Devastated wished we had done things differently.

We dont often post on here but have been a member since we started the whole process of emigrating. We decided to emigrate for mainly the same reasons as most people. We have three young boys and wanted to give them the opportunity of a better lifestyle and we wanted a better lifestyle for ourselves as a family. We always thought that we would be able to achieve this. Now, we are in the situation where I have to accept that this isn't going to happen. Why ? Because we can't sell our house, we can't afford a reccie, the visa needs to be validated by 9th Feb, and we can't raise the money to do a reccie.

How, i wished we had done things differently, instead of being so cautious.

I really wish we hadn't got cold feet for a while. I also wish in some ways that my oh wasn't a bit unsure. His business as a mechanic is going well (for the time being) and he has spent a lot of time worrying that we won't have any money, we struggle alot financially here and that is with me working, so he worries that we will struggle even more so in Aus. He has worried at times that it isn't as easy to get a job as it is made out to be. But he has also said that if this is what I really want then he would give it 100% and the sort of person he is I know that he would.

We have exhausted all options of trying to raise money for a reccie we used all of what little savings we had getting the visa in the first place. Even, tried to borrow extra on the mortgage under the pretence of getting work done on the house. Even, went in to see the building soc to prove that we could afford to borrow the money as we were one of the lucky ones who have a tracker mortgage so our mortgage has gone down, but they still wont lend us anymore even though the increase on our mortgage would be minimal. How I wish, we had done what a lot of people seem to do and put our house on the market 18 months ago when we first started all of this. The shares that we had which we hoped would get us a reccie and now worth less than what we paid for them. Now, time is slipping away and we are having to get used to the idea that for some reason now is not the time for us.

Gutted, to say the least I feel like I just want the 9th Feb to slip by. Would I do the whole process again, yes I would. I really can't believe that it is all over and I feel like a great big cloud is hanging over us. The support from my family over emigrating has been great, my mum even offered to try and raise some money for us (not quite sure how as they don't have anything) . Been doing the lottery to try and see if we can win that but not holding out much hope.

The only good thing is that hopefully my oh job will remain on the wanted list and next time round we will doing things so differently.

Anyway sorry if I have ranted on i just wanted to let other people know not to leave it all to late like we have, only to realise that the dream was always there but now we cant take it.

Teresa

oh lovey i feel so soory for you all. What can i say, but keep trying. things are so difficult in this country at the mo, but give it time and i'm sure things will improve.

Good luck with everything, fingers and toes crossed for you all

take care

cara xxx

Hi Teresa

I know you dont need pity right now but I really feel for you, the housing market has affected so many people on this site and its drastically changed a lot of our situations.

We had plans 18months ago when we started this process which included a huge amount of equity from our house which would set us up with a nice little pad in Aus to start a new life for our children.

We now have a house still to sell which is level with our mortgage, to be honest if we dont sell in the next few months its going to kill us when we get there but fortunatley we have already paid for our flights and we are going no matter what.

I know this doesnt make you feel any better but I had to just say hi and I really hope whatever your future is that it all works out.

Can you re apply? I wasnt sure how it all works if you dont go on your first visa grant.

Time flys and soon the market will pick up again and you may be in a better position than ever to get that visa and start again.

Theres still time for that lotto win.

Denise

We dont often post on here but have been a member since we started the whole process of emigrating. We decided to emigrate for mainly the same reasons as most people. We have three young boys and wanted to give them the opportunity of a better lifestyle and we wanted a better lifestyle for ourselves as a family. We always thought that we would be able to achieve this. Now, we are in the situation where I have to accept that this isn't going to happen. Why ? Because we can't sell our house, we can't afford a reccie, the visa needs to be validated by 9th Feb, and we can't raise the money to do a reccie.

 

How, i wished we had done things differently, instead of being so cautious.

 

I really wish we hadn't got cold feet for a while. I also wish in some ways that my oh wasn't a bit unsure. His business as a mechanic is going well (for the time being) and he has spent a lot of time worrying that we won't have any money, we struggle alot financially here and that is with me working, so he worries that we will struggle even more so in Aus. He has worried at times that it isn't as easy to get a job as it is made out to be. But he has also said that if this is what I really want then he would give it 100% and the sort of person he is I know that he would.

