How Did Australian PR Change Your Life ?

Steve Oberholzer
Australian PR… absolutely life-changing. Before we got PR, we lived on a 457 visa. Nothing wrong with the 457 visa, except that you live here on borrowed time. You see all the good things, you start loving the lifestyle, but you don’t know if you are going to you stay or not. That uncertainty was definitely a killer.
They were financial implications as well… big time.
We paid $85 per day for childcare, my daughter was in Kindy at the time. We did not get Medicare rebates, or any assistance from Centrelink. Not that I minded too much about the financial implications, it was a privilege to be here. I often asked myself: Am I really here, or am I dreaming?
The closer we got to the end of the four year visa, the more the angst mounted. It is only human to be anxious about something that can affect the rest of your life. At that point we loved it so much here, that we did not want to go back.
What made it worse was that we had a bunch of family that wanted to see us fail back home (at that time we still saw South Africa as home). The day that our case officer notified us that our Permanent Residency Visa has been approved was probably one of the best days of our lives. For me personally, it was as if a mountain has been lifted off my shoulders. No more living in flux. No more uncertainty.
We could REALLY start planning for the future. Yes there were financial implications as well, positive ones. We can now use Medicare at doctors that do bulk billing. We get 50% back on child care. So the $200 we pay a week for before school care and after school care, has halved.
We have since become citizens, and that is even better than permanent residency. We’ve already had to vote and serve on a jury, and find it a privilege to be able to do this.
I still wake up some days marveling that we are here, and how lucky we are to be here. This is a country to be proud of, and I’m happy that I can contribute to make it a better place. (Quaro)