The Brand New PIO Parents Visa thread

Actually the fact we have had the grandchildren from 7.30 this morning could have something to do with it???????????

 

 

 

Sounds like you deserve a glass of wine! Angie x

I know what that feels like! - think I'll open a bottle too and join you

Cheers Jane and Clive!!

How is life for you now? I see your 'line' reads Living the dream. How is that dream going?

Do you often have your grandchildren to care for?

Spanish inquisition ended........sorry!!

Enjoy your wine......

Cheers Pam

any thanks Mike for your information.

Just a note for people who are coming over on a 2yr cpv visa. We have been here for 2 months now and have been told by Centre Link and our CO that unless we have the permanent visa we are not eligable for Medicare or the Senior Card even though we fully intend applying for permanent residency.

When you think of the amount of money the 173 visa costs it seems a bit mean not to let people have Medicare cards especially when we first applied the immi.gov web site stated we would get one. They must have changed the rules somewhere along the line, so be warned. Living the dream anyway and just got a house in Avoca Beach NSW right down the road from our Daughter and family, and a new grandson 4 weeks ago FANTASTIC :-)

http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/medicare/reciprocal-health-care-agreements

Check whether you can access Medicare under the RHCA.

Best regards.

Just a note for people who are coming over on a 2yr cpv visa. We have been here for 2 months now and have been told by Centre Link and our CO that unless we have the permanent visa we are not eligable for Medicare or the Senior Card even though we fully intend applying for permanent residency.

When you think of the amount of money the 173 visa costs it seems a bit mean not to let people have Medicare cards especially when we first applied the immi.gov web site stated we would get one. They must have changed the rules somewhere along the line, so be warned. Living the dream anyway and just got a house in Avoca Beach NSW right down the road from our Daughter and family, and a new grandson 4 weeks ago FANTASTIC :-)

As Alan says in the previous note you get a medicare card marked as reciprical health care. It does allow you to visit the doctor and they will bulk bill to medicare, if they bulk bill. When you apply for your upgrade it changes to something else and when you have PR then you get the full medicare card. Thats what the nice lady we saw told us at medicare when we registered

Just a note for people who are coming over on a 2yr cpv visa. We have been here for 2 months now and have been told by Centre Link and our CO that unless we have the permanent visa we are not eligable for Medicare or the Senior Card even though we fully intend applying for permanent residency.

When you think of the amount of money the 173 visa costs it seems a bit mean not to let people have Medicare cards especially when we first applied the immi.gov web site stated we would get one. They must have changed the rules somewhere along the line, so be warned. Living the dream anyway and just got a house in Avoca Beach NSW right down the road from our Daughter and family, and a new grandson 4 weeks ago FANTASTIC :-)

G'day

It may be the luck of the draw as to whom you see at Medicare. When we went in with our 173s we got (what we think are) full Medicare cards – at least they are a different colour from our former "reciprocal" cards. We were, however, told to see them again when we got our full 143s. (At that point we had already applied for 143s – perhaps that makes a difference.)

Mike

G'day

 

It may be the luck of the draw as to whom you see at Medicare. When we went in with our 173s we got (what we think are) full Medicare cards – at least they are a different colour from our former "reciprocal" cards. We were, however, told to see them again when we got our full 143s. (At that point we had already applied for 143s – perhaps that makes a difference.)

 

Mike

Cheers mike.s

Thanks for the info everybody. We were told that even though we are both British Citizens and have of course British Passports, because we had been living in the Republic of Ireland for the last 14 years we could not have cards. I don't see what difference it makes where we have been living, we have paid for our visa's and are British. Maybe we should have just got a boat into the country as illegal immigrants, we would probably have got everything for free with no arguement.

It doesn't seem fair to me.:wacko:

. We went with our 173 and were given temporary one year cards which will update later,we have used Medicare successfully on several occasions unfortunatley and not had a problem.

 

Cheers mike.s

Cheers Jane and Clive!!

 

How is life for you now? I see your 'line' reads Living the dream. How is that dream going?

 

Do you often have your grandchildren to care for?

 

Spanish inquisition ended........sorry!!

 

Enjoy your wine......

 

Cheers Pam

Still living the dream and very upbeat in spite of the coldest wettest winter in adelaide for 30 years! We bought a house 2 weeks after we arrived in early October (not as foolhardy as it sounds as we had been looking on line for months and had narrowed down the areas on previous holiday visits) We moved in just a month later and had fun refurnishing (we brought very little stuff with us and it didn't arrive until Christmas).

Clive has joined Probus and the local Bowls Club and I have taken up quilting and aquaerobics - new country, new life and new hobbies! We don't see the grandchildren as often as we thought we might but have meals with the family every couple of weeks, do the odd school run and babysit occasionally. We look after the girls more in the Summer holidays and make use of their pool too. I expect we will dog sit/walk too as they now have a new puppy.

We joined a local church and they made us so welcome - we had many offers of meals in the early day and have made many good friends there - Aussies and Brits. They have a cafe which serves up to 500 meals a week and I help in the kitchen most Fridays - its great fun and I get a free meal and lots of Lattes to keep me going. We walk most days and there are lots of footpaths near our home - its a bit hilly but it keeps us fit. The beach is only 15 minutes away too and we make frequent trips to nearby McLaren Vale for winetasting and the great Farmer's Markets. We've had short breaks (thanks to travel Auctions) to Clare Valley where we cycled the Reisling Trail - not bad as we hadn't been on a bike for 50 years!, Victor Harbour - whale watching, Goolwa - boat trip up the Coorong and are off to the Yorke Peninsular in a couple of weeks and Barossa in early October.

Our son is coming out for 5 weeks in December so the family will be together for Christmas for the first time in 7 years. I still pinch myself when I wake up on a sunny morning or drive round the beautiful Adelaide Hills seeing Koalas and Kangaroos. We've seen and done so much more but I won't bore you with all that. If you want links to picture albums/blog or Facebook please PM me.

So yes, we are still living the dream and have no regrets ....... good luck to the rest of you still waiting to get over that last hurdle.

Still living the dream and very upbeat in spite of the coldest wettest winter in adelaide for 30 years! We bought a house 2 weeks after we arrived in early October (not as foolhardy as it sounds as we had been looking on line for months and had narrowed down the areas on previous holiday visits) We moved in just a month later and had fun refurnishing (we brought very little stuff with us and it didn't arrive until Christmas).

 

Clive has joined Probus and the local Bowls Club and I have taken up quilting and aquaerobics - new country, new life and new hobbies! We don't see the grandchildren as often as we thought we might but have meals with the family every couple of weeks, do the odd school run and babysit occasionally. We look after the girls more in the Summer holidays and make use of their pool too. I expect we will dog sit/walk too as they now have a new puppy.

 

We joined a local church and they made us so welcome - we had many offers of meals in the early day and have made many good friends there - Aussies and Brits. They have a cafe which serves up to 500 meals a week and I help in the kitchen most Fridays - its great fun and I get a free meal and lots of Lattes to keep me going. We walk most days and there are lots of footpaths near our home - its a bit hilly but it keeps us fit. The beach is only 15 minutes away too and we make frequent trips to nearby McLaren Vale for winetasting and the great Farmer's Markets. We've had short breaks (thanks to travel Auctions) to Clare Valley where we cycled the Reisling Trail - not bad as we hadn't been on a bike for 50 years!, Victor Harbour - whale watching, Goolwa - boat trip up the Coorong and are off to the Yorke Peninsular in a couple of weeks and Barossa in early October.

 

Our son is coming out for 5 weeks in December so the family will be together for Christmas for the first time in 7 years. I still pinch myself when I wake up on a sunny morning or drive round the beautiful Adelaide Hills seeing Koalas and Kangaroos. We've seen and done so much more but I won't bore you with all that. If you want links to picture albums/blog or Facebook please PM me.

 

So yes, we are still living the dream and have no regrets ....... good luck to the rest of you still waiting to get over that last hurdle.

Hi Jane and Clive, your new life sounds wonderful and pretty much parallel to what I imagine ours to be very soon. We're at that "last hurdle" paying the 2nd visa charge (worrying about the big chunk now missing from our retirement pot) but to read your post has boosted our morale enormously. Our house purchasers are very keen to hurry things along and so its a question of what will happen first Visa or "homeless" :biggrin: I also have designs on taking up bike riding after "achem" 40+ years (o.k. 49 years) much to my husband's pessimism - he doesn't think i'll do it - but you've proved it possible.

Thanks, Val and Matt

p.s. I'd love to see your photos?

Still living the dream and very upbeat in spite of the coldest wettest winter in adelaide for 30 years! We bought a house 2 weeks after we arrived in early October (not as foolhardy as it sounds as we had been looking on line for months and had narrowed down the areas on previous holiday visits) We moved in just a month later and had fun refurnishing (we brought very little stuff with us and it didn't arrive until Christmas).

 

Clive has joined Probus and the local Bowls Club and I have taken up quilting and aquaerobics - new country, new life and new hobbies! We don't see the grandchildren as often as we thought we might but have meals with the family every couple of weeks, do the odd school run and babysit occasionally. We look after the girls more in the Summer holidays and make use of their pool too. I expect we will dog sit/walk too as they now have a new puppy.

 

We joined a local church and they made us so welcome - we had many offers of meals in the early day and have made many good friends there - Aussies and Brits. They have a cafe which serves up to 500 meals a week and I help in the kitchen most Fridays - its great fun and I get a free meal and lots of Lattes to keep me going. We walk most days and there are lots of footpaths near our home - its a bit hilly but it keeps us fit. The beach is only 15 minutes away too and we make frequent trips to nearby McLaren Vale for winetasting and the great Farmer's Markets. We've had short breaks (thanks to travel Auctions) to Clare Valley where we cycled the Reisling Trail - not bad as we hadn't been on a bike for 50 years!, Victor Harbour - whale watching, Goolwa - boat trip up the Coorong and are off to the Yorke Peninsular in a couple of weeks and Barossa in early October.

 

Our son is coming out for 5 weeks in December so the family will be together for Christmas for the first time in 7 years. I still pinch myself when I wake up on a sunny morning or drive round the beautiful Adelaide Hills seeing Koalas and Kangaroos. We've seen and done so much more but I won't bore you with all that. If you want links to picture albums/blog or Facebook please PM me.

 

So yes, we are still living the dream and have no regrets ....... good luck to the rest of you still waiting to get over that last hurdle.

Thanks for this.

I have pmd you, but forgot to ask can you give me your blog, facebook links please.

I am such a saddo, I watch anything and everything to do with Oz!! Even repeats of Border Security!!!! So new photos would be good.......

Cheers Pam

Thanks for this.

I have pmd you, but forgot to ask can you give me your blog, facebook links please.

I am such a saddo, I watch anything and everything to do with Oz!! Even repeats of Border Security!!!! So new photos would be good.......

 

Cheers Pam

I remember it well - I've watched anything to do with OZ including Home and Away and Neighbours. Even stayed in Sydney where they film H&A a few years ago. Met Alf at the Surf Club too ............... Never imagined I would be living here back then.

Noticed a few previous comments about Medicare. Works fine for us. I had a nasty virus a few weeks ago with all sorts of scarey symptoms. Saw our doc (free) and had blood tests the next day (also free) and full scans 4 days later (got 2/3s of the cost of it back) Very thorough and it turned out the virus was on the way out and I had gall-stones! Had sheets of photos and comprehensive list of the state of all my internal organs (re-assuring) Would also recommend taking out Ambo cover. I came close to needing it! Haven't bother with medical insurance.

Shame we have to pay for prescriptions but not nearly as much as I was expecting and they are capped. Will get a big reduction when we are entitled to our Commonwealth Seniors cards in just over a years time! Chemist's own brands and discount warehouses save a fortune too.

At least we get free travel and lots of other perks being 'Seniors'

Hi everyone - after the frightful week we've had - today is a good day! Today, my daughter has posted bank draft to PVC and so we wait (should be used to this by now). Its my birthday next Tuesday, wouldn't it be a wonderful prezzie if our Visa was granted on that day (yeah, I know probably too quick for DIAC!) but if it was in the same week as my birthday that would be soooo good!

On Monday of this week, I didn't think I'd be saying the above, as the funds which we "sent" to our son's account by a FX company the week previously, had not been received! Suffice to say sleepless nights and many phone calls later, the funds came back to the UK (huge relief) and so we then changed the recipient to our daughter, and the funds were in her account by the following day. We have no explanation as to what went wrong, the details were checked and all o.k. The only difference seems to be that there were four "intermediary" banks involved in the transaction and somewhere along the way, it got "lost". Extremely worrying and also very aware of the 28 days ticking down (yes, probably could have got an extension in the circumstances???)

Anyway, we seem to have got back on track, so here's hoping we get to crack open the champagne in a double celebration!

Val x

Hi Val

How scary that all your money went'missing'!

Glad it was sorted and you are back on track.

Happy birthday for Tuesday (might not remember then!) and I hope the champers is in the fridge ready for whatever time of day you hear that email click "VISA".........

Cheers Pam

Hi everyone - after the frightful week we've had - today is a good day! Today, my daughter has posted bank draft to PVC and so we wait (should be used to this by now). Its my birthday next Tuesday, wouldn't it be a wonderful prezzie if our Visa was granted on that day (yeah, I know probably too quick for DIAC!) but if it was in the same week as my birthday that would be soooo good!

 

On Monday of this week, I didn't think I'd be saying the above, as the funds which we "sent" to our son's account by a FX company the week previously, had not been received! Suffice to say sleepless nights and many phone calls later, the funds came back to the UK (huge relief) and so we then changed the recipient to our daughter, and the funds were in her account by the following day. We have no explanation as to what went wrong, the details were checked and all o.k. The only difference seems to be that there were four "intermediary" banks involved in the transaction and somewhere along the way, it got "lost". Extremely worrying and also very aware of the 28 days ticking down (yes, probably could have got an extension in the circumstances???)

 

Anyway, we seem to have got back on track, so here's hoping we get to crack open the champagne in a double celebration!

 

Val x

Hi Val

What fantastic news and such a relief! You are definitely nearly there now. We seem to be well behind you. Our CO has only just aked us to complete the Form 80 so still a long haul for us!! Fingers crossed you hear something next week ooo... it's very exciting!!! Angie x

Hi Val

 

What fantastic news and such a relief! You are definitely nearly there now. We seem to be well behind you. Our CO has only just aked us to complete the Form 80 so still a long haul for us!! Fingers crossed you hear something next week ooo... it's very exciting!!! Angie x

Hi Angie, best of luck with Form 80! I couldn't really see the point in that other than to kill more time. Most of the info was on the original application form and as for "list all jobs since school" - well, that was a guessing game! I suppose its to make sure you are who you say you are, but blimey, if they're not sure of that by now........

Anyhow, enjoy your Bank Holiday, looking for old P60's and trying to remember where you've been on holiday in the last 10 years - old photo's are a good memory jogger - and you can reminisce at the same time! Best of luck!

Val x

p.s. Just checked Auspost tracker and the bank cheque is received and signed for - phew! Might be booking flights next week............fingers crossed! Sooo excited!

Hi Angie, best of luck with Form 80! I couldn't really see the point in that other than to kill more time. Most of the info was on the original application form and as for "list all jobs since school" - well, that was a guessing game! I suppose its to make sure you are who you say you are, but blimey, if they're not sure of that by now........

 

Anyhow, enjoy your Bank Holiday, looking for old P60's and trying to remember where you've been on holiday in the last 10 years - old photo's are a good memory jogger - and you can reminisce at the same time! Best of luck!

 

Val x

p.s. Just checked Auspost tracker and the bank cheque is received and signed for - phew! Might be booking flights next week............fingers crossed! Sooo excited!

Hi Val. Yes I imagine you are getting really excited now! You are right the Form 80 does seem be pointless as it duplicates most everything on the original application. I feel it's just formality and 'ticks' boxes at the Immigration office. But hey ho it has to be done. Took me ages to list the jobs I've had but managed to remember dates thank goodness. As for holidays - it really is guess work!

We took the plunge and booked our flights a few weeks ago so we fly out on 19 October. It's taking a chance but at least I could let them know at work so that they could find someone to replace me. Hopefully it won't be long for us now either!

Have a lovely bank holiday too - you can relax now and enjoy a nice glass of wine (or two)

Angie x

Have a lovely bank holiday too - you can relax now and enjoy a nice glass of wine (or two)

 

Angie x

Yes, what's all this about a glass of wine? Whenever we sit down, a whole bottle seems to disappear pretty fast!! :arghh:

Mike & Sue

Yes, what's all this about a glass of wine? Whenever we sit down, a whole bottle seems to disappear pretty fast!! :arghh:

 

Mike & Sue

I'm glad you posted this!

I wanted to, but I got such dirty looks yesterday at Fat Club, when I laughed as someone suggesting freezing leftover wine!!

Didn't know there was such a thing............

Cheers Pam

CAN'T BELIEVE IT YET, BUT..........VISA GRANTED TODAY..........EXACTLY FOUR WEEKS FROM ALLOCATION OF CASE OFFICER!

Just out for the day in the Cotswolds and looked at my phone to check the time and there it was - the email we've been waiting so long for!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! The celebrations have begun.......

I love you all.....especially our CO - you gorgeous girl!!!

Fantastic news Val!

Congratulations and enjoy your early birthday celebrations!!!!!!!!!!

CAN'T BELIEVE IT YET, BUT..........VISA GRANTED TODAY..........EXACTLY FOUR WEEKS FROM ALLOCATION OF CASE OFFICER!

 

Just out for the day in the Cotswolds and looked at my phone to check the time and there it was - the email we've been waiting so long for!

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! The celebrations have begun.......

 

I love you all.....especially our CO - you gorgeous girl!!!

Wow! Many many congratulations to you both. How fantastic!!.....and Happy Birthday to you too. Our turn soon me thinks!!! Angie x

Fantastic news Val, really pleased for you both. Our container was picked up today, John Mason's did a fantastic job. It's certainly happening for us all now! Have a great birthday and celebrate in style.

Kim

Our container was picked up today, John Mason's did a fantastic job. It's certainly happening for us all now! Have a great birthday and celebrate in style.

Kim

We have booked John Mason's too Kim so good to read your positive comment. Angie