Moving to Australia with your ? children

Moving to Australia with your children

Resettling in Australia with your child or children is certainly a welcome development for you as a family.  It presents opportunities and possibilities for them that you may not be able to find in your home country.  The standard of education here, which is not only world-class but affordable as well, is just for starters; not to mention the support of the government for its students in the form of student loans.  The health care system is the envy of the citizens of many countries.  And the list goes on.

In short, it is the dream of an immigrant to bring their whole family to the only island-continent country in the world.

But as in everything, the move comes like a double-edged sword for your children.  It has its pros and cons.  The pros are what we just mentioned above, while the cons may take the form of challenges, particularly in terms of adjustment.

If adults struggle to adjust to a new environment – new neighborhood, different climate, unfamiliar food, queer culture, etc. — how much more the little children?  It goes without saying, if there’s somebody who needs more support in the migration process, it would be the children.

Therefore, we need to prepare them very well for the eventual transfer.

Before your child will transfer to Australia

Preparing your children for a new life in Australia starts not when you are already here but rather when you are still in your home country.  First and foremost, your children need to learn about the new place you will be living in: What will the new environment or neighborhood be like?  What sorts of people are living in your new community?  In school, what would a student life be like here in Australia?  What are the behavior and fads of the youngsters their age here?

You will not have much of a problem looking for sources of information about Australia.  There are countless books written about life and living in the land Down Under.  If, however, books are not your thing, you can always turn to the ever-reliable Google for help for almost everything you want to learn about.

Aside from that, you can join various forums on the internet and gather as much information that you want from forum community members.  The tourism agency in the country is another source of helpful information and practical tips on how to undertake a smooth transition from your country of origin to here.

You’d be lucky, too, if you have friends or relatives who are already living here.  You can ask them to be your guide or coach.

Before their departure, it will greatly help if you teach your children how to say a proper goodbye from their friends, relatives, and people close to them.  If they can keep some mementos from them and vice-versa, that would be great.  It will set the right tone of their departure from your place.  After all, they will still come back for some visits to their place of birth sooner or later.

Adjustments here in Australia

As the needed adjustments here in Australia, the sooner that your children can settle in your new abode the better.  It might work against them if the adjustment period drags on.  Frustrations may set in, even depression.  In this regard, you can find avenues where they can make friends immediately both in your neighborhood and in their school.  For instance, you can organize a little party for them and their new acquaintances, invite them over for dinner.  Making friends is usually the main concern of children.

In school, you can take the initiative to orient their new teachers about their likes and dislikes as well as their other idiosyncrasies so that the teachers will not have a hard time dealing with your kids and your kids will not have a difficult time either to adjust to their teachers.

Meanwhile, keeping constant communication with their friends back home will help keep them on an even keel mentally and emotionally.  Chatting, text messaging, and video calling provided by various social media sites are a great help when it comes to this.

You may even keep some sort of family habits and traditions going while you are already here such as having a family movie viewing every Friday night or going out for dinner on a weekend, etc.

Visa options for your children

Before we keep talking about the other priorities, let’s not forget the basic requirements needed before your children can set foot on the Australian soil.  The most basic of which is the visa for your children.

If your child has not been included as a dependant when you have lodged for your own visa, don’t fear – it might not be too late to get a visa for them. There are several options for a child visa for Australia.  For our discussion here, however, let’s choose the subclasses that may be applicable to your children’s case.

One such visa is Child Permanent visa (subclass 101).  Being their parent, you will act as their sponsor for them to live in Australia as a permanent resident.  For this subclass, your children should be outside the country at the time of application.

In case one of your children is already 18 years of age or older, he or she must be single and should be a full-time student whose age ranges from 18 to 25 years old (age range depends on a vis type) and is dependent on you for financial support.

Also, if it happens that a child of yours who is of their age and who has a certain disability, they can qualify for this visa in exceptional circumstances.

Another type of visa that might be applicable to your children is Dependent Child visa (subclass 445).  They can apply for this visa when you, as their parent, are holding a temporary partner visa and they were not included in the application of the temporary visa you’re holding.

When applying for Dependent Child visa, it does not matter whether your children are inside or outside Australia at the time of application.  They must be dependent on you who hold a Partner Provisional visa (subclass 309), Partner visa (subclass 820), Interdependency visa (subclass 310), or Interdependency visa (subclass 826).

Their sponsor will be the same person who is sponsoring your stay here.

Similar to the previous visa we talked about earlier, if one of your children is already 18 years of age or older, it is required that he or she must be dependent on you financially or is unable to find a job because of certain disability.

The Dependent Child visa option is available to them if they were not included in your application for a temporary partner visa.  Once their application is approved, they should immediately apply for the same permanent partner visa that you are applying for.  They must do it before a decision is handed down on your own permanent partner visa application as failure to do this — and they are still in the country when the decision is made on your application — will render their stay here unlawful, and they might lose the chance to apply for any permanent visa option.

Nowak Migration can help make your family whole in Australia

We always feel a deep sense of satisfaction whenever we are able to help members of a family come to the country and rejoin with their parents and other siblings.  This may be because families have a special place in our hearts.  In fact, we ourselves toil day by day to be able to support our own families.  That’s why we don’t waste time in helping people who long to make their families whole again in their newfound place of abode.

You may be one of our many clients who are also looking for assistance in having their children move to Australia and thus apply for their visa.  If so, please don’t hesitate to keep in touch with anyone of us at Nowak Migration.  Our contact details can be found here from our hotline numbers to our email address to our Facebook page to our YouTube channel.  Just choose the means of communication that suits you well.

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