1 Year Since We Started Our Migration Journey

Today the Timehop app reminded us that it’s been one whole year since we embarked on our migration journey.

It’s been a bit of a whirlwind, and when we sent that initial contact form enquiry, we would not have thought we would have our visa in hand only one year later.

It seems a lot longer ago, but I think that is just due to the sheer amount of tasks and decisions that have been made since that day.

There aren’t many years where you will be asked to uproot your children, end careers and undertake the massive job that is decluttering your last however many years of life in your house. For us, that number sits around 9 at the time of writing, and yes, I wish I hadn’t embarked on a mission to collect each and every PlayStation ever released again (although the 2 hours I spent on LMA Manager 2002 on the PS2 was totally worth it).

Firstly, I think I’d like to make the point that our experience will not be the blueprint for everyone looking to make the move to Australia. So whatever we say, don’t take that as set in stone.

There are so many variables and moving parts at play in a migration journey. I think everyone is going to be unique in their observations somewhere along the line.

Having said that, we will all go through similar steps to reach the end goal. No matter what you are going to need a visa to get into Australia.

We obtained a 190 permanent residency and, as a family with school-aged children that was crucial for us as we have heard some big numbers thrown around with regards to school fees, and when you are already spending a lot of cash to move to Australia.

Looking at education.sa.gov we can see that by going off this Forbes article for salary figures, 2 children in school (1 primary and 1 secondary) and 2 working parents earning an average salary of $72,000 each could pay $13,740 (£6,704 at today’s exchange rate) a year just to attend a government school.

With such large financial hits to come including buying at least one car and of course securing a rental property, that additional £6,700 will come in handy I’m sure!

To give ourselves a realistic chance of success down under, we knew we’d need the 190 visas. Just from the financial point of view.

You can of course check out our timeline to get some sort of picture of how long each step to getting the visa may take. As previously mentioned though, just remember that your timeline could be totally different for a million different reasons.

For example, the political landscape might change and available visa numbers are tweaked up or down. Certain careers could be prioritised. You never know.

What I do know though is this:

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.

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Yes, it’s a little bit cheesy and I can bet you’ve heard it before. However, if you are certain about your intentions to move to Australia and fortunate enough to have the support of your partner/family/loved ones, Then you really should just get the ball rolling.

There are so many hoops to jump through, and currently, we’re in the middle of the house-selling part. It’s very stressful. We haven’t quite got the price we wanted for the house, but we’re reassured by the estate agent that the buyer is solid.

We’re now stuck in the position of not wanting it to all go through so quickly that we’re having to move out and find alternate accommodation here in the UK prior to flying out to Australia.

Every step has challenges, and there are still days that I think we’re crazy for doing it. However, that dream of living in the sunshine, near the beach etc is an extremely motivating factor! Onwards we plough.

Honestly, I’d say around 90% of people have been fully supportive of our decision to move to Australia.

At least to our faces 🙃

The support is fantastic and needed. Personally, I have spent many moments feeling guilty for taking children away from friends, grandparents etc. To have some of those people vocally support you really gives some much-needed validation on occasion.

However, I’m comfortable with the fact that this is quite a selfish decision we are making. It’s all being done for the right reasons and intentions. Over the year since we applied for the visa, it has been an emotional rollercoaster.

Whether 1 year, 2 years or 20 years have passed since we made the decision to make the move to Australia. The fact that we made that decision in order to provide a better future for our children and ourselves will never change.

I’m not saying that decision will not be proven wrong, time will tell on that.

However, at least future me will know the answer rather than staring at planes in the sky and wondering what may have happened if we had boarded a plane to Adelaide in 2025.

Thanks for reading, please share on your socials if you enjoyed and get in touch if you have any questions about our journey so far!