560 days later, Australia announces border reopening

18 months ago the future looked very different. Our boy had just gone back to Sydney to finish his second year of college. We had tickets to go visit him in April of 2020. He was planning on doing his final schoolyear in New York at an exchange program with Pace and living with us. 

We all know what happened next, but I don't think any of us foresaw Australia completely closing its borders for almost 2 years. While the wealthy, famous, and politically-connected were allowed to come and go as they pleased, everyone else had to petition the border force for permission, and very few exceptions were granted.

Re-reading my post from March, it's hard to conjure my mindset from 18+ months ago. The intervening time feels like both an eternity and a blink of an eye all at once. But here we are today, long cut off from someone we love so much, booking the plane ticket that will bring his sparkling joy back into our home. We can't pick up where we left off, we just have to go someplace new together.

I'm still scared that Australia will backpedeal this decision at the last minute (they've done it before). To that end, we bit the bullet and bought a fully-refundable ticket as an insurance policy against border changes, and to make sure he's at the front of any rebooking queue that might develop from those changes. It's a ridiculous amount of money, but, hey, at least he'll make United 1k out of the deal :P

This current reopening (scheduled for mid-November) allows Australian citizens and permanent residents to leave the country and return again, but does not permit foreigners to enter the country yet.

Full details of the press conference over on the BBC.