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4 month update Oldham - Melbourne long post...

4 month update Oldham - Melbourne long post...

Old Jan 22nd 2010, 11:45 pm
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Default 4 month update Oldham - Melbourne long post...

**WARNING... LONG POST!!**
We have been here 4 months on the 19th of this month and thought i should do a update as I really enjoyed reading them when i was back in the UK.
I first moved to Melbourne Australia aged 2 with my parents in 1974. We moved from Oldham as there was a recession on and my dad was forced to work just 2 days a week. Some friends of theirs had come over as ‘10 pound poms’ on boats and wrote to my parents saying how well they were doing here. So that was it; only we flew over with Singapore Airlines 
I had a great childhood, mum and dad bought land in Coldstream, Victoria inbetween Lilydale and Healesville. When i was 13 my parents separated. My mum was devastated so we moved back to Oldham in 1987. My parents did not get us citizenship.
After meeting my future husband and having our daughters I always wanted to return to Melbourne but knew you had to have a trade really to get in. In 1990 I decided to start looking into how to get back. My husband had been a naughty boy in his youth and had a criminal record which spanned 4 pages of a police check....
I was not too computer literate then and phoned some agents from our local newspaper; all of whom said we would not get a visa. None of these agents frequent this forum.
I sort of gave up for a while feeling rejected at us being told we wouldn’t get in.
Dad visited us often as he worked in a job that took him to Kuala Lumpur frequently and he would then come and spend days with us sometimes four times a year. He had remarried and i went from being an only child to one with 2 brothers and a sister.
In the year 2000; things were moving on and i got interested in the internet finally finding the immigration website. It was there i found the Former Resident Visa for children who never got citizenship. I had lived the 9 out of the first 18 years of my life in Melbourne so I thought we would try again. Over the years we phoned Dad frequently ; eventually emailing and texting. But it wasn’t until 2005 that we returned for a family holiday staying with my dad in Melbourne. When we were doing the holiday visas it never occurred to me that we had to declare my husbands convictions as by then they were legally spent. The incoming arrival card was an issue also. This would come back to haunt us later.
We had a great time in Melbourne catching up with old friends and my family. We did the sight seeing and discussed moving again. I downloaded the application form and the criminal conviction questions concerned us again. In 2006 me and my daughter came over for Easter and went to see an immigration agent in Melbourne who told me that we would be fine. I had by then found this site and was busy receiving more positive but mixed views on what we should do about applying.
In 2008 we decided to just go for it. My eldest daughter was 15 by then and i was ruining her life! She couldn’t see beyond school but we did say that no matter what we would not leave without her completing her GCSEs that she was working hard for.
We did the medicals and policechecks to send with the application. I had to photocopy all my evidence and annotate everything it was pages long but felt it explained my life and why we wanted to return. Without this site i would not have the knowledge i had to complete those forms and even though i decided not to use an agent there were times i really wished i had just for my own reassurance whether i was doing right or wrong. With my husbands convictions we added supportive character references as he had not been in trouble for over 20 years. He did a 4 page letter explaining each conviction and the circumstances around it.
It was on this site i discovered that we should have declared the convictions on the holiday visa and incoming arrival card. We did a statutory declaration to say we were unware of the seriousness and legalities around this.
I posted the application in August and when i hadn’t received an acknowledgement in September i began to panic. I phoned immigration and a lovely guy called D helped me search for the application. It had arrived but i had paid in pounds not dollars so he kept hold of the application until i managed to get a bank cheque sent back to him. God knows what i would have done without him!! In September I received the acknowledgement and it was all systems go!!
