Any Brits moved to Aus?

[D.P.]

Certainly some food for thought, thank you guys for all of your advice. That spider though... ****

If you think 2-3 trips a year are required then it is too far IMO. I would rather set an expectation of once every 2-3 years, and once a year if you are determined.


You have to factor in:
The length of flight, even a 1 week trip doesn't make any sense, you want to go for 2 minimum really. Now think how much fre time, vacation time you have. Will every vacation day be spent flying back home to see family, or will you want to explore Oz?


Jet lag, again this tend to rule out a 1 week trip and even makes a2 week trip fairly tiring

The Cost of flights. Seriously, couple of people (+ kids?) several times a year will eat up most of your disposable capital


It is a red flag, if you /your wife feel like they need to make 1-3 trips home a year then probably the psychological distance will be too great. If you end up missing friends and family so much you have to go home every 4 months then you wont last. You have to get into a mindset =that you wont see family or friends much and will be making new friends. over there. The old future back home you will hope to stay in contact with and catch up in the future if you return.

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

Agreed. 2 to 3 times a year is not sustainable and shouldn't be a requirement if it's something you both genuinely want to do.

 

[xxalxx]

I agree 2-3 trips home a year and you will move back.

We agreed that we would take a trip back to the UK after 4 years, 18 months in we got the dreaded phone call as my mum got diagnosed with cancer and had to fly back (though it all turned out good ), and we went back last year to go to the missus's brothers wedding.

We aint going back for a good while now though!

 

[D.P.]

I agree 2-3 trips home a year and you will move back.

We agreed that we would take a trip back to the UK after 4 years, 18 months in we got the dreaded phone call as my mum got diagnosed with cancer and had to fly back (though it all turned out good ), and we went back last year to go to the missus's brothers wedding.

We aint going back for a good while now though!

We are dreading one of those phone calls. Had a bad scare earlier this year regarding my father and a possible heart condition. Had flights ready the next day to fly out at crazy costs but then got the all-clear.

As the parents and I laws get older this tends to sit on ones mind more and more. Ideally you would move abroad when relatively young or you wait until your parents have passed away.

Soe thing which does help though is assuming your parents are retire then they have the time to fly over to you for extended stays. We pay for our parents to come over once a year because it just much easier than is going over there.

 

[jon86]

If you want nice weather, and don't want to be quite so far away, (southern) California is an awesome place to live. It has its own problems, like everywhere in the world, but I moved over from the UK in November 2014 and am enjoying myself here.

I have no doubt that my experience has been particularly easy because my employer paid for the whole relocation, my immediate family are already geographically distributed (so we're already used to being far apart) and I am single with no dependents.

Your job sounds like it would potentially fit into a category where you could obtain a skilled trades type visa. However, your girlfriend/partner/spouse would potentially have to do a bit more retraining.

Some overall positives:
- Beautiful weather with the opportunity for a similar active lifestyle as what can be obtained in Australia
- Beautiful beaches (like Australia)
- Very close to lots of awesome places in the US/Canada/Mexico, etc
- Much nearer to the UK (loads of daily 9 - 10 hour direct flights back to the UK)

Some negatives:
- Visas can be hard(er) to obtain
- You are living in the California and USA so you have to live with all the troubles that exist here (like drought)

 

[Stoddy]

I must admit that coming home 2-3 times a year does seem a lot. Our thought was to come home every Christmas but we have had a re-think about that now and if/when we get to Australia we aren't going to do that and will stay there. The wife saw/read somewhere that someone recommended that if you are going to go then ideally you need to give it at least a year so that you can experience all 4 seasons of the year. An old school friend of mine went 15 years ago and has only returned to visit for the first time this week (her parents went down there as well though)

My step sister lives in California (Huntington Beach). She moved out there 16 years ago and has only been back a couple of times. They love it. When I told her and my step brother-in-law about our plans to move to Australia they asked if we had considered California. I did briefly look into it but it will be really hard for me to get a visa. From what I read as there are so many Brits going to the UK we can't take part in the Green Card Lottery any more.

 

[smelf1]

I was in a CBD apartment for 2 years, but now living down in Mandurah.

Whereabouts are you?

Hi mate,

I bought up in the Lakes Estate Ballajura, so about 20 mins drive into the CBD,

So you have the fun of that nice long trek into the city and that nightmare called the Kwinana.