Real Life Moving to Australia Experiences

Here at Let’s Go! We’re proud to say we receive many sterling and heart-warming reviews from clients. These positive reviews are what makes the whole effort worthwhile whist allowing us the opportunity to hone and develop our service on a deeper and more personal level with each and every client.

Our communication underpins everything we do, even if there’s nothing major to report we’re still only an email or phone call away and our internal systems ensure you’ll receive a response within 24hrs (unless we need to dig further into a specific issue).

Being that we always like to do things a little differently to the rest of the industry we decided that whilst our lovely lets go global reviews provide a great barometer of how we’re doing we started reaching out to clients at various stages in the Australian Immigration process for their thoughts and feelings.

Immigrating to Australia is one of the most stressful and challenging things an individual, family or business can undertake so we’ve left it to our wonderful clients to ‘tell it like it really is’.

Amanda is a Chartered Accountant Emigrating to Australia and has been a client of Let’s Go! Global since February 2016. The following was written on the 21st November 2016 as we await a decision from the Department of Immigration on her Permanent Residency Visa.

My experience emigrating to Australia

After being asked to blog about my real life moving to Australia Experiences I readily agreed and hope I can give some reassurance to others that during this complicated and emotional process you are never alone. There will always be someone else going through the same things.

I remember starting my migration journey around November 2015, I visited friends in Australia and whilst there I remember feeling like I had finally come home and I had found the place I felt belonged in the world.

Upon my return to the UK I started researching how to apply for visas and discovered it was not a straight forward form filling in process, so I started researching migration agents that could help “smooth” this process out. I had read the usual horror stories of people completing visa applications and having them sent back numerous times meaning applications took years to complete because things are missing so I thought this was the best way to secure myself an Australian Visa.

I remember my first call with George at Lets Go Global, sitting in a friends dining room answering his questions and discussing the options that were available to me, he was professional and informative without being stand offish and I felt comfortable more or less right away. He wasn’t the first person I had spoken to but he was the first person that made me feel at ease and explained the next steps in enough detail for me to feel I could work with him.

At this point I remember he asked my expectation of when I would want to move to Australia and I replied the end of 2016, thinking give myself a year but I’m sure it won’t take that long! I am a single person no children or partner to take with me pffft how much detail will they need from me?! (How wrong I was). George was honest from the start and explained it was a good expectation as the visa application service is lengthy.

And so in January 2016 my migration journey began, I sat my English exam and I started collecting all the relevant documents in order to apply for my skills assessment, this part on the process is great you feel good, you feel in control because it’s down to you to provide what’s needed and you are kept busy having the documents certified etc. I think by April we had received my skills assessment back, although I recall we had a short delay but nothing to really stress about.

So by the end of April we submitted the expression of interest form to the Immigration department and from then it was a waiting game. I had done my research and I knew that they had hit the occupational ceiling for my Accountant skill set already and I knew I would have to wait until the new financial year which started in July. I still felt ok and in control at this point I had set my own expectations and honestly didn’t think I would hear anything until about October.

I was invited to apply for my sub class 189 visa in the first round of invitations in the financial year on 6th July. I really couldn’t believe it I remember feeling nothing but elation and then having to tell myself I wasn’t there yet. After speaking with George he again cautioned me on the lengthy process but I didn’t really take on board what he was actually saying, mainly because everything else had been pretty swift.

By this time I had visited Australia quite a few times and met my partner, so my eagerness to obtain my visa had increased greatly.

So began the evidence gathering and notarising of more documents, police check, health screening etc and I felt positive that my visa approval would come though quickly as I said before its just little old me alone. It feels like I have provided them with every piece of information about every aspect of my life and still they wanted more.

All my information was submitted 22nd July, and then began the waiting game. Every week that passes I grow more and more anxious. In my head I had a 4/6 week turn around in my head…. we reached that and then some and still we heard nothing. I emailed George daily and he always responded telling me there had been no news. George must be one of the most patient men in Australian Immigration services.

I am a rational person, I’m an accountant and I live by numbers so I started reading the immigration website looking for service levels on visa decisions. I found that they aim to respond in three months. So I took my calendar ticked off the weeks and as the 3 month date approached I became more and more anxious because all we had was silence. At this point I think I started trawling blogs to see if I could find answers, this is something you should point blank never do!

On the 15th of September we were approached for more information, they requested I complete a form 80 and provide more information regarding my personal circumstances which was done within a week. At this point you start thinking well, they have reviewed my application surely it’s a case of taking the additional information reviewing it attaching it to my application and rubber stamping it – nope this is not how it works and this is not what happens. It’s these bits of red tape that you would never be able to wade through alone, never understand what it all means without having someone you trust to decipher what’s happening and relay it to you in layman’s terms.

Instead you are left hanging living in limbo not knowing whether you will be granted the visa or not, not knowing when they will contact you.

I became increasingly more and more stressed and having handed in my notice at work (more fool me I know!) I needed to feel it was moving forward. So I started calling the London immigration office and I can confirm they do not give you any information it feels like they are saying so much but when you put the phone down you realise they gave you nothing meaningful and they if anything create more doubt in your mind that there will ever be a resolution.

I know I am an impatient person but I also at times forget that there are thousands upon thousands of people in the same situation as me. I also forget that how I rationally believe things should be carried out is not always how it’s done by the Australian Government. For example I believe that these institutions are target driven and if so I would expect them to get the easy wins first before dealing with the more complicated visa applications. This of course is not the case either.

So where am I now….. Still waiting impatiently for an email that means I can start my new life with my partner I haven’t seen since July, with no job after the 16th of December and a one way flight to Bali for Christmas – Risky? Yes, but I keep trying to convince myself that the old saying is true “What is life without a little risk” (although I am pretty certain the person that said that had never been through the Australian visa.

My final words here were said to me by George and they are as follows: There is a list of the most stressful things that can happen in a person’s life, and visa applications should be one there.

I say this because I have recently moved house, got divorced and gone through this process and this is by far the most stressful situation I have ever been through and I am so pleased to have had the expertise of Let’s Go Global to assist me in the process.

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We will be adding a number of Real Life Moving to Australia Experiences over the year to hopefully build up a great resource for those looking to start the Australian Migration process.

The post Real Life Moving to Australia Experiences appeared first on Lets Go Global Australia Immigration.