Retirement Visa's

[carolynr6280]

I am making this enquiry on behalf of my mum. She is wanting to emigrate to Perth and has been looking at retirement visas but has got herself confused.

She is 61 and does not work at the moment. She has about £500,000 in assets (house/shares/bank accounts)

She has read about the investor retirement visa and is wondering what she would actually have to invest in?? Also she is unsure of the amount she would need to invest as some say $750,000 and some say $500,000. It is not that she can't afford to invest either amount of money but was thinking of using her money to buy a house in Perth and then living expenses/keeping some invested in the shares she already has.

My brother is already living in Mandurah, WA and I am hoping to go across next year on a student visa and understandably she doesn't want to be left behind with no family around her.

Please can anyone help??????

Many Thanks

Carolyn xx

[Gollywobbler]

Hi Carolyn

Are you and your brother in Mandurah your mother's only 2 children?

If so, why is she not considering a Contributory Parent visa instead?

Cheers

Gill

[carolynr6280]

Hi Gill

Yes we are her only children. My brother went out on a sponsorship visa last July and is not a PR for another 18 mths i think - would he have to be permenant for her to go on contributory parent visa??

Carolyn

[Gollywobbler]

Hi Carolyn

Yes - your brother must have PR before your mother could apply for a CP visa.

For the time being, an Investor Retirement visa probably makes sense.

If she chooses to live in a "non-regional" part of WA, your mother would need Au$750,000 for the Designated Investment, plus another Au$750,000 in free assets to take into Australia. She could use the second AU$750,000 to buy a house or hold it in shares or in cash. The first AU$ 750,000 goes into some sort of State Government Bond or similar. I've heard that the yield on the capital is good at the moment and is paid to the retiree. IN addion, in a non-regional area your mother would need to prove an income of Au$65,000 a year. The income from the Designated Investment can be put towards this.

If she chooses to live in a "regional" part of theState instead, then subsitute Au$500,000 x 2 and AU$50,000 for the figures above.

Check the postcodes. The link is below:

Regional Australia/Low Population Growth Metropolitan Areas - Workers - Visas & Immigration

I know that Mandurah is "regional" and so are some suburbs of Perth.

Please also see this link:

Go Matilda - Your Gateway to Australia - Visa, Tax, and Financial Planning for Australia

I'd give you the exact link but the Go Matilda forum seems to be down at the mo. Go into the forum and click on "Find," Then choose Advanced Search. In the Author box, type Howard Snow.

Howard Snow has an Investor Retirment visa and has moved to Mandurah. He did not use an Agent and he has written a lot about the IR visa on the GM forum.

If you have any queries you want to ask him about, send him a PM or post a thread asking about Investor Retirement visas because he does still keep an eye on the GM forum and will answer you within a few days..

Cheers

Gill

[cazbeckham]

Hi Carolyn

Yes your brother would have to be a Permanent Resident and have also be settled in Australia and by settled the governing bodies mean 2 years is considered settled.

We are going on a Cont. Parent Visa and although everything is done now including payment of Assurance of Support we still have to wait until July for our visa as they have now run out of them till July, shame really as we were just about to be asked for our 2nd payment and granted our Visa in January.

So just another waiting game. For your interest we applied in Feb 2007 so by the time we get our visa it will be 17 months from start to finish. I also think that if the quota is not upped from the current 3500 visas per year there will be a queue forming as in the normal Parent Visa applications although not quite as long.

IF you need any other info please email me or Gollywobbler will help you out as she has a knowledge of information to give and she helped me too - Thanks Gill.


Best wishes and good luck

Caz

[carolynr6280]

Thank you to both of you for your responses. I will try and contact Howard Snow regarding this situation.

Carolyn