Is one year enough?
 

Was having a chat to a few new friends recently and the topic came up regarding emigration 'how long do you give it to know you've made the right decision'. Piece of string I said! So many different variables/situations. One person thought a year is all you need, the other thought five. I question how you can really ever 'know' anyway.

Interested to hear thoughts on here.

Re: Is one year enough?
 

I think everyone is different. I was one of a dozen friends who all made the move. One knew it wasn't for him within two weeks. He stayed six months to earn enough to move back. He has no regrets and that was over nine years ago. All of us have now moved back to the UK with myself and another staying the longest at eight years.

Re: Is one year enough?
 

I knew after a month but everyone kept telling me to 'give it time'.
Sadly by the time I had 'given it time' I had no money and no job to go back to, and have been stuck here ever since for one reason or another.

Re: Is one year enough?
 

5 minutes? I think I knew from a very few months in that I didn't want it as my forever home. My head told me it was home for nigh on 33 years but my heart never got with the plan. I do think you become desensitised to the irritating things with time and it's so comfortable to go with the flow so that it doesn't take long to drift past the point of no return.

Re: Is one year enough?
 

I've been here just over ten years and often regret the decision to come here. It got so bad a couple of years ago that I finally started planning my return. Then Brexit happened...

Mind you... had I continued nursing in the UK, Brexit or otherwise, I would have had to accept a massive cut in my wages and deal with an overall situation for nurses back home that I am no longer prepared to tolerate.

The above however is a salutary reminder that everyone's emigration journey is personal. I know quite a few expats who are reasonably settled and a few who are perfectly content. I also know a fair few who are not settled, even after many years, but either cannot move back for various reasons or do not feel they can settle back in their country of origin.

There are more than a few 'stateless' individuals, and even entire families out there who have never really settled in Aus but are reminded of why they left their home country and feel that they cannot make the move back.

As of right now, I am sort of resigned to being here and making the most of my circumstances. It isn't all doom and gloom of course, but the emotional emptiness I feel at my surroundings is something that will probably never go away.

Re: Is one year enough?
 

I might also add that I was talking to a colleague at work on Saturday about what we would do if we won the lottery (it was a rare quiet shift!).

She said to me that she would move back to the UK in a heartbeat. Before she had said that I would undeniably have put her in the 'perfectly content' category.

I know if I was rich enough not to have to work, I would do the same.

Re: Is one year enough?
 

yes

Re: Is one year enough?
 

Hang on a minute while I grab my violin

Re: Is one year enough?
 

Are you taking the piss?

Re: Is one year enough?
 

Meeting other expats from around the globe in WA the quickest person to return to their homeland was 4 weeks, a family returned to the UK after 6 months and a single Mum 4 months, we started to think about returning home after about 7 years as by then we had tried everything we thought we could to make Aus feel like "home" but it never was, Aus was just where we lived and worked but it was not where we felt we belonged, we had a good life etc but it was just not the same so after another 6 years of "trying" we planned a move back to the UK and we are all still happy to be "home" we do know friends though who are happy in Aus and would not return, it's really down to your own personnel choice and way of life, no case really is the same.

Re: Is one year enough?
 

He probably is. That's why I rarely voice my feelings on here any more.

Re: Is one year enough?
 

Tried to do the give it 2 years thing as advised by many but the longing for home got me by 6 months. Booked the flights home and arranged the movers again and left after 8 months. The ironic thing was by then I was more settled and wanted to stay and suggested we go back to the UK for a visit and not for good. Wife was having none of it because things were in place and the teenage kids were looking forward to going back. Arriving back in winter with snow and realising how things looked dirty and run down in my town I realised after a week it was the wrong decision.

Re: Is one year enough?
 

I think you probably know if it feels wrong quite quickly, whereas 'is it good?' is a more nebulous concept. I guess the levels of 'wrongness' and what people can put up with is a different matter.

Having said that, it was home for me the minute I touched down at the airport (well, once we'd got over the slight shock of the reality of the temperature differential between January in Yorkshire and January in S.E. Queensland)

Re: Is one year enough?
 

:rolleyes:

Re: Is one year enough?
 

You decide