Tony Blair!

Ok, well this blog was supposed to be about our escape to Adelaide but today has been quite exciting so it makes sense to record it here.

Aside from our migration application, we have been having quite an exciting time helping out the national charity, Shelter. To cut a long story short, last summer we moved out of a flat in West London but our landlord didn't give us our deposit back, saying he needed it to redecorate and re-paint. We ended up suing him and thankfully won, getting all of the money back (£1,100) plus court costs. We contacted Shelter offering to help them out on any future campaigns about this, as it seemed that everyone we spoke to seemed to have had it happen to them or knew someone who had.

Anyway... Shelter are currently promoting the new Tenancy Deposit Scheme being introduced by the Government which will include having an independent middle party holding the deposit, and not releasing it until both landlord and tenant agree.

We've been busy bee's helping Shelter to promote the scheme. Here are some of the articles we've featured in:

Guardian Unlimited piece
Click here to read

Your Local Guardian
Click here to read

Dan went on Radio Five Live and Becks went on BBC Radio London's drivetime show. And now we've been invited to meet Tony Blair!

So we might not have our visa, but we're getting contacts in high places!

Can it go on much longer?

Well here we are. It's nearing the end of March and now 18 months since this whole process began. We are literally tearing our hair out (Dan has pulled all of his out).

The agent has sent an email to DIAC to chase up our case officer and she has had what I presume to be an automated email back saying that 'this information has been attached to our application for the attention of the case officer' - never mind attaching, just give us our visa!

Feeling reasonably optimistic that we will hear soon. Things seem to be moving again for others after quite a lull of no visas coming through. The agent also says she is waiting on final decisions on several clients, so at least it isn't just us.

Please! Give us our visa soon!

Please give us our visa soon!

Ok, this waiting is getting really silly now!

We've had a case officer for 9 weeks now, and they have had all the necessary documents for 5 weeks. We know from Adelaide Brits and Austimeline that we aren't alone - there don't seem to be many visas coming through at the moment!

Our whole life feels like it's on hold. We've both managed to extend our work contracts from the end of March til the end of April but after that who knows... The tenancy on our flat expires at the end of May, so we feel like time is not on our side!

Just want some news - any news! Just speak to us Australia!

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Sick with frustration

Boohoo. Just a quickie to say that we are COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY FED UP of waiting for a decision. We've also both got/had nasty colds which hasn't helped the moods!

This waiting is horrible

So, it is now the last week of February and we are still waiting to hear back from our Case Officer. We heard back really quickly from our aus police checks, and they were sent to our CO two and a half weeks ago. The waiting feeling just can't be described, other than being completely frustrating, annoying, horrible, tense, emotional and EXCITING!

Both of our work contracts are due to end at the end of March and we hoped to be able to jet off to aus after that. We have now decided that it is all getting a bit close (with no visa) so will now aim to get to aus for the end of April/beginning of May. This will of course mean extending Dan's contract, and Becks finding short term work (or having a month off, which Dan has yet to be persuaded about). Horrible making the decision to push it back even further but going after Easter was just starting to look more and more impractical.

Fingers crossed we hear something soon. I can't stare at my phone much more (waiting for the call from our agent).

Arghhh.

We have a Case Officer - but now even more waiting!

We've had a case officer for a couple of weeks now. After a long 6 and a half month wait we got the news from our agent. It was fantastic news as we are now 'on the next stage' where someone has actually LOOKED at our application!

Our case officer requested our medicals and police checks, which we've already done so that was straight forward. However, they also requested that Becks have Australian Federal Police Checks carried out as she has spent more than 12 months in Australia (12 months and 1 week to be exact!).

So now we have embarked upon a new long wait... They say the police checks take about 15 working days, plus of course the time it takes to send documents to Australia and back.

Will this process ever end? Will we ever get there? Arghhh, the waiting.

Time is really ticking now, and our plans of going straight after Easter are still in place though thinkgs are getting tight. Both of our current work contracts end at the end of March so it makes it the perfect time to go.

Argggggggggggggghhhhhhhhh. This is the biggest test of patience.... EVER!

It's just not funny anymore...

It's now been six and a half months since we sent our application, and we are due to be allocated a case officer any 'week' now.

We are literally obsessed about it. We obsess online, looking at various websites to see if others have moved on any more that us; We obsess by looking at our mobiles every minute to see if the agent has called; We obsess at home - it's all we seem to talk about. We've recently put a ban on the latter as it's just getting silly!

The feeling is horrible - it's like living in limbo. At the same time, there is a feeling of excitement knowing that Australia might just be around the corner! We want to get excited but daren't just incase the visa doesn't come through!

Oh when Oh when Oh when will we get a case officer?

The day of our medicals!

In my boredom of waiting for a case officer (is this the most patient we have EVER been?) thought I'd add a pic of the day we had our medicals!

It's getting serious now!

We went for our medicals yesterday.

The process was quite nerve racking as we really didn't know what to expect. We are generally fit and healthy people but nevertheless worried at the unknown.

First we went to the local hospital for our chest xrays. This was a straight forward enough process and quite exciting! Dan had to have his done twice as he didn't take a big enough breath in the first time so his heart looked unusually big! The doctor explained that rather than leave it looking big, he redid the xray so that it wouldn't cause us any unnecessary delay.

We then went to the Panel Doctor for our medical. We saw a nurse first who took a urine sample, blood sample (HIV test and HepB for Becks as she has a small tattoo), did a basic eye test, weighed us and measured us. Both of our blood pressures were extremely high at this point of the medical - we were both nervous! After a couple of readings, they started to drop.

We then went into see the Doctor. He was a really friendly guy who put us at ease and managed to get our blood pressures even lower! Our only worry is that Dan's was still slightly high, but the doctor dind't seem too concerned so now we just have to keep our fingers crossed.

The doc did lots of little tests such as getting us to touch our toes, reflex tests, hearing, feeling our stomachs (spleen, liver and kidneys apparently) and various other bits and bobs. Dan did have to do the 'cough test', but Becks had no breast examination.

So all in all a positive medical. We just have to hope that the high blood pressure is put down to nerves and that all goes through smoothly. We have no other health issues so fingers crossed....

A boring task, but exciting for us!

Today we went to our local police station to request our police clearance. All very straight forward, easy and infact slightly dull.

Felt good to actually do something though as the wait is lasting forever! Also felt good to tell the police woman that we are emigrating to Australia! It made it seem like it is getting more and more real!