Freesia

How do you know in advance though that you'll have work every day to meet your deadline? 

Youngfreewild

you have to have PR & there is no rule that says you have to have been a PR for 2 years- as you said, you just have to satify DIBP that you are 'settled' PR's.

So along with your documented evidence that you've put together, write them an essay about your life & how you deem yourselves to be settled here; what your jobs are & your lifestyle/ how you spend your leisure time / what community facilities you use/ how you support your neighbourhood & how you've fitted in locally etc / church/ sports & social groups/ children's activities. Make it personal .

In the guidelines for the Parent visa, it says something like if whereabouts are unknown, the place of residence will default to wherever he was generally known to live ie country of birth. So you just inform them you have no idea of his wherabouts & if they want to check further with you, they'll ask.

Hi everyone, just joined the forum and have lots of questions...Basically, have a daughter in Perth (full resident) and family. They've been out there for 6 and a half years.

They dearly want us to go out, and I am sorely tempted. We've looked at the 143 contributory visa, but on getting to the ripe old age of 65 next Friday 15.1.16, would it be any better going for a Visa 864..?? Am I right in saying by doing it that way the cost may eventually be a bit more, but easier and quicker in that you can go out and apply for the full visa while you're there..Thanks for reading in anticipation.

Yes, if you're ready to go & eligible I think it would make more sense to get a grant in 6 months rather than 2 years.

If you decide to apply for the 864 while you're out there on your visitor visa, you'll be in the very lucky position of a grant of PR pretty quickly; 6 months or so will fly by- 2 years is a bit of a stretch !

I did exactly the same as you & wasn't asked for anything extra apart from an Aussie police check, as I'd been here cumulatively for over a year.

Hi guys,

 

I already lodged a non contributory visa application subclass 103 for my parents and application date was in October 2013.

 

However, currently my parents wish to switch to subclass 143 contributory parent visa.

 

My agent advised that I would have to do a fresh new application and waiting time will start from the beginning (2-2.5 years from now if I do a new application now). This means the waiting time since October 2013 till now will not be taken into consideration if we change from 103 to 143 visa

 

However, my friend's father was exactly in same situation and my friend told me his father was in shorter waiting period when switching from 103 to 143 visa application

 

1. Could you please advise if it is possible to switch to subclass 143 (withdraw 103 application) and the waiting time while applying for 103 visa still counts?

 

2. If I decide to switch to 143 visa, do I have to submit personal info/passports/forms all over again or just need to fill in Form 47PA?

 

Thank you and I look forward to your reply

I did exactly this & the time they have already waited does count. Yes they have to withdraw the 103 but that's all on the new forms & a very simple procedure. I did not use an agent.

I think it's a bit unusual to be asked to get health insurance tbh since there's a Reciprocal Health Agreement with the UK - I wasn't asked to get it but maybe there are particular circumstances here. I think BUPA might be worth a try .

oh sorry misunderstood - we used a Bank Draft I seem to remember

It's Commbank that take the AoS payment - they have to set up an rntirely new account for it. I had to attend with my daughter - I transferred the funds to her account & they took it from hers , all at the same time.

On checking dates our application arrived in Perth on 27 August 2013, our form 80 was lodged in Jan 2014 and the 1st part of the VAC $3090 was paid. We were asked for police reports early July 2014 and lodged them in 22 July ((£45 each and 10 processing time by Police). Medicals were requested October 2014 (£300 each plus 3 hour drive each way to Edinburgh). Assurance of Support bond paid $14000 also requested and paid October. Just been speaking to our agent who confirmed that there are a few people in our position and these delays are very unusual. They have emailed our case officer but have received no reply as yet. They are going to send some more emails as our Police checks have now run out these were requested by Perth at that time and Perth have not been able to process within the time limit on the Police checks - not a very satisfactory situation!

 

Bob

That's a long wait yes. Not nice at all.

but when I received requests to complete Police Checks / Medicals/ AoS it was for a date 5 months hence, whereas you seem to have provided them straight away and now your Police checks are out of time. Very frustrating, but I wonder if the agent should have suggested you do them a bit later so this problem wouldn't have arisen?

and how Centrelink takes so long after the payment's been made for the AoS seems to be a problem; they had mine for months too before I heard it had been cleared to Immigration.

The application is acknowledged as a valid one quite early in the process. If it were not it would not proceed to Case Officer stