AIBU to want us to move to Australia in later life?

[OneFedUpFarmersWife]

First time poster. I will give some context for this post. Been married to my DH for 31 years we have a 30 year old DD. This is my second marriage and I have two DD from that relationship. I am 70 and my DH is 74. He is a farmer on a tenanted farm and his family have been here over 100 years. My eldest DD emigrated to Australia 9 years ago and has a great life. I was heart broken when she went taking my two GDC with her ( kids are now14 and 10) I try to get over every year to see them and I love Australia, My youngest DH and her husband have said that they are looking to get a visa to emigrate. My heart dropped but I told her she should try as it’s a great place for kids and it’s something I would have done given the chance. I have told my DH that I want us to emigrate too and he’s said ‘no’ without any discussion. I have lived abroad before so the thought of moving to another country does not faze me. My DH has always lived in this house. He’s a bit selfish to be honest. We had discussed him retiring as I would like to move to our other house which will be much easier to maintain. I’m starting to worry a bit that something may happen to him and I’ll be left with this farm to sort out and live in this big house till I can move. He doesn’t seem to be bothered. He decided not to retire without discussion as he likes farming. I want to go to Australia to spend what time we’ve got left with my DDs. I couldn’t bare the thought of the youngest going. AIBU to want us both to emigrate?

I think you probably ARE BU if you have only just raised this with your DH and it was never discussed as a possibility before now? Assuming you can both get a family Visa and pass the fitness criteria, his willingness to go may depend on whether his daughter does succeed in emigrating too? Does he have ties - lifelong friendships, extended family etc - that make it more daunting for him to consider leaving? he may, rightly, be concerned about his ability to form a new social network at his age so I’d try not to be dismissive of his reluctance and loo at whether there are bowls/cricket/hobby clubs that he could become actively involved with to facilitate that.

Does he have ties - lifelong friendships, extended family etc - that make it more daunting for him to consider leaving?

He's a farmer, who has lived his entire life on his farm. His family have been there for 100 years. He doesn't even want to go to Australia for a holiday!

As I understand it, you won't be able to apply for a Parent visa if you are inside Australia on a visitor visa - this is condition 8503. To even attempt this, you'd have to secure a visitor visa without condition 8503 and the Department of Home Affairs officers scrutinise those closely if they suspect someone is trying migration shortcuts.

You also cannot apply for the Parent visa in England and then get a visitor visa on top to travel.

You could apply for the Sponsored Parent (Temporary) Visa (Subclass 870): This allows parents to stay in Australia for up to 3 or 5 years at a time. While it does not lead to permanent residency and requires an approved sponsor, it allows for multiple entries depending on the visa grant, though holders must still abide by overall stay limits and conditions.

Or

Longer Validity Visitor Visas: Parents in the parent visa queue (such as the subclass 103 queue) offshore can sometimes be considered for extended tourist stream visitor visas (allowing cumulative stays of up to 12 months in an 18-month period over a multi-year validity window), though these still require strict adherence to "genuine visitor" rules and time-out-of-Australia requirements.

I don't think there's any way for you to actually live there. But with the 2 visa's above you could stay for a very long time, but I think the cap is 10 years. So for eg, you could maybe get the sponsored parent visa twice for 5 years, but then you would have to leave.

Of course you can't even start the parent visa until your other daughter moves there, because at present only 33% of your children are there.

I have a DD in Australia. Melbourne too actually. DH and I plan to visit for 3 months every winter once we have retired. It'll be summer over there, so that's perfect. I don't think it's wise to sell up and have all this angst about visa's. Bear in mind that your DD could easily move and then you'd be stuck there with no family.

I think the Department who approve visa's are quite selective and they are not processed in the order they are submitted. My DD and her DH applied for permanent residency a few months ago, and it was granted yesterday - very fast. Her colleague from India applied almost 2 years ago and has heard nothing.

Then i think OP will either be looking at dividing her time between the UK and Aus, or going alone.

I understand that farmers feel a connection to their land, to the family history, that is stronger than ties to living children and grandchildren. i think OP may have to accept that she will have to choose.

I would definitely not go if my youngest daughter could not get a visa to go there permanently

You would not be able to apply for a parent visa if your youngest didn't go! Don't you realise that?

Thank you for all this. It is a complicated process that is rather hard to understand. In my reading it stated that the sponsoring family member had to have lived in Australia for at least 2 years - would that require the other daughter who would make up the necessary percentage of offspring in Australia to have lived there for 2 years also, do you think?

She won't get to choose. She won't get in to Australia as a permanent resident.

Yes, they do.

Child 1: Already there for 9 years, so they are well past the 2-year mark and can act as Op's sponsor/settled child right away.

Child 2: Must wait out the remainder of their 2-year window living lawfully in Australia before their presence counts toward the official "settled sponsor" criteria for a permanent parent application.

Once the second child reaches that 2-year residency threshold, both parts of the equation (the Balance of Family test and the settled sponsor requirement) will be fully satisfied, allowing Op to proceed with an application.

BUT.....Op can't apply for the Aged Parent visa from within Australia, because if she was in Australia, she would be holding a Visitor Visa, and this visa has a clause (8503) which prohibits this. So basically, she can only apply for the Aged parent visa if she is OUTSIDE of Australia, and this can take up to 33 years to be approved.

The child IS resident already, it’s another one thinking about moving. HTH.

You must have missed the post where I said I wouldn’t even consider going if she was in the uk

Thanks for all of the advice. I didn’t realise there so many immigration specialists here! ChatGBT wonderful isn’t it!

I did see that, it's just that you're saying this as if you'd have the option, when you don't. There is no way for you to live there permanently that I can see. I could be wrong, but I don't think I am.

Not really, but she enjoyed the cooler days and managed to find some sort of lifestyle
my
brother went to see if he wanted to emigrate, he moved around a few times and come home, didn’t want that lifestyle

Right, but you can't even apply for the parent visa until the second child has lived in Australia for two years - so you are really getting ahead of yourself.

A yearly visit for several months is probably a better choice.

I've been scanning the pages of the Department of Home Affairs with all its visa subclasses, out of interest. Because what you were proposing seemed so improbable, I couldn't understand it.

The child resident in Oz 9 years is not a child of the husband.

Yes, Australia seems to have a wonderful outdoors type of life. Totally see the attraction for younger people with children. You, like me, are older people. The heat over there is oppressive. UK summers are very long days in mild nice weather. From about Easter to Halloween pretty ok. Sure Nov, Jan-Feb are depressing. Rain is actually a good thing. You’re describing your daughter’s idyllic poolside with the worst picture of the UK.

By comparison with the west coast of Ireland you’ve zero rain!

Can you give 5 negatives of Oz and be realistic.