Obviously, it wasn’t quite as simple as: ‘we find Let’s Go, we got our visa’.
I’d spent weeks, months even, looking at ways to get back to Australia.
I’ve always wanted to become a ‘real’ teacher, in a classroom, not a pool, and it was one option to get back.
But it was expensive.
I was at a loss as to what to do.
And it was raining.

After finally settling on using an agent to decide for me and filling in enquiries with what felt like dozens of immigration companies (and not getting an immediate Response, because of course that was going to happen), I was second guessing the decision to even use an agent.

It felt like I’d not quite done my research right online and I was flicking between tab, after tab, not able to focus on anything for longer than a few minutes.
I kept coming back to ‘Let’s Go Global’ because they were advertising about helping teachers emigrate, and being a teacher of sorts (if P.E. and Geography still count, swimming sure as hell does) they seemed to fit.
Besides which, I got the nicest ‘feel’ from their website.

But still nothing.

Then I got a call from an unknown number in London.
I have the same phone anxiety all millennial’s have (only I’ve had it forever) and can’t make or take calls unless I know who I’m calling, and even then it can sometimes feel like a huge achievement just to press dial.
My best friend used to dial numbers for me and then thrust the phone in to my hand as they answered just so I’d actually ‘life’.
Zac, who was on his way out to the gym, picked up the slack and answered it for me, and then thrust it in to my hand.

“He…hello Becky speaking.”
“Hi, hi is that Becky? Hello, it’s George from Let’s Go Global here, you placed an enquiry online? I’ve just seen it and couldn’t go for the weekend without having a chat to you, is now a good time to talk?”

I mouthed frantically at Zac, who, despite being a dramatic mouther himself is terrible at lip reading and instead shuffled up to him, dragged him down on to the sofa and put the phone on loud speaker, praying he hadn’t taken his pre-workout yet.

a reassuring voice.

I’ve worked in sales, I understand how a pitch works and I also appreciate the artistry of selling, while always remaining entirely skeptical.
That being said, I love being sold to.
Not that George was being ‘sales-y’ – look, we were a hot lead, I get that, but I also felt like he genuinely cared what the outcome was and really wanted to help us get back home, to Melbourne.

We were struggling with how much to tell him, not in a ‘we have something to hide‘ kind of way, more in a ‘we’ve already bought the flight back is that going to be a problem‘ kind of way.
Zac umpires with the VFL, he’s hoping to make it to the AFL and he could only take one season out without having to start again from scratch. He’d done it to come back to England with me, but it meant that he had to be back by mid-Jan at the latest for pre-season.

(To the uneducated, AFL is apparently a pretty big deal in Australia, it’s sort of like Quidditch, without the broomsticks or hoops and less flying. I say less because some of the marks they take are insane and the 360 element of the game is…aaaaand now I sound like I know what I’m talking about)

George went through the process with us, asked us more questions about our relationship, how we’d met, standard background info to assess our case.

By the time we’d hung up the phone, we’d agreed to let George and the Let’s Go Global team take our case.
I breathed a huge sigh of relief and despite my mind running at a million miles an hour, felt in control of the situation for the first time since we’d been in England.
We happily bounded upstairs to tell my parents the good news and I sat and waited on their email.

when you refresh your inbox a thousand times, knowing that sheer will alone isn’t enough to control the internet.

I tried to put the conversation to the back of my mind, but I was so keen to get started and knew what a huge task we might have evidence wise so couldn’t help but feel disappointed when the weekend went by with nothing.
After what felt like an eternity that email finally landed.
I immediately printed everything out, started annotating, reading and re-reading, preemptively gathering what evidence we did have to hand before signing the agreement and emailing it back over to George.
We were told our agent helping us in Australia was called Ana, and she’d be in touch shortly with more details.

And then we waited.

If there’s one thing this whole process has taught me, it’s that’s Zac’s unfading resilience and optimism is no match for the might of the Australian Immigration system, my patience however goes a long way to making it bearable.

You can’t rush this process.
You can only do your part as quickly and efficiently as you can, there’s no point rushing it wrong – something Ana taught me after the third time I sent her ‘not quite right’ evidence!
Besides which, between timezones and office hours, you’re always a day away from a response.
Patience, patience.

knowing someone’s in your corner makes all the difference.

One thing I can’t press enough is that Let’s Go Global are in your corner.
I’m not going to pretend that every step of the way there wasn’t a part of me that was convinced it was all a ruse, the George was a charlatan, Ana a devious femme fatale and we’d frittered our savings away on a whim.
But just when it was getting a bit much, when I was wracked with doubt, they’d drop an email to check in, give us a call to talk us through options and our progress.
They don’t babysit you, and you’re not the only case they’re working on, but they make you feel like you are.

With immigration, it seems to follow the age old adage that no news is good news.
Don’t worry if it’s been a few weeks since you last heard from them – there’s no point getting in touch until something happens.
At those crucial moments, at the points where they need a response, they’re there.
Even at the points they don’t need a response they’re there, and I’ve always been incredibly grateful to Ana taking time out of her schedule (and sometimes personal schedule) to put my mind at rest again.

We’ve spent part of the process travelling and even while we were away, George was in touch to offer kind words and a much needed morale boost.

I’m not saying it’s not a stressful, emotional process.
I’m certainly not saying it will be hassle and hurdle free.
What I am saying is you’ll have the best people looking out for you.