Our Numinous journey …

[Husky]

Our Numinous journey …

 

I love words.

 

I love the meaning of words.

 

I love the impact of words.

 

Numinous (adj.) Origin: Latin

 

Describing an experience that makes you fearful yet fascinated, awed yet attracted- the powerful, personal feeling of being overwhelmed and inspired

 

One dad (an engineer), one mom (a possibilitarian), one daughter (17 and on youth exchange currently), one son (12 and already practicing an Aussie accent), three dogs (a Scottie, a Boston Terrier and a Golden Retriever – part of the family) and a numinous journey. This journal is a chronicle of our migration to Australia. It is there to remind us of every thought, feeling and decision along the way. It is there to acknowledge every person who helped or hindered our progress. It is there to show gratitude for the people who went before, those on this forum and others that have allowed us to move forward with our eyes wide open (thank you). It is there to hopefully inspire and inform others who are embarking on a similar journey (no journey is the same ….). It is also there to connect with like-minded people who are likely to become friends.

 

In the words of Anthony Robbins, “The only impossible journey is the one you never begin”. We have begun.

Two years ago, we had decided to move overseas for a couple of years to gain some global experience and have a bit of a family adventure. We got really close with 2 job potential offers, one in Singapore and one in Australia, and a commitment to making things happen (did I mention I am a possibilitarian?). At the last hurdle both offers fell through and I spent a day in bed feeling sorry for myself. We then attempted to start the Australian migration process by ourselves. Lack of knowledge and perhaps less of a commitment resulted in little progress. Then ……. my husband (the main applicant) turned 45 and we lost all age related points. Oh man. Learning – Use an agent.

 

At the beginning of this year we started talking about really making a go of it. We both love South Africa and have a good life, wonderful family and a close knit group of friends. We also have a daughter who will be going to varsity in two years and a son who wants to study one day. We feel it is our responsibility to open access to equal opportunity for them to go to good universities and get great jobs. Preaching to the converted I know, but trying to build our story for when we eventually tell everyone. Note – we have not told anyone of our plans yet …. Is that normal?

 

Journey timeline:

 

• Got all relevant unabridged birth and marriage certificates during 2014/15.
• Hubby wrote first IELTS test in January 2016 – missed superior points needed (got a 7.5 for writing and over 8 for everything else).
• I wrote TOEFL test in January 2016 – got points needed for spouse.
• Contracted Migrate2Oz start March 2016 – they seem very popular. Hope they have capacity for all of us.
• VetAssess submission for my qualifications and work experience on 29 March 2016 – no feedback as yet. Apparently they are running a month behind because of the number of submissions (big *sigh*).
• Engineers Australia submission for hubby (experience only as we had already received a positive qualification outcome in 2015) on 21 April – positive result received in 2 weeks (you gotta love Engineers, so efficient).
• Hubby wrote Pearsons PTE 3 times over a 4 week period – 3^rd attempt the charm on 7 June with 88 for Listening, 90 for Reading, 84 for Speaking and 90 for Writing (Yay!!!!). Learning – do not ask for a remark with PTE. He had over 80 for everything on his second attempt, except for Speaking (never mind he is British …..). Needed 79 and got 78. We asked (and paid ….) for a remark and got exactly the same results. The test is automated and marked by a computer so unlikely to change but we thought we would take the chance.

 

Next step: Positive Vetassess (sending out positive vibes to the universe for this to happen soon) and then our agent will submit the EOI for our 190 Visa (applying via Victoria and NSW).

 

Feeling excited and nervous and so pleased I wrote this all down. It is cathartic 

 

Edited June 8, 2016 by Husky
Bullet points

[Mara]

Big words, I am wary of them, as I am wary of tripping.

Strange journeys?  Now those I am familiar with.... 

I wish you the best for your journey and trust that it will be plain sailing and without any hiccups!

Edited June 8, 2016 by Mara

[JonathanR]

Hi and Welcome,

I love that word, Numinous... Decribes the feelings so perfectly :-)

I wish you the best going forward with the process.

