By A sensational feeling went through my body as I checked my email this morning. APPROVAL was the very first word I saw. Finally our Australian visa has been approved!
Very soon I will start my new job as Director of Insights at a media agency in Sydney. Finally! We are headed Down Under as soon as flights can take us there, and I cannot even begin to describe how excited I am!
What an amazing (and at times crazy) journey coming this far has been! From our visit to Sydney last September to deciding in November that we would try to move there if we could find jobs. From sending a job application in February that gave me the job in March. From leaving Denmark in May and finally going to Sydney in August. And from the ups and downs of the rather bumpy visa-road to our dream finally coming true.
The time before I got the job was filled with a feeling of endless opportunities. It seemed the world was at our feet when looking for jobs on the other side of the world.
Then excitement and anticipation gained power as I moved from one interview round to the next. Almost two months and five interviews later – often in the middle of the night – I received a phone call at 2 am with a job offer. We got so excited that we stayed up for 3 hours talking about our new future.
After I got the job things moved fast and one month later we left Denmark. All of our belongings are now stored and we have left for new adventures – which were supposed to be kicked off with a few weeks of traveling.
Soon, however, we found out that the visa process would be a bit more complicated than anticipated. When we left Denmark we thought the visa application was sent in and all was good. But we found out that we needed to provide documentation for no criminal records from all countries we have stayed in more than 12 months in the last 10 years. Piece of cake, right? Well, not if you have lived in China almost 10 years ago like Søren did. The document was almost impossible to obtain. And for some time we didn’t know if it was even possible. But after hours on Skype calling Chinese authorities and visa companies, and after spending too much money on trying to get this document we finally got it! A big thanks to my parents who went through our boxes and found all the documents we needed (and pretty lucky that Søren kept 10 year old school documents and passports!).
And just when we thought that now the visa would be approved, I got an email last week asking us for medical check ups and x rays. Somehow, don’t ask me how, we managed to get the medical examinations and x-rays done on the very same day as I got the email. Thanks to sweet-talking, and not least the extremely friendly staff in the hospital!
So instead of about 4 weeks of traveling we ended up traveling for 13 weeks. For us that is not really a bad thing – only for our finances 🙂 But we decided to leave Denmark fast to get out and enjoy the world before settling in Australia, and that goal was certainly obtained!
I have never in my life felt as free as I have during this time. We have been traveling with an indefinite timeframe. With no home. With only the belongings we can carry.
It has given me the most amazing feeling of having the world at my feet and the ones I love the most right beside me for all the time in the world. Nothing will ever beat this feeling!
In the last few weeks the feeling of being free has gradually been overtaken by a feeling of excitement. Excitement for the new job I will soon take on. And excitement for the new life we, as a family, are about to start.
So here we are a bit more than 5 weeks after the application was sent in, and finally we are allowed to live and work in Australia! I’m looking forward to update you on our life in Sydney as I start working, and we start looking for a place to live, a place for the kids to go to daycare, and a job for Søren.
Stay tuned!
GoCargus 