WelcomeIf you are new to Poms In Oz and migrating to Australia or currently living in Australia feel free to say hi to all the other either in or moving to Oz.
thanks for the feedback re the over 50's complexes. My mother in law lived in one in Sydney. our thought was to get somewhere completely self contained, so that if they have any other visitors they could use it too. A lot does depend on what they buy obviously. This is our way of keeping positive about the whole heart rending separation!
We are laying plans now by gradually decluttering, changing working hours to save lots of pennies etc
I have emailed the visa people to find out the possibility of more than one six months visa, as this may have an impact on our decision, and will have to go down the CPV route in the appropriate amount of time, havnt read up on that quite so much as yet, understand the money visa charge bit but not too sure on the sponsors income side, they don;t go until May 2008 anyway.
Hi and Welcome.
We are going the CPV route, bloody expensive and taking longer by the day. Sponsors income isn't too important as you also have the option to have an Assurer of Support. The Assurer can be virtually anyone I think (don't quote me) but they have to prove they have an income of over $41,000pa as they will be agreeing to financially support you if necessary for 10 years. They also have to put down a deposit of around $14,000 (again don't quote me) which they do get back after 10 years if you haven't drawn any state benefits in that time.
Your sponsors have to have been permanent residents for at least two years before you can apply. It will also go on balance of family, I'm not sure ifyou have other children.
CPVs are currently taking around 15 months to get through, but reading on other threads, there is currently a waiting list of 7,000 applications and they only take 3,500 a year, so even if you do go the CPV route, by the time you are eligible to apply, the queue could be even longer. Sorry, only found this out at the end of last week and was on a downer about it for days afterwards, still am , if truth be told.
But never mind, after you pay him lots of money and wait a few years, that nice Mr Immigration Man will finally say yes! Won't he? Please?
we need to be very sure we want to go before spending all that money! where are you headed Jean?
Our son will be going with his girlfriend, an Aussie, back to her home town area, NE Victoria. We plan to have a visit around October/November next year.
I still want to do the six months in each country, visa's permitting
We are not too sure yet where we will actually finish up. One son in NSW, second son going to apply next year, but will go to Victoria, other relatives in east of Melbourne, but we actually like East Gippsland, although it is a little remote. So, we will wait until we actually get our Visa as by then everyone else will be settled and we can make our decision.
thanks for the feedback re the over 50's complexes. My mother in law lived in one in Sydney. our thought was to get somewhere completely self contained, so that if they have any other visitors they could use it too. A lot does depend on what they buy obviously. This is our way of keeping positive about the whole heart rending separation!
We are laying plans now by gradually decluttering, changing working hours to save lots of pennies etc
I have emailed the visa people to find out the possibility of more than one six months visa, as this may have an impact on our decision, and will have to go down the CPV route in the appropriate amount of time, havnt read up on that quite so much as yet, understand the money visa charge bit but not too sure on the sponsors income side, they don;t go until May 2008 anyway.
Hi Mopsy and welcome
My mother now has a CP visa and before that she had loads of long-stay tourist visas.
I saw an e-mail from DIAC in London a few months ago, saying tthat they do not consider the subclass 676 long-stay tourist visa to be a means of spending half of each year in Oz every year. However, I've not heard of them being unduly sticky with British Parents, either.....!
With regard to the CP visa, the Sponsor's income is less relevant than the income of the Assurer of Support. They are often the same person, but they are two differing roles, legally.
The current requirements for the Assurer's income can be worked out from thisexcellent article by Alan Collett:
(At least, it can be by anyone whose Maths is better than mine, which is virtually everyone else!)
Jean, unfortunately, is right. Alan Collett told us all recently that the CP visa has become over-subscribed and he is predicting that the waiting times for it will increase (so are other Agents.)
If so, it would pay to make the actual CPV application as soon as you can, firstly to save time once you are ready to make the move to Oz and secondly because it will "freeze" the costs at the rate in force during the visa year when you apply. The price of this visa is increasingl steadily and it is linked to the cost of providing health care in Oz, I have heard. The increase this year was 7.41% according to a mathematically -minded kid in the office who did the sums for me.
Also, our experience was that DIAC become far more relaxed about tourist visas for British Parents once a CP visa application has been made.
We are going the CPV route, bloody expensive and taking longer by the day. Sponsors income isn't too important as you also have the option to have an Assurer of Support. The Assurer can be virtually anyone I think (don't quote me) but they have to prove they have an income of over $41,000pa as they will be agreeing to financially support you if necessary for 10 years. They also have to put down a deposit of around $14,000 (again don't quote me) which they do get back after 10 years if you haven't drawn any state benefits in that time.
Your sponsors have to have been permanent residents for at least two years before you can apply. It will also go on balance of family, I'm not sure ifyou have other children.
CPVs are currently taking around 15 months to get through, but reading on other threads, there is currently a waiting list of 7,000 applications and they only take 3,500 a year, so even if you do go the CPV route, by the time you are eligible to apply, the queue could be even longer. Sorry, only found this out at the end of last week and was on a downer about it for days afterwards, still am , if truth be told.
But never mind, after you pay him lots of money and wait a few years, that nice Mr Immigration Man will finally say yes! Won't he? Please?
Jean
Hi Jean
I really feel for you, hon (and for Mopsy and all the others.) Mum's visa took 9.5 months from posting the application to the date it was granted, and with better organisation at our own end we could have shaved a month off that time. That was quite bad enough, I can tell you, hence I now do everything in my own power to support and encourage CP visa applicants.
Like you, I was VERY disappointed by Alan Collett's recent news. There is nothing he can do about it because the political will to change the situation does not seem to be there. Id have thought it should be obvious that every increase in the quota of skilled migrants will inevitably ALSO increase the number of Parents wanting to follow their children to Oz...
If I thought I could get enough support for the idea, I would start a formal Pressure Group about this. Do you think we could get enough support for our views to do any good?
Gill, I'm with you on any pressure group, now that I'm lucky enough to have my visa! Just as long as they don't chuck me out for being a trouble-maker at an advanced age.
Sorry, only found this out at the end of last week and was on a downer about it for days afterwards, still am , if truth be told.
