An emigration gamble

In November 2001 my sister decided to travel around the world. She’d be gone for a year and it was sad saying goodbye, but she’d be back... or so we thought, writes Karen Atkinson

Almost exactly three years later we – that is myself, a 34-year-old staff nurse, my husband David, a crane driver, 43, and son Josh aged two, a professional tantrum thrower and dribbler – went on our first trip to visit my sister who had eventually settled in Sydney having not returned after the year as she had originally planned.

The city was amazing but what we were most impressed by was the Australian way of life. We loved Sydney and knew that we wanted a similar lifestyle but in a more relaxed way. David had previously visited Brisbane and had said how he had loved its laid-back atmosphere and year-round good weather. The emigration seed was sewn from there. Ever since we had our son in November 2003 we had been looking around the town we lived in to see what kind of a future he would have. We lived in Fleetwood, Lancashire and although it's a lovely seaside town, there are not a lot of opportunities there and because of the weather, outdoor living was limited.

The trip to Australia opened our eyes to a completely different way of life but upon returning we started thinking about family and friends etcetera. We decided we'd try and make a go of it in the UK, to the point we redecorated our house and built a conservatory until it became the place we had always wanted it to be. The problem was, though, that we still weren't satisfied and the option of a 'new life' soon reared its head again.

In August 2005 we decided to ring a migration agent who had ben recommended to us by a friend who had recently moved from the UK to Brisbane. She was absolutely fabulous, explaining her service and the process we would be facing. After talking to her we decided to go ahead and apply. The date was 24th August 2005. We were applying for a Skilled-Independent visa based on my nursing qualifications. The skills assessment was really hard work. Not the forms, they were long winded but manageable if you broke them down into sections, but gaining all the documents, such as course modules from university, did prove tricky.

The university was helpful to a degree but did not rush in sending the forms. They took approximately six weeks to come through, which is a long time when you're waiting to send off an application to start a new life. Then we had to find someone to certify our documents. This in itself was hard and took a long time as the person doing our certifying did not have a stamp so had to write everything out by hand. Eventually, however, all our hard work paid off and the skill assessment was submitted. Our agent received the completed skill assessment on 13th September 2005, which she checked and then submitted on our behalf.

The gambles start
On 7th October 2005 we received a positive result from our skill assessment. The relief was massive because at the end of the day it's all down to whether or not you are sufficiently skilled so there is a lot riding on it. We had decided to go ahead and complete the main application whilst awaiting the result of the skills assessment. This was the first of many gambles during the process, but there was no apparent reason as to why our skills assessment should fail so we thought we'd get ahead and complete the rest of the application.

We had a slightly anxious moment when we emailed our agent after we had sent the main application to her two weeks previously, only to be told she hadn't received it, but it eventually arrived after three weeks. We'd  learnt our lesson, though – spend the money on special delivery for important letters, a lot of work goes into the application and it would be a nightmare to have to do it again! Once we had been allocated a case number we decided to have our medicals done. Although they hadn't been requested we decided to get them done anyway and we also requested our police clearances. This was our next big gamble.
Medicals are expensive. For two adults and a two year old it cost approximately £500 in total. However, 'in for a penny...' So off we went to Manchester where we had blood tests, examinations, and chest x-rays. We had everything done in one centre as we thought it would be easier.

The medicals were left in the hands of the doctor as they had to be sent directly to the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA). The police clearances  took four weeks to come through. We received the clearances and sent them to our agent, who forwarded them to DIMA on 28th November 2005.

Housing dilemmas
The next question in our mind was our house. We knew we wanted to get to Australia as soon as possible but should we put the house on the market and risk it selling straight away, or should we wait until you have the visas and chance it not selling?

As you get until a certain date (which is generally 12 months from the date of the medical) to get your passport stamped we had the option of waiting to sell the house and then if it got close to the date when we had to have our passports stamped we could come out to Australia on holiday. Not that we wanted to do that. We wanted to come to Australia and stay. We knew the approximate time it was taking to complete cases and knew it wouldn't be until around March that we would hear anything, so we decided, in the gambling manner that we had become accustomed to, that we would put the house on the market at the end of January and see how it went.

December was spent going to emigration exhibitions and getting quotes from removal companies. Christmas came and went in a blur, there were lots of comments about it being our last Christmas in the UK and we were getting more and more excited. However, March felt a long way off. At the end of January we put the house on the market. This was extremely nerve wracking as there was no guarantee that we would get the visa but we knew that we wanted to go as soon as they were (hopefully) granted.

