we had a DREAM
In early 2010, we where all set to build our
dream home. We’d been together for 13 years and had been working
towards this for about 12 ½ of those years. Finally - our dream was becoming a reality.
We had the land, albeit with an old house still on it, the design was certified & we were just waiting on some final quotes from our preferred builders. GREAT – let’s go on a holiday! Little where we to know that the family trip to Queensland to celebrate my retired parents 40th wedding anniversary would change EVERYTHING!
We’re normally known as a couple with a practical vision and the drive to achieve our personal and financial goals and for the first time in our lives we had no idea what we where going to do. See, the problem was: we fell IN LOVE with Queensland!
OMG! What where we going to do? Spend all our money building “the house” in the town where we were both born and bread or buy a beautiful waterfront home, already established in sunny Queensland? ‘I can feel the fish biting already’ Paul said.
So the decision was made! We where moving to Queensland! But - soooooo, so many questions!!! And with so many questions, come so many sleepless nights.
So how exactly did we end up in Europe??
With a change on the horizon, internet surfing is inevitable and Google soon becomes your best friend. But being able to Google one hair brain idea to the next also opens up a world of opportunity and can mean that your DREAM again changes!
For some reason we starting googling overseas working holidays, ancestral visas, UK work permits & citizens of EU countries. My heritage is Scottish through my great-grandparents and Paul’s heritage is Maltese through his father. One click always leads to another and we quickly discovered that I wasn’t applicable for an ancestral visa as it needed to be my grandparents who where born in UK – bugger! so, we thought we should find if Paul could apply for something through his fathers decent now that Malta is part of the EU.
Well, Malta don’t issue ancestral visas, however we did discover that you acquired Maltese citizenship at birth if you were born outside Malta after 21 SEP 1964 and before 1 AUG 1989, and when you were born, your father was a citizen of Malta by Birth in Malta. WHAT!!! Paul was a Maltese Citizen, an EU citizen and we didn’t even know it?
On the same page we also saw “Acquisition of Maltese citizenship by REGISTRATION” What does that mean?? Well, according to this website, as long as I had been married for at least 5 years and, on the date of the application, you are still married to and living with that citizen of Malta then I could apply for Maltese citizenship. WHAT!!!
We quickly confirmed our findings with the Maltese Consulate in Australia. Asked all the questions in various different ways, sent all our questions also via email to get a reply in writing just to ensure we weren’t misunderstanding anything. YES! Paul was a Maltese Citizen (therefore Citizen of the EU country). YES! I could become a Maltese Citizen (therefore Citizen of the EU country). We could live, work, move freely anywhere throughout the EU territories? YES, YES, YES!!
So with that finding, our DREAM now became EUROPE!!!
We had the land, albeit with an old house still on it, the design was certified & we were just waiting on some final quotes from our preferred builders. GREAT – let’s go on a holiday! Little where we to know that the family trip to Queensland to celebrate my retired parents 40th wedding anniversary would change EVERYTHING!
We’re normally known as a couple with a practical vision and the drive to achieve our personal and financial goals and for the first time in our lives we had no idea what we where going to do. See, the problem was: we fell IN LOVE with Queensland!
OMG! What where we going to do? Spend all our money building “the house” in the town where we were both born and bread or buy a beautiful waterfront home, already established in sunny Queensland? ‘I can feel the fish biting already’ Paul said.
So the decision was made! We where moving to Queensland! But - soooooo, so many questions!!! And with so many questions, come so many sleepless nights.
Do we build the house and then sell?After doing the sums working out the holding cost’s, considering possible budget blowout for building & current sale value for all 3 options – we decided to subdivide and sell as vacant blocks. OK, so we decided to sell our Adelaide properties, fulfill our new DREAM and move to Queensland.
Do we sell the property as is?
Do we subdivide and build and then sell?
So how exactly did we end up in Europe??
With a change on the horizon, internet surfing is inevitable and Google soon becomes your best friend. But being able to Google one hair brain idea to the next also opens up a world of opportunity and can mean that your DREAM again changes!
For some reason we starting googling overseas working holidays, ancestral visas, UK work permits & citizens of EU countries. My heritage is Scottish through my great-grandparents and Paul’s heritage is Maltese through his father. One click always leads to another and we quickly discovered that I wasn’t applicable for an ancestral visa as it needed to be my grandparents who where born in UK – bugger! so, we thought we should find if Paul could apply for something through his fathers decent now that Malta is part of the EU.
Well, Malta don’t issue ancestral visas, however we did discover that you acquired Maltese citizenship at birth if you were born outside Malta after 21 SEP 1964 and before 1 AUG 1989, and when you were born, your father was a citizen of Malta by Birth in Malta. WHAT!!! Paul was a Maltese Citizen, an EU citizen and we didn’t even know it?
On the same page we also saw “Acquisition of Maltese citizenship by REGISTRATION” What does that mean?? Well, according to this website, as long as I had been married for at least 5 years and, on the date of the application, you are still married to and living with that citizen of Malta then I could apply for Maltese citizenship. WHAT!!!
We quickly confirmed our findings with the Maltese Consulate in Australia. Asked all the questions in various different ways, sent all our questions also via email to get a reply in writing just to ensure we weren’t misunderstanding anything. YES! Paul was a Maltese Citizen (therefore Citizen of the EU country). YES! I could become a Maltese Citizen (therefore Citizen of the EU country). We could live, work, move freely anywhere throughout the EU territories? YES, YES, YES!!
So with that finding, our DREAM now became EUROPE!!!
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