Telling Family and Friends about our Visa Grant

Just five days after our medicals in London and only 42 days after lodging our 190 PR visas, they were granted. 

Checking my emails for any medical updates, I really didn’t expect to see the line ‘Congratulations! You have been granted permanent residency to Australia’ from our migration agents.

I didn’t know how to react, how to say it aloud to Chris and the kids or how to go about telling our family, friends and work colleagues. 

I had spent the last few weeks reassuring them all that from this point forward, we would be waiting a long while before hearing any further news.

After briefly reading the email and looking at the visa grants attached, I started shouting for Chris to come and see. It was first thing in the morning, so we were all rushing around getting ready to go to work and school.

His eyes lit up when I showed him the screen. 

The kids thought something bad had happened and in hindsight, I wish I hadn’t told them before a day at school as they both got upset. Everyone was just in shock and not expecting to be receiving the grant so quickly.

After explaining to them that this doesn’t mean we are leaving tomorrow and that our plan for summer 2025 is still in place, they both calmed down and accepted the news. 

Telling my mum in the way I did was really not ideal but necessary. She takes our daughter to school on Wednesday mornings to help out with the cost of childcare so we were expecting her at any minute.

I didn’t want her walking in on the kids upset so I had to text her the news. She has always been incredibly supportive of our decision but I also know that it will probably impact her the most when we go. Our kids are her only grandchildren and she has such a bond with them, particularly our eldest. 

The guilt, shock and excitement were pretty overwhelming on the drive to work and I did question myself a few times as to whether it was even legit. I had fully expected to be waiting at least 4 months to hear anything, if not longer. It just all felt so surreal (still does!) 

My boss is also one of my best friends. She can read me better than most people and when I arrived at work she knew something was off. I had to tell her straight away because I just felt like I was carrying a huge weight by keeping it in.

Her reaction was tough to take.

She wears her heart on her sleeve and I could see that whilst she was really pleased for us, she too had not expected us to be leaving so soon.

A double whammy for her too is that not only are we amazing friends, but I am also her deputy and this is going to impact the school staffing structure massively. We have agreed not to talk about it for a few more weeks so that we both have time to digest the enormity of this news. 

I drove home that night feeling so deflated, I hadn’t expected the guilt to be quite so heavy. Later, I decided to share the news of our visa grant on our Instagram page as the majority of our followers are either on the same journey or are already in Australia.

They would get it.

And they did.

I immediately felt the validation from the likes and comments that actually, yes this is going to be hard but it is still the right thing for us. 

It is also a really gratifying feeling when we have seen other people receive their grants. This community is genuinely happy for each other to be progressing. To achieve their dream. Mostly.

We have noticed unfortunately we have lost a couple of people who follow us. Some of them have been waiting for a really long time for their own journey to progress but to no avail.

I get it.

It must be really difficult to see everyone else in the community moving forward and you are stagnant.

However, there is no rhyme or reason for some of the decision-making. We don’t gloat and we fully appreciate how lucky we have been in this whole process to have moved through it so quickly. But that’s not our fault.

When I got home, I decided not to go to my Taekwondo class that evening and instead spend time with the kids. They were amazing. The visa being granted seems to have given the children permission to really talk about the move.

They had told their closest friends at school and were sharing their reactions. They were asking questions and getting excited about our adventure. 

I shared the news that day with my Dad, brothers and a couple of other friends. Chris told his Dad and a couple of friends. Unfortunately, his mum’s dog had passed away the day before so he decided to not share with her until the following week.

He has now also told his boss at work as he too felt guilty about keeping such a secret. Honesty is the best policy, and we don’t want people finding out second-hand as that’s not who we are. 

Overall, sharing this news has been difficult. We had really struggled to feel excited whilst also feeling like we were making so many people sad.

But to those we really care about, we have told them from the beginning that this is what we are doing. We know deep down that they agree that this is the best thing we can do for us as a family and they fully support us. It just doesn’t make the finality of it all any easier for them or us. 

We would like to thank everyone who follows us for such a supportive reaction, positivity and genuine messages of happiness. It means a lot to us. 

1. Be honest and open from the beginning with those who the move will really impact 
2. Respect that not everyone is going to be ready to talk to you about your plans without getting upset
3. Keep people updated so that news isn’t sprung on them unexpectedly 
4. Remember why you are making the move- yes it is really difficult to leave people behind, but your why outweighs that

Remind people that they have the prospect of free Australian accommodation in the future when they come to visit you ☺