It’s been 2 months since I first came to Australia. I came here on the 25th of January on a flight via Thai Airways. But this post is not about what happened after I came here. This is about what happened before it.
In 2007, I accepted a job offer from an IT consulting company in the USA. At first, I was never interested in working abroad, but I did see an opportunity in this offer. The only thing that interested me was easy access to the USA, where I had the option to resume my studies. The company put my nomination forward for H1B balloting, which I went through. The process itself took a year. And then on January 8, 2008, I went to the US embassy in Islamabad for a visa interview. The embassy asked me to wait for some weeks as they needed to conduct some administrative processing, which never ended. After a year, I came to know that the company that offered me a job had been blacklisted by the US government for some fraudulent issues.
Most Pakistani youth, like those in any other third-world country, aspire to travel abroad and live there for at least a few years. I didn’t have that dream initially, but the whole H1B episode nailed the first nail. Having so many friends, colleagues, and cousins opting for this option makes one feel left behind. This feeling nailed the second nail. Pakistan's rising inflation and deteriorating security, political, and economic conditions were the final nails in the coffin.
So I decided to try to go abroad one more time. But this time, instead of looking for a job, I opted for another plan. I decided to apply for immigration to a developed country. There were 3 options available to me: the UK, Canada, and Australia. Among these three, Australia was the easiest and fastest. I started getting information about its immigration process from the internet. After an effort of a couple of weeks, I had enough information and I started the application process and formally applied on May 19, 2009. Two months after that, I got engaged, and the same year, in December, I got married. Meanwhile, there was little progress on my application initially, and then there was a long dead silence.
In July 2010, I quit my job in Lahore and joined a multinational telecommunication company in Islamabad. Previously, I got offers from different companies in Islamabad, which never materialised. This time too, I wasn’t clear about this decision and I had a lot of apprehensions regarding it. At the same time, I didn’t want to lose the opportunity. Finally, I decided to go for it.
And then one of the most challenging phases of my life started. Initially, we (me and my wife) stayed at our relatives' place for 2 weeks, and for one week we lived in a guest house. Then I went to Oslo alone for 18 days. I came back from there on the night before Eid, after a flight delay of a whole day. I lived that week in Lahore and the next week went to the office in Islamabad. At the weekend, I flew back to Oslo. I returned after 7 weeks, stayed for 3 days in Lahore to celebrate EID and spent the remaining 2 days of the week in Islamabad. At the weekend, I travelled back to Lahore and spent the next week in Islamabad. At the weekend, I went alone to Oslo for the third time for 17 days. I experienced the coldest ever weather there. On my return, I spent some days in Lahore, then returned to Islamabad, hunted a house, and at the end of December, me and my wife moved there. We spent around two and a half months there, and later I went again to Oslo for four weeks. There I had a skiing accident, which was a bit scary. Meanwhile, there was progress on my immigration application and I was asked for some medical tests, but due to the pregnancy of my wife, I asked them to defer them for some months. On my return, I spent a few weeks in Lahore. I had to live alone in Islamabad since my wife was expecting at that time and she was at her parents' place, so I decided to share a room in a guest house in Islamabad. I lived there for 2 months. Every weekend I used to go to Lahore on Friday evening and get back on Monday morning or Tuesday morning. There was no cooking facility at the guest house, so I had to eat rough most of the time. During this period, I had my first baby. In July 2011, I hunted another house, and I brought my wife and son back to Islamabad, where we shifted to that house. It took us a few months to get settled once again in Islamabad. This was the time when I had some relaxation. Meanwhile, I submitted my medicals, and, after a few weeks, the big news came in. My application was approved, and we all got permanent residency visas from Australia. But this way was not simple either. There was a twist. We all had to make our first entry before March 10, 2012. Unfortunately, the bonus from my employer was due on March 25, 2012. The travel cost of the first entry of the entire family was huge and was more or less equal to the bonus I would be getting. So, I was confused about whether to make the first entry and come back to the job in Islamabad or go to Australia once and leave the bonus and job behind. One of my friends gave me good advice about looking for a job in Australia and said if I get a job before my visa validation date, then I should move there immediately. Previously, I had an impression that I couldn’t get a job in Australia while sitting in Pakistan, as told to me by people who were already in Australia. But luckily, I got an offer, and I accepted it. In November 2011, I had to travel to Oslo once again. I spent 4 weeks there. On my return, I resigned from my job in Islamabad. I was tempted not to do so by my employer, but this time I was clear. I knew I had to do this. The job was not as meaty as it appeared to me at the time of joining, and the professional experience I had was not satisfying and was frustrating at times. These past 18 months have been a challenge for my family as well. I really missed some good things during that time. Some people were amazed at my decision, as they thought I was doing very well in my job in Islamabad, and it was foolish of me to leave it.
On January 9, 2012, we left Islamabad and moved back to Lahore. Man, I miss Lahore so much. It’s an amazing city. Living in it can’t be traded with any other city in Pakistan. Of this, I am sure. On my return, we started our packing for the big journey.
