It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment that my desire for an Australian visa became the canvas on which all else – relationships, heartbreaks, new jobs, new homes – has been painted.

But suffice to say that over the past seven and a half years of living in Sydney, my journey towards permanent residency has become as much a part of my identity as my passion for reading, my love for early mornings, and my daily ritual of sunrise ocean swims.

I moved to Australia from the UK for a boy I met on a boat aged 29, on a working holiday visa. I had always assumed I’d stay about a year before returning to London, but while the romance didn’t work out, I fell head over heels in love with Sydney and it quickly became my new forever home.