After sorting out some outstanding documentation we got the visa on the 10th of March, 2009. I opened the email and through the hysterics my 15 year old was crying her eyes out on the settee. We were on cloud nine and she wasn’t it was a difficult time. She would come round later but it was up and down for a while.
When the visa was granted we were as shocked as anyone after all the negativity and agents saying we would never get in, here we were being given the chance to return. We worked hard to complete the renovations on the house and get it on the market which was stagnant and the houses were not selling at all. In June we put the house on the market and a friend of a friend came round a week later and said he wanted it! OMG we were elated! The surveyor came round in July and when we got the nod that it there were no issues we booked our flights with Emirates using the flight codes for extra baggage allowance of 50kg. We were leaving on the 17th of September.
It was a mass panic to get out before then as we had to validate before the end of September and wanted to just go and not have to return again. I finished work 2 days before we left which was not ideal but i had to give a months notice and wanted the glowing reference too  I spent every hour sorting the house – we had sold the furniture with it so could stay until the last day which was great. Mum said she would clean the house after we left.
A week before we left my father in law decided to arrange a leaving party which i was not looking forward to. Everyone came who we knew and family we hadn’t seen in ages all made the effort to come it was such a great night and would recommend it to anyone. I spent most of the night crying, laughing and reminissing . Fantastic night. I said no one was to come to the airport i could not have coped with an airport goodbye so we did this at home. God no one can describe the feelings you have when this time comes it is hell. You wonder what you are doing and why. You see things you didn’t before like how much you love these people. It breaks my heart to think about it now!
Anyway, the whole street turned out to say goodbye we were in tears. The mini bus collected us and our 7 suitcases with everything we owned and off to Manchester Airport we went. We didn’t speak for half the journey, just holding eachother. My girls had been pulled apart from their friends and taken from everything they knew. What was i thinking?????
Emirates were great and checkin was easy. We went for something to eat and our flight was at 8.50pm. We said goodbye to the UK.
We arrived in Melbourne on the 19th of September,2009. I looked like shit. At immigration they asked my husband about his convictions and waived us through. There were signs everywhere warning that ‘Nothing to Declare’were filming! OMg... the show i lived and breathed i did not want to be on it!! Luckily we were waived through, immigration lady must have thought I’d been through enough!!
We did the tax file numbers online the day after we arrived they took 4 weeks to receive. We changed the address at the bank and asked to be sent a statement because everywhere asks for 100 points of I.D and something with your address . This helped to get our vic licences too.
We stayed with Dad for 3 months. At the end of November we decided to move into a rental. This was easier said than done. We went to the open day viewings and filled in the forms with references and didn’t get the first 2 but it was 3rd time lucky we got one in Mt Martha.
We moved in on the 23rd December in 36c heat! Me and him were up at 6am loading his ute ready for collecting the keys at 9am. The rest is history and we like the rental and area. We got a new dog and live minutes from the off –leash parks so spend most mornings and evenings there out and about which is what we wanted to do here. My husband set up his own business and its going good, something we could not have done in the UK due to the recession. My girls are happy and enjoying life especially the reluctant 16 year old who is either at the beach or cinemas or in someones pool. I start work on Wednesday at a school in Frankston after 4 months off which will be difficult! But I am looking forward to earning again!!
Good luck to those of you waiting, its worth the wait!! 
Never give up even when it seems that its never going to happen 
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Old Jan 23rd 2010, 3:08 am
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Default Re: 4 month update Oldham - Melbourne long post...

