A Singaporean In Australia

Was it late Summer? The time when Mr Lex came to Perth for a short course and bunked in at my place. Then he chatted with me one fateful night and revealed adequate information about himself that prompted me to mutter an innocent comment, "Aye, ackcherly you can migrate what."

4 months later, they submitted their EOI. Quite impressive I must say. The sense of urgency (a nicer word for kiasu) of Angie certainly showed their intent to do this. I have been a silent reader of the whatsapp group set up for this and followed how Angie kept pushing and pushing. It reminded me of the time Jen and I did the opposite. We lost our way in the concrete jungle and completely put emigration out of our mind. The hustle of Singapore life certainly had a way to extinguish any intent for change, be it on national or personal level.

Change is intimidating. It is normal that the couple started asking each other if they "would make it," in Australia. It is starting to feel real. That makes it nervy because the comfort zone is activating. At this stage, qualification for permanent residency is met. The chances of getting invited to apply looks good. When it does happen eventually, that will be when the comfort zone will be at its glaring best, attempting any last grasp effort to resist. It works often, especially when it comes to a couple or a family - where it does not lie in a sole decision maker. I've seen people who held back or were held back. I've seen marriage broken up for this. This decision may be a no-brainer for some but it is daunting for many.

Once the application is made, it is more or less cast in stone. The application stage is where cold, hard cash - a lot of it - has to be dumped in. Even for the "rich" average Singaporeans, it is a sum of money to be taken seriously with. So, one who obtain his or her Oz PR and let it expire will be quite a fool rarity. It will not happen to this couple when the time comes. For a couple who quit their jobs to self employ, they have taken a leap once. I have no doubt another leap into the unknown is a formality to them.

She called me her "migration master." The actual fact is, I did nothing, except for trivial stuff like what documents she needed to gather and how to get them notorised, The tedious ground work was still done by themselves by liaising with the relevant assessment body for their skills assessment, getting testimonials from ex-employers, as well as statutory declarations by ex-colleagues to buff up inadequate areas. With that, they skipped the agent fees they were not prepared to fork out. The funny episode where Mr Lex screwed his first IELTS up ended with a sigh of relief when he cleared the second. The work is more or less done, except for raising a fat sum of application fees. All they can do now, is wait. All signs are pointing to them coming our way one day.


If you want it hard enough, you'll find the way.