Single mothers waiting in the queue or saving madly?

[Linda in London]

Here I am, still in London five years later after leaving Cape Town (silly me, thought I would only be here one year before sailing into Aus as a sponsored parent!!!), in "The Queue", in despair! No family in sight, only daughter in Aus, and my last trip there was two years ago as I had to stop travelling to start saving towards that golden contributory parent visa, which is going to wipe me out financially and then some!

I was eventually placed in the queue in May 2005 and have something like 10,570 other approved parents ahead of me. Our family (just my daughter and I - my brothers and sister are in SA still) has been pulled apart by the parent immigration laws and we find this enforced separation so hard to deal with. Funds permitting, I hope to get over on a contributory visa early 2008. My idea is to settle and work in Sydney, so that I can see my daughter once a month or so as she lives about four hours away by road.

Are there any other single parents in SA or UK who are in the same boat as me? If there are, please get in touch, it would be great to share the adventure with someone, even on-line!

Linda