After planning for two years, making a very painful and, personal decision
Due to the illness of a family member and in part the loss of parents we were very close to. Grown adult children who had their own lives to lead, one working in the Caribbean permanently, another planning to move across to the ROI with my two only grandchildren and Irish wife by 2021.
Another consideration, we as an aging couple had the choice in growing old in a society where life was not sacred, politics were frightening and the future was far from rosy, or move closer to enable access to a family member who will need more support and settling down for retirement. Then a girlfriend and neighbour passed away suddenly which made our mortality much more real..
The options that made the most sense in our circumstances were the UK or Ireland. My husband leaned toward going home to the UK, but the prospect did not appeal to me.
Ireland was a more rural pace of life gentler and seemed more affordable to go through the emigration process (remains to be seen).
My husband an elderly retired Mathematics and Computer Science teacher and quiet gentle soul, and myself a still working aging specialised Healthcare worker with a lot of experience who is passionate about and loves what I do for a living. My career has been the work of an entire lifetime, but a homebody and country girl at heart.
I cannot stress the freefall and acrobatics required for the older people who consider this endeavour.
We downsized and moved into the newly completed granny flat attached to the house which we had started renovating in 2009 when we bought it. Rented out the house for a year, started the process for early retirement at work and put the house on the market after a year after investigating all the documents needed starting to work on building up the collection needed. Hired a local emigration specialist lawyer to assist with obtaining some paperwork.
Then ‘Covid’ happened. Starting in January 2020 we thought: “Oh dear, the poor Chinese.” By March it had escalated to a global pandemic. We had all our ducks in a row by March when lockdown started in South Africa.
The fear and realisation set in that we had sold the house, to top it off had no way to sell off our unwanted bits and pieces. Because anyone buying cannot inspect nor is allowed to fetch anything they have purchased.
Then we decided to ship the lot and sort things out when we got to Ireland as I have family there and my husband has children in Belfast who may take the excess off our hands if we find we do not need anything once settled.
Shipping alcohol is EXPENSIVE so avoid it if you can. Spices need to be sealed and declared. Tools need to be listed and need to be accompanied with a declaration of use, anything used for a trade in Ireland is subject to import duties.
Personally if we had enough time I would have sold at least 50% of what we have shipped and probably have regretted it due to our age and sentiment attached to some of the items (inherited).
By mid July we were leaving. Then the flights, Oh my, the arrangements documentation and hoops to get onto a repatriation flight was pure stress and adrenaline. Thank heavens for Adriaan from Jenny’s travel. Initially we were flying Emirates unitl we were informed that they were only leaving from Johannesburg. We lived in the Cape Province, and due to Covid we were unable to travel to other provinces unless more paperwork, quarantine and it was just one ship too far. We investigated and found that KLM was departing from Cape Town International on the 18th of July, we booked informed Adriaan. My last working day was literally 17th July.
Completed Income tax for 2020 sold one car, got Execumove in on the 15th and 16th packed the lot, sold the second car to ‘We Buy Cars’, excellent service, we drove her to the day we left and money in the bank same day.
My son dropped us off with our carefully weighed luggage at the rendezvous point at Greenpoint stadium. When we reached Cape Town international terminus we were awaited by a large contingency or SA Police officers, we were kept in the bus while the luggage bays were opened and dogs sent in. After 10 minutes we were allowed to disembark and enter the building with our luggage. Then the SA Police and officials looked through our documents after which we queued to weigh in for the KLM flight. The flight was extremely full.
Due to our advanced age after 10 hours of extreme discomfort we were not in a good place when we landed at Amsterdam Schipol airport for our connecting flight to Dublin. The flight was a little late so we took off 45minutes after landing for Dublin. Schipol Airport gate for the Dublin flight was quite far and we were so afraid of missing the flight we literally ran all the way.
With all the confusion, bags and laptop cases etc my hubby forgot his jacket in the overhead with his passport and cash in Euro. The purser brought it over along the length of the airport just in time. Wow, I have seen less handsome film stars! The poor man was used to being stared at so he shrugged off all the stares. Dublin airport was not as quiet as expected, we took a taxi to our pre-arranged quarantine accommodation just 1,2km away.
We were sequestered for 14 days in student accommodation which was very comfortable. Each block had 4x separate rooms (en-suite) with a common room and kitchenette which was fully equipped. We were allowed to get essentials and exercise during the 14 days. Laundry and Wi-Fi included. We also booked accommodation for after quarantine and started looking for homes and vehicles online. I ordered an An Post phone chip online with assistance from our local family. It was delivered to our accommodation a week later.
On the 15th day our family picked us up and took us through to Cork City where I had found a job.
We then of course registered interest with the authorities online in order to get an appointment with immigration, only to find that there are HUGE delays due to ‘Covid’ not allowed to attend in person.
We then explored for 2 days and then started looking at homes again, rented a car and went looking outside the city. Cork City was impossible. Tiny and horribly expensive, less said the better. We found a place in the countryside near Cork City and will commute.
It has been an eye opener, accommodation windows in Ireland can barely open definitely no air-conditioning. At 22ºC the humidity is killer and the discomfort level is extreme. Buildings are insulated very well, an ode to things to come from past experience in the UK.
After finding accommodation and with an address we proceeded to purchase a car. Please do NOT purchase a car older than 2011 and engine size larger than 1,4. Age, kilometres etc. will determine if you can get insurance.
FIRST get a vehicle deposit then check if it can be insured for the first year driving in Ireland, then when insured(because it is the hardest part) and eye wateringly expensive can be half of the car price of purchase. Then we moved out of Cork City to better and more affordable accommodation nearby until rental is available and to get to know the area.
Butter, Yoghurt, options in supermarkets, food in country hotels are lovely. People are decent and friendly.
Don’t buy nail varnish removers gels or any other stuff, they don’t work get the fluids (in Lidl small pink and blue bottles). The country brogues can get you into trouble: Asked a local where to buy masks and he said what sounded like ‘pawn shop’ so I asked where and which pawn shop? He said no phone shop still sounded like ‘pawn’ to me and lucky for me my husband being British got it the first time, they were both laughing their heads off, then I realised what they were thinking. Men!
Have not had time to miss the kids yet as we lived 100km away and saw them only 2 to 3 times a year due to distance and work pressures.
Hope to make some friends as I miss them dreadfully, at our age realising it may be more difficult.
And it has only been 10 days, feels like ages.
Important links:
#MapMyMove- Our coaching Services - Confused or lost and need some direction, book a session with us to help untangle the confusion and work out your route of immigration
Bringing Dependant Parents under EU Treaty
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