Gareth 666

Any idea how long the more complicated RRV’s (needing to go down substantial ties route but under 5 years away) are taking to process right now? No clear answer I can see on Immi website. Ta

I bow to your vastly superior knowledge. I couldn’t see a way to do it!!

You will need to create an Immi account for everyone going back and then apply individually for the RRV’s. When you do the first one, I did mine as I was the original PR applicant, you can make a family reference number which you then add to all the other applications. This ties them together from what I can make out. $410 per visa and each one will need certain documents uploading like passports, original grant letter…. It won’t let you submit until you’ve added all the required documents.

Some removal companies offer an airfreight service as part of the whole shipping malarkey. Worth asking while you’re getting quotes if you’re shipping a container.

We made it!!!!!!!! I went through first with a landing card filled out with '0' in the length of stat box. The immigration officer asked if I was just transiting and asked for flight details. I showed him the checked in details and said the rest of the family were coming through. DD sailed through then DW took DS. The officer cast her passport a glance and mentioned she needed to get it renewed then sent her in her way. No dramas!! Happily now sat in the lounge killing 8hrs...

I would like to just add that when we booked this flight it was the return leg on our initial outward emigration flight. We booked a return as it was the sensible thing to do and as British Airways only release flights 330 days in advance the flight was originally returning within the time the passport was valid. The only reason it has gone over is that we split the booking when we decided to use the time our container was at sea to have a break. The Oz to Singapore leg was still in the passport validity window and it's only because we have to go through immigration today that the problem has come up. Among all the other things we had to plan to get our move home sorted this one thing got overlooked. It's a genuine human error that caused me to post a question in the UK Chat part of the forum asking for other people's experiences and advice.

Thank you for your helpful input.

Thanks, we have to go through immigration as we're flying in on a budget airline then on with BA so can't transit through. DW has been in touch with the CEO of the budget airline to make sure they let us on and that seems ok. It'll be up to the officer on the day. We'll see if BA let us check in online later today.

The ship is due in 24th August. The delivery of our furniture etc to our house is booked for September 1st. Yes, that's eight days but that's eight days for unloading, customs clearance, re-packing into a van and delivery to home. I don't think that's too bad?

I've had a docking date of August 24th from the handlers in the U.K. and they've booked us for delivery on September 1st. They don't expect clearance to take more than a few days at most.

Quick update for anyone interested. I've spoken to Singapore immigration and they confirmed the required 6 months minimum but they've said as there's no time to get the passport updated it will be up to the immigration officer on the day to advise us how to proceed. They also said that having our onward flight checked in will be a help. We can check in online 24hrs beforehand so we'll have that. Here's hoping for a bit of leniency and some common sense.

Thanks for all of the advice guys. We could try to leave her 'air side' in transit and check in online. I could take DD & DS to check bags in as we're lucky enough to have used Avios to upgrade to Club World so 2 bags each. I got a twitter reply from Changi Airport who gave me a number for Singapore immigration. We'll have to sort a SIM card today and call them.

Hi, I remember Suzuki Scottie, so sorry to hear of your loss. Don't get me started on the joys of Facebook and Gumtree selling in Oz.... We were also shifting stuff before the move back and the amount of time wasters is flabbergasting. Even when you're giving stuff away people just don't turn up and can't be bothered to let you know. We had one guy really interested in the car, he asked loads of questions, made arrangements to come see it and then..... Nothing. DW sent him a polite message ta ask if he was still interested and instead of replying or even making up some BS, he just blocked her!!!

Hi, We've hit a potential snag with our journey 'home'...... Just got to KL international airport to fly on to Penang for our last 6 days killing time on the way home and the passport officer noticed one of our passports has just under 6 months left. We thought initially we was going to refuse entry but his concern was where we were going next. We said the UK next week via Singapore. He reaction was we might have a problem in Singapore as they're pretty strict. We said it's only a transit and we have onward flights booked. He let us proceed but warned us it's our risk. I've looked around and can't find a definitive answer to this so I've emailed British Airways (our carrier home) and also the Singapore visa authority. If we don't leave the transit area it looks ok as there's no need to go through Singapore immigration. However as it's two different airlines we can't check the baggage through from Penang to Heathrow, meaning we've probably got to go through immigration to get the bags and check them back in..... Does anyone have experience of Changi airport please when transiting through to say if we have to go 'out' and bank in again, even better, has anyone got through in similar circumstances? Ta

Hi Has anybody moved back recently and can give their experience of how long it's taking to clear their household good through customs? I tried looking on HMRC web site but couldn't find any info. Has the TOR made things better? Ta