KandM

I seem to be behind your curve again Steve, I complete on a property this Friday so moved out £800k on thursday at £1.54 ready for the completion.

Never mind, as they say here " We have a colonial style property on acres" something that we are rather pleased about, and they did throw in the tractor to cut the grass!!!

I somehow think my retirement is going to be a little more energetic that I planned, still G&T's with family on the verandah watching the sun set, worth it all, so if any of you are passing by!!

PS, bring you own Gin!!!:biggrin:

K&M

Just a few months ago I went on line and opened a NAB current and internet account, very easy to do.

I then also opened an account with UK Forex.

If I want to send funds to Oz I now go on line and easily transfer money from my Nationwide current account to UK Forex who then change it to Oz $ and transfer it into my Oz on line account.

I can not take any money out of the Oz accounts until I have been to one of their branches over there and prove my identity and pick up my cards etc.

 

Something I posted last May regarding me paying my VAC.

I received an e mail from a different CO, mine was on holiday but at least the process was not held up, asking for the 2nd VAC payment. It was requested I pay by Visa Credit or with a A$ Bank Cheque in Oz.

I could not pay on a Visa Credit card as I could not pre load any of my cards, I am told it is against the rules, or increase my limit to cover the cost.

I could not pay with a Bank Cheque in A$ I do not have any money in Oz and any bank who provided the cheque in the UK has to have representation in Australia. None of my banks do and I don't know which have, perhaps HSBC.

As the exchange rate was very poor it was cheaper to pay in London anyway, so I decided to go this route.

I contacted my temporary CO to tell her of the problems I was experiencing paying in Oz and that I would like to pay in London which she said was ok.

So I downloaded the Payment Mandate and filled it in ticking the box to pay with my debit card, included a copy of the e mail from my CO requesting the payment, a return self addressed envelope and a covering letter. A couple of days later the money was taken and I received a receipt with a short note telling me they had also e mailed a copy of the receipt to my CO. All very easy and straight forward.

This is exactly how I did it and it worked perfectly!!! Just double check the exchange rate first though as the rate is getting better this morning!!

K&M

I didn't know it was the 1st of April!

 

Charlie

 

:biggrin:

I know it is spring in Australia but this is a true story!!!!

http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/airport-security-not-a-happy-little-vegemite/story-e6frfq80-1226140108790

Sir Matt will be pleased!!

K&M

There must be something special in Vegemite, and Sir Matt is right,

Kevin Rudd the Australian Foreign Minister has been caught smuggling a jar of the stuff from Mexico City to New York and has had to use his influence with the Mexican Authorities to get through the security at the airport, it was flagged as " A potentially Dangerous Liquid"

Never had this problem with Marmite!!!

K&M

Hi

Welcome to the free thinking free talking forum for those on the long and difficult journey to obtaining a parernts visa to Australia. Over time we have become a bit of a community and like all communities you go off on tangents at different times. Do you only ever talk about the journey when travelling with your better half. How boring. If you do not like the forum please go and join the one that died because people only wanted to discuss "factual issues" on the visa process. Many of us posting have already got visas and are here to help others with the journey.

We could easily go elsewhere then where would you get your information.

Sorry for the rant but we lost one good thread through meddling by "moderators".

Well said, you have my full support!!! The variation on this site is what makes it a pleasure and sometimes a damn good laugh to follow and what makes you log into everyday where ever you are, and how far down the process you are, or how for long you have had your visa!!!

Please Lincolnshire Poacher leave things as they are, if you are not happy with the tone of this forum may I strongly suggest you move to the BE one.

K&M

Our problem has not been with the agents (or our solicitor) - they have been good, giving us weekly updates and using their own 'sales progresser' - but with people lower down the chain who have been very slow.

 

(The chain has 'broken' twice - 3rd or bottom person) As our buyer was desperate to have our property (at a very good price) it made no sense for us to pull out and start again as we don't think we would have got anywhere near the price we've agreed on. We looked at other agents but the one we went with seemed to have lots of boards locally and fairly quick turn-over.

 

We're not out of the woods yet but we hope to exchange on 15th September.

Good luck :biggrin:

Funny you should comment, we were looking at giving them the big E this weekend as we have been with them for 11 weeks and nothing. I think we will take encouragement from your comments and change if this couple do not put an offer in by the weekend. :unsure:

Good move!! I really hope all goes well, and get yourselves out here!!!

It has been 16 days since we arrived and I feel as though I have been here for years!!!!!:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

K&M

Well, quick update to all the well wishers.

They came:wub:, they saw:eek:, they left :wideeyed:, very difficult to judge. Waiting for feedback from the estate agents:arghh:. Just keep telling ourselves, it is posssible to sell to the fiirst to view, just hope it is our turn. In all the houses we have sold this has to be the most important and stressful just hope we did not overdo the:chatterbox:.

Some thoughts!!!

We sat with the same Estate Agents for 9 months with sporadic interest from people who in my opinion should not have been looking at the type of house that we had.!!

We changed agents and that worked wonders, different type of people and we had a firm offer in six weeks of the change of agency, with completion six weeks later, It is worth a thought!!!

If nothing else you will get a different perspective of your property from a different agent, what do you have to lose????

:idea::idea:

K&M

It was in Woolworths (Lake Haven) at the end of the Asian isle, but amongst other British stuff such as Colemans etc.

I have checked out Woolworths and Coles at Erina Fair on the Central Coast but with no luck!!:nah::nah:

Tuggerah next I guess!!!!

So many of my forum friends who have travelled with me on this roller-coaster are now on their way or about to leave. We nearly lost our sale ..... again and another person has joined the chain which brok lower down a couple of weeks ago.:cry:

 

After a strongly worded email from me demanding some answers, we now have an exchange date so we've getting a little closer to the end of this bumpy ride. Provided there are no more hitches we are due to exchange contracts on 15th September!!!!:eek:

 

Completion day could be anything from 1 to 6 weeks after that so I'm hopeful that by the end of October our flights could be booked and our stuff packed into the container. Phew. Still on target to arrive before the summer hots up so fingers crossed.:wacko:

Well I hope your luck changes, you have had a few setbacks so now it is time to go full speed ahead!!!! :smile: Good luck for the 15th September,

K&M

We changed nearly all our UK plugs for Australian ones.....all illegally of course as you are not allowed to do it yourself! We also changed a couple of 4 way UK trailing leads to use with chargers.

Hi Julian,

Are you saying that you are supposed to have a qualified electrician to change a plug in Australia?????:biglaugh:

And I would also mention:

" What a fantastic gorgeous sunny day on the Central Coast":biggrin::biggrin:

K&M

A further update on the journey to retirement and spending time with our only daughter in the Central Coast NSW.

Bishop’s Move the removal company came in on the 8th of August, with the 40’container arriving on Thursday 11th, this caused chaos as he had to reverse half a mile as our house is the last one in a cul- de- sac!! A very skilful driver. We then blocked the bottom end of the road for the next six hours, though no complaints from the neighbours, maybe they were pleased to see us go!!!!

We chose Bishop’s Move over Pickford’s as they offered us four weeks free storage in Sydney, both estimates were very close at around 1,550 to 1,600 cu ft, reality came in at 1,650.

Total cost for the sole use of the 40’ container came in at £6880 from Bishop’s move which includes all packing to export standard and delivery and unpacking in Australia using Kent Movers with the removal of all the packing materials.

The only possible additional cost will be the AQIS fee at around $560.

A note of interest a 20’ container would have cost £4800 which holds 1100 cu ft and for every additional 100 cu ft of goods we would have to pay £600 which would have gone as Groupage inside another container. So the 40’ route was cheaper!!

We completed the house sale on 12th August and flew out that evening on Emirates.

My wife and I disagree as to which is better, Singapore or Emirates, I am of the view that the service on Emirates is better but the seats on Singapore are better. The wife reckons the Emirates is better all round!!

Phase one is now complete!!

We arrived into Sydney on the first flight of the day 6.05 am Sunday morning, to torrents of rain!!!!

So we queued up at the immigration desk, not too long as we were the first flight in, handed over the passports, a nice smile and “welcome to Australia” we were not asked by Customs or Quarantine to open our four suitcases and we were out of the airport by 06.30 am.

So we are now in a fully furnished out of season holiday let in Terrigal Beach, with a two minute walk to the beach, ten minutes from daughter ,though it has rained with some sun most days since we got here, it is still great to be here.!!!

So what have we achieved in the first complete week??

· Bought a car on the Monday a Toyota Rav 4. ( always fancied a 4X4)

· Signed up to Medicare, they were very helpful.

· Picked up the car on the Tuesday.

· Went and saw a house also on Tuesday, one we had seen online in the UK.

· Went to the RTA office on Wednesday to get Licenses and register the car, that was expensive!! A tip, they asked for three types of ID for the licenses, they wanted :

· Put an offer in on the house we saw on Tuesday on the Thursday, offer accepted, deposit paid, so we waived the 5 day cooling off period and completion takes place in 42 days time, the 30th September, the day our container docks in Sydney.

