Immigration (part 3): In becoming Australian residents

Check out parts one and two if you haven't already!

My family and I are extremely blessed to be Australian residents. In case you don't know, there are a few different "levels", if you will, of being a resident of Australia. A lot of people come to Australia on a working holiday visa, where you can stay for a certain amount of time and work and travel. You can't work for more than 6 months for a single employer. We came on a 457 visa, where we could stay and work for a much longer time, basically living here. (The Australian government isn't giving out any more 457 visas anymore to protect Australian jobs.) 


I suppose it was a little... iffy, being on a 457. Our staying in the country entirely depended on Dad keeping his job, because work was sponsoring us and if we didn't have a sponsor we couldn't stay. It's not like Dad was bad at his job, in fact he was great at it, but his work depended on the mining industry which has since declined in our area. A mine closing three hours from where he worked could have been the end of our Australian adventure, but thankfully God had other plans.

After being on a 457 visa for three years, we could apply for residency. Being an Australian resident is awesome. As I see it, it's way harder for the government to deport us if we're residents. Our 457 had an expiry date, residency doesn't. We also got access to stuff like Medicare and could move wherever we wanted (with our 457 we had to stay in rural Queensland). 

The process of becoming a resident was a bit tricky. I'm quite thankful my parents were willing to do the hard work of sifting through the paperwork and paying the seemingly never-ending bills. After the paperwork (which I'll admit to helping only about 2% with, it was awesome on my part) we had to have our medicals. 

I personally am not a huge fan of having medicals done. I know I'm healthy, surely that would mean everyone else knows I'm healthy? Right? Right?!? But whatever, I suppose. I was willing to do quite a bit to get residency. 

We had to take a weekend and drive to a bigger town because they don't do the tests in our little town. (I was rather annoyed because I had a math exam coming up, so I brought my textbook and studied before bed. (Neeeerd!)) 

We went to a medical centre and waited for ages before seeing the doctor. He was super nice, and I quite liked him. We had to do urine tests, then the doctor had us all stand in a circle in his office and do different exercises, like squatting or twisting our hips different ways. He checked our lungs, and Mom, Dad and I had to have blood tests to test for Hep B. I was not a fan of the blood test. I tend to be a fainter (that's a story for another time) but THAT TIME I DIDN'T FAINT I'M SO PROUD OF MYSELF. 

After that, it was a simple task of waiting for the medicals to be approved and for the paperwork to come through. It was such a relief to have residency and to not have to worry about being deported, because even though it wasn't likely it was always in the back of my mind. I suppose residency gave me the freedom to stop worrying about Dad losing his job one day and us packing up our lives and leaving the next. 

The next step is getting our citizenship. Mom, Dad and I have already taken the citizenship exam (they gave us 45 minutes to do 20 questions, and I finished it in 4. Probably not the hardest exam in the world) (my younger sister had to do an interview, and my brother was too young to do anything) and now we just have to wait for the paperwork to come through. When we get citizenship, I can get a loan from the government for university, and I'll also be able to vote and get an Australian passport. Dudes, I cannot wait to get a second passport. I'll get dual citizenship, so I'll finally get a spy and have more than one passport. 

Becoming residents, and eventually citizens, will be pretty epic. I am and always will be thankful for this opportunity that has been granted to me through so many different people, from my family and parents, to my friends who've supported us through this transition and to the Australian and Canadian governments who've allowed us to change countries and continue with our education and lives. Not everyone has been given this chance, and I'm so blessed to be one of the lucky few. 

Well, that wraps up the immigration series for now. Do you have any questions for me? Leave them in the comments and I'll try to answer them in future posts. 

Comments

  1. Thanks for sharing what it was like for you to move! It sounds like the medicals would be awkward. :P Still, it *will* be cool when you have two passports! :D Good luck with obtaining that citizenship.

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  2. Dual citizenship is awesome! I have one from both Nigeria and Ireland now. I'm so blessed to be able to move anywhere in Europe and Africa. I hope you get to enjoy the benefits of yours soon!

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  3. That's awesome! Congrats on your dual citizenship!

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