[Guest]

All the best in your journey. And just to add there's nothing wrong with not telling anyone of your plans just yet, we did the same. We wanted to have all our ducks in a row first and the Visa to boot. Then everyone knew! You tell people in your own time as long as its not on facebook as you are boarding the plane lol ?

[DXB2OZ]

What an amazing word!!!!

[JackoFam]

Love that word - it sums up my feelings for this journey exactly!

[Husky]

“A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.” ― John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Feel like I have been punched in the stomach. Ouch. Vetassess have just come back with a negative skills assessment. Although my qualifications have been recognised, they say my experience is not highly relevant.  What???? I have been doing the exact job tasks of this occupation for 18 years. Talk about a humbling experience. I never even contemplated the possibility of a negative outcome. We only need the extra 5 points because of my husband’s age. Learning – apply now while you still get points for being younger than 45.

Luckily our agent is calm and collected. We will be asking for the detailed feedback report and then request a review. Of course this means more time and inevitably more money. Eish! Patience and trust in the system must prevail. Has anyone else had a positive result after a review or re-assessment with Vetassess?

Although a hesitant “migrant” at first, the more I read about Australia and think about all the possibilities that await my family, the more I want this. My compelling motivation to make this happen is BIG. Of course, learning that I do not control it all is hard to accept …. but not impossible. Patience and trust it will be. Choosing an optimistic, positive mindset – the alternative is not an option.

[Husky]

“Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that's the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing. Nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him if he gives too much.” 
― Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country

 

I love South Africa. Always will. It is my country and I wish with every fibre of my being that, in time, it will heal and be as great as it can. The decision to move is emotional, it is hard and it is ..... what we need to do, want to do, have to do.

Really hoping for some positive movement forward and encouragement.

So, last night I became a statistic. Had an attempted hijacking as I was leaving work. "Luckily" they only got my phone. Never mind that my entire life is on that device. I am fine. Shook up and very sad. I have always been one of the optimistic South Africans who believes in the inherent good of people. This has knocked me over hard. 

If I were more reactionary, I would just up and go to the UK. Of course, Brexit is now another blow with the impact on the Rand and even less tolerance of migrants world wide. Fear is a terrible thing. Courage is needed. Praying for our Australian dream to happen and for the patience and grit to see its course. 

There is always hope.

[Moose2014]

Hi @Husky,

 

Glad to hear you weren't hurt, and yes it's terrible that we need find consolation in the fact that you were 'lucky' to ONLY have your personal possession taken from you under the threat of violence. My friend's parents were the victims of a break-in for the second time in Pretoria recently and we were also discussing how 'lucky' they were that they ONLY took the TV this time and didn't tie them up and kill their dachshunds like previously. So so sad.

 

I'm currently living in Cambridge in the UK and counting down the days until I can get on that plane. Summer STILL has not made an appearance and this Durbs girl isn't coping well. The mood in the office today is very sombre, people are in shock re: BREXIT. Glad to have bought some Aussie dollars earlier this week, don't know how long it's going to be until we see a recovery.

 

Keep persevering, your dream will come true!

[Husky]

@Moose2014

Thank you for your kind words. We will persevere.

The world seems to be in turmoil, making Australia all the more appealing. 

Wishing you loads of sunshine in The Gold Coast.

[Dora]

@Husky, Love your post but so sorry that you had such a bad experience.

 

I was reading a piece on fear last night and it is true indeed, fear robs you of your faith. A person is only born with 2 instictive fears. The one is the fear to fall and the second is the fear of loud noises. In SA we all get a few addisional doses of fear.

 

I will also keep on hoping for a change in South Africa, and hope for a better future here. But at this moment we have a hope for a better future in Australia and I can not justify not taking it right now.

 

Hope will lead us on.

[Husky]

@Dora

Thank you for the kind words and insight.

Courage must prevail, along with a big dose of hope and faith.

Good luck and take care

[Husky]

So, submitted the Vetassess review after adding a ton of additional information. Agent is confident. Not sure how I feel, other than anxious. Eish!

They say it will take another 8 weeks ...... . A lot of patience and grit required. 

[Husky]

Oh my. This waiting is hard. Still at least 3 weeks before we get feedback from Vetassess and then no guarantee it will be positive. Feel like we are living in complete limbo. Making plans for next year seems futile. Family and friends planning holidays that we can't commit to. Being asked to get involved in organisations and not being able to say yes, sure, I'm all in. Nobody knows of our plans. Feeling rather blue ....... 

My husband is more worried about how I will handle it if we don't get our visas than he is about the visas. Sad, but true. 

What will we do if this doesn't work. I am a firm believer in options ...... U.K? New Zealand? Cape Town? No. We want to be in Australia. It makes the most sense.

Rambling on ..... Sorry. How does one stay sane through this process? 

[Dora]

Keep the faith Husky.  Keep your eyes on the goal post and let Hope lead you on.  I know that living in limbo feeling, but focus on your bucket list of things to still do here in SA. Tick the small things of i.e. go walk that trail that you still wanted to, get fit for that race or whatever. That seemed to help for us.

 

Strongs for the wait. 

[Deezo]

Such an inspirational story @Husky  yet a sad one as well because we also feel a similar pain... (not the same but similar)  

 

I don't want to hijack your post but merely share our experiences thus far (hope you don't mind ) oh and i'm not as talented with words or writing as you are, so please excuse me  

 

The fear of the unknown haunts us because we don't know what do to should our application be refused!

Where else could we go and how much more will it cost us to "enjoy" our lives??

When will this emotional roller coaster end??

 

We started our journey so confident and so full of hope because we saw the financial aspect as our biggest hurdle but managed to overcome that and continued to pray (apologies if you are not faithful) and things somewhat fell into place as we had funds to immigrate but we also wanted to make a personal and emotional commitment to ourselves that this was a journey WE would undertake and that it wasn't a one-sided affair. So we got married and had a beautiful wedding with all the friends and family that we would hold dear and those memories would travel with us on our journey ahead...

 

I am 30 and my wife is 29, so we are young (ish), ambitious and driven so maybe we are somewhat fortunate (maybe??), we don't have children, animals or any real long-term commitments (besides a bond) so our journey should be easy... our shouldn't it?

 

1) I was fortunate enough to spend 5 weeks travelling around NSW from Sydney through to Brisbane and Queensland camping and enjoying the open road and freedom of travel but when it was all over i realised it never crossed my mind once that i wanted to immigrate. Neither did it when all my friends left South Africa on a 2 year work visa in the UK back in 2004/5. Even after my wife was involved in an attempted hijacking and got her car badly damaged and SHOT at!! Yes SHOT! For some reason we remained positive that life would get better and things would work itself out in our beautiful country. It was only once we were planning to travel to Thailand in 2015 that we decided that we wanted to enjoy life more that what we had, travel and afford our children family holidays etc. and that's when we got in contact with an agent through an online forum on Facebook. During this time we had to apply for a new passport for my wife and at the same time applied for our Unabridged Birth Certificates. My wife got hers on our return from Thailand and mine was "lost" in the wonderful Dept. of Home Affairs somewhere...(mine took 11 months to get but i am just grateful i have this now!!) 

 

2) Next we signed our contract and paid our deposit after changing from the 1st agent as she just didn't bother to reply to our emails or questions. Agent 2 was very helpful and we had a Skype call (no video) and had many of our questions answered (so we thought). Fast forward to IELTS as my wife is an Early Childhood Teacher and is required to obtain "superior English" we had no idea what this was but we were told for the Skills Assessment to be successful we needed to score 7 for Reading & Writing and 8 for Speaking & Listening. We got higher but only 7.5 for Writing which we never knew would be a problem later on our road to Australia.

 

3)  Skills Assessment was busy getting prepped and we read that as a teacher we would require my wife's Academic Transcript and her Practical Letter (confirming where she had done her practical teaching while doing her degree etc) Easy!! We called up UNISA (prepare yourself to be pushed around from pillar to post) until we eventually called and emailed a number of departments until we found a beautiful soul who made it her life's mission to help us out. Practical Letter done and dusted (1 month later) and then the real challenge began as we tried to obtain the Academic Transcript as this was needed from a different division or section of UNISA. UNISA student went on strike and we struggled for 3 months to try and obtain the Academic Transcript by calling and emailing various people and department (even the Ombudsman for UNISA is yet to reply since January 2016) however we eventually got 5 copies via courier and/or local post over the next few months... humorous!! I think i just had to laugh at this stage...   Skills Assessment sent off and we waited exactly 10 weeks as per their terms however we were fortunate nothing had gone wrong here (thank you Lord!) - PS. Sorry about yours and i am going to pray that it all works out for you!!!

 

4) Time to submit the EOI only to find out that the English scores we were told to obtain (via our agent) were not superior or adequate enough because of one section!! 7.5 for writing as opposed to 8 on all 4 so we didn't qualify for the 189 PR Visa and were told to apply again but not Academic this time (as that was for Skills Assessment only) and rather try General. This time the IELTS went up from R2,400 to R3,200 from October 2015 to June 2016 (absolutely shocking!!!) Never mind we just carried on with the agents suggestion and did the test again. My wife got exactly the same score for the General as the did for the Academic so now we were absolutely fuming and didn't know where to go!! We had spoken about the possibility of the 190 PR Visa but our agent advised us that we would have to live in "regional/rural" Australia and outside major cities (which we didn't want as my wife is a teacher and should be fine with job prospects but i am in finance and need to be closer to the city) - This is when i started to question the experience and true interest of our agent and began doing my own online research!

 

5) After doing homework i found that the 190 State Sponsorship Visa is a Permanent Residency visa like the 189 however the ONLY difference is you are required to commit to the state that sponsored you for 2 years and complete occasional surveys. So where does it stipulate we need to reside in "regional/rural" Australia?? Anyways this is when i fired my agent and paid the balance of AUD$204 for the submission of the EOI (which we never agreed to or advised on doing until the 2nd IELTS results came back) Upon further investigation of the EOI the agent had submitted, i noticed Victoria had been selected as the preferred state and we never ONCE mentioned Victoria or agreed to this as we always wanted to live in Sydney - NSW. Even more reason to fire our agent but not after trying to determine why we should pay AUS$204 for something we never knew was done or something we never agreed to going ahead with, but that was again a losing battle with our agent as there was a reason or an excuse behind why or why not!

 

6) Cut a long story shorter i applied for my own EOI at the same time as my agent and got the 190 State Invite from NSW on the 29th July 2016 and by now we had requested our original documents from our agent and were moving ahead on our own. Things were happening and the optimism and colour in our lives started to come back... until i read online that "mental illness" is a cause for Visa refusal!!!  Hopes and dreams shattered as my wife was diagnosed 1 year ago with a mood disorder (labelled as bipolar) and now we are stuck on what to do going forward... A condition formed from her depression from not seeking psychological help after her hijacking ordeal and the ongoing violence and anxiety South Africa forces you to succumb! Surely this is not how life is meant to be??

 

All efforts to try and gain information seem to suggest we need to seek professional advice from an agent regarding the next step while we await the state sponsorship approval and Visa invite, yet all my being says why?? Why pay more money and still possibly end up with zero progress and/or hope?

 

It's a very hard decision to make while we are awaiting another meeting with the psychiatrist as my wife is no longer on medication and hasn't been for the past 6 months, yet we know medicals will require us to disclose the condition as its part of the questions asked... yet some believe we shouldn't even mention it and this again goes back to my faith in agents as we were never questioned or asked about this. We were never kept updated on the steps or what would be next and yet we pay for them to be the professionals in doing that?? Aren't we?? 12 months later and we are looking at a possible dead-end when all of this money, hope, relationship-stress and money could have been avoided by doing a thorough upfront analysis!

 

We were lead to believe that all would be fine and that we should quickly sign the contract and pay the deposit before anymore information could be divulged!! Ethical?? Maybe because these agents have a legal degree and have studied but you are playing with people's lives and emotions here! Never mind the financial burden in an already struggling country where you count every penny! 

 

All of the above along with not telling our closest friends and family have really placed such strain on our marriage and my wife feels that EVERYTHING is riding on her which crushes ones soul! As much as i can i comfort and support but i would trade places with her any-day and take the pain and anger so my already-damaged wife could have some remaining dignity...

 

#shouldwegiveup??

Edited August 5, 2016 by Deezo

[TracyClare]

Although our story and journey are very different I found myself in a similar place a couple of months ago when we realized that we might not get through the medicals as my son as ADHA and Dyslexia and other things and they take this into considerations as well. We went to see doctors and the migration agents. In the end we decided we have to go through with the process and get the no or the yes, than never knowing either way... we are still early in the process and dont have the money to gamble but its worth the gamble if we get a yes and if its no well that is a different path that we deal with then... 

 

I hope this helps...

 

Tracy 

[Husky]

@Dora Thank you for the encouragement. It is what keeps me going.

@Deezo Have sent you a pm. Thank you for sharing. Hoping you find some answers to your current situation.

@TracyClare You are so right. This is all a bit of a gamble and the stakes are high.

 

I choose to stay optimistic. The alternative is not an option. 

[DXB2OZ]

TracyClare, a lot depends on the abilities of the child - our son has Aspergers (although at the time of the application it was called Social Integration Disorder) and aside from having to go back for additional questions on the medical, our application proceeded smoothly.

 

We used Stephen Dickson (SD_MOA on this forum) to help with our application.

 

Best of luck.

[Deezo]

On 8/5/2016 at 11:31 PM, Husky said:

@Dora Thank you for the encouragement. It is what keeps me going.

@Deezo Have sent you a pm. Thank you for sharing. Hoping you find some answers to your current situation.

@TracyClare You are so right. This is all a bit of a gamble and the stakes are high.

 

I choose to stay optimistic. The alternative is not an option. 

Thank you kindly @Husky  

 

I will reply to your personal message  

[RedPanda]

@Deezo try speaking to @TeeTMI or @SD_MOA, they are agents on this forum and we regularly see people happy after making use of their service. (I'm sure we would know if someone was unhappy, thus far we have nonsuch)

Also, if your previous agents have been registered then I really think you find out if you can complain about unprofessional behaviour, save some future guy from going through the same thing.

Best luck!

 

[Deezo]

Thank you @RedPanda but i was put in touch with Reuven from Migrate2Oz and he was very helpful  

 

We have what we need for now to move forward and i think once we have Visa in hand then we could explore the options available for a complaint against the agent we used but i really am just happy to have cancelled with them and for this forum  

 

Some would say its "school fees" and trust me when i say i have learnt!

[RedPanda]

Reuven also regularly gets rave reviews!  Well done in that case.

[Husky]

So today marks 8 weeks since we submitted the review of my skills assessment with Vetassess ...... and no feedback yet. The waiting is excrutiating. In an effort to work on my patience, came across this lovely quotation. Will endeavour to work, hope, exercise faith and endure well.  

 

Edited August 23, 2016 by Husky

[Husky]

The joy of the end of the wait is sublime!

After 5 months, I eventually received a positive assessment from Vetassess for my experience. Initially received a negative assessment because they said my experience was not highly relevant, then submitted a request for a review with additional information and details. Ensured we matched the occupation code job tasks as closely as possible.

So for those of you who want to know whether it is possible to get a positive assessment after an initial negative one …… it is! Yay, whoop whoop, woohoo, yippee and any other shout of joy you can think of.

Our agent is submitting our EOI and Victoria state sponsorship application this week and then I guess the next wait starts. But for now, I am revelling in the end of this one.

One step at a time. It is so important to celebrate every little win. Champagne all around!