Matt Down Under

Last night my visa was granted, I’m now a Permanent Resident of Australia!

For all non-Australians, this means I now have a permanent visa, no restrictions (except the two-year waiting period before I get access to social security benefits — which I’m sure I won’t need anyway in the near future), and in about five years I will be allowed to apply for citizenship. Also, I could now potentially sponsor family members for migration to Australia, even though the points you get for family sponsorship only make a tiny part in the many points required for migration.

I’m happy and surprised how easy and quick the whole process was — I only had to submit very few documents, basically I only had to submit what I hadn’t already submitted two years ago for my previous application, even though all these documents would have been part of the application again.

This kind of flexibility on administrative levels is something I admire in Australia. I’m sure in Germany I would have had to resupply every single document, including medial examination and English test.

I think I can look forward to a very bright future in Australia. My employment opportunities are huge, I just started my own business as a side job, and at the moment I don’t have any dependencies or obligations, which allows me to relocate wherever I want to and live my dreams.

I want to thank everyone who helped and supported me over the last three years: my TravelWorks group who really helped me a lot during the first two weeks in Australia where I felt pretty lost; Julia and Christian, who lent me their credit cards, laptops and passports when my backpack was stolen and I had no access to my bank accounts; Melissa, and Deb, who made my longterm stay at the Arthouse Hostel very enjoyable; Craig, who gave me a job when I really needed one, even though I sucked at tree planting (I think the impressions I got from Tasmanian forests and wildlife, while on that job, convinced me to stay), José who gave me my first office job in Hobart and lent me his credit card to pay for my last visa application (I only had a German credit card and it wasn’t accepted); Tasmania, for sponsoring me for migration; my landlord who accepted me as tenant in their fantastic studio apartment in the city, even though I was a backpacker, without rental history, and we never actually met in person until before I moved out (I think my university degree and the fact that I had a permanent position in IT convinced them that I was a trustworthy guy); my former employer for giving me my second job after I lost the previous one — even though it was a pain in the ass to work there and they never learned a thing; Frank, who supplied me with freelance work, showed me what great Australian hospitality looks like and whose passion for hiking encouraged me to do a lot more hiking than I could have ever imagined (back in Germany I used to hate hiking); my family in Germany, who went to great lengths after my backpack with all my documents had been stolen and I needed to get them all replaced;

…and the plenty of people I met on the way and forgot to mention here! Without you all this wouldn’t have been possible.

Thank you!