yomvard

Hi Phoebe,

I dont think they give you a bank account to pay it into, mores the pity. On immi web site, I think they specify, cc details or bank draft I think . I dont know why they dont as you could just more the money across giving ref. details and all would be sorted.

Sandy

Hi Sandy

 

Les and Steve are right. Stay away from the banks with the 2nd Instalment if you can. That said, I have heard of a case where an applicant for a Contributory Parent sc 143 visa asked HIFX to send his money for the 2nd Instlament direct to FIAC. Three weeks later, he found out that they had not done it.

 

Can you arrange for one of the currency exchange companies to credit an account held by one of your sons, so that he can then send a bankers draft to DIAC?

 

How did your son get on at his AoS interview on 11th August, by the way> I assume that there are no AoS hassles to worry about?

 

Cheers

 

Gill

Hi Gill,

Problem with putting it in one of the boys account is that it is treated as income by the tax people so he has to declare it. Rich was worried about that amount showing on his account. The AOS went like a dream and Rich accepted as a sponsor and Centrelink letting CO know last Monday. Sent last of documents yesterday, so just awaiting Colins meds to be cleared and then have to sort getting money over there. I just assumed you could courier a bank draft over to Perth, but they wont touch anything financial at all.I phoned HiFX and they said they would sort it when I needed to, but now you have scared me again. I have an London Transfer account ready with Commonwealth Bank who assured me ,when I opened it, they would send the money to my as yet unoped account in Melbourne then send a bank draft to Perth. When I spoke to a jobsworth about how long notice they needed, I was told I needed to go to London with ID to get the Melbourne account opened. He then said he would send a form for me to get my local bank to authorise our identity. He then announced that it would be a favour to send a bank draft from my account in Melbourn to Perth. He said he could send a dollar draft to me here and I could get it to Perth. When I asked how they would get it to me here from London.....royal mail of course and my risk. With a $68k draft you think I am going to risk snail mail and Aus Post with such a package !!!

He snottily said most people do that....yeah right. So back to square one again. So what do most people do. Not keen on credit card as reliant on their exchange rate. Every dollar counts boys......

regards

Sandy :arghh:

Could anyone please advise the best way, apart from the credit card method, to send the 2nd vac across to CO. Have looked at getting a dollar bank draft and couriering it across, but the couriers wont do it. The London office exchange rate is rubbish, so any other suggestions.

Sandy:arghh:

Hi Gill,

Yes they do no like units although my future daughter in law had a lovely 2-bed from what I could see from the pictures. The main no-no seems to be body corporate units or houses as you are always having to pay out for service charges etc. bit like leasehold here I think. They seem to be very common and especially when a plot has been subdivided and a single story(bungalow) or double story( house)....getting the jargon already....is built on the divided garden. It seems harder to find and a lot more expensive if it is freehold. yes the other side of the Peninsula is much cheaper but not so pretty as Mornington and Mt. Eliza and there seems to be the spectre of the BP refinery which has spoilt the beaches and the views. However it seems that away from the beaches in Hasting it is a nice town. Have to explore around...maybe Somerville and South Frankston, which is also expensive, but hey we dont want a mansion.

regards

Sandy

I have just heard back from my CO and we do not need to send form 956 unless someone else is acting for us, family or agent. Thanks sandch you were right.

Can Gill, Steve or someone help with a form please !! :confused:

I have been asked by the CO to send the form 956. I do not have a migration agent as we are doing this ourselves. How do I fill in this form when it asks about changing agents etc. I have got to part 6 and ticked the third box which then tells me to go to part E and promptly asks for details of migration agent or exempt agent or authorised recipient details. Do I put my own details:arghh: in again ?

At last, we have a Case Officer and have 49 days to get all info to them..ah..

So excited I cant think straight .:arghh:

Dont stop there, gravy granules!!!......

I too have had a couple of up and downers with the male chauvanists at Melbourne Airport!! I am not the little women who has to shut up and do as I am told!!!!:arghh:

Remember we were the post war children, no money, no shoes on our feet but WE SURVIVED :smile:...........in the past I have typed labels on a bettered old typewriter for 1p each 1000 at a time, made hand knitted garments for a tenner a time to feed the family in bad times, delivered free newspapers, delivered yellow pages etc etc, there are always options for the people who WANT to do it.....so let that be our motto(parents on PIO) we WILL and CAN SURVIVE, ok cuddles wont feed our bodies but they will feed our hearts and souls................the rest is easy :biggrin:

 

Phoebe

you are so right, we do what it takes to survive, and anyway we are hardly likely to get to that stage again, after all,. we know how to live frugally as we have had plenty of practice!!:arghh:

Hi Sandy

 

And if you and Colin did it together? Or you and one of your daughters in law did it together?

 

I'm NOT trying to push you into anything. I'm merely trying to ask you what might be possible and sensible. If an idea is not a good one, we can ditch it and think of something else.

 

I think you are capable of earning much more than my mother is capable of earning. Mum likes folding leaflets because it is mindless enough work that it leaves her mind free to worrit about the family, if you see what I mean? Which is precisely why it also pays peanuts as well.....

 

I'm also not convinced that you would not brood and worry unless your mind is busy as well as your hands, if you see what I mean?

 

Cheers

 

Gill

Hi Gill,

of course, I hadn't thought of Colin or daughter in law helping. That sounds a possibility, but of course i would have to get qualified etc. With regard to keeping my mind active, that is a definate necessity. I will be looking at lots of ideas, including maybe helping with migration visas etc. but again need to look at getting qualified. trouble is my old brain won't be able to absorb enough to get serious qualifications but can learn from example etc. Thanks Gill, brilliant as usual.

regards

Sandy

Hi Sandy

 

I know that it sounds harsh to say it, but my feeling is that your sons are right, hun.

 

Something that might suit you is 'respectable child minding' during the day? When my sister's first child was a baby, he went to a child minder every day till he was 3 because Elaine was working full time for the AWTA and she did not give that up till shortly before her second son was born.

 

We had no idea that he might have been mistreated by the child minder. We only know tiny bits and pieces, I suspect. We did learn that if this woman considered a child to be naughty, she pushed the child into the cupboard under the stairs, locked the door and the child was left in the dark.

 

When Peter was about 5, he developed a stutter. He was frightened of the dark for years if he was alone in the dark. He wet the bed intermittently till he was 12. He is now 15 and he developed asthma about a year ago - which does not run in either family.

 

I suspect that bad things might have happened to him when he was too small to speak up and too small to tell his Mum. Maybe he was threatened with the idea of bad things if he told his Mum, but who knows?

 

The child-minders on here (the Chlld Care Co-ordinators with degrees in the subject etc, plus they are mothers themselves, which I'm not) were horrified when I told them the little that I know. Their reaction was far more protective of the child and extreme than I had expected. I merely asked them whether part-time trauma in childhood can produce such effects later, when the child seemed perfectly happy when he was very young?

 

They said that it is completely wrong to frighten a young child, no matter what he might have done - which I can readily understand. But because it also never happened to me, I find it very difficult to imagine the effects - why does it cause apparently un-related symptoms, if you see what I mean. It is impossible to understand the subject when I know nothing about it, I think.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

Hi Gill,

My computer seems to have sorted itself out !! Anyway thanks for the idea of childminding, but I wouldn't be able to run after a little one in a wheelchair if she started running away. Obviously a tiny baby would be fine, but not once they started walking and running. But there are other things I could certainly look at. Thanks for advice :unsure:

Hi Phoebe,

Definately, somedays I feel 18 again, then again some days it is 90 !! Is it my computer, but I am having trouble replying with quote and also putting a thanks up. Is anyone else having the same trouble ?

Sandy

Hi Audiopop,

That sounds great, we are just at the CO stage anytime now and hoping to make the jump in about 18 months if exchange rate allows. We are coming over in Jan/Feb hopefully to validate. We know where Sandhurst is, nice area, so hopefully we will meet up

regards

Sandy

Hi Gill,

Sorry, I have just found your thread, but don't panic. WE ARE NOT PULLING OUT!!! Definately not. Just panic regularly, but hey, as you have said, our boys are there and tell us it will be okay. We are ready to make a lot of compromises to be with them, and they assure us we won't starve !!!

its always the unknown and leaving a safe job etc. it is scary that at our age, it wont work, but your Mum is brilliant, wish we were going to Perth as a lot of PIO's are going in that direction. But there will be lots of people in Mornington of our age and position so will get out there and find them. i would love to get a job, so maybe I can do what Mum does !! Thanks for your brilliant support as usual

regards

Sandy

Hi caththone,

There are so many of us in the same position and age. When we started with this, it all looked so possible but then wallop everything changed and now, especially at 4 in the morning, it is so scary. then at dawn and looking at the family photos, hey, do we really need to eat anyway, perhaps family kisses with do the job.