Things generally happen for a reason.
If we’d been dealt different cards, we wouldn’t be sitting here in our Northern Beaches home today. If events had gone to plan, we wouldn’t in fact be living in Australia anymore. If the immigration officer dealing with our case on that day in that place had acted differently, we’d be calling another country “home”.
We’d currently be living back in Canada.
Photo credit: Aristocrats-hat (Flickr Creative Commons) |
Making a major decision
Shortly after the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and four years after moving to Australia, we made a monumental decision to leave the land down under for the great white north.
We’d left Canada in a rush four years earlier. Desperate to escape the harsh Ottawan winters, we made our life in Australia and it was going okay, but it wasn’t great. We liked the lifestyle but we didn’t yet love it.
Watching the Olympics unfold in Vancouver that year released emotions and let forth memories locked away since 2006. We’d moved to Western Canada for very specific reasons – lifestyle, attitudes, outdoors activities, health, fitness, you name it – and Australia wasn’t delivering those same motivators to us in quite the same ways (Read: Vancouver, the Best Place on Earth).
We still had our Canadian permanent resident visas and we knew we could return whenever we wanted to. We pined for the great Canadian outdoors and so, on a typical weekday evening, we made the decision to leave Australia…
…to move back to Vancouver.
Fate intervenes
I’ve generally been lucky in life.
Whenever I’ve wanted something, I work hard to make it happen and it usually does. I push and persuade until eventually I get the outcome I’m after. But this time, it wasn’t to be.
Using the services of an immigration lawyer, we learned that our visas had expired. It was a rookie error and we should have had the foresight to see this could happen after we left Canada. The visas required us to remain in Canada for three years out of every five and we’d already been gone for four years.
So the visas had expired and that door to re-entry closed on us as quickly as it had opened.
Looking back, I’m not sure whether we were crazy or simply determined but we decided to go through the entire permanent resident visa process again – this time from Australia.
For the next two months, we compiled our application, took English language tests, ordered police checks and pulled an inordinate amount of paperwork from our files. We hadn’t followed this process without expert help before but we were confident we could do this alone. We sent off the paperwork and we waited.
Six months later and the application arrived back on our doorstep. We’d missed the quota for skilled worker visas by a matter of weeks and we were ineligible for the current year’s program.
It was a major setback to our plans but we weren’t to be put off.
A learning experience
With the benefit of hindsight, we should have quit while we were ahead. Or we should have hired an immigration consultant or lawyer, or used a visa service, at this point in the game. This was the way we played it before and we had a successful outcome. This time, we needed someone who could advise us on how best to proceed or, at the very least, take the application off our hands.
Instead, we pushed on and again we submitted our visa application the following year. And again we were unsuccessful. The Canadian Government suddenly decided to temporarily halt the skilled worker program.
It was the end of the road for us – we weren’t prepared to go through the process a third time and our language assessments and police checks were now expiring.
With that, we reluctantly let Canada go.
We should have hired an expert. We should never have let our visas expire. We could have been quicker in getting our application in. We’d have stood more chance of success if we had jobs lined up.
Could’ve. Should’ve. Would’ve.
In the few years since the visa debacle, the outlook has changed for us in Australia. We now have our son, Elliot, and we’re more settled and content, at peace with where we are. Whether we were going through a “phase” or just wanted to return to the place where it all began, perhaps we’ll never know. I’ve said before that Canada is an itch I’ll forever need to scratch. Maybe not today or tomorrow but, as for the future, who knows (Read: Canada, eh?).
We try to be masters of our own destiny but sometimes the universe has other plans for us. We weren’t supposed to go back to Canada. Not yet.
And if somebody offered me the chance to move back there today, would I? Well, the answer will probably always be the same.
Because things always happen for a reason.
Are there things you could have done differently when moving abroad? What lessons learned would you share with others thinking about relocating overseas? Has fate intervened with your life plans?
Share your insights and experiences in the comments below.
Chris Wright says
Keen observation Russell. I have a similar itch with Sydney – my sister lives there and always tries to persuade us to come live there to have a families close.
We´ve been in Madrid for 8 years and just as the economic crisis was about to get the better of us in 2012, our luck changed massively in 2013. As you say “things happen for a reason”, however i´m firm believer in ´never close the door or never say never – life has too many twists. As long as its a healthy itch and not an obsessive itch!
wren says
Hi Russell, Another great thought provoking blog. I have always said get the best immigration lawyer and the best removal company you can afford… to ensure you arrive/leave with all your precious possessions including most importantly your options!
Never let any passports expire and think about where you want to retire…. This will seem such a long way off and goes against the grain of sailing off into the sunset, but without your options you are stuffed…
Be prepared to take a temporary hit for long term gain. We split the family up, with myself and the three kids returning to Australia before our permanent visa expired, it took my husband two years, amidst the global financial crisis, to sort out work to enable him to follow…
Factor in schooling, your wee lad is a long way off this but trust me those years go past mighty fast!! You need stability of education in those final years and then if you’ve raised global kids they won’t want to go to Uni down the road…One big shock for us was that as Expat Brits our kids were no longer eligible to attend British Universities.
Last bit of advice is to embrace and enjoy plan B it is often better than plan A – our kids have subsequently attended UK and US Universities on exchange from Aussie Universities and we get to visit – win, win!
Wren
Laura Fortey says
I feel like every time I read a post, you are describing my life! When my hubby and I lived in Vancouver (after leaving Aus) we were confused about the visa process and in the end had to do it 3 times to get it right by ourselves and it took almost 3 full years for him to get it!! Now that we have it, he’s been working in Canada but there is such a major Aussie itch that will not leave either of us. I sometimes wonder if the way we remember a place is skewed. Is is really the place that we love or do we love who we allow ourselves to be in said place? I know for me, I struggle with the Canadian (Ontario) way of life and I felt I could be more myself in Aus. Is this perception true or do I allow it to be true and then make it happen…?
Another great post Russ!!
Russell V J Ward says
I can certainly understand why, Chris. It’s a fabulous place to live (as long as you have a bit of money saved up – not the cheapest city!). I also use the “never say never” motto in my life – I could have the greatest deal but if another opportunity comes knocking… well, I might be tempted 😉 Pleased to hear your luck changed for the better by the way!
Russell V J Ward says
I believe you probably feel you can be yourself to a greater degree ‘away’ from home than living there in it. Maybe there’s something about the travel or the experience of being amongst strangers in a foreign land – it gives you a freedom to explore and to be comfortable within your own skin. That’s been my experience anyway. Perhaps some places also fit better than others – maybe there’s something about the Aussie way of life that sits well with you and gels with who you are and what you’re into? That’s how I view Vancouver, for example.
I also believe there’s got to be a reason for that “itch”. You need to try it out to see if your questions will be answered as you imagine or you may find yourself pleasantly surprised. It seems to me that you have to find out one way or the other 😉
Russell V J Ward says
Thanks Wren. Much appreciated! And great advice there – thanks for sharing as I’m sure others will find it useful.
Definitely a decent outcome for you all then after two years of what must be the longest distance relationship ever! The kids got to attend universities in three countries, you get to visit, plus you call Australia home (and no doubt return to the UK now and again). Winning for sure!
I think schooling is an important one to remember. It feels a long way off but I’m sure it will creep up on us soon. Thanks for the timely reminder.
accidentally seasoned hobo says
Funny, it seemed like you were telling my story, I kept checking the page wondering if infact, it was I who had written this blogpost. I had the same issue with Canada. I had both an admission in a program and my application in process. My did not particularly have any specific love of Canada, until I spent a month in Vancouver –f but finances etc. made me choose scandinavia. –for a year or two—or so I thought at the time. I have been in Sweden over three years, and am amazed at how much I love it. There is a wisdom to this part of the world that I had missed in other ‘western’ countries.
I strongly believe that it is the spirit of the people I know here that drew me to them. That I needed to meet them. Without these meetings something would be amisss in my life….
So yes, things do happen for a reason. Canada and the US are still there. But as I start to love the stark winters, I will confess that I never thought I would stay in Scandinavia this long, let alone await its harsh winters.
accidentally seasoned hobo says
Thought this poem may be of interest at this juncture…may be we are chasing ‘hope’
by Gerald LocklinFriday, 22 June 2001
Poem: “where we are (for edward field),” by Gerald Locklin.
where we are
i envy those
who live in two places:
new york, say, and london;
wales and spain;
l.a. and paris;
hawaii and switzerland.
there is always the anticipation
of the change, the chance that what is wrong
is the result of where you are. i have
always loved both the freshness of
arriving and the relief of leaving. with
two homes every move would be a homecoming.
i am not even considering the weather, hot
or cold, dry or wet: i am talking about hope.
Russell V J Ward says
Thanks for sharing this. I love this poem. Excellent.
Russell V J Ward says
Thanks for sharing your story and the blog post. Always interests me to see where and how people end up in their own small corners of the planet. Seems that Canada isn’t the easiest place to move to and it reminds me how I was foolish to jump ship as quickly as I did!
Russell V J Ward says
Anytime!