Hi Guys ! Great forum. I whish I had time to read all. This forum is addictive. My productivity at work has taken a serious dive.
I've been on the forum since middle May 2008 and wow! Wish I had read more posts before I began my process, but as with most other things in my life, I've just jumped in and is learning to swim at a fast pace.
So here's our story:
This year started out with a group of our friends together on new-years day. And yes, of course as with a lot of the discussions these days, immigration came up. Most of us agreed that "it will take something serious" to make us move (little did we know where we'll be today…), feeling quite "safe" behind our high spiky walls, alarm systems and guard dogs, burglar bars (I can see those of you already in NZ wondering what these are), not really affected by the violent crime around us. Yes, we had break-ins and radio's stolen from our cars. Yes, some of us had seen shadows in the garden at night. Yes, some-one's aunt was raped in Sunnyside… Personally my family have not REALY felt it on our own "bas". And with the little-ones around, violent crime is not one of the big topics being discussed in detail, and if you've got DSTV, you don't really need to take note of the news… (see what I'm doing here - I'm rationalizing it (redeneer dit weg) like all the other "crime" victims in the row at home affairs !)
The only thing that does get to me (us) is the bloody (no pun intended) newspaper adds against the light poles at the traffic lights ! But if you blink, you can kind-of ignore those too (although the burning xenophobia victim on the front page the other day was almost enough to crash my car !). So along comes just another headline of a women raped next to her child. A few days later, I'm on news24, just to find WE KNOW THE FAMILY ! She used to work with my wife, and they were even at our wedding. Their children are the same age as ours! And it happened in a Security Estate! Well, that rattled our cage.
Suddenly we're thinking…maybe Brother-in-law was not that stupid to move to Oz a few years back.
Then Mom starts to work with some-one already in the process of job hunting in NZ. Her Colleague and Colleague's family is about to go visit NZ for LSD trip and interviews. Mom's getting a lot of INFO from her (and guess from which website).
Then my work starts talking about IT support from Australia and Brazilia (but ja, a few months down the process, nothing concrete yet).
Suddenly immigration is a much more real option. We jump right into the process, much in a hurry, just to get ahead in the long process(for in case…) , before we even have actually decided that this is what we want to do.
Then the xenophobia events occur.
We start out by applying for police clearance (ja, NOW I know its only valid for 6 months and I'll probably end up doing it again!). Very supportive police men/women: They say they've had 300 people thru their office in the past month ! And they don't sound positive about the SA situation at all.
We also stand in the queue at home affairs to apply for passports for the kids, and have ours renewed (by the way, almost every 2nd person in the row has a passport application form !!). As I finish paying, we realise we need unabridged birth certificates. So we queue again.
Only then do I start to read the forum…and realise I should have started out by doing the reading first!
Well, after the fifth time queuing at home affairs, we've finally applied for all documentation (Why, o, why did I not first read thru the forum ?!).
Mom's Colleague decide she'll visit NZ without hubby (so not to drag kids along, etc.) and Mom gets invited to join the trip ! They book their tickets…
I read more on the forum, and realise, this is a loooong process if you're gonna apply for PR, so best get it started (from the look of things, this might be at best a 6 months story, more likely over a year). We submit 2 EOI's, and time it right, so we get selected the next day (luckily we had enough points…). I then also realise that to get a job there would be the fastest to get there, because then you can go the WP route.
But we have not finally decided! And my wife still have a lot of reservations (we live in such a nice neighbourhood, the kids is in an excellent crèche and school, and all our friends, and the dogs, and cats, and family staying behind, and..,and…). I change my mind a million times a day. What is gonna happen a few years from now. Look at Zim. Look at how the world didn't interfere when all went wrong there…Who is gonna be elected SA's president next year, and look at what HE has been accused of! What is gonna be best for my 2 sons and daughter ? Questions, Questions, Questions…. What's NZ like, Schools, Houses, how does things fit together in NZ, etc. etc.
And why is no-one else talking about immigration (o, the anonymity is killing me). Eventually some of our best friends (remember new years day) admit their were also contemplating it, and tells us, some of our other friends is well down the process in moving to Oz ! We go and talk to yet other friends, who's family is in Auckland, and realize they too were contemplating it. So why is no-one talking about it ? …mmm.
I read more on the forum, and realise that most of the questions and reservations has also crossed a lot of your minds… And we get A LOT of answers.
Hoera for technology - Google Earth, YouTube, etc. Now we know what NZ looks like (well, kind of...)
Well, Mom's week and a half in NZ is almost over now (I hear their visiting Rotorua tomorrow (today)…), so she'll be back with a lot of pics and info (we hope) and then we'll make our final decision (who's bluffing who, I think deep down we all now where this is going…).
Now all remains is to get the house sold ( @#$@#$ what's happening with the housing market in the past 2months!) and to find a job ! And like my uncle says - see where the "System" takes us. What will be, will be…
