Is this TRUE!!

[vjs]

Hi to All

I have just been going through loads of paperwork reading up on different types of Visa Applications. Am I right in reading that for the Contributory Parent (Migrant) visa 143 you have to pay nearly £20,000 up front on 1st and 2nd instalments + Bond. If your visa was not accepted do you get any of this money back?

If anyone has any experiences either have been and done it or are going through it, would lovel to hear from all.

Keep sunbathing!! Don't forget your hats!

Viv

[Gollywobbler]

Hello, Viv

Mum, my sister Elaine and I all went througth this process together last year. Mum is now 86 so she thought it was Witchcraft - till she saw the visa-label in her passport.

For the Contrributory Parent 143 visa, the up-front application fee is $1,340. It is the same price for a couple as it is for a solo parent (Mum is a widow.)

The big money is the very LAST step i the process. By then, the CO and the family are both 100% sure that the visa is going to be granted, because everything else has been done.

It isn't a worry. The POPC received the big money for Mum on Monday 11 September. They got the OK from Centrelink on Friday 15. Mum's CO (a real darling called Kathy) granted the visa the same day. Her e-mail to me said, "Please book Barbara's flight to Australia because I have just granted her visa. The Grant letter is attached. Please print it and send it to London with Barbara's passport."

From experience, I can say this: the skilled appication process seems to be a bit of a zoo. However, Parents are treated like the most precious treasures on the planet - which all of you Parent-applicants are. NOTHING is too much trouble for the staff at the POPC and their atmosphere is calm, relaxed and reassuring. They do not believe that the process of migration should be alarming for an elderly parent and they go out of their way to ensure that it isn't.

You are not elderly. but the POPC will treat you as if you were 105 anyway! Just relax and enjoy the Red Carpet Treatment!

Cheers

Gill

[vjs]

Thanks Gill for your reply. Bit of a shock. The second instalment myself and Trevor (Husband) will have to pay $29,330 each = £12,056.80 (if my calculations are correct) plus they could be subject to adjustment apparently on 1 July each year! Be nice if they went down!!! Do you know if the monies are refundable if your application is refused? Or is it a gamble.... you pay and hope!

Silly question but novice at mo what is POPC?

Waiting for my daughter to return from Melbourne for a short break should arrive back this evening so we will have to discuss all this.

Now after all the above before we apply do my two have to be residence of Aus? Daughter lived three years in Sydney came back here for two months went back to Melbourne for a month and is just coming back for short break. Son lives in Sydney been there for nearly two years. Neither have taken residency yet. Can she do this still offshore? Even though she came back out of Aus and then went back and then returned to UK. Sorry all these mind blowing questions. I will stop now!

Good Luck to your MUM
Thanks
Viv

[Gollywobbler]

Originally Posted by vjs

Thanks Gill for your reply. Bit of a shock. The second instalment myself and Trevor (Husband) will have to pay $29,330 each = £12,056.80 (if my calculations are correct) plus they could be subject to adjustment apparently on 1 July each year! Be nice if they went down!!! Do you know if the monies are refundable if your application is refused? Or is it a gamble.... you pay and hope!

Silly question but novice at mo what is POPC?

Waiting for my daughter to return from Melbourne for a short break should arrive back this evening so we will have to discuss all this.

Now after all the above before we apply do my two have to be residence of Aus? Daughter lived three years in Sydney came back here for two months went back to Melbourne for a month and is just coming back for short break. Son lives in Sydney been there for nearly two years. Neither have taken residency yet. Can she do this still offshore? Even though she came back out of Aus and then went back and then returned to UK. Sorry all these mind blowing questions. I will stop now!

Good Luck to your MUM
Thanks
Viv

Hi Viv

One of your children MUST have Permanent Residence status in Oz before you can make a valid application for a Contributory Parent visa, because your PR child has to sponsor the application. If your son is on a 457 visa, that isn't sufficient. He does not need to be a citizen but he must be a Permanent Resident.

The fees will go up on 1 July. They always do. However, the 2nd instalment (currently $29,330 each, as you say) is a contribution toward's the Parent's future health-care costs in Australia. The actual cost of keeping somebody in a nursing home etc in very advanced old age can be around $300,000, paid for by Medicare. 10% of that is not too bad, in my view.

The Govt takes the view that there are humanitarian reasons for Oz to take a risk on having to pick up that size of bill, and that if the frail aged parent cannot be in Oz with their child/ren, the child/ren might have to leave Oz in order to care for the dying Parent elsewhere.

It all comes down to cost at the end of the day, with a tiny bit of civilisation thrown in, in my view. It is not conscionable to expect a young, skilled person to move to Oz and to become part of the mainstay of the economy tax-wise only for them to feel forced to leave Oz in order to look after a frail, elderly parent elsewhere.

Nonetheless, at 54 & 57, the Contributory Parent visa is the one that would definitely get you & Hubby in to Oz relatively quickly as long as one of your two children has PR in Oz. To try to get in via the skilled route at your ages would be extremely difficult. They operate on the weird assumption that it is difficult to settle into the workforce after the age of about 45. However, a Parent can be 105 and can (theoretically) stroll straight into a job! The antipodean logic defeats me, but it is a case of don't look a gift horse in the mouth, I suspect!!

Start at the beginning, Viv. One of your two children MUST have PR in Australia or the Parent-route does not become possible. Does your son intend to become a PR if he is not one already?

Cheers

Gill

[Mike and Connie]

Viv

POPC is Perth Offshore Parent Centre, it's where the Contributary Parent (CP) visa 143 is processed.
The second instalment of 29,330AUD each is not payable until you have passed all the requirements,so it is not a gamble.
My wife and I are hopefully coming to the end of the process,we have our medicals this Friday and if we are OK(the police clearances are also OK) then and only then do we pay the second instalment once requested.You can pull out at any time,you would only lose the first instalment,but once you pay the second instalment and the visa is granted then I'm afraid you would lose the second instalment unless some serious unforeseen happening occurred and you weren't able to validate it,eg one of you were to pass away and the survivor had a change of mind.
One other option open to you is to go for the Contributary Parent (Temporary) visa 173,the second instalment then is only about 17,000AUD,but you are only temporary and you have to pay the balance at the end of 2 years if you decide to become a permanent
resident.(I hope I'm right in saying this last paragraph-no doubt it'll soon be put right if it's not).
Good luck whatever you decide
Mike and Connie

[Gollywobbler]

Hi Viv

Just to add to what Mike has said, which is accurate, if you opt for the Temp visa first, you do not have to put up the Bond of $14,000 until you upgrade to the permanent visa.

I would suggest a chat with a proper Agent, just in case it would be possible to put together a convincing enough argument that the age of one of you should be disregarded for the purpises of a skilled or Business visa, assuming you could get the necessary sponsorship.

Treat the possibility of a CP visa as the insurance policy, maybe, because that would work if all else fails subject to the point about the child sponsoring you for a CP visa MUST have PR.

Cheers

Gill

[Anne & Bob St Andrews]

Hi Viv
We are in the final stages of our CPV. Our application was sent off in Jan 2006 and we are using Go Matilda as our agents, although it is a fairly easy visa to do yourself if everything is straightforward. We did our medicals in December (and police checks) and have just been asked for and paid the second visa payment. Our pre-grant letter said that a final decision on the visa would be made before 14 June and we were given a validation date of 25 July. I think that now the second payment has been paid they will grant the visa soonish.

Mike & Connie - I see that you live in St Andrews too. If you are having your medicals in Dundee, the Doctor is a very, very nice lady and I did a lot of worrying for nothing.
Anne

[vjs]

Thanks to everyone for your replies. We are going to sit round kitchen table this weekend and discuss.

Viv

[Mike and Connie]

Yes,we are going to Dundee tomorrow,good to hear that the doctor is nice.
Do you know whether she sent the documents to Aus by courier or regular post?

We have an estate agent coming around on Monday to do all the photos etc of the flat,and it'll be going on the market soon after. we've been assured that we'll have no problem selling,hope they're right.

Where are you planning to settle in Aus?. Our son lives in Melbourne so that is going to be our first choice.

Regards Mike and Connie

[Anne & Bob St Andrews]

Hi Mike & Connie
Re the medical reports, we never thought to ask how they were sent but I think it was by regular post as the doctor said that the reports would take about a week to get there. I am sure if you ask her she will arrange for them to go by courier. We had our medicals on 18 December and the doctor phoned us on 27 to say that she was about to send them, but I think it took so long because of the Xmas/New Year holidays.

We are moving to the Brisbane area where our son and his wife are, but not till next year, so you will be there long before us. The property market here is very boyant at the moment, don`t think you will have any problem at all. We are in Balone Park on the Craigtoun Road. If we can be of further help our no is 478146. We have got a villa to sell in Spain plus our house here and cat shipments to organise so are not rushing We have spent the last 15 years to-ing and fro-ing from the Middle East so are enjoying a break before the big move. We also have a daughter in Chester. Are all your family in Oz?
Regards
Anne