I don't really have any guidance I can offer on this, because it's such a different situation to anything I have heard of.

Does anyone else on here have any advice? What happens when people have changed supervisors, since that seems to be the most similar scenario?

It wouldn't hurt to ask the interviewer for an update - if they got their letters on Monday and you haven't had yours, what if it has been lost in the post?

Ah I see, that does make it more difficult then, what a strange situation!

I think you'll be fine as long as your supervisor is a decent person and knows that you live further away and are being productive even when not at university.

That's quite a normal commute in some areas of the UK. I did it whilst working for about 2 years, and then I got fed up and moved 5 minutes drive away from the office instead.

It's not ideal, but it's manageable, especially earlier on in the PhD when you will probably work shorter hours anyway. And if your PhD isn't lab-based, you will be able to work from home some days.

Avoid online unis. They are a waste of time in most cases. Half of those you have mentioned aren't online nor in the US anyway.

Never heard of it, but that doesn't mean it's a scam.

I don't know much about Germany but I'll attempt to answer your questions:

1. Yes of course foreigners can get jobs in Germany, so long as they have the correct visas and met the job requirements etc. Age wouldn't matter.

2. I don't know the answer

3. I imagine it's very easy to get a pt job whilst studying - on UK visas most students can work 20 hours per week and I expect it's the same in Germany. You need to ensure you still have enough time to dedicate to studies though.

3.a. Yes you can get a job in corporate company - whether it's a good job or not will depend on your experience and expertise.

It's very difficult to get a scholarship as a self-funded student. In the UK, there are lots of charities and grant funding bodies that you can apply to for smaller sums, and I imagine that Australia has a similar system. Search on funding sections of different university websites.

Alternatively, you may need to start a new PhD and apply for a funded one.

Ok... well if I were you I would go to another academic for an opinion and some advice - either someone you know or the head of the graduate school, pastoral carer etc because you really need someone to look at what you've produced and see if it's going to be enough. You don't want to wait until viva stage and receive revise and resubmit or something.

People quite often come on here panicking about these sort of things and it normally turns out fine, but because you have little supervisory support I think you should make sure it's going to turn out fine.

In my second year viva, my assessor told me I might not enough for a PhD if my experiments don't actually produce positive results, but because my supervisors have said I will be fine, I am ok with it because I believe them, so I hope it turns out ok! I think you need to double check with someone and get some reassurance too.

It does sound like a difficult situation and I guess you only have 6 months left to write up and submit right? It goes without saying it would be shame to quit now.

Have you had any annual vivas? Did they give any indication of whether the amount of work you have done is enough for a PhD?

Well congratulations!!

And do tell us more details about the viva! Did they pick up on the stat error?

Consider whether you like rain and cold for 6 months - 9 months of the year, or 30C+ for most of the year.

I've sent my work to people before - I don't think they read it. It's too boring/has too much jargon. As I am out of the UK at the moment, I did send a Christmas newsletter to everyone back home with a 500 word layman's summary of my work, which I was told by several people was enjoyable to read and gave them a good understanding of what I was doing.

I think it's not that they don't care, it's that they are busy, find it difficult to understand, or just don't know how much it means to you to feel like you are supported.

Yep - never decline an often til a subsequent one is in the bag...