ozzbound Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 I'll start at the beginning but it could be a long one! I lived in Melbourne from aged 2 until my parents divorced when i was 13. My mum and i returned to Oldham in the UK. I am now married with 2 girls aged 16 and 11. I have always wanted to return to Australia, but having kids and buying houses there always seems to be something else to pay for. In 2005 my dad (who is still in Melbourne) offered to pay for us to come over for a month in the August. This would give me time to show my family around and decide what we wanted to do. It was the wettest and coldest august with snow and everything but we all loved the way of life. That was the start of our application. We returned and looked into how we could get there and discovered that because my parents had not got me citizenship when i was a child we could apply for a 47SV Former Resident Visa subclass 151. This involved us gathering evidence of my relationship with dad and other family and friends to show i still had close ties to Australia. It also said that i had to have returned and visited which i hadn't. We then discovered that my husbands naughty past was also in the spotlight. When he was a kid he got into a lot of trouble and went to Youth Offenders more than twice. We also found out that we should have declared this on our arrival card in 2005. We thought his convictions were spent. The good thing was he had not murdered anyone and that it was nearly 20 years ago. Back when the kids were younger i phoned agents in Australia - NONE of which frequent this forum - and was told that we did not stand a chance of getting in. Well, i don't know if i was just determined or just out to prove them wrong but in August 2008 we decided we had enough evidence to apply. I had letters from my old schools, photos of friends and family going back to me being 4 years old. I had phone bills from 2002. I jumped through every hoop or it felt like it anyway. We got references from higher standing people in our community regarding my husbands convictions and he did a 4 page letter explaining what went on. It took me 3 weeks to compile the application and it was not for the weak hearted. To be honest i could not have done this without the forums. I had decided not to use an agent for a few reasons, mainly that all those years ago noone had any faith in us. But when compiling the application i really did doubt this decision. I didn't have anyone to say i was doing the right thing or that everything would be alright. This was our one chance and i didn't want to blow it. I sent the application on the 10th of August by DHL and tracked it all the way to Canberra. 3 weeks later we didn't have an aknowledgement letter and i began to panic. I phoned Canberra and discovered that i had sent the wrong currency in my cheque!!! OMG could you believe it? The guy from immigration - D, was fantastic. He emailed me and told me he would keep hold of the application until i returned the cheque in $$$. DHL saved the day again and i tracked it all the way to D. I phoned him as arranged when it arrived and he took it to the correct section in residency. We had front loaded the policechecks and medicals as this was the advice on the visa application so the waiting began. Just off to the beach so will continue later :wink: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 Great post but talk about leaving us wanting more.... look forward to hearing how the the rest of your journey to Oz went Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tracy123 Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 how dare you go to the beach get back on that lap top and finish the story......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 Well we have had a lovely day here in Melbourne so I don't suppose I can blame them making the most of their new way of life, I bet they are having a BBQ when they get home, lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tracy123 Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 Well we have had a lovely day here in Melbourne so I don't suppose I can blame them making the most of their new way of life, I bet they are having a BBQ when they get home, lol. you don't leave a post half finnished and run off to the beach no matter how good the weather is....:tongue:..... I hope they enjoy the Aussie snags Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olly Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 Bugger, was just getting into that post, oh well you know what we Melburnians are like, we love to lie around on the beach all day:shocked: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Yvonne MacFarlane Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 Yeah, the beach! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest paulacox Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 Hi Ozzbound Can't wait for part 2 paula Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest juliemtaylor Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 come on you should come back from the beach and carry on the post as it's not polite to keep us waiting!!! Julie x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest annemarie and brian Posted October 11, 2009 Share Posted October 11, 2009 oh! what a great first half cannot wait to read the rest, read when you get back enjoy the beach. annemarie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Prickles83 Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 This should be a book!