176 visa's received this morning, why am I feeling apprehensive?!!

[thediggler]

:jiggy:After 18 months of waiting, we have received confirmation this morning from the immigration department that our 176 visa's have now finally been approved, chamoonnnneeeeeee!! My wallet can breath a sigh of relief.....for now!

 

 

Myself (Neil - financial investigator, 33), my wife Linzi (critical care nurse, 29), and our kids (Bailey - 14, Summer - 3, and Leyla - 7 weeks!) are all planning on taking 2 weeks out this Christmas to travel to Melbourne to get our visa's activated. That'll be another £10,000 needed to cover the cost of flights, accomodation, car hire, food, etc, etc. Ah well, its only money eh?! :wacko:

 

 

The original plan was that we were going to apply for residency in Queensland. However, that soon changed following my recce mission there in March last year when I spent 2 weeks checking out the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Brisbane. Something just didnt feel right about the place and I felt completely alienated and out of my comfort zone. The heat and humidity was playing on my mind and it was the middle of Autumn when I was there, what the hell was it going to be like in Summer?! :evilface_frowning_s

 

 

Anyway, after a bit of a heart to heart with our migration agent and after mucho discussion with the missus, we decided Melbourne would be better suited to our tastes and so applied for residency in Victoria. We currently live in an area of Manchester (Saddleworth) which is located slap bang in the middle of the pennines and are well used to rain here. The unsettled seasonal weather in Melbourne will therefore be water off a ducks back to us!

 

So given the various hoops we've had to jump through over the last 18 months in getting to this point (wife had to take the IELTS test a couple of times, we've had god knows how many forms to fill in, medicals, police checks, employment references, THE COST!!! etc etc etc) you'd think I'd be very excited about the prospect of moving to Oz. However, I can't but help feel that some of the issues I had with Queensland are going to be present in Melbourne too.

 

I've also been reading some of the posts on here about people who have moved back to the UK or who are currenty living in Oz and struggling to get by because of the high cost of living. Are we really doing the right thing or could this move turn into a financial and emotional disaster? Will my wife and the kids settle into life in Oz as well as I'd like to hope or will they hate it with a passion? I suppose we'll get a better idea during our 2 week stay in December but I just wish I felt a little bit more optimistic about the idea than I do at the moment.

:frown:

 

One factor which wont be a problem for us is leaving family behind, because none of our family live close by anyway! My folks are in Torquay and my wife's are in Hull, so we only see them every few months. I know as the years roll on it will be a shame for the kids not to be able to see their grandparents as often as we'd like, but they're only a phone call away and then there's always Skype!

 

So, I just wanted to share these thoughts with anyone who is out there and in a similar situation. Yes, the idea of migrating to Oz for a better, cleaner and safer lifestyle of course appeals to us all. I know it will be a rough ride for a while and there's going to be some difficult times ahead when we'll wonder if we've made the right choice, but then the whole point of us migrating is that we want a big change in our lifestyles and so we have to be prepared for some big changes. Only time will tell I suppose, fingers crossed the outcome is a positive one!! :err:

[Chardy]

Congratulations and good luck with the rest of your plans.

The apprehension is normal and we felt it (and still get it now and then too) after getting the visa not helped by the anti climax of it.

Keep positive ! :wink: