When do you pay

Hi everyone, our daughter moved to just outside Perth 4 years ago. They would dearly like us to move out to join them, and we are considering it..?? But it's a heck if a decision at 62 each, and quite frankly it's driving us bonkers..!!

I have two questions;

The contributory parent visa. We know the cost, but on application- (be it granted), when is payment due..??

Secondly, anyone on the forum that have gone to Oz as parents? How are you finding things in general..?? Any replies/advice appreciated..

Thanks

Steve S in Kendal, UK.

Why bother? Your pensions wont be index linked, you won't get the winter fuel payment and other benefits and it will be cheaper to come to oz on holiday for 3 months a year for the rest of your lives than get the parent visa and move ver

Fair comments mate, were aware of most of them, but appreciated.. Cheers.

Fair comments mate, were aware of most of them, but appreciated.. Cheers.

Hi Sharpey,

I have applied for CPV 143, sent all paperwork in June with first instalment approx.£ Eleven hundred and 50 , still waiting for an acknowledgment from PVC in Perth, I believe the final payment is right at the end of the processing time between 12-24months ( see form 47PA ) on the DIAC website. Incidentally I am a few years older than you!!! so go for it if you are young at heart! good luck.

Haha..!! Cheers mate thanks..

Mate, re your last , are you going through an agent or doing it yourselves..??

Hi Sharpey, following disapproval from my daughter at the thought of spending a lot of extra money on a visa agent I decided to give it a go without an agent. I can`t give you any constructive feed back as yet but will let you know if I think it would have been beneficial as I get further down the line. Margaret

We came over on a CPV 2 years ago. We thought we would be in Brisbane but family ended up in Perth. Australia is an expensive country and Perth in particular. We came on lots of holidays, but it is not till you live here that you realise how expensive everything is. Prices are over-inflated as they think everyone is on mining wages. I would suggest you research house prices and rentals. Utilities are also expensive

Have a look here to see how much you would need to retire on:

http://www.superguide.com.au/how-super-works/a-comfortable-retirement-how-much-super-is-enough

We do know of parents returning to the UK due to the high cost of living.

One of our pensions is in the form of an Australian super, but apart from that all our pensions are in pounds sterling so we are at the mercy of the exchange rate. Our state pensions are frozen at the rate we started to draw them.

It depends what your interests are but we have also found it difficult to find friends of our own age here. I think they must all still be working! There is a lot going on for Seniors, but mostly in the 70 and 80 age bracket.

I am not trying to put you off but It is not a decision to be taken lightly. When we embarked on this both our children were supposed to be moving to Oz. Due to unforeseen circumstances our daughter is still in the UK, but is now talking about maybe coming over. Not sure, if she stayed in the UK, whether we would now apply for the visa.

Having said that you can’t put a price on being with family and we are thoroughly enjoying being able to spend time with our grandchildren here. We love the weather and being able to be outside most of the time, although it does get quite hot in the summer.

To answer your original question, the final VAC is due after the AOS has been paid, just before visa grant. I am not sure what the current processing time is, it was around 15-18 months, but Booklet 3 on Parent Migration is saying 12 months.

Good luck with whatever you decide. If you have any more questions ther is a parent visa thread which is a sticky at the top of the immigration forum. We didn’t use an agent and got loads of information from the thread.

Thanks very much for your last link. Your comments are much appreciated. It is, as you say, a massive decision based around the fact that we do miss our grandchildren very much. But we also have 3 still in the UK... Thanks VERY much for your input. Steve .