 

We have exhausted all options of trying to raise money for a reccie we used all of what little savings we had getting the visa in the first place. Even, tried to borrow extra on the mortgage under the pretence of getting work done on the house. Even, went in to see the building soc to prove that we could afford to borrow the money as we were one of the lucky ones who have a tracker mortgage so our mortgage has gone down, but they still wont lend us anymore even though the increase on our mortgage would be minimal. How I wish, we had done what a lot of people seem to do and put our house on the market 18 months ago when we first started all of this. The shares that we had which we hoped would get us a reccie and now worth less than what we paid for them. Now, time is slipping away and we are having to get used to the idea that for some reason now is not the time for us.

 

Gutted, to say the least I feel like I just want the 9th Feb to slip by. Would I do the whole process again, yes I would. I really can't believe that it is all over and I feel like a great big cloud is hanging over us. The support from my family over emigrating has been great, my mum even offered to try and raise some money for us (not quite sure how as they don't have anything) . Been doing the lottery to try and see if we can win that but not holding out much hope.

 

The only good thing is that hopefully my oh job will remain on the wanted list and next time round we will doing things so differently.

 

Anyway sorry if I have ranted on i just wanted to let other people know not to leave it all to late like we have, only to realise that the dream was always there but now we cant take it.

 

Teresa

 

 

So sorry to hear your problems Teresa. Is there no way the validation deadline can be extended? Surely the authorities are aware of the global recession and can make some kind of exception?

I so feel for you. I take it renting your house out isn't an option? We were going to call it off when we couldn't sell. Luckily we found someone to rent our house out and scratched together the airfare and here we are. Arrived with a little over £4,000 in our pocket.

I do hope something happens to make this work for you but if it doesn't don't just let the visa expire. It will go on your record that it was cancelled by Oz when you didn't 'turn up' by your due date. Write a letter, email or better do both to immigration stating exactly why you cannot come yet. This way it goes down as you cancelling the visa and therefore won't work against you next time you apply. You never know a sympathetic worker on the Oz side may well 'bend' the rules. As I always say, if you don't ask you don't get.

Good luck

Pete

Hi Teresa,

I are very sorry to read your post. I don't know if you can but can you look into extending the visa activation date?

Can you rent your house out? I know that won't give you the immediate funds but at least you could then look at scrapping that together and then you may have an income from your rental.

These are just ideas and I know that what you really need is a solution or a lotto win but don't give up the fight you have come a long way and it would be a shame not to see it through.

Good luck and hope it all works out soon.

Martin

Get in touch with Immigration, they do offer extensions... not sure under what circumstances, but you have nothing to lose.

Make no mistake, life is not a bed of roses over here, the streets are not paved with gold blah blah

We, like others are finding it more difficult as we could not sell our house and have no savings to fall back-on.

Everyone has to make there own decisions, for their own reasons, but for us, I think it was the right one to come regardless.

We still worry about money......... but at least its warm

Good luck in whatever you decide.

Si

Hiya

Your story just makes me sad because if it were me in your situation I would too be gutted. Everything in life happens for a reason though I feel (maybe this is a test to see if this is really what you want from life some people come on a whim havent really though it all the way through and regret it) and you still have the strength you say to even reapply when your visa runs out. As some have said though make that call to immigration and let them know your circumstances and make sure you can either get some sort of extension or be able to reapply.

What I would say to you and this is meant to be of some comfort to you - do not arrive here with NO money AND no job, as you do need some cushion even if like Pete and Tracey it is a smaller fund from the sale of a car, but dont arrive with nothing as it is bloody hard here just like in the UK - most of us still struggle financially whilst we try and get established. You may struggle to get jobs and as you know you cant live on fresh air.

I really do hope for you that it will work out and I feel that it will, one way or another, as you sound quite determined now !

Good Luck

sjs

Definately contact immigration and fight tooth and nail to extend the deadline !!! mechanics are always being advertised for in garages so your hubby will walk straight into work. The newspapers are saying at the moment that they are going to reduce the amount of migrants in the future so you need to grab your chance while you still have it.

Good luck.

