them? I can see you want an adventure but adventures require pretty deep pockets these days and when you are comfortably off then you spend a whole lot with little to show for it and discover you are no longer comfortably off it gets a bit wearing. 6 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rammygirl Posted February 28, 2023 Share Posted February 28, 2023 You don’t need a EU passport to get residency in Spain either. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon the Hat Posted February 28, 2023 Share Posted February 28, 2023 19 minutes ago, Quoll said: Be aware that your DH may struggle. Australia is a very ageist country and over 50 is over the hill even though he may think he is super qualified - as a gas engineer he would have to re-certify in whichever state you might want to work and then start at the bottom again. Most people are winding down by 50 and you are going to struggle to have amassed a reasonable superannuation pot by the time you are thinking about retiring - the average super pot is around the $500k mark and that is borderline beans on toast territory when you retire and you'd be struggling to get that in the next 10 years (for your DH). It'd have to be something stunning, surely, to give up a nice house with a low mortgage and a good job and a good life. Your husband's now adult sons are likely to give him grandkids before too long - wont he want to be around for them? I can see you want an adventure but adventures require pretty deep pockets these days and when you are comfortably off then you spend a whole lot with little to show for it and discover you are no longer comfortably off it gets a bit wearing. According to the news this week, the average is actually $150K. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sloth Posted February 28, 2023 Share Posted February 28, 2023 We moved here when I was 50 and my wife was 42, and definitely worth it in our case. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ausvisitor Posted February 28, 2023 Share Posted February 28, 2023 10 hours ago, Cheery Thistle said: Interested in how you settled and adjusted at that stage of life - did you feel you were ‘starting again’ or was it an adventure? Don’t get me wrong I’m not sure I want to return to the classroom at all but I realise that’s the pathway for the visa (probably). Settled well, but the reality is I worked all over anyway. Lived in Toronto, New York and UK and done extended work in Switzerland, France, Italy, Jakarta, Bangkok and Dubai - so used to being "a fish out of water" I know some are saying AUS is an ageist society but that isn't true anymore in the white collar professions in the blue collar trades it is still a thing though 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheery Thistle Posted February 28, 2023 Author Share Posted February 28, 2023 3 hours ago, rammygirl said: You don’t need a EU passport to get residency in Spain either. No you don’t, but it makes it MUCH easier and less expensive. Also, as we have the 10 year old the citizenship aspect gives her access to state healthcare and education (including free university), all things we’d have to pay for to some extent as temp residents. It’s not as if I haven’t looked into that. This thread is really supposed to be about those who may have moved to Oz in their 40’s, not a debate about Spanish residency. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheery Thistle Posted February 28, 2023 Author Share Posted February 28, 2023 12 minutes ago, Ausvisitor said: Settled well, but the reality is I worked all over anyway. Lived in Toronto, New York and UK and done extended work in Switzerland, France, Italy, Jakarta, Bangkok and Dubai - so used to being "a fish out of water" I know some are saying AUS is an ageist society but that isn't true anymore in the white collar professions in the blue collar trades it is still a thing though That’s good to know. I kind of am not too worried about his age being a barrier. He is quite a young fit 50 (with having the 10 year old and he is also an ex-Marine so always been physically fit). He is also fairly savvy having been self-employed for over 20 years in one guise or another. I have a feeling he’ll be ok wherever we end up. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheery Thistle Posted February 28, 2023 Author Share Posted February 28, 2023 2 hours ago, Sloth said: We moved here when I was 50 and my wife was 42, and definitely worth it in our case. Wow exact same age! That’s good to know. What was worth it? How did you do for work? Did you encounter ageism? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted February 28, 2023 Share Posted February 28, 2023 2 hours ago, Jon the Hat said: According to the news this week, the average is actually $150K. Blimey, my financial adviser told me $500k - but that may have been before people were allowed to take money out for mortgages over Covid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheery Thistle Posted February 28, 2023 Author Share Posted February 28, 2023 3 hours ago, Quoll said: Be aware that your DH may struggle. Australia is a very ageist country and over 50 is over the hill even though he may think he is super qualified - as a gas engineer he would have to re-certify in whichever state you might want to work and then start at the bottom again. Most people are winding down by 50 and you are going to struggle to have amassed a reasonable superannuation pot by the time you are thinking about retiring - the average super pot is around the $500k mark and that is borderline beans on toast territory when you retire and you'd be struggling to get that in the next 10 years (for your DH). It'd have to be something stunning, surely, to give up a nice house with a low mortgage and a good job and a good life. Your husband's now adult sons are likely to give him grandkids before too long - wont he want to be around for them? I can see you want an adventure but adventures require pretty deep pockets these days and when you are comfortably off then you spend a whole lot with little to show for it and discover you are no longer comfortably off it gets a bit wearing. Thanks yes these are our fears also. I suppose if he really struggled we’d have to come back, but I (for some reason) am not ridiculously worried about it. He almost has his 35 year pay in to get a UK state pension (not sure how that works, it’s on the list) and we also have some rental properties here as well as our own house (again need to look into this) so we have a bit behind us. As well as being a gas engineer he is a qualified swimming instructor and HGV driver. He has been self employed here for over 20 years and is v physically fit (ex Royal Marine). Maybe I should be more concerned but I’m not. Having a bit of ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’ moment. Re: it having to be stunning it’s more about life and future for our daughter as the UK in general is not such a great place to be any more. We are the lucky ones here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheery Thistle Posted February 28, 2023 Author Share Posted February 28, 2023 5 minutes ago, Quoll said: Blimey, my financial adviser told me $500k - but that may have been before people were allowed to take money out for mortgages over Covid Your FA probably trying to get you to pay more into yours lol. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parley Posted February 28, 2023 Share Posted February 28, 2023 1 hour ago, Quoll said: Blimey, my financial adviser told me $500k - but that may have been before people were allowed to take money out for mortgages over Covid AFAIK you only allowed to take out $10000 in each of 2 years so $20K max. Shouldn't make too much difference and you are able to pay it back in again without any tax/charges for the next few years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parley Posted February 28, 2023 Share Posted February 28, 2023 1 hour ago, Cheery Thistle said: Your FA probably trying to get you to pay more into yours lol. That is a great idea to put more in. Best investment around. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheery Thistle Posted February 28, 2023 Author Share Posted February 28, 2023 4 minutes ago, Parley said: That is a great idea to put more in. Best investment around. Personally I think it’s best to have a range of investments but I’m a relative amateur. Once people get to their 50’s here and mortgages are cleared they tend to make what we call AVC’s into their work pensions to boost their pot. Pensions are A consideration but not the only one. I have seen more than one person not make it to pension age. It’s partly why i left teaching - couldn’t stay miserable in a job for another 30 years just for a ‘good’ pension. Now I’m in the civil service with a pension that’s better than the teaching one. In that case taking a risk worked out well for me. I have often found that fortune favours the brave. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted February 28, 2023 Share Posted February 28, 2023 2 hours ago, Cheery Thistle said: Your FA probably trying to get you to pay more into yours lol. Don't need to, fortunately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheery Thistle Posted February 28, 2023 Author Share Posted February 28, 2023 11 minutes ago, Quoll said: Don't need to, fortunately. That’s great, good for you. Sounds like you have done well. I wonder what the actual average in the super is. It’s usually the case that people over-estimate what they have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulya Posted February 28, 2023 Share Posted February 28, 2023 5 hours ago, Jon the Hat said: According to the news this week, the average is actually $150K. Correct. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.