135) Our Empty Nest
At the beginning of August we made up our minds that we really wanted to go and live in Australia. With both our sons, our lovely daughter-in-law and our two beautiful grand daughters living there, there did not seem any point in staying in South Africa. But we were not sure that Australia would accept us. We were no longer young and did not have a great deal of money. We tried to phone the Australian Embassy in Pretoria and just got more and more frustrated. The phone was answered by one of those recorded voices giving eight or nine different options but none of them suited what we wanted to know. After trying for about a fortnight we gave up and emailed Jonathan in Australia and asked him if he could talk to the immigration department in Sydney and get a little bit more sense out of them.
Jonathan told us to fax him copies of our passports and he would talk to them about our chances. When we made copies of our passports for this purpose we realised that the ‘business visas’ that we had taken out to when we had gone on our trip in 1998 were still valid. This was quite a revelation for us. But we still weren’t sure that we could enter the country on a permanent basis on those visas. We photocopied them too and sent them to Jonathan as well, for him to make enquiries.
On 18th August we invited some friends from our church, Lee and Lucy around for afternoon tea. As one does we talked of many things and the subject of Australia came up. We told them about the valid entry visas and they immediately said “What are you still here for, Go. You have your children and grandchildren there, you say you like the country and you have the means of getting in, Go” Lee prayed about it and he said he felt it was ‘God’s will’. I must admit we were beginning to think that maybe we would be able to go but we knew we had to take it slowly and not make a silly move.
On 22nd August we got an email from Jonathan telling us that he had been to the immigration department to confirm our status and he had been told that as we had a valid business visa we could enter Australia and as Jonny was over 65 and more than half of our children were already in Australia we could come into the country and apply for an “Aged Parent Visa”. When our business visa expired (March 2003) we would be granted a bridging visa that would enable us to stay in Australia until our Aged Parent Visa was granted. Jonathan asked the person at the immigration office if he could have that in writing. He was told that it was not necessary as it was just a fact and no one would ever question it. She also said that we would be able to work. It just seemed too good to be true. We had friends who also had both of their children living in Australia and had entered the country on a tourist visa and applied for an Aged Parent Visa. They had been allowed to enter Australia and had been allowed to apply for an Aged Parent Visa but they were only allowed to stay in the country for 6 months at a time. Consequently they had been travelling back and for between South Africa and Australia while waiting to their papers to be issued. I told Jonathan about that couple and asked him to check once more with a different person in the immigration department, which he did and he got the same answer. We were not too happy to be classed as “Aged Parents” we certainly did not feel like “Aged Parents” but we decided that if it would get us into Australia and allow us to be with our children we would not put up too big a fuss. I was still rather reluctant to believe that it could be done so asked Jonathan to once more ask for advice from the Immigration department. Once again he got the same answer and we felt that as we had it in triplicate we could believe it To enable us to get the benefits of the business visa we had to be in Australia before it expired on March 26th 2003 so we knew that we had a lot to get done in the next six or seven months. We started making plans and drawing up lots of lists.
Jonathan told us to fax him copies of our passports and he would talk to them about our chances. When we made copies of our passports for this purpose we realised that the ‘business visas’ that we had taken out to when we had gone on our trip in 1998 were still valid. This was quite a revelation for us. But we still weren’t sure that we could enter the country on a permanent basis on those visas. We photocopied them too and sent them to Jonathan as well, for him to make enquiries.
On 18th August we invited some friends from our church, Lee and Lucy around for afternoon tea. As one does we talked of many things and the subject of Australia came up. We told them about the valid entry visas and they immediately said “What are you still here for, Go. You have your children and grandchildren there, you say you like the country and you have the means of getting in, Go” Lee prayed about it and he said he felt it was ‘God’s will’. I must admit we were beginning to think that maybe we would be able to go but we knew we had to take it slowly and not make a silly move.
On 22nd August we got an email from Jonathan telling us that he had been to the immigration department to confirm our status and he had been told that as we had a valid business visa we could enter Australia and as Jonny was over 65 and more than half of our children were already in Australia we could come into the country and apply for an “Aged Parent Visa”. When our business visa expired (March 2003) we would be granted a bridging visa that would enable us to stay in Australia until our Aged Parent Visa was granted. Jonathan asked the person at the immigration office if he could have that in writing. He was told that it was not necessary as it was just a fact and no one would ever question it. She also said that we would be able to work. It just seemed too good to be true. We had friends who also had both of their children living in Australia and had entered the country on a tourist visa and applied for an Aged Parent Visa. They had been allowed to enter Australia and had been allowed to apply for an Aged Parent Visa but they were only allowed to stay in the country for 6 months at a time. Consequently they had been travelling back and for between South Africa and Australia while waiting to their papers to be issued. I told Jonathan about that couple and asked him to check once more with a different person in the immigration department, which he did and he got the same answer. We were not too happy to be classed as “Aged Parents” we certainly did not feel like “Aged Parents” but we decided that if it would get us into Australia and allow us to be with our children we would not put up too big a fuss. I was still rather reluctant to believe that it could be done so asked Jonathan to once more ask for advice from the Immigration department. Once again he got the same answer and we felt that as we had it in triplicate we could believe it To enable us to get the benefits of the business visa we had to be in Australia before it expired on March 26th 2003 so we knew that we had a lot to get done in the next six or seven months. We started making plans and drawing up lots of lists.
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