Natalie's Permanent Residency for Australia

Some of you may already know that earlier this year Natalie and I were praying about whether Nats should apply for Permanent Residency for Australia. It’s something that made sense in our minds, but whether or not it was what God wanted; we needed to find out. Both Tre and I are Australian citizens and we thought that Nats having Permanent Residency would be a wise move. As you could imagine such an undertaking was going to cost a fair bit (money we didn’t have), and we didn’t know how long the whole process would take. To be honest, after giving it much thought both Nats and I were a little overwhelmed by the idea and had resigned ourselves to the fact that if God wanted it, He would make it happen.

Much to our surprise one afternoon my mother returned home from work (she works at the Australian High Commission) and mentioned that her boss, after hearing about Tre’s birth, asked if Natalie was an Australian Resident. She explained to him that we had only just moved to PNG from the USA and we would only be here till Feb 07’. He then told mum, that Natalie, being the wife and mother of Australians, should not have any trouble qualifying for Australian Permanent Residency. He then went on to say that we should apply while in PNG, so that when we stop in Brisbane, on the way back to the USA, it would activate her new status. The Australian Gov’t only requires Permanent Residence to make an entry into the country once every 5 yrs (minimum). Again, it all sounded great in theory, but there would still be the small issue of finances. So, both Natalie and I prayed and again gave it back to God.

A couple of months later mum came home from work and again said that her boss asked about whether or not Natalie was going to apply for Permanent Residency. This was coming from a person who I had never met before and had more pressing things to think about. It was at that stage that we had an inkling that this was on God’s heart for our family. But again…no finances! So, again we gave it back to God.

After having tossed the idea around with a number of different people we were approached by a family who felt that they were to pay for Natalie’s application. Talk about out of left field! We were floored. We explained to them that it was going to be a LARGE chunk of money, but they explained they were coming into some money and felt that they were to give it to us. As it turns out the amount they felt to give was 16 Kina (PNG currency) short of the amount needed. This gave Natalie and I the opportunity to sow into the future that God has for us, buy paying the additional 16 kina.

Needless to say, we were on top of getting Natalie’s application in ASAP (with a lot of help from charity who sent us any documents we needed from the states). We again prayed that God’s will be done as we lodged the application with the Australian High Commission, and left it at that. To our surprise we were called on January 5^th, to attend an interview, on the 9^th, with an Australian Immigration Officer. This was to be the final step in the application process. The interview lasted no longer than 20 minutes and at the end the officer explained that Natalie was granted Permanent Residency, and would receive her papers by the end of the week.

We still to this day have no real plans to return to Australia to live, at least in the short term. All we know is that God wanted us to do this, and we were obedient. As with everything in our lives, we have given it back to the Lord.