Real Life Stories: Moving from the UK to Melbourne

Last week we spoke to Alison, who is moving from Hove in Sussex to Melbourne, Australia with her partner and her two dogs. In her own words she describes just some of the loops she’d had to jump through:

We’ve been planning to move to Australia for two years. We’ve had to jump through a lot of hoops and work hard to get the substantial amount of cash and paperwork needed before we could even think about booking the flights.  But now we are there, right at the point where we are actually looking at houses in Melbourne, the flights are booked and the clock is ticking to the big day when we close the door on our home in the UK, wave goodbye to friends and family, crate up our two dogs and get ready for our new life in the sun.

Planning the move has also been very stressful, not least because my partner is Australian and I’m not, and my ‘de facto partner visa’ took eight long and painful months to finally come through.  You can choose the ‘points entry visa’ if you have suitable qualifications, but you are also looking at a good six to eight month wait. I’ve also had to have a full medical, which phew, thankfully I passed.

 The other big stress for us was moving to Australia with our dogs – now a lot easier as the six month quarantine regulation has now changed. You are looking at a week minimum for our two babies, and with the possibly of an extension of a few days if needed. But before we could book our flights, we had to get an import permit through the Australian Quarantine Department.  Now I can’t wait, a new life awaits, and I’m sure it will be worth all the preparation.

Stay tuned we will be catching up with Alison, once she arrives in Melbourne to see how she is settling.