After four viewings we accepted an offer on the house only six weeks after it had gone on the market. The problem now was that we still did not have our visas! We kept in regular contact with our agent who said we should 'sit tight and wait'. We took the view that no news is good news and continued with our house sale. We knew by this point that we'd probably have to go into some form of rented accommodation in the UK as it was looking more and more like we would complete on our house prior to receiving the visa.

This was such a massive gamble to make and I wouldn't suggest it to the faint hearted. The next decision we had to make was do we take our furniture to our new house and effectively move twice or do we get our removals company to take it and move into furnished accommodation. Our company offered to put it into storage for us, so we decided that this was the right course of action for us. However, true to our adventurous ways we still did not have our visas through. As I'm sure you can imagine  the emails to our agent were getting more and more frequent and increasingly anxious. She was very good at calming the situation and we now felt this was the time to contact our case officer to find out what was going on. The date was now 20th April. It took a week for our case officer to send a response to our agent and it was quite a general response which did not do our nerves any good. We were due to exchange on our house on 28th April and complete on 5th May. We began selling lots of items (a further gamble). We didn't want the removals company to pack everything as that would cost us more and we knew there were certain things we didn't want to take with us. Also, we were moving into a furnished caravan on a local caravan park so nothing was needed in there. We eventually managed to find homes for everything, including a rabbit and three guinea pigs.

The final stretch
Everything was running relatively smoothly in relation to the house sale until the 27th April when we found out the people buying our house had a problem and wouldn't be able to exchange the next day as planned. This was a nightmare. As it was so late in the day the removals company couldn't change our moving date without charging us. Going ahead with the packing was totally nerve wracking considering we now had no visas and an uncertain house sale.

We moved into the caravan on 4th May 2006. By the Sunday the gamble we had taken had hit home and the stress started to take effect. However, on Monday we went to work as normal trying to be positive. At lunch time I was sat at my desk when my mobile rang. There was a delay on it and I thought it was a sales person from abroad and nearly put the phone down, but then I heard an Australian accent and realised it was my agent. She was ringing with some 'very good news' – our visas had been granted!

The relief was immense. We decided that we'd look on the house sale positively and assume it would go through at the end of this week like the buyers had promised it would. Yet another gamble but why change a habit of a lifetime? Work knew that I would be giving limited notice. They generally required a month but because I wasn't being replaced they had agreed to let me give whatever time I needed to. So on the Monday myself and David handed our notices in, giving each employer a week.

The week flew by and all the while  we were praying that the house sale would complete. On Friday, whilst out for lunch with my colleagues, I learnt form my solicitor that the house sale had completed. The ending couldn't have been more perfect if it had been written for a film – everything timed perfectly to the day. It was sad saying goodbye to my friends at work as I'd been there for five years, but I knew it was a change for better things to come.

The next day we went to the travel agents and booked flights for Sunday 21st May. We would be staying on Sentosa island in Singapore for two nights and then on to stay at my sisters in Sydney for ten days before finally arriving in Brisbane on 4th June. We had a few sad goodbyes that week, but the trick is to stay focused on why you're doing it. The week flew past and we said our final goodbyes. We wanted a taxi to take us to the airport so that there would be no tears there. This worked well as we had to leave when the taxi arrived which kept the final goodbyes short. Our flight was early Sunday morning so we stayed at the airport hotel the night before to give us more sleep prior to our long journey. We had loads of baggage and didn't have any extra luggage allowance – apparently Singapore Airlines does take it free of charge if you don't have a stop over, but as we were having two nights in Singapore they wouldn't allow this. Fortunately the flight from Manchester was only half full so it wasn't a problem, but we did get charged from Singapore to Sydney. The stop over was a much needed break and it was great to see my sister in Sydney but we were ready by the end of our stay there to get to our new home. Eventually, on the 4th June we landed in Brisbane. Finally we were 'home'.

The way we completed our emigration process was a massive gamble from start to finish and I sincerely wouldn't recommend it. I would recommend a good agent such as ours because they guide you through the process and check your application etcetera, which we found invaluable. Definitely get quotes from various removal companies as they all offer slightly different services. All in all, though, enjoy the process. It's an amazing adventure that is both exciting and scary, but ultimately worth it. We are now looking for jobs. We have a long-term rental in Bracken Ridge just north of the Brisbane Central Business District, which we will live in until we find a place to buy. Life is good, the sun is shining and we have no regrets.

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The Littlewoods go to Wagin

01 June 2007