So we are now resting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Enjoy the journey

K&M

:biggrin::biggrin:

Morning all, the AUD $ has continued to drift against the £ after it's weekend rest and is moving through $1.577 in an upward tread (at the moment).

 

In practical terms you now now buy $25,000 for less than £16,000 (it touched £17,000 a few weeks ago).

 

Can't give any advice but in February when we paid our second vac we had to top up our Oz funds at this rate which happened to be the lowest rate of exchange in almost 3 years that we used.

 

It has gone from bad to worse and is now back to bad but getting better.

 

I have always felt the best option is to go for the best average you can hope to get, so now maybe a time to dip a toe in the troubled waters, unless you feel lucky and wait for a few dollars more, well do you feel lucky? :wink:

We changed some on Friday at £1.54, using UKforex for the first time, very efficiient, we have a buy in at £1.64, you can always hope!!!!

Today is the first day of three with Bishopsmove, and it is going remarkabley well, going much faster than I expected, will try and give a progress report as we go!!

Really interesting post from k and m

I had the packing experience yesterday. I used John Masons and they were excellent. My original quote was for 500 cubic feet but those 76 boxes looked more than that to me! Either way, my load will be classed as groupage so will be in a shared container. Partly because of that,I am not flying till September but when i go it will be with Emirates. I have always found them excellent and they go from birmingham, 12 miles down the road. I love the 380 so always make sure i book the flights on that-some of their flights stop at bangkok and use a smaller plane!

You also get 30 kgs as standard or 42 with enough frequent flyer points which is really helpful!

Still getting the 3am wake ups but hoping they will diminish now i am irretrievably committed!

Fiz

Hi Fiz,

John Mason's declined to quote as we are far too down in the West Country, so we dealt with the ones that had a presence down here.

They have estimated that we have around 1800 cu feet of items and furniture etc to pack, though apparently this is only a guide, I think next week is going to be rather hectic!!:huh:

Hi K&M

I've been following a few peeps on here now and I just wanted to add my best wishes. It all sounds fantastic... I cant wait till we're in the same position!!

 

Regarding the flights: we've only flown Emirates on out trips out there (mostly because we fly direct from Glasgow - missing out Heathrow) and I have to say that I couldnt fault them at all! We had been lucky enough to use our skywards points for an upgrade the last time but only from Melbourne to Dubai but it was fantastic... wish we could do that all the time (how the othe half live)!! Do you mind saying how much you paid for the tickets and how much kg's are allowed?

 

By the way, I have a sindy doll house in the loft but my daughter has 2 boys and no intention of having any more so she wont be wanting that brought out, thank goodness! The things we keep eh!!

 

 

 

Janey

Hi Janey,

thank you for the update on Emirates, we have been looking around for sensibly priced tickets on the main airlines, BA/Qantas/SIA/Virgin/Emirates and they all came out on the high side, there is no doubt a single fare is not half the cost of a return!!

We are going business and the cheapest via www.skyclub.com came in at £4,340 for the two of us inc all taxes. ( The average for the others came in out £6K plus so we were starting to think premium economy)

The Emirates tickets also included a UK pick up and an Australian drop off, we live down in South Devon so we are coming up to near London on departure day as we have sold the wife’s car to friends in London so Emirates will collect us from there. We are certainly impressed with the drop off in Australia, all the way to Avoca Beach.

I am assuming that we have 40kgs each which will be sufficient, unless the wife gets carried away!!! That should last us until the container arrives, the question with spring going into summer in the central coast what to pack in the suitcases and what should go in the container!!

We are also having to carry out in hand luggage valuables (Not that Many) personal paperwork (Birth / Marriage certificates etc) laptops, I pads, so I guess it all mounts up. I know that they double the allowance for those migrating to Australia so maybe they will double ours??

Great update, thank you Keith and Margaret!

The drop in your house price must have hurt, but the end justifies the means!! You are on your way, enjoy!

Whereabouts are you heading on the CC?

We will be there November and December, but sadly we will have to return to UK in January. (Haven't been able to convince other half yet)

Have a brilliant new life, I'm sure your daughter is excited. Mine is and we are only going for a holiday.

Cheers pam

Daughter lives in Avoca Beach but we are looking to buy inland as we prefer the countryside, so thinking " At the Moment" is the Yarramalong Valley or Jilliby, we have stayed in Kulnura at Forest Park www.forestpark.com.au a number of times so we do like that area.