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynne1266 Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 what a great novel...!!! can't wait for the next chapter xxx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozzbound Posted October 12, 2009 Author Share Posted October 12, 2009 Right, part two then!!! We received an aknowledgement dated the 18th of September. This was the start of the waiting game. I lived and breathed the forums and email on a ritual of before and on my return from work and most of the evening every night!! It is so difficult after you have sent the application because it is out of your hands and this 'baby' you have been moulding is no longer in your hands but someone elses. Its hard to go at someone elses pace when all you want to know is what is going to happen to the rest of your life!! Well christmas came and went; we had no idea if this was going to be our last with the family in the UK or not. It was hard buying presents for the kids because i didn't want to get anything too large then a few months later tell them we couldn't take it with us but we survived it and carried on into the new year. Just after the new year we received an email from immigration saying our case would be looked at soon. O - M -G!!!! About the 10th of January we got an email from our new case officer requesting further documents and more statutory declarations. This really threw us as we had done them at the solicitors and in the wording he had said. I emailed the c.o back for further details and it seemed the wording was not as just right. The c.o suggested i get new statutory declarations from the post office which is the done thing in Australia but a solicitor does it here. How do you politely tell your c.o that? We went to another solicitors and explained the situation and she got out the law books and photocopied the wording which was slightly different, so we redid the stat decs and DHL took them to Canberra. Throughout this application and pre-application it is laughable that all these things should go wrong or that we had so many obstacles in our way it was so typically us but when things seemed to be so low something else would happen to bring us back up. That day was March the 10/11th 2009. I was doing the ritualistic check of the email before work and there it was. Visa granted. I ran upstairs to my husband who just could not believe it and ran downstairs to read the email. The girls got up and i should have said earlier but our then 15 year old thought we were ruining her life throughout this application. Towards the end of the process she was slightly and i mean slightly coming round to the idea but only because her friends thought she was mad not to want to move to Australia. Whilst we were jumping around the room and i was phoning people like my mum down the road and my dad in Melbourne, I looked to see my eldest daughter crying on the settee. It was a desperate moment of elation and sadness that she felt like she did. How can you explain to her that we were doing this so she could have a better life? We had worked hard to buy our council house and believe me the 4 years of renovations had taken their toll on my sanity but it was nearly finished and i wanted her to have her own room and better lifestyle. From March to July we madly rushed to finish the house and get it on the now-existent housing market. This was a major worry because we had front loaded the medicals and policechecks the visa grant was that we entered Australia before 2/10/09. The c.o had extended the grant entry by 10 weeks which we were grateful of but still had little time. I didn't want to validate and return as the eldest daughter would have completed her GCSEs and finished school and the youngest had just finished primary school. I didn't want them settling into new routines at secondary school and college. In June we put the house on the market at the lowest price ever. I know the 'what ifs' but had we sold the year previous without renovations we would have got 20,000 more. I know you can't look at things like that but its hard not to sometimes!! Within a fortnight of it being on the market a neighbour brought round a colleague from her works and he put an offer in lower than expected. We decided to refuse but tell him more towards the asking price and he came back with one still under the price but a better one. We accepted. I don't know if it was naughty or not but the estate agent never got us one viewing even after leaving it on the market until near the time we left so we excluded them from the sale. This saved us 1,500. I didn't know when to give my notice at work, when is it safe to do it? So i decided to wait until the survey had been done and came back ok. I work in schools and we broke up in the middle of July - me not knowing during the 6 week holidays if i would return :jiggy: The day after we broke up from school the surveyor rang and i arranged for him to come in 2 days so i could (relaxingly) tidy up and get the house sorted. The day after i took the kids to watch a film and had Pizza. When we got back my husband said the surveyor had been! The house wasn't a mess but also wasn't how i wanted it to look either........ It was another 3 weeks until we knew the survey was ok. That day i emailed my boss and other bosses to hand in my notice. I had to ring HR to help with this as i had no idea how to do this!!!! They explained i had to give 1 months notice. This would mean i had to work until 15th of September but this was payday. I had appointed a solicitor who i will tell you about later but be warned!! We booked the flights for the 17th of September which we then realised was the day before the acknowledgement letter was received by immigration. We were flying from Manchester with Emirates and we had our 50kg each using the migration site and promotion codes. It was 2160 for 3 x adults and 1 child one way. I returned to work and to be honest, I loved my job but for the fortnight of work left i really did not want to be there. I had de-cluttered the house so many times there was nothing left or so i thought. My last day at work was hard. I hated saying goodbye to work friends and my boss, she was the best boss ever and she is still a close friend today. I ran around getting rid of everything in the house on Monday night and Tuesday, the buyer of the house had bought everything in the house sale so we just had to pack and tidy up. Sounds good but it was very very hard to still live there and declutter! On the previous Friday night my FIL had arranged a party i was not looking forward to. It was fantastic to see everyone and it was an amazing night although i spent most of it in tears. All the nanas and older family members had a great night. The day before we came we said goodbye to everyone and i was still sorting the house - even whilst packing on Thursday before the flight! It was the most gut wrenching horrendous time saying goodbye. I cried so much for me and for my kids and their friends. How do you console your kids when it is you who caused all this? NO ONE will ever describe in words the emotions. The whole street turned out to wish us well. We stood on the front waiting for the taxi with 6 suitcases, 2 holdalls and 4 hand lugguage to start our new life. I just can't put into words leaving the house and friends on the street along with the family stuff its surreal. None of us spoke for over 20 minutes in the taxi/bus we just held eachother. Must get the kdis to school but will continue when i have dropped them off. Sorry it is so long but i loved reading others xxxx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OZwanted Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 Please keep posting, must have been horrible saying goodbye but great to move on to hopefully better times for your kids. good luck with your new life, x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest annemarie and brian Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 its so great to hear your journey cannot wait to hear the rest. annemarie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynne1266 Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 Next chapter .....PLEASE...!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 13, 2009 Share Posted October 13, 2009 Geez you really know how to keep the crowd wanting more, come on you can't stop there. It's raining today so you can't use the beach as an excuse. Kate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest31881 Posted October 13, 2009 Share Posted October 13, 2009 How far away is the kids school? waiting is killing me:arghh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Prickles83 Posted October 13, 2009 Share Posted October 13, 2009 How addicted are we!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozzbound Posted October 13, 2009 Author Share Posted October 13, 2009 Right, back again busy day form filling!! Right so off we went to the airport. We arrived and apologised to the nice guy who took us to the airport as we are usually chatty but it just didn't feel right to be chatting on the way to Manchester Airport. We got all our lugguage together and the queue for Emirates was short which i was glad of to be getting rid of all the suitcases. We then realised we hadn't eaten most of the day and went to Giraffe for tea. We had come around by then and i was trying to make it more of an adventure for the kids than a depressing time. This worked well and the fact i told everyone under NO circumstances was anyone to come to the airport. I needed to focus on the kids and it wouldn't have been right. After tea we went downstairs and the kids wanted to go on Facebook (of all things!) all the neighbours had put lovely comments and it was quite uplifting. My husband found the massage chairs nearby and sat to get beat up is the best way to put it!! It was time to board the plane and at 8.50pm we left Manchester for Dubai. Emirates were fantastic. The food was sometimes a little weird like Chicken and a date sauce but there was always something you could make even if it was a cheese roll:laugh: We landed in Dubai and would you believe i ended up getting searched as my jeans had made the security metal detector bleep! Off i went to a little room with a female guard and she just waved a metal detector over me and it was a stud thing on the jeans - to my relief! Anyway, husband was desperate for a cigarette so went to find the smoking room - we were in terminal 3 and its in terminal 1. Whoops! so he paid god knows how much to have a beer in this bar while we went to Mc Donalds for a sundae. We reboarded the plane for Singapore and again the food was plentiful. Trying to sleep is another story. Its not the seats or anything but with me i think adrenaline about moving and all the emotions before hand i just couldn't rest. The ICE entertainment system is good and i listened to music for a few hours in this part of the flight. We arrived at Singapore and again off to the cigarette room which was easily found. We only had an hour here before reboarding. We finally arrived in Melbourne looking like bedraggled rats on Saturday 19th of September at 7.40am. Like everyone else on this visa journey we avidly watched 'Nothing to declare/Border Security'. We walked through to immigration and there was a big sign 'Today we are filming for Nothing to Declare for the 7 Network'. Just what we needed!! Anyway we got to the counter and they checked out our passports. We had completed the passenger cards declaring food- Yorkshire Tea!! and the convictions. As soon as they saw the convictions we were waved towards this other guy who questioned my husband. He then waved us through! No big interrogations so off we went. Collecting all the baggage was pretty hard; but i was very quick at whisking them off the carousel. We then went to the next immigration section and showed our passenger cards. She waved us through and we went through to arrivals missing Nothing to Declare! I was very relieved about that i tell you. We met Dad and his partner at the airport and headed back to their house in Mt Eliza on the Mornington Peninsula. I can't explain what i was feeling we had wanted this for soooo long and now we were here. It was scary and fantastic rolled into one. I am lucky to have my dad here to stay with and i have thought about this a lot - those who come who have never been here before leaving all their friends and family in the UK I take my hat off to. I was not going into the unknown and these people who do this i seriously admire. The cushion of having help here has saved us as the house sale money is still in the UK as the exchange rate is at a 25 year low. Can you believe it? I bloody can't !! We started registering for everything straight away and got our tax file numbers online on the sunday. We did Medicare and banks on Monday and Tuesday. It was at Medicare that the guy working there noticed that immigration had not stamped my husbands passport arrival. Luckily we were in Dandenong that day and went to the immigration just up the road and had it stamped in the hour. After they saw the conviction thing they must have forgotten! The next thing was to sort schoools for the kids. I rang them to discover they were on a fortnights holiday that had started the day before we arrived! The kids had already had 6 weeks off in the UK followed by a further fortnight until we flew and i really wanted to sort it out but had to wait until school returned in October. The eldest had done her GCSEs and wanted to do an apprenticeship but we wanted her to go to school and meet people. She is 16 and the chances of her building friendships without school wasn't good. She was very reluctant and negative about this, but we went on a tour and then enrolled. They have been excellent with her and she has been 2 days now and its early days but positive. The youngest loves school. She had finished primary and we just presumed she would go into grade 6 but she is grade 5 which is fine, the kids are her age and maturity as she is a pretty young 11. The school have been lovely with her too and i can't thank them enough. The primary uniform has cost about $230 for 2 trackkie pants 2 jackets and 2 polo shirts. We got the dress from Target $17. The secondary uniform was different because she would wear a different jumper next year so we just got one $68 and 2 dresses $100. Luckily she did not need a P.E kit. The house sale was due to complete the week after we arrived. Well our solicitor was working for the other side i am sure of it!! It did eventually complete a week after that and again the exchange rate was plummeting so we have not changed any money yet but the funds are running low and we will have to soon - but at $1.75 compared to the $2.40 that it was is pretty depressing to think about but it is what it is and we will have to just do it. The weather has been up and down since we arrived been to the beach a couple of times and its just magical. We called at the Royal pub overlooking the beach and sat with a coke looking out to the sea watching the boats float by. I love these moments and these are what we came for(well not to sit in the pub but the family stuff and environment) I love being together and having BBQs; everyone mucking in to get it ready. Its just right for us. I am still looking for work and the most annoying thing is that everywhere wants resumes. This means you have to do an individual one for each job its time consuming and its just a niggle of mine. I worked for the special needs service in the UK but have applied for supermarkets and allsorts in the last 3 weeks. I would be prepared to do anything legal at the moment! :wink: We had an email at the weekend that my husbands nana had passed away. Its so hard when you are here and everyone is in the UK. She had come to our leaving party and had a great night with the family. He had the dilemma of whether to return for the funeral after only being here a fortnight. Its difficult and i left the decision to him and he decided not to go but we have ordered some lovely flowers. Again its so hard you want the best but being so far away is hard. Its the emotional rollercoaster of wanting to have the life here and wanting to be with your family. For now i know we have made the right decision, only time will tell. To those who are waiting or thinking of applying - don't give up on your dream. We have had sooo many knocks and things go wrong along the way you just have to take it on the chin and carry on. Thanks for reading and i hope to read yours one day xxxxxx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest31881 Posted October 13, 2009 Share Posted October 13, 2009 Great post, or should I say Posts, thanks for sharing your experiance with us, it has kept me on tenderhooks for last couple of days waiting for each episode.:notworthy: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SaffaAndPom Posted October 13, 2009 Share Posted October 13, 2009 Ozzbound, Thank-you for taking the time to write such an insightful and descriptive post(s!) and very well done to you all. All the best for the future, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olly Posted October 13, 2009 Share Posted October 13, 2009 Enjoyed reading your post, welcome to Melbourne, you are in a nice spot there at Mt. Eliza. Just a bit of info, you could get onto the Department of Human Services in Victoria, they advertise jobs on there. Also the infoxchange has many community jobs on there, here's some websites, good luck with it all. www.dhs.vic.gov.au www.infoxchange.org.au Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Prickles83 Posted October 13, 2009 Share Posted October 13, 2009 Thank you for sharing your story with us- please keep us up to date with how it continues. I think at the moment with all the changes in rules and regs going on it's good to hear successful stories and gives us all hope that our dream is worth fighting for xxx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynne1266 Posted October 13, 2009 Share Posted October 13, 2009 BRILLIANT....JUST BRILLIANT, You should take up writting you'd be great....thanks for this amazing thread Lynne xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.