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Since giving birth to our own baby girl since migrating down under we’ve had a number of comments made on this associated post asking what the immigration status,  residency or citizenship status of their own  baby will be following the birth.

With this in mind I thought I’d write up a quick article to summarise the residency and citizenship status of your baby should you be blessed with the birth of a new child whilst spending your time down under.

On the assumption that you applied for your Permanent Residency visa before your baby was born the following circumstances will normally apply.

If your baby is born in Australia, and at least one parent is an Australian permanent visa holder or Australian citizen, your baby is an Australian citizen by birth. No Australian visa is required for this baby.

If your baby is born in Australia and neither parent is an Australian citizen or permanent visa holder, your baby will generally automatically acquire the visa of either parent dependent on whichever visa is more “beneficial”.

If your baby is born outside Australia, and at least one parent is an Australian citizen otherwise than by descent, your baby is eligible for Australian citizenship by descent.

If your baby is born outside Australia and at least one parent is an Australian citizen by descent and that parent was present in Australia lawfully for at least 2 years before your baby’s citizenship registration, your baby is eligible for Australian citizenship by descent.

If your baby is born outside Australia, and neither parent is an Australian citizen, your baby has no immigration status in Australia and will need a visa to enter Australia. Read the full story

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 It’s been a little while since my Bunnings Warehouse post but I’ve been pretty busy of late :-/

My folks have been over from the UK for the last couple of weeks and it’s been really good to catch up with them after not seeing them now for well over a year.

I have really missed my folks but as our regular readers will probably know it’s been a damn busy year. Time literally has flown by in the last twelve months or so. Still it’s really nice for them to visit us here in our new home.

Living in Australia you’ll always have people that want to visit. It’s actually pretty amazing how many ‘friends’ creep out of the woodwork when you migrate down under. Read the full story

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Since the birth of our little girl the missus has been busy (thanks honey ) completing all the necessary paper work to make sure she was legal.

This has included registering the birth and also completing the appropriate paperwork to apply for our baby bonus.

In Australia, parents of new babies born in Australia are paid a baby bonus. I’m not 100% to sure why the bonus is paid but I think in essence its there to encourage Aussies to ‘go forth and multiply’

Australia is probably as far removed from those countries suffering high population issues as you can get.

Unlike other developed countries, Australia’s population is still very low. At time of typing it stands at approx 20.4 Million and due to the mammoth size of the country theres plenty of room for many more.

Australia’s population density is only 2.6 people to each square kilometer. Compare this to the 246 per kilometer that the UK manages to squeeze in or China’s 636 people per square kilometer and you’ll get the idea. Read the full story

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Well, its been 5 days now since Junior number 2 and the missus came home.

Although the missus had a cesarean section, she was thankfully able to come home after only two days.

Although Joondalup Hospital was great and the staff were friendly and efficient it still didn’t beat the comfort of your own home so it was really good to welcome the latest addition to our family back home.

The check-out procedure from the hospital was straight forward enough. The midwife completed the last bits of paperwork and we were free to go. When Junior was born in the UK we were escorted out of the hospital by one of the nurses so we didn’t become suspected child snatchers. Read the full story

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Ok, so it’s not quite like a book review but I thought I should write down a few first impressions following the birth of our beautiful, gorgeous, gushingly perfect daughter yesterday

Two words :- Dogs bollocks!

Ok, that may not mean to much to our Amercian visitors but let me just say this, the quality of the care and facilities we have found in Australia compared to those experienced in the United Kingdom has been fantastic!

Sure, the Joondalup Health Campus is still a pretty new hospital but the people who work there have been fantastic.

Ironically, I’d say there were more English people working at the hospital in Joondalup then there was in Halifax in the Uk which is the hospital where Junior number one was born. Read the full story

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Well folks, since my last post I’m am ecstatically happy to announce that junior number two turned out to be a girl (we have one of each now)

Baby daughter (hee hee) and mum doing really well!

I feel so completly knackard as it has been a veeeeeery long day! I promise I’ll provide more detail later (once I’ve had a sleep) Read the full story

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OK, 6 days ago we thought that it was time for baby to make an appearance but nothing ever happened.

This time I can say with all certainty that this time tomorrow junior number two will be here.

Unfortunately during the check up that the missus had today, they found that she had early signs of Pre-eclampsia.

As a result she has been booked in to Joondalup Hospital for the night with the expectation being that she will have a cesarean section at approx 2:30pm today, Australian time.

When junior was born, even though it took nearly 18 hours he still ended up being born via an emergency C section.

This time around the missus was really hoping to go the natural birth route but it really looks like it’s not going to happen (unless something happens in the next few hours).
There are benefits to going the Cesarean route though: Read the full story

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Well, after the events of last Friday it looks like junior number 2 has attached crampons to its hands and feet and is well and truly hanging on in there.

The missus recons it ‘feels a little lower’ today but if that means it’s ready or its just chilling out in the lower uterus who knows.

A colleague of mine who professes to be pretty much the oracle of everything suggested that the missus should drink a large glass of icy cold water.

The logic behind such a suggestion is that the chilly water will make junior number two struggle around in such chilly delight that it would cause the missus waters to break and therefore induce labour.

I mentioned this suggestion in passing to the missus last night over dinner. I mentioned it more as a joke than anything else but my better half is now literally getting to the stage where she will try anything to help GET IT OUT! Read the full story

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Ahhhhhhhh! I think I’m going to have a nervous breakdown.

After this mornings post the ’specialist’ has sent the missus back until something a little more productive happens!

It transpires that the waters hadn’t broken, the fluid was just down to hormonal changes (sorry for the detail)

Whats with that!

Time to start thinking positive ‘come on baby’ thoughts.

We did find out that the baby currently weighs 3.4 Kg (clever machines they use when doing the scan). It also has hair (takes after mummy then).

Fingers crossed everyone please

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Well, I asked the question what do you do with a four year old when your wife goes in to labour?

The answer is, you stay at home and wait for news Seriously, it’s not all kicking off yet but something is happening.

We think the missus’s waters may have broken during the night, not a big gush like it was with Junior number 1, more of a gentle trickle.

No drama’s though. The missus had time to get a shower and eat some cereal before going to the docs to get checked out.

At time of typing, the midwife has told her that her waters are ‘breaking’ whilst the specialist ‘isn’t sure’

So, the missus now has to be hooked up to a special machine now to help the docs see what’s going on.. Read the full story

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Seriously, how much more can this baby grow before its due to pop out?

We are now at ‘full term’ which the missus tells me means junior number two is fully formed and 100% capable of   doing what baby’s do…. You know.. Turning the TV on, writing emails, all that kinda good stuff.

To say the missus’s belly is massive is an understatement, she still looks beautiful though and the regular addition of oils and sprays has kept the stretch marks at bay!

The frequency of curry’s chillis and other hot foot stuffs is starting to increase in an attempt to encourage junior number two on his way (this little one will be asking for a chicken Madras when it eventually decides to say hello).

Similarly, the frequency and quantity of beer that I’ve been drinking is starting to decrease just in case I’m called into action at 10pm at night.

Really exciting times ahead but I think its safe to say that the missus is now ready to ‘get it out’! Poor thing, us blokes really do have the easy part when it comes to this childbirth thing huh?

Hmmm… I wonder what it might be? Anyone fancy taking a punt? Bruce or Shiela?

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As our regular readers will already know the week we arrived in Australia was also the week we conceived!

I think it’s fair to say that all this happened a lot sooner then either of us expected.

Although we had decided to try for junior number 2 once arriving in Australia we were pretty surprised (although delighted) to find out we were pregnant when the missus did a test on new years day (what a way to start 2007!) 8 month down the track life is starting to get interesting.

I have a personal mobile and a blackberry that I use for work. Both of these I carry around with me constantly. Only the missus has my personal mobile and every time I get a text or the phone rings I nearly have heart failure.

Even though I’ve finished with travelling ‘Over East’ for a while, the logistics of working in the city, a 30 minute train journey away also makes like a little interesting. Read the full story

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Since announcing we were pregnant a number of weeks ago the ‘bump’ has been growing large and strong.

We had our 19 and a bit week scan today and I’m chuffed to bits to say that baby is doing well, growing in all of the right places and was very well behaved as ‘it’ had its picture taken.

I know that some of you may be interested to know what the whole pregnancy set up is like in Australia and I have to say, so far we are very very impressed.

This is actually the third scan we have had since finding out we were pregnant and this one lasted the longest.

We went to the hospital at Joondalup which looks more like a hotel in places with its clean lines and trendy coffee bars.

Todays scan took over half an hour. In the room we had two large TV screens (one for me and the lady doing the canning) and one for the missus. Read the full story

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Well, I think it’s safe to say that I always endeavoured to let you all know what life over here in Australia is really like.

I’ve covered Supermarkets, beaches, pets and an assortment of other subject matters but now I think it’s time to talk babies…

Yep…I’m absolutely delighted to announce that the missus (and I) are pregnant with baby number two.

The missus is currently just over three months pregnant and without getting into the detail it turns out that we *cough* conceived the week that we arrived in Australia.

Now we always wanted at least two kids but we had to be pretty careful prior to moving out here as we didn’t want to be pregnant just before jumping on a plane for a 24 hour flight.

We were also conscious of the fact that we might have better things to do the first few months after arriving in Australia like finding somewhere to live…

The plan was to start trying for baby number two once we arrived here in Aus but I guess we never really appreciated that this would happen the week that we set foot on Aussie Soil.

So, over the next six months, as well as giving you updates on Australian house prices and the best places to live, you’ll also get a good insight into having a baby in Australia… Damn, we’re going to have a 100% born and bred Aussie in the household!

Oh yeh, no ‘Mile High Club’ jokes please, we’ve heard them already

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Ahh the delights of selling a property or should that be AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

The lady who was supposed to go into the Halifax yesterday to finalise the mortgage details and pay the surveyors fee’s was unable to make her appointment because she was to tired after working a night shift.

So, we’ve been shunted back to Saturday now. She did come back with her family for a second viewing last night though. They are a really nice family with a baby so our house is spot on with the pre-made nursery, fully enclosed back gardens etc.

We’ve taken the opportunity to swap numbers this time and it’s obvious that she really likes the property to!

Anyway, we’ll need to wait until Saturday now so we’ll see what this weekend brings…again!

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Ok, for starters (and because I didn’t start this site until we actually received our Visa’s. I thought it might be a little useful to give a little background about how and why we ended up getting to the stage where we are now

Please also keep in mind; I’m a pretty typical bloke with an average education. I may not necessarily have the literally talents of Shakespeare or J. K. Rowling so please stick with me through the typo’s. Please also keep in mind that we’ve done a lot before we got here. As a result, some of these earlier sections may be a little long but I’ll type as fast as I can to try and get up to date

Anyhow, I won’t get to heavily involved in the specifics about how we did this, how we did that. However as the site matures I’ll make sure that all these areas are covered and will link to and from certain sections of this article to help you guys navigate around the site.

I guess it all started in the summer of 2004. I took voluntary redundancy from the company I was currently working for at the time. My wife and I had been to Australia (Sydney) in 2002 to catch up with my brother-in-law who has lived and worked in Sydney as a permanent resident for over 7 years.

We fell in love with the place, the weather was fantastic, the sky was blue and probably most strikingly, the friendliness of the people and the Australian culture as a whole took our breath away.
Read the full story

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