COVID-19 can't go home

[CrystalDeCanter]

Thought I'd start a thread for us Internationals who are stuck O/S and unable to get back to the UK for any reason.

I'm in Australia and was due to come back to the UK for a trip in April - all booked in Jan, first time home in almost 3 years.

I consider myself to be really lucky to live where I do, as things are really pretty normal here (for now) and I look at what's happened in the UK in horror. I am just so desperate to get back and see my parents and family. Parents are elderly and I fear they will become ill and I'll be so far away.

2 siblings have had COVID, one was ill in March and one has just tested positive for antibodies, but had no symptoms.

If I could get a flight to London then I would have to quarantine for 2 weeks on my return at a cost of $3,000. Which makes any trip even further out of reach.

Anyone else in the same boat?

I am sorry to everyone who is stuck where they don’t want to be - Covid 19 I am so over you. There is a reason.....

FIL died 2 days ago in Perth unexpected, we are stuck in UK (AUS/UK dual citizens from Perth originally). DH Wants to go home for the funeral, is desperately trying to find a bloody flight and has had his first try at “exemption” rejected for not enough paperwork.... So he has submitted It again with two pages of documents.... Wankers I hate the Australian Government, sorry but I am so upset. It’s not like he wants to go on a holiday...... Never mind that I and DS’s would like to go as well but that’s out of the question.....

He understands he will have to go into mandatory 2 week quarantine when he arrives at our expense (About £1200).

It’s almost impossible, he just found an ECONOMY flight thru SIngapore for £2,500 - OMG....

I hate being in the UK.... Right rant over....

I'm in London and all family back in Aus. Luckily my Mum did an impromptu trip this time last year because our holiday trip to Aus at Easter was cancelled, and my families various trips this way over the summer were cancelled too. My older sister called me absolutely sobbing this morning saying how much she misses us. We last saw her 18m ago when my son was only a few weeks old. My DD starts school next year and I'm dreading not being able to make the trip before then and being locked into school holidays (I will pull her out, I don't even care).
I am planning on booking flights for Jan and hoping for the best. The hotel quarantine will be a bitch but at least we'd be there then.

Hi cats jammies

So sorry for you, it’s so hard being away from family. The older I get the worse it seems to be despite being here for 20 years!

FaceTime is good but can’t replace being there and I can relate to missing your sister, I miss mine so much.

My DH has made the heartbreaking decision today he won’t go for his fathers funeral as he wouldn’t be out of the mandatory hotel quarantine in time (that’s hopefully if he didn’t test positive for COVID). He was due to go earlier this year but that got cancelled because of lockdown. He is so sad.

We are hoping to go next Easter holidays to scatter FIL ashes and have a memorial service. WA has some of the toughest measures with all borders closed and no sign of them being open anytime soon. There are rumours the Premier may ease them at the end of March, but who knows.

It’s a pain having to stick to school holidays, (my DS’s in secondary school now) but we haven’t hesitated on taking them out of school to go to Oz when necessary. MIL was dying a few years ago and we took them out a week earlier than the Oct half term hols, citing “family emergency in country of Origin” Which was approved but we we’re going to do it either way. It’s not negotiable when it comes to family.

I hope you get to go In January and that will give you and your sister something to look forward. 🐨

My family are in an area that is likely to go back into a local lockdown so looking like it could be next spring before I can get to them if the proposed 6 months are enforced. That'll make it almost 2 years since I've seen friends and family. Finding this very hard to get my head round right now

I really hope it isn’t and with summer coming and people’s ability to be in their backyards And not stuck indoors, perhaps it won’t be as bad as they are predicting.

We we moved here the ability to “get home in 24hrs” was definitely a deciding factor for me and over the years it became so easy to just hop on a flight anytime. I think having that freedom and ability to go taken away from us and not being able to get into Oz easily is the thing that is making me so angry and unaccepting of it.

At least we can talk to them, email etc whenever we like. I find myself ringing home a lot more often at the moment. I was thinking yesterday about Those people who went to Oz by ship in the olden days and could only write letters - that would be way worse.

My lovely FIL put together a “Red Cross package” of lollies etc for my DS’s a few days before he died and posted it, they told him it would take 4-5 weeks to get here - gone are the days when it would only take a week, still it’s given them something to look forward to!

@MaitlandGirl can I ask what reasons, if any, they’ve given you for refusing your request to leave? It seems ridiculous if you’re not planning on returning.
After multiple endless discussions we are also looking at going back to the U.K. next year but there’s no point continuing to investigate that if they won’t let us out anyway.
We run a business in the U.K. so I’m hoping that would be persuasive as we used to travel back for that 3-4 times a year and haven’t been able to since my DH went in March (missing hotel quarantine by the skin of his teeth).

