UK to Oz Home Page - What this web site is about.

(Last updated 4/6/2005 - best viewed at 600x800)

Early in 1998 we decided to leave England for another country. We concluded that Australia was the place to spend the second half of our lives and to bring up our two young children. We had a lot of thinking to do, an awful amount of form filling and bureaucratic hoops to jump through, practical decisions to make, emotional "trauma", costs, disruption and uncertainties before we got our lives back in order on the other side of the globe. Much of the thinking and deciding we had to do we had to do alone as we felt unable to go to our friends and family, who we would be deserting, to discuss issues. We have also said on several occasions. "I wish someone had told us that". We were therefore alone in this mission yet we were always hungry for information and to share other people's experiences but had no contacts.

The purpose of this site is to share our experience with anyone who is thinking of doing the same thing and hopefully to impart a little bit of useful information and to alert to the hopes, fears and aspirations that you might also experience as you embark on this scary yet amazing adventure.

Our application was accepted on 23 April 1999 and we arrived in Adelaide later that year on 6 November, our daughter's 9^th birthday. (Daddy got her a new continent for her birthday - top that!)

I am hoping that as people visit this site they may have snippets of information, useful web (or other) addresses, stories and advice to add to this site to add to its value for other prospective migrants and for the new and not-so-new arrivals. Please contact me at poms2oz@chariot.net.au (this is a new address from December 2005) and I'll endeavour to weave your pearl into this particular virtual tapestry.

June 2005 - Please do be aware that the technical side of the process has changed markedly since 1999. Don't think that this web site will give you a head start on the technical side of the application as it won't. What it will give is some indication of the "human experience" of making this huge life change. None of the books that we looked at all those years ago spoke of what it's like to up sticks and move half a planet away. This is our modest attempt to plug that gap. I hope it is of some use to you.

Index

• Who we are.
• Deciding to emigrate and where to. (Updated 7/10/2002)
• The serious stuff - the application (testing the water),
• The application (execution) including medical and police.
• Waiting for the acceptance - and getting it.
• Then what? (Updated 25/5/2004)
• Citizenship (We became proud Australian citizens on Australia day 2002) (Updated 24/2/2002)
• Now we're here and some facts that we have since discovered. (updated 28/5/02)
• Useful contacts and web sites. (Last updated 4/6/2005)
• Kids' corner (Last updated 20/12/2004)
• Pictures. (Updated 25 May 2004)
• FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) (Updated 23/12/01)

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Important - disclaimer - please read.

I should point out that I am not an immigration consultant and cannot proffer any expert or legal advice whatsoever. I can only relate to you our personal experiences. Any information presented on this site must be viewed with that in mind, including any information provided by third parties. Any claims purporting to be made by third parties should be independently verified before placing any reliance on their accuracy or validity as I cannot vouch for them. Remember that immigration Law changes frequently and what may have been true when the article was created may no longer be so. There are immigration experts and consultants out there (we used one - The Hartford Consultancy which sadly does not appear to be in business anymore) which I would recommend considering speaking to. Often consultancies offer a free assessment session to establish whether you will be able to pursue your dream. You will find adverts for these services plus a whole lot of other useful stuff in "Australian News". See also my Useful Contacts page.