The joy of dealing with immigration

We've recently started the permanent residency process via the employer sponsorship route.

Couldn't believe that while I lived, studied and worked in the UK for 12 years and a year in Australia, I had to take an IELTS test to demonstrate a basic operational level of English. I'm surprise they didn't ask Rob to do one too.

Seating a hall with a little thousand more people for over 4 hours (without a wee break), I ended up getting that old school bum on my finger, having to hold a pen for longer than I have the past ten years.

Gathering original documents from France and England was a bit of a mission, but not as difficult as explaining to the MET for my national police check, that I have 3 valid family names (birth, maiden, married).

Next step is getting our medical exams (again!).

All in all, I'm glad to have worked for LIA (migration firm) for few months, as I now really appreciate the knowledge I've gained in visa requirements.

Another year on

It's been almost a year since the last post, but I've finally pulled my act together to share all the great excitements with you again.

What happened the past 12 months? Well, we've moved to a new place on the 24th December last year to celebrate Xmas on the floor of our large modern townhouse on Brighton Street. After a necessary trip to Ikea, we even got a cat. A little black female named Kylie who has since grown a lot, taken over the house, the bed and our hearts.

Rob kept on training for a little while but has spent more time watching the world cup over night recently. I admit I did too sometimes.

I left LIA and joined IE Agency (www.ie.com.au) 7 months ago, finally going back to my beloved HR car

eer, and I'm loving it!

We went to New Zealand in November, Sydney for few days in March, Lake Entrance in April and many times to our new beautiful rectangular stadium to support the Melbourne Storm.

Keeping ourselves active during the cold winter - had to buy a red coat this year, Rob will soon start a web design course and I have myself completed the level 1 certificate in Auslan.

I guess that's not too bad for a 12 months brief. Plenty more news and thoughts will come soon.