On Friday, we received notification from the Department of Immigration that our application for permanent residency has been approved. We now hold the Australian equivalent of a green-card.
FAQ: Does this mean you are going to stay in Australia permanently?
A: What am I, psychic?
Considering my vision of my future never featured living in Australia in the first place, I am hardly in a position to make predictions about destiny.
The primary advantage of holding permanent residency - versus the employer-sponsored work visa on which we have been living - is freedom. For the last two and a half years, we have lived with the looming worry that if Kevin should lose his job, we would have a mere 28 days to scramble ourselves off of this remote island continent. Not such a worry, really, but there is some security in knowing our deportation would now require a discretionary hearing.
What IS a worry is that Kevin is now at liberty to go to work for another employer - crazy coincidence that a head-hunter called him on Friday morning with his dream job: running the business systems for a large winery in Adelaide. However, he has assured me that he is quite happy in his current situation and has no intentions of telling his boss to get stuffed...yet. More importantly, my own right to work is no longer tied to Kevin's visa. As he pointed out, I am now free to divorce him and still keep my job...was he giving me a hint?
Best of all, moving onto PR visa gives us access to the thrilling world of socialized medicine. And, in 18 months, we will be eligible to become dole bludgers! We also now have the right to buy property, and Kevin has already presented me with a list of small vineyards in Southern Australia. Then he turned to me and said:
"Now that I have PR, all I want to do is go home."
Some days I shake my head so much I swear it is going to snap clean off my neck.
4 comments:
how long it took, if you don't mind me asking.
...and is the accent as bad as perceived from distance? though i think sydney should be a little more international.
How funny...when you handed the phone to Kevin he said he would like to come back but the job market here sucks. Grass is always greener? Buy the vineyard and I'll be over as a taste tester. Seriously, you have to stay a bit longer, my financial messiness is almost fixed (debt free soon, yay!) and then I can come for a visit.
Cheers, Darcie
Ha, I thought I dreamed I was talking to you....
congrats on the PR!!!! It means flexibility in so many ways...
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