Around this time, the Australia idea started to become more serious.
On New Year’s Eve, what we were doing had still been more of a dream than a plan. We had talked about staying, but nothing was solid. No application, no paperwork, no firm decision. Just a thought that kept coming back, we intended to travel for a year, by now we were 14 months in.
After spending time with Ali’s family, settling into Freshwater for a few weeks, buying the Captiva, and starting to feel how life in Australia might actually work, we decided to look properly at applying for a visa.
We booked an appointment with a migration agent and started getting the paperwork together.
Anyone who has applied for a visa knows it is not exactly romantic. It is forms, evidence, dates, documents, uploads, identity checks and trying to remember the exact details of your own life while a website quietly judges you.
But it mattered.
For most of the journey, we had been moving from country to country with the next step already planned. This was different. This was not about where we were going next. It was about whether we could stay.
Within a week or two, we had pulled the documents together and submitted what was needed. Then, 24 hours later on the 24th, the visa with indefinite stay was granted.
It did not take as long as we expected, which was a massive relief.
Up to that point, Australia had still felt temporary. We were staying in Airbnbs, moving between places, buying a car because rentals were too expensive, and trying to work out what came next.
The visa being granted did not mean everything was sorted.
But it did mean one very important thing:
we were allowed to stay.