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Two years ago Dawn & I went to Croydon to apply for her UK Spouse Visa.  A 2-year temporary residency visa was issued which allowed her to live and work in the UK.  Today we went back to the Home Office in Croydon for Dawn to apply for her permanent residency.  Unfortunately we were turned away at the initial validation stage this morning at Croydon.

Part of the application included us providing at least 20 letters or other documents as evidence that Dawn & I are still living together as a couple and have done so during the past two years.  We included about 23 pieces of evidence of this kind, yet the person at the validating stage said we needed more for 2005 (from July onwards, as her previous visa is dated 28 June).  2006 & 2007 were fine, but we needed some more for 2005.  So it seems that Dawn is unable to obtain permanent residency at this stage because of a lack of documents from 2 years ago!  Even though the last 18 months is fine and clearly indicates that we are still living together as a couple!

At this stage the only choices are apply for a further temporary residency period or go to Australia.  We’ve decided that the 2nd option is the best thing to do - it’s lucky I got my Australian Spouse Visa in 2005!  Dawn’s visa expires on 28 June, and so she cannot work in the UK after that day.  This is even more annoying, as the evidence for her citizenship application, which would have followed that for permanent residency, was fine - there was less to include in that.

We’re not sure exactly what we’re doing as we only got turned away this morning, but it seems we can’t be in the UK for much longer at all.  It seems a fortunate thing that we planned to move closer to Dawn’s work and had put in our notice on this flat - we need to be out by 25 June!

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We had a little adventure today. After about 6 weeks of frantic study of the 5 chapters from the ‘Life in the UK’ book it was time to finally do the test.

Last night we stayed at a nice little hotel near the test centre at High Wycombe, and had a fabulous buffet breakfast for an extra £5 each. Very impressed with the quality of the hotel - so not the usual budget accom. But I digress.

This morning I nervously went into the test centre only to be told my name wasn’t on the list. But after some frantic praying (on my behalf) the man managed to find a free place for me and put me in (whew!). So I went through the practice questions and got 4 out of 4. Time for the real thing.

24 questions and 45 minutes to complete. I think I took about 7 minutes to do the test and recheck my answers. Well the upshot is that after all this I have passed! First hurdle over.

Now we just have to get the rest of our paperwork in order and head on over to the Home Office in Croydon in a week and ask very nicely for them to grant me permanent residency. Stay tuned…

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It’s been a long time since we’ve added anything to our website, so many things have happened in the last year! So, before we start blogging again I’d better give a brief update of the last year

• We went to our friends wedding in Norfolk and had a good, albeit long, day - it takes a long time to drive around Norfolk as there aren’t many main roads!
• A dental technician job in Berkshire became available, and Dawn interviewed for this - and got the job. So at the end of August we moved back to the Reading area!
• A few weeks after we moved back, I began an office job in Reading with unusual hours (6.30am-1.30pm). Very recently I found out that a colleague of mine there was also a guest at the wedding in Norfolk we went to - bizarre!
• We had Christmas together, and were at my parents for Boxing Day. Fortunately the winter was not that bad this year as we discovered that the electricity needed to run this flat is hideously expensive - especially as it has a water pump due to low water pressure, and electric storage heating
• After 5½ months of the very early starts (I’m not a morning person!) I decided to move on, and got a temp job for a while
• For our 2nd anniversary, we went to Brussels for the weekend! We travelled with Eurostar via the channel tunnel, and had a great long weekend.
• Dawn had her gallbladder removed recently (you may remember her mentioning it before)
• We’ve given notice on our flat, and need to move out by 25 June!
• We’re also currently working on Dawn’s visa applications - for permanent residency, followed by naturalisation (citizenship). She needs to do a “Life in the UK” test before applying for the permanent residency, and this is being taken in 2 weeks time.

We’re currently not sure of what the near future holds for us, but we both feel that it’s time to move again We have a few ideas spinning around, and will have to very soon make up our minds - possible mission opportunities, maybe just a move closer to Dawn’s work, maybe something else - we’re just not 100% sure right now. Some people don’t like plans changing all the time, but really it just makes things funner

Oh, and of course the final thing to say is - welcome to our new website!! Yes, I’ve finally got round to making some slight changes to the over-all design, and altering how we publish photos. Currently the website contains pretty much the same as before, but we may add new sections as we go along. Also, our news blog has an Atom 1.0 feed so people who want to keep up with our whereabouts etc can subscribe via their browser or feed program.

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Very early on Tuesday morning we arrived back from Australia, with quite a bump when landing at Heathrow! I had to make this trip by the end of June in order to validate my Spouse Visa - so I am now officially a resident of Australia! Because of how Australian immigration currently works, I’m able to continue living in the UK for the next year or two, at which point a decision is made whether or not I get permanent residency - and during this time Dawn should also be able to get UK permanent residency in June 2007.

We had a good holiday, being tourists in both Sydney and Melbourne as well as making a trip to Brisbane. We rented a car in Melbourne, and I even managed a “hook turn” there - a bizarre manoeuvre required at road junctions in central Melbourne when going across tram tracks where you turn right from the left lane. It feels very odd doing it, but fortunately I had someone in front of me who I just followed.

In Sydney we got to Taronga Zoo, Watsons Bay (with the famous, and expensive, Doyles Fish & Chips!), and also spent some time in both the city/Darling Harbour and Glebe (an area I stayed in quite a lot during a working holiday in 1999/2000). During our time in Melbourne we celebrated our 1st anniversary by going to a Japanese restaurant in the Crown Casino complex - we had window seats overlooking the River Yarra and city! We also saw Captain Cook’s cottage, imported from Yorkshire, met up with a guy I first met in Glebe in 99 (he is also from the UK and was on a working holiday back then) who now lives in Melbourne, as well as visiting various suburbs in case we ever decide to live in Australia and in particular Melbourne.

Finally the jetlag is beginning to go away, and in just a couple of weeks Dawn’s sister Julie will be visiting us! She’s on holiday visiting a few other European countries. Then soon after that someone from our DTS is getting married in Norfolk which we’ll be going to - and another person from our DTS recently announced their engagement. They’re dropping like flies, with just the 3 Canadians from our DTS remaining single!

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