Is now the right time to Immigrate?

[SurferMan]

Hahaa Neels,

I'm a dab wannabe chef. Lol. When I break 400k a year I'll give you a call. Lol. Vantonderfamily, I am SO with you, shot for your post.

[SuzanneT]

Hi guys

This is a very open question, but let me put forward my little situation.

I am a CA and a partner in a Firm. Currenlty we do very well financially. Half the time I dont even know what things cost, I just pay. My wife doesnt work and we have 2 young kids. One 2 years old and the other 5 months old.

My working hours are very relaxed and I come and go as I please. From January - July I work from about 8:30 - 16:00 and from August - December 8:30 - 14:00 or sometimes 15:00.

We go on leave whenever we want and go overseas once a year in September.

We live in a 4 bedroom house in a security estate and drive nice vehicles.

We have sumitted and paid for our visas and await the issue of our PR visa if all goes well. We will probably do a LSD visit next year.

My question is this: Do I walk away from life here and if so when is the best time?

I have been following the forum religiously every day and it scares the crap out of me to know that I will probably battle to find work and probably work long hours to feed the family and pay rent.

Many answering this will probably already be settled in Aus so its a bit easier to say jump on the plane.

It is not necessary to remind me about crime, corruption, polotics etc. as I live that every day.

Have any of you walked away from similar situations and preferred the perceived slog in Aus?

Hi Theunis,

Just read through all the posts and it's amazing to read all the different experiences. I guess I can only comment from my experience.

We're a bit younger than you and that probably made immigration easier for us as we were not yet that established in SA when we left. I do have friends who've immigrated at your age. And yes, they did have to give up a lot and it did put them back a few years - it does for most of us, just a question of how much. But it's mostly temporary - after a few years I've seen that most Saffas pick up where they've left off and do really really well. If you've done it before you can do it again. Keep in mind that you are an immigrant and that you will be in an unfamiliar market and that you'll have to work really hard to get to know it and to establish yourself again. And that is exactly why I would say (in my opinion) you have to come as soon as possible! The sooner you start over, bite the bullet and get going again, the more time you have to earn dollars and get your career going again on this side.

I'm not going to sugar-coat it, it will be the most difficult experience of your life. But you'll be rewarded in ways you can't even comprehend right now. We've been here 6 years, and it was very hard in the beginning - we all have our stories. It took starting over in many ways - careers, friends, no support. But we do better in Aus now (careers and moneywise), than we would have in SA. We are very happy and content with our lives here and you know what, reading what you've described in your post - I wouldn't take it, if given the choice.

In Aus we have a real present and a real future. I'd be happy to do it all over again!

[Orphan]

Hi Theunis,

Perhaps it will help for you to consider this decision from a different perspective, namely what if you don't emigrate now when you have the chance?

We had the opportunity to emigrate to Australia back in 1983, when I was in my early-thirties with two young children. But due to my appointment as a director of a major JSE-listed company, and the promise of financial security, success, and the "good life" I chose the easy route by staying on in South Africa, rather than taking on the challenge of starting again from scratch.

It is a decision I sincerely regret; for here we are now, 21 years later desperately hoping to qualify for a contributory parent visa, and being prepared to pay well over one million rand for the privilege.

If I have learnt one thing in all this time, it is that my decision back in 1983 was made without looking far enough down the road. At that time, my decision was influenced solely by my own needs, and the impact on my children's lives played no part whatsoever. A big mistake! I realise today that my decision should have been based SOLELY on my kids...and on my grand-children...and on their kids...

You see, my own carefully planned life came crashing down two days before I turned 50. As a result of a takeover of the company to whom I had dedicated a large chunk of my working life, my entire board and I were summarily, and unemotionally presented with our marching orders by the new owners. I was obliged to start all over again, but with age and opportunities against me, this was not an easy task, and it was indeed ironic that the very thing I had feared back in 1983 had come back to haunt me.

In the meantime my two sons had done all the right things to build a good career- attended the right schools, received degrees, and gone overseas for added work experience. But on returning to South Africa, they bumped their heads against black economic empowerment policies, had a few close shaves with criminals, lamented over the deteriorating condition of the country, and quickly realised that their futures here were limited. And so they both emigrated to Australia, taking our grandchildren with them!

How the wheel has turned! And how different things might have been, had we gone over when the opportunity was there.

Therefore, I would encourage you to think beyond your current situation, and try and look 21 years down the line, to a time when your own children are grown up and trying to start off on their own. What will life in South Africa be like then? Will there be a thriving economy, able to provide them good career opportunities? What about the quality of education and health care for their children? What about their personal security? What about......?