Talk to immigration, things do sometimes get ' bent ' here, and as a mechanic, he'll always get a job...............but the pay may be an issue until in time he sets his own business up!.

dont have any advice really just wanted to say dont give up hope and try every avenue, we were in a almost similiar situation last year, we had til may to validate and by feb had reduced our house by 30 grand and still had no buyer, we took house off market at that point and had all but given up, we too couldnt afford to validate, i cried for a week thinking that was it dream was over, but then decided u know what it aint over til that date passes, put house back on the market with a new estate agent and within 10 days it was sold, was a bag of nerves then cos until we completed it could all still be taken away from us, but we stuck it out and luckily house completed last week in april and we managed to get here with a few weeks to spare, and havent looked back since, i hope something comes up for you cos i know the place where u are right now and its hell after all u go through to get to that point then think its all gonna be gone

Good luck in finding a solution

Dawn x

Really sad to read your story, my brother let his visa slip by and is now in the process of reapplying...different circumstances but still lousey...

asking for an extension on the validation date is like asking immigration to pay for your flights...not going to happen,

this i know because we had to ask when i smashed up my leg - really totalled my leg - consultant even offered to write to immigration to say i couldnt fly - they still said not a chance! (we were lucky that the co was about to grant ours the week i broke my leg and oh was able to stop our visa grant - must be the only people to beg immigration NOT to grant a visa)

if you really cant validate then you'll just have to look at reapplying in the future - you have the skills recognition sorted so half way there,

or you could look at it as a sign of somesort that its not the right time for you right now...

i am so sorry to hear about your situation and i can so relate!!!

we have our visa since may and just can't sell our house

and our validation date was closing in on us (due next week) - so we decided to get a 0% credit card and put it on that. we still have to pay for it in the end but slower and we just manage. - would that be an option?!

and i still would contact immigration - maybe kats just had a grumpy co

good luck and i hope you find a way

so sorry to read about your problems. Hope there is a way for you to get here. Hope to meet you again, here next time, soon

Sorry to hear about you missing your dates for your visa, although we have sold our house and transferred the money over etc, we were supposed to go in 2 weeks and have everything arranged, but my husbands father died on holiday abroad last Saturday and it may be a few weeks before the funeral will go ahead. We have to be over by 4th April so it should all be sorted by then but like you I feel that it is on a piece of string which is gradually being tugged further and further away. We should be able to put our flight dates back easily enough but I wish like you that the 20th Jan(our date to go) would come and go quickly so that I can start looking forward again. Have you got time to reapply or are you close to the 45 age limit, will you just have to do just your meds and police check again or the whole lot?

so sorry to hear this. Is there anything you could sell to try and raise the cash to validate? I made quite alot of money selling stuff on ebay, its suprising what people buy. I really hope something turns up for you x:wubclub:

:sad:Sorry to hear about your situation.....when we had our reccie we couldn't afford it either so we just got a credit card( as we didnt have one) and put the whole lot on it........worth a thought......good luck

Have only just registered on PIA.

Reading the forums alot as are undecided in whether to go or not... and reading your message has made me think how you can't sit around like I am thinking what if all the time.

I'm sorry to hear your time is slipping away before selling your house.

I was registering this site to find out the what are the best visa websites to look at as there are lots out there.....?

I will be interested to hear how you got on if you phoned the immigration about an extension on visa? Hope things are still hopeful for you.

Not sure if I need to go to another forum for advice. I'm not too sure where to start?

Have only just registered on PIA.

 

Reading the forums alot as are undecided in whether to go or not... and reading your message has made me think how you can't sit around like I am thinking what if all the time.

 

I'm sorry to hear your time is slipping away before selling your house.

 

I was registering this site to find out the what are the best visa websites to look at as there are lots out there.....?

 

I will be interested to hear how you got on if you phoned the immigration about an extension on visa? Hope things are still hopeful for you.

 

Not sure if I need to go to another forum for advice. I'm not too sure where to start?

Not sure if your decided on adelaide or not, lots of info on here but i find www.britshexpats.com/forum a great source of info for people just starting the visa process, or also www.pomsinoz.com

Hi, thanks for the quick response!

Yes def adelaide, Hallett Cove or Sheidow Park are what we are looking at as OH has cousin in Hallett Cove, I will look on the websites. Thanks very much for that.

Hi, thanks for the quick response!

 

Yes def adelaide, Hallett Cove or Sheidow Park are what we are looking at as OH has cousin in Hallett Cove, I will look on the websites. Thanks very much for that.

