Dave’s Blogged Unpacked

We’ve received plenty of messages asking what’s next. I’ll unpack the situation for you:

1. We have to leave the UAE, Dave’s company has been very helpful, but with an end of contract our visa ends quickly so time to move.
2. Our base is still in The Netherlands and that is the direction we need to head in. Ordinarily, this would be fine, but during COVID, Australian residents can only be let in, if they fly from Australia.
3. This then leads to a need to fly back to Australia, quarantine and then beg the Government to let us out again. Currently, Australian residents are unable to leave the country. There is a clause stating that if you have resided in another country for more than 12 months in the last 24 months, you are exempt from this rule. I have heard rumours, it totally depends on who and what, as to whether this is enough. Moving in the expat circles, there are horror stories of UAE residents being unable to leave Australia and being separated from their families for the last 4 months.
4. Dave has applied for a business visa in the Netherlands. Should we be able to get back there, this is a great time for Dave to potentially go out on his own and consult (something to do with cloud, internet, computers, technology….. you get the gist). This will take about 90 days to process. So, we hope that this could also provide a ticket out of Australia.

Where does this leave us:

1. Our belongings will sit in the docks in the UAE. When we know where we are going, they will ship it.
2. We pray that we don’t get bumped on the flights. Australia is letting only 50 people per flight and again horror stories abound of people being bumped off flight after flight – which would result in feeding the hotel economy and possibly jumping from place to place.
3. Things are changing rapidly, there is still SLIM hope that NL might put the UAE on the ‘safe country list’ and we can go straight there.
4. Dave’s VISA comes through quickly.
5. Dave has been approached by a few companies in the Netherlands and just yesterday, by a company in the UAE. Any of these options would work.
6. We stay a bit longer in Australia and find a cheap place to rent and pop the kids in school and Dave can work on his Masters (oh yes, did I mention, he still has to keep up his studies during this!?) and we can see our friends and family.

We will update you when we know more, things are changing so fast though.