Because, unless you can confidently tick these boxes, the possibility exists that they will also emigrate, leaving you behind and perhaps unable to follow.

Edited August 30, 2014 by Orphan

[DXB2OZ]

Orphan, that was a truly heart-rending post. Thank you so much for your honesty. It makes me feel more than ever that we made the right decision for us as a family. Thank you for taking the time to share such personal details with us - it gives food for thought and a very good insight.

I like to believe that there is often a reason for things happening the way they do. Perhaps your decision to stay was meant to provide your children with the opportunity to experience both countries. Perhaps it would have been too easy for you back then and you were meant to struggle. Perhaps you were just meant to stay on in SA for a while and make a positive difference to the lives of others. Or, perhaps you were just meant to provide a positive inspiration here on the forum. Job done! ☺️

[KarinWise]

Orphan,

I echo your sentiments.

We had an opportunity to go to Aus 19 years ago, when we were still young and full of energy. My eldest daughter refused to go with us.

She was 19 at the time. She reminded us that she was an African, and she would always be one.She was going no-where.

We were not about to re-locate and leave her behind.

Fast forward 13 years, she packs up and goes to Aus. It came out of the blue, and surprised us all.

I had a very successful business in SA, and I was grooming her to take over the running of this enterprise.

Her younger sister followed her to Aus a year later.

There started what I can only describe as a very difficult journey.

My husband and I had to re-visit the " should we stay or should we go " scenario. This is always a cause of great anxiety.I was very pro-and he was quite anti.

So we sold the business for starters, and had to decide if we should stay in Africa, as we could have retired there, or try to get into Australia, and go towards a very risky future.

Fast forward a few more years, as we have never been known to do the sensible thing, and we are huge risk takers, we find ourselves in Australia on a Business Visa.

Desperately trying to buy or set up a business. As you all know, this visa has some very stringent conditions attached to it, and as the time ticked by, and we had not found anything, we started to panic. Terrified to make a bad business decision, and time was running out.

Both my daughters became permanent residents at that stage, so we applied for a parents visa. Yes, at a cool million Rand.

At retirement age. Stupid or reckless or wise? I really do not know.

So here we are, very much poorer than we ever thought we would be at this age. We certainly cannot retire on SA rands in Australia, so we have finally committed to a business. It's a franchise, I am not a great fan of that business model, but here we go. It's make or break.

My brother in law always said that we are crazy, why not stay in SA comfortably retired and visit the kids twice a year? But no, we had to be rash, impulsive, and maybe we love the adrenalin rush of a risk. I look back, and I really regret not having done this whole thing 19 years earlier. It would have been simpler, much less expensive, and I had the energy for that bold move.

Looking back, I think my eldest daughter would have followed us eventually, seeing that she was the first one to leave years later.

So people, if you are going to do it, do it now!!!!! Looking back with regret is not good for the soul. And later may just be too late.

[Mara]

40 years ago, when hubby and I made the decision to get married, I surprised him with the comment "only if you realise that one day we will have to leave South Africa and live elsewhere!". I was looking forward, even in 1974, as I had seen what happened in Rhodesia and I very quickly realised that someday that would probably happen in South Africa as well. My parents and the whole family had considered a move here around the 50's, when the Australian government was paying them to settle here. I have often wondered what life would have been like had they taken the opportunity, just think, we would all have been together and not spread over the RSA, USA, UK, NZ, Ecuador and Australia!

[Bronwyn&Co]

My motto: Don't regret anything you've done, only things you haven't yet done

[KarinWise]

Also, never forget that it is pretty damn hard to make friends and connections in a strange country.

The older you get, the harder it is.

The most difficult part of this journey has been the damn loneliness. No friends, and besides my daughters, no family.

It hard to uproot an old tree.

Did we make a mistake? Yes, it would have been better for us to stay and be financially and emotionally ok.

Here, we have a very insecure future, in every way.

SA has so many problems. At our stage of life, seeing that we really lived our lives, it would not matter so much that our safety levels are better here.

Our kids are in Aus, they are safe, and I hope we never become a liability to them financially in the future. That is my biggest fear.

I simply could not bear that.

[Bronwyn&Co]

@Karin it sounds like you will be ok, there is always the state pension if we fall on hard times in the future. My parents in SA will almost certainly become dependent on us due to inflation, BEE, zero healthcare and no money for private, high costs of security & life insurance, cost of petrol vs. Rands, toll fees, etc.

Edited August 31, 2014 by Bronwyn&Co