Good luck with the on-going settling in and the beginnings of a routine. Before you know it, a year will be up.
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Old Jan 23rd 2010, 4:20 am
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Hi

Great post

Paula
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Old Jan 23rd 2010, 7:31 am
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Default Re: 4 month update Oldham - Melbourne long post...

Great post and good luck with your new life. I wish you well.
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Old Jan 23rd 2010, 10:43 am
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Default Re: 4 month update Oldham - Melbourne long post...

Great read guys,well done and keep on smilling!
Ps saying goodbyes is the hardest thing i have ever done,my kids have never seen me cry before,i was gutted!

Ps Been to mornington today,superb beach
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Old Jan 24th 2010, 9:57 pm
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Thumbs up Re: 4 month update Oldham - Melbourne long post...

Hi,

Fantastic post, great success story.

Ross
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Old Jan 25th 2010, 12:50 am
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Default Re: 4 month update Oldham - Melbourne long post...

[[/QUOTE]

Hello from ex-oldhamers !
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Old Jan 25th 2010, 4:24 am
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Default Re: 4 month update Oldham - Melbourne long post...

Originally Posted by mindblower
[
Hello from ex-oldhamers ![/quote]

And some more ex-Oldhamers! Good luck with your journey for a new life. We are 6 1/2 years in Melbourne and this is home.
LJJ
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Old Jan 25th 2010, 4:45 am
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Default Re: 4 month update Oldham - Melbourne long post...

Originally Posted by Hutch
Good luck with the on-going settling in and the beginnings of a routine. Before you know it, a year will be up.
You're right its been 4 months already its flying by. Rekon it will slow down when I start work on Wednesday though..... :s
Originally Posted by Paula Cox
Hi
Great post
Paula
Cheers
Originally Posted by Beedubya
Great post and good luck with your new life. I wish you well.
Originally Posted by JCSUPERMOTO
Great read guys,well done and keep on smilling!
Ps saying goodbyes is the hardest thing i have ever done,my kids have never seen me cry before,i was gutted!

Ps Been to mornington today,superb beach
It is just so hard We love Mornington beach
Originally Posted by mrrossie
Hi,

Fantastic post, great success story.

Ross
Thanks
Originally Posted by mindblower
[
Hello from ex-oldhamers ![/QUOTE]
Do you miss it? I definately don't!!! lol
Originally Posted by ljj
Hello from ex-oldhamers !
And some more ex-Oldhamers! Good luck with your journey for a new life. We are 6 1/2 years in Melbourne and this is home.
LJJ[/QUOTE]
I hope we are still here in 6.5 years. Have you been back in all that time?

Last edited by Jaycee1; Jan 25th 2010 at 4:48 am.
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Old Jan 26th 2010, 12:52 am
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Default Re: 4 month update Oldham - Melbourne long post...

Great post - just goes to show what you can do when you want something so much
All the best to you from another ex Oldhamer!
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Old Jan 26th 2010, 4:41 am
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Default Re: 4 month update Oldham - Melbourne long post...

And some more ex-Oldhamers! Good luck with your journey for a new life. We are 6 1/2 years in Melbourne and this is home.
LJJ[/quote]
I hope we are still here in 6.5 years. Have you been back in all that time?[/quote]

Yes, went back after 3 years - upset me at how much we take things for granted in Melbourne and to witness some sad sights of places run down/derilict and uncared for. People we knew kept stopping and asking if we wanted lifts as they just weren't used to seeing people walking for exercise...not just to go somewhere!
Went back for 8 days this June under difficult circumstances as it was to say goodbye to MIL and also attend her funeral - Felt more optomistic as it looked like changes in parks (park keepers again & new burn-proof play equipment) saw more people outdoors walking. New Infrastructure and buildings shopping centres (we lived in Shaw). Felt more positive about the UK.
I will be going back to UK for a week in August for my best friends wedding but won't be staying any longer as it's a long way and time to be away from Hubby and 2 kids.

Don't think we will go back again unless parents get too old to travel to us every year as they enjoy coming out.
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Old Jan 26th 2010, 1:48 pm
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Default Re: 4 month update Oldham - Melbourne long post...

Thanks very much for the update - it makes lovely reading. Best wishes in your job.
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Old Jan 27th 2010, 11:38 am
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Default Re: 4 month update Oldham - Melbourne long post...

Congrats for getting there eventually. Hope it continues to be all you would wish for.
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Old Jan 31st 2010, 1:15 pm
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Default Re: 4 month update Oldham - Melbourne long post...

Absolutely brilliant post J I really enjoyed reading that

Lovely to hear you're settling in after your extra long wait to get here! See patience does pay off! Long may your happiness continue xxxx
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Old Feb 1st 2010, 11:18 pm
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Default Re: 4 month update Oldham - Melbourne long post...

Originally Posted by mindblower
[
Hello from ex-oldhamers ![/QUOTE]


Hello from ex-Rochdalians........
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