Traveling to Australia (two years into a pandemic)

The wee ones learning to navigate airports, finding the plane that will take us to a new continent.

Traveling with kidlets to another country, during a pandemic, is a lot.  But it is worth the effort for all of us!

Timeline:

• Received the Fulbright decision letter on April 5, 2021. That letter specified that the award was for travel between January and April 2022. However, the letter also highlighted uncertainty about actual travel, that the Australian border was still very much closed, and that we would all play it by ear over the next several months. 
• By August, 2021, I was worrying about visas and travel and feeling like the trip was not likely to happen. I reached out to the Australian-American Fulbright Commission, asking if we could be more flexible with the timeline given pandemic issues. They agreed and said we could plan for a start date as late as July 2022 (still with 4 month award). This was great news! But I also had to keep working to align the Fulbright timeline with ASU sabbatical timeline - I knew I had to be back by August 2022 to teach, so planned on a shorter trip if we had to (even if just a few weeks). Given this anticipated timeline, I decided to apply for a few U.S. conferences in March 2022 (one in Denver, one in Chicago - thinking I would be in the country....which turned out to be a logistical nightmare. Sigh.).

• In late Nov 2021, the Australian government announced loosening of pandemic border rules, and we were instructed by the Fulbright commission to begin planning to travel. However, Omicron then blew up almost immediately. Despite serious doubts, we proceeded forward and put in visa application as soon as we could gather all the documents that were required (it required a lot) - including setting our intended travel dates, which were set for Feb 20 (to Aus) and July 15 (from Aus).
• Visa application was submitted on January 14, 2022!
• The timeline we were given for the visa processing was 2-17 days. Ours took 17 days - the visas were approved on Feb 1, 2022. The subsequent 3 weeks were VERY busy.

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• We packed one checked bag each, two carry ons (one devoted entirely to 5 month's worth of my partner's type 1 diabetes supplies - tens of thousands of dollars of [priceless] supplies). 
• We were able to use ASU's PCR covid testing (thank you ASU!), and tested covid-negative 72 hours and 24 hours before our flight. We also took 16 rapid tests with us in the carry-on baggage so that we could do testing upon arrival and planned interstate travel within Australia once we were here.
• We flew from Phoenix, AZ to Los Angeles, California first. After a 5 hour layover (which included having to exit security to deal with our baggage and then make our way back through again due to the way we were traveling), we boarded the 15.5-hour flight from L.A. to Sydney. It was an overnight flight - and there were several empty seats still, so we were able to spread out a bit and try to get some sleep. 
• A full day of adventure awaited us upon arrival - more in the next post. <3