Permanent visa application

With just over a year to go on our temporary visa, we are posting off our application for a permanent visa today, with a big file of paperwork heading off to Adelaide.

After getting the confirmation on sponsorship from the NSW Government, I have had to compile a lot more forms and information about us and the business, as well as get the accounts redone for a different 12-month period - since the length of time to get the sponsorship meant that the accounts period fell outside the required time period for the main application. We also had to get a lot of paperwork certified, but there is a good free service at the library each Saturday where JPs will do this for you (and it took a few visits to get all the items done).

There are little things that arise during the process that I hadn't considered in advance, such as the accounts period being different and the time it takes to get police checks done, both in Australia and the UK. We have been waiting for the latter ones for the past 2 weeks to get everything finalised and so we should have sent off our requests for these sooner with some better planning! It's also been a tight process to get everything in before Caroline turns 18 in two weeks' time, as that would mean a further batch of forms to be completed, but it's possible we may still need to do this is the application isn't reviewed until after this time.

Hopefully the application won't get lost in the post so that we have to do it all again! Not sure how long it's going to take now and we're hoping we don't all have to get medicals and X-rays done again, especially as Laura will be in Wollongong soon. It's now just a case of wait and see, and eventually we will have some certainty, one way or the other!