Hi FT,

Have a look at www.adelaidebound.com It is a good starting point.

Pete

We dont often post on here but have been a member since we started the whole process of emigrating. We decided to emigrate for mainly the same reasons as most people. We have three young boys and wanted to give them the opportunity of a better lifestyle and we wanted a better lifestyle for ourselves as a family. We always thought that we would be able to achieve this. Now, we are in the situation where I have to accept that this isn't going to happen. Why ? Because we can't sell our house, we can't afford a reccie, the visa needs to be validated by 9th Feb, and we can't raise the money to do a reccie.

 

How, i wished we had done things differently, instead of being so cautious.

 

I really wish we hadn't got cold feet for a while. I also wish in some ways that my oh wasn't a bit unsure. His business as a mechanic is going well (for the time being) and he has spent a lot of time worrying that we won't have any money, we struggle alot financially here and that is with me working, so he worries that we will struggle even more so in Aus. He has worried at times that it isn't as easy to get a job as it is made out to be. But he has also said that if this is what I really want then he would give it 100% and the sort of person he is I know that he would.

 

We have exhausted all options of trying to raise money for a reccie we used all of what little savings we had getting the visa in the first place. Even, tried to borrow extra on the mortgage under the pretence of getting work done on the house. Even, went in to see the building soc to prove that we could afford to borrow the money as we were one of the lucky ones who have a tracker mortgage so our mortgage has gone down, but they still wont lend us anymore even though the increase on our mortgage would be minimal. How I wish, we had done what a lot of people seem to do and put our house on the market 18 months ago when we first started all of this. The shares that we had which we hoped would get us a reccie and now worth less than what we paid for them. Now, time is slipping away and we are having to get used to the idea that for some reason now is not the time for us.

 

Gutted, to say the least I feel like I just want the 9th Feb to slip by. Would I do the whole process again, yes I would. I really can't believe that it is all over and I feel like a great big cloud is hanging over us. The support from my family over emigrating has been great, my mum even offered to try and raise some money for us (not quite sure how as they don't have anything) . Been doing the lottery to try and see if we can win that but not holding out much hope.

 

The only good thing is that hopefully my oh job will remain on the wanted list and next time round we will doing things so differently.

 

Anyway sorry if I have ranted on i just wanted to let other people know not to leave it all to late like we have, only to realise that the dream was always there but now we cant take it.

 

Teresa

 

 

Hi Teresa,

So sorry to hear this - but have you exhausted all avenues?? What Visa are you on?? Is it not possible for your OH to go to Adelaide on his own, activate the visa, put his CV into loads of garages etc and come back?? Our temp visa would allow us to come to Adleaide and leave again - so long as we met the relevant criteria in the necessary timescale??

Wishing you all the best - you still have time!!

Tom

So sorry to hear your story Teresa. Is there no way you can rent your house out? We were planning on selling, but have now decided to rent and use the rental income to fund our rental in Adelaide (when and if we eventually get there). Like you we really could do with the equity in the house to help fund us over there till we get jobs etc. but I guess we're going to have to make do with our savings.

Whatever you decide I wish you all the best.

Wendy

Hi Teresa,

 

So sorry to hear this - but have you exhausted all avenues?? What Visa are you on?? Is it not possible for your OH to go to Adelaide on his own, activate the visa, put his CV into loads of garages etc and come back?? Our temp visa would allow us to come to Adleaide and leave again - so long as we met the relevant criteria in the necessary timescale??

 

Wishing you all the best - you still have time!!

 

Tom

Sounds a good plan but unfortunately all family member's passports have to be stamped on arrival to be validated.

Pete

and i still would contact immigration - maybe kats just had a grumpy co

 

 

good luck and i hope you find a way

we had a fab co, otherwise we couldnt have had our visa grant delayed, Martin actually spoke to a manager re my leg as when i say totalled my leg i mean i totally destroyed my knee and its been completely reconsructed (if i was older they would have just put in a new knee to save trying to rebuild it with my hip/pins/plates etc)

- the only exception they accept is pregnancy, if you are unable to fly due to the law of flying during certain pregnancy weeks - I.E. after 32 weeks or something...

of course its worth a try calling immigration - anything is worth trying in these circumstances - im just saying dont hold your breath.

good luck and i hope you manage to sort something.