So sorry to hear about your FIL @Sandgroper, that’s just so sad for your family.

Thanks for your kind thoughts Ozgirl. We have been going through lots of photos of FIL and collating them for the funeral so at least we can make a small contribution and remembering all the good times we shared with him.

I hope you are feeling a bit better about things too.

The story unfolds and gets better and better - a bunch of Kiwis recently entered WA (supposed travel corridor with NZ - WA did not agree to this) without government exemption and it’s not clear if they are Oz citizens.... If not they took up valuable numbers of Oz citizens trying to return within the weekly capped number 525. How is that fair?

There is also a WA state election due in March and the touted opening up of the borders not until 1 April. So it’s become clear it’s political and not at all about health reasons.... Not at all bitter😉

On the up side the “Red Cross” package arrived last week and we have been enjoying the contents. Forgot just how good Tim Tams were.

@Ozgirl75 insufficient evidence to support our intention to leave permanently :(

We keep trying and other than swearing in blood and offering my first born I’m not sure what else we can do.

We’re just so tired of it all and want to leave. I want to be able to see my parents again - I’ve got a great nephew I’ve never met and I’d love to spend some time with him before he’s old enough to leave home (!)

This whole year has been horrendous and I want out.

@Sandgroper I’m so sorry about your FIL hugs

Thanks Ozgirl.

I can’t believe they won’t let you leave... I would have thought getting out would be much easier than us trying to get in...... It must surely be against your “human rights”. things in the UK have been badly handled, seems like Oz is just the same!

My DH has told me to stop watching newsclips on You tube, making me very agressive😂 apparently.... that and the fact that I should be on holiday in Japan right now!

Lucky you going to live in France, we try to go at least once a year. My second favourite place to be. We managed a long weekend in Montreuil-sur-Mer back in Jan (our last holiday) and a big shop to stock up, our supplies have almost run out! It’s so close yet so far and with 2 weeks quarantine when you come back to the UK will remain a distant memory for now anyway. 🥖

There was this article in the French newspaper Le Monde about the trivialisation of freedom restrictions and how never before, in peace time, had our rights been cut so easily.

The freedom of movements, coming and going whenever we want, they are referring to curfews, but for us stuck in Oz, it is also the freedom to see our loved ones that has been eliminated. How can a government say I can't visit my parents?
The freedom of meeting other people, putting limitation on who I can see and how many, and therefor the freedom of manifestation which is basically, freedom of expression.

I find all this very disturbing .Yes there is a medical emergency, but cutting our fundamental rights is maybe not the right response.

We take our rights for granted. They have been taken so easily from us.

@LeGrandBleu I am with Le Monde on this one. I find it extraordinary that there has been no discussion of the appropriate bar to set for curtailing civil liberties. We are now in a position were local government can just remove fundamental rights and freedoms at whim (like buying powdered baby milk, children's shoes and stationary). I am all in favour of shielding vulnerable people from infection and making sure health infrastructure can cope by expanding ITU services, but the method by which these measures have been introduced shows that the social contract needs reinforcing to prevent this from ever recurring.

DS moved to Sydney in August 2019, on the basis that we could all hop on a plane and see each other easily. He came home for 6 days at Christmas, but our trip in April was cancelled, his trip back in July was also cancelled - which didn't really matter so much as the wedding he was supposed to attend was cancelled too.

We were going to Sydney with DD for a month over Christmas, which of course, can't happen - although I was still so upset to get the email yesterday confirming that the BA flight had been cancelled. We are supposed to go to Sydney for a Wedding in April - I think that'll be a miracle too! Just feel so sorry for the groom's family - he is a uni friend of DS - as they may well not be able to get to his wedding.

I'm trying to be positive - we're lucky no-one has been ill. But I've just lost it as Harrods won't send a Christmas pudding to Aus, as it contains alcohol. And M & S will send nothing foodwise! DS will be fine - he has a good group of friends, a number who are in a similar position, but it's going to be an odd Christmas, and a pretty shitty start to 2021.

I wish I could worry about the very valid concerns on civil liberties, but I'm full of selfish emotions at the moment!

DS did say that he thought the reason exit visas are so hard to come by, is that no new skilled people are coming to Aus, so the authorities are trying to hold on to the people that are already there. Maybe?

@ajandjjmum very small compensation for all the lost flights and visits, but I believe the British corner shop will send a Christmas pudding to Aus.

Thank you SO much for that link InTheLongGrass - what a brilliant store! Now I know it's there, I can send him treats from time to time.