The approval for an Australian visa comes with double excitement for Valerie Morrissey, because with her Prospective Marriage Visa now freshly affixed to her passport, she will soon be heading off to Australia to join her partner and later wed.

“The visa itself and the passport came through on Wednesday so everything is ready to go and I actually fly out on the 29th of July,” Valerie said.

While exciting, the move is also understandably very emotional.  Valerie is leaving her three grown-up children and their partners and also her granddaughter in the UK.

Valerie will be flying into Perth, Western Australia, where she will join her partner Grant Bingley. They will marry in Perth on 6 November.

 “I’m looking forward to moving into my new house and settling in with Grant and starting a new life with him," she said.  

The decision to move to Australia made sense for the couple because of Grant’s work, but Valerie also has a fondness for Perth and Australia.

“I’ve been on several visits there. I love it, I absolutely love it."

"It takes a little getting used to but it’s good. The heat is lovely ...  better than the weather in Perth, Scotland, where I have lived for the past 16 years put it that way,” she laughed.

“Grant is self employed, and the work that grant does is not done as much in Scotland. It was easier for me to move to Perth than for him to give us his business and move to Scotland and basically start all over again when he already had contacts there. It was easier this way,” she said. 

The final piece of paperwork for Valerie’s Prospective Marriage Visa was lodged on 2 March, and while Bronwyn Taylor and her case worker Andrea Jefferys always kept her informed of developments there was an anxious wait without information while the Australian Government processed the application.

“The visa process was good, but quite lengthy without any information. When I contacted Bronwyn or Andrea they answered my questions very quickly but you don’t get an awful lot of information when the application is lodged at the Australian Consulate. But other than that, I’m happy about it.

“There was some very anxious waiting ... I don’t do waiting very well,” Valerie laughed.

- Stephanie Bradley is Content and Communications Editor for the Australian Visa Bureau.

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