“A lot of people want to emigrate because they are unhappy with their lives or their careers. That’s not true in my case; I live in a beautiful part of the country, I have a satisfying job and a lovely home. Despite this, Kathy and I have been thinking about emigrating for a long time. What really spurred us on was Kathy’s brother, who moved to Melbourne four years ago and loves it. We thought, if he and his family can do it, why can’t we?

Before I got in touch with OE I had already spoken to a couple of other migration agents. When they heard I worked in IT sales, they basically weren’t interested, because IT salesmen are apparently two a penny in Australia. Then I rang OE and had a brief chat with Richard Gregan. After a few minutes, I knew I was dealing with someone who was completely straightforward and wouldn’t try to sugar-coat things for me – just the sort of bloke I like! Like the others, Richard thought that my sales skills wouldn’t help me get a visa, but he persevered – he was a bit like a detective, firing questions at me! He asked if I had any other skills, and I explained that after leaving school at 16 I’d trained as a chef, and that I still kept my hand in by helping a friend run his pub. Richard told me that chefs were in demand in Australia, and that was a far more secure route to follow in applying for my visa.

Richard’s suggestion was that I should record all the catering work I did to document what I was doing and demonstrate my level of skill. I took his advice and because of that it was quite a while before Kathy and I even got to the stage of filling in forms. I found the bureaucratic side of things quite straightforward; it was the waiting that was really stressful, because I felt our lives were on hold until we knew what the outcome was going to be. It’s at times like this that you really have to have faith in your migration agent, and I found that Richard and Bridget Murphy, who dealt with our case, were a great help. At times when I was feeling anxious I could just call them or email them and they built up my confidence again.

It was a nail biting time and Kathy and I were on tenterhooks. We’d have been shattered if our visa hadn’t come through, because we’d really pinned our hopes on it and we were totally committed to moving to Australia. The children weren’t very enthusiastic about it at first, but after a while they changed their minds and now they talk about it all the time and tell everyone we are going to live in Australia. When our visas came through, 28 months after I first spoke to Richard, we were absolutely euphoric. A lot of champagne was drunk that night, I can tell you!

We are tremendously excited about this new opportunity and looking forward to starting our new life in Melbourne. Some people find it pretty odd that I’ve never even been to Australia, but I’m not worried. I’ve reached the stage in my life when I need a new challenge, and I’m confident that I’ll love Melbourne, and Kathy has been there and doesn’t have any doubts.

Could we have got our visa without OE’s help? I’m sure we wouldn’t have. If I’d been left to my own devices I’d have charged in with both feet and been rejected. It took a long time to get to our goal, but it was well worth it.”