I think daughter is looking forward to us arriving as the container will be half full of all her things, mostly pictures and toys, we asked if we needed to bring the dolls house etc, we were told definately!!! She is 37 years old!!! and has no children!!

Still she is the only one so we have a 40' container instead of a 20' container.

I am convinced that children get more expensive as they get older!!!:biglaugh:

An update on the journey to retirement and spending time with our only daughter in the Central Coast NSW,

We were granted our CPV143 visa’s on the 20th May 2011 but with the house not sold we were reluctant to go, but the thoughts of another winter in the UK focussed the mind, so a change of agent a drop of 35K and a total of 11 months on the market, the property has sold with completion on the 11th August.

We have had quotes from four movers, PSS, Britannia, Pickford’s and Bishop’s Move, we chose Bishop’s move, not the cheapest but they came across well and offered 4 weeks free storage in Sydney should we need it. I think we might as we will need to go some to find the property we want and buy prior to the container arriving in 8 to ten weeks.

The movers arrive on Tuesday next week for three days of wrapping and packing with the 40’ container being loaded on the drive on the third day hopefully finishing around 4pm, then a night in a local hotel and the journey up to Heathrow on Friday the 12th. Total cost of the container with delivery in Australia to the Central Coast is £6,880 excluding insurance. Be careful as they charge 3% fee for credit card transactions, cheques and debit cards are free.

One car has gone and the wife’s car goes on departure day, as a courtesy I called the insurance company to inform that we would be leaving the country on the 12th and with the policy expiring in November I thought that I should tell them, they then asked for a cancellation fee to cancel the policy, we agreed to disagree with the final words being ” I have not called you and I am not cancelling my policy” !!!

The next task was the air tickets, one way tickets!! So online and using the web found WWW.skyclub.com and talking to Mary Brown who is very helpful we are booked on the Emirates 20.40 fight out on the 12th. We have never flown with emirates before, it has always been Singapore Airlines or BA/Qantas, in fact we both hold KrisFlyer silver cards on SIA but with the unbelievable price from Skyclub we are on our first Emirates flight, I am keen to see the difference as we are on the A380 all the way and we have done three trip on the SIA A380, should be interesting.

So the next adventure begins, retirement and quality time with daughter,

For all those still waiting, it does move very quickly in the last month!!! Good luck and if you can enjoy the journey and yes we were also up talking about it at 3am in the morning!!!

Keith & Margaret

:jiggy::jiggy::biggrin:

In the unlikely event we sell our house for more than we expected we may be able to go Business Class but I'd rather put the money towards a new car/things for our new home. Its only for 24 hours after all and after all the ups and downs so far we can put up with a bit of discomfort!

 

At least we just got confirmation from our agent -WE NOW HAVE OUR VISAS!!!!!!!!:chatterbox:

Congratulations!!! Well done!!:jiggy::jiggy:

Like you we now wait for the house sale, we are reluctant to leave the UK without having sold the house, house sales are very slow down in South Devon, but always optimistic, we had a viewing this evening which seemed to go well so we wait and see!!.

We would not look forward to another winter here, it get's cold even in South Devon, so fingers crossed maybe we shall hear something in the morning!

KandM

Visa granted 20th May 2011

Off to Central Coast

Hi Steve,

Could you please award the rare Red Star please, we received notification today from our Case Officer that our CPV 143 visa was granted today.

It has certainly been an interesting journey, all went well until the medicals where we hit a bit of a hurdle. My wife failed due to faint traces of blood in here urine sample, we were told to see our GP who in turn sent my wife to a consultant and for ultra scans of her kidneys.

This of course took time, so finally after two 28 day extensions from our very helpful case officer we received the all clear letter from the consultant though the letter went walk about in the Royal Mail somewhere, we finally got there with one day to spare on the second extension.

On receipt of the medicals in Sydney everything moved ahead very quickly with the request for the 2nd Vac on the 13th of May, we paid via London via a Visa Debit card on the 16th May. A tip send a copy of the 2nd VAC payment request with your mandate as it speeds up the process, I forgot to send ours though Eric at the London Australia house was exceptionally helpful.

I chose to pay via the Visa Debit card as it was far simpler than using a Credit card, the Credit card people were making waves when I asked to extend the credit limit on the card to £46,000.00, I fell out with them, I have always believed that as far as the bank is concerned I am the customer and I tell them what I want rather than them telling me, we do occasionally have words!! I do then tell them that Barclays is always next door!!

If you elect to pay via London you need to get a different payment mandate to the Perth one from as the London one is for £ and the Perth one is in AU$ the amount for the conversion is available on http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/990i/converter.htm the link on your Tracker page is perfect.

I would thank everyone on PIO for the assistance and encouragement that has made the journey a lot easier and with a bit of light hearted fun on the way, good luck to all those still waiting, it does pass ( In Hindsight always easy) very quickly.:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

KandM

:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin: Have received email informing C.O. been granted today . Just under 12months from acknowledgement. Now busy form filling aagain etc.

Well done, now get working:biggrin::biggrin:

Congratulations:jiggy:

Sorry dont have the answers for you but can you tell me where you got the medical forms from....wouldnt hurt to have a little peek :biggrin:

 

Phoebe

www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/26.pdf Medical

www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/160.pdf X Ray

YES, YES, YES, we have our visa, checked email at 3am this morning as couldn't sleep, and there was our grant letter. Have to work today before wine and tinny tonight!!!!:jiggy::jiggy::jiggy:

Congratulations!!! Welll Done!! I am sure it was all worth the wait!!!:biggrin:

G'Day

 

The Sydney Morning Herald Commercial Property section sometimes has an ad for a brothel!!

 

Mike

I wonder if you would qualify for this Visa if you bought the business?:biglaugh:

Business Visit Visa Options

Business visitor visas are for business people to visit Australia for business purposes, for example, to attend a conference or training session, to conduct business with an Australia-based organisation, to conduct business negotiations or for an exploratory business visit.

Business activities do not include acting, musical performances or commercial film making.

Hi K&M

 

In 2 years of reading PiO and BEP and any other site with links to Oz tax law this is the first time I have read that a private individual will pay tax on a currency gain, (apart from lots of 'I believe/think' you pay tax type posts).

 

Was your paid for guidance in the UK or a Tax official from Oz?

 

Time and time again I have asked for anyone to give an example of a Pom who has paid tax on a currency gain (or claimed a tax loss) and have not had one taker.

 

I would love to see the evidence of the tax in question, maybe your guide gave you a link that we could examine?

Hi Les,

Yes it was UK Accountants that clarified the tax position to me, and they certainly charged enough for the privilege.

It is my understanding that the currency Gain/Loss is part of the capital Gain or Loss that you make when you convert it to the A$ as shown in my example of the money in savings (£450K) in the UK which you are required to report annually to the ATO for your Australian tax return, and this is declared in A$ not pounds thus you will always have a currency variation of some sort.

Steve (SANDCH) made the following comment which is also my understanding:

I believe the currency gain would be an element of the capital gain on realisation and thus form part of assessable income in Australia. The cost base would be the value at the time you became resident I think, converted at the then exchange rate. The ATO is probably not interested in anything other than the Australian Dollar result of a capital gain event - thus currency movements form part of the gain or loss. There are allowances in the form of discounts available for captal gains tax in Oz.

Alan Collett's from Go Maltilda references are as far as I understand it are also confirming the same thing.

Of course if you bring out all your assets when you move to Australia or within a defined period it will not apply.

Of course the next subject on finances that needs to be discussed is the dreaded QROPS. The moving of your UK SIPPS fund to a HMRC approved Australian Qualifying Pension Fund.

I have done some research but this could turn out to be an expensive process if you are not careful.

Hi

Could someone quantify "growth" as I have always taken it to be the increase in value via interest and dividends, not the increase in Oz dollars due to a fluctuating exchange rate.:confused:

Anyone got definitive answers, possibly Alan my be able to comment.:em0800:

pete

Hi Pete,

A response on the subject from Alan would be interesting.

I have taken some guidance on the subject (Paid for) as I will probably leave an unsold UK house and a large investment in a UK private UK Company.

• I have been told that the house being my primary residence is not subject to any gains but if I sell it and bank the money then I will be taxed in A$ on any gains from the day after my arival in OZ. So if the money in the UK bank is on arrival date £450k at A$ 1.60 the Australian value is A$720k if in the next OZ tax year the UK sum increases to £463,500 (3% gross) and the the rate is now A$ 1.58 bringing the Australian value to A$ 732,330.00 it is my understanding you will pay Oz tax on $12,330.00,.

• As to the UK investment I have ensured that I have a formal certified value of the company prior to departing UK so that if the company gets sold at some future date I will only pay Australian tax on the growth since my arrival in OZ.

• Of course I will be taxed in OZ on any company dividends that get paid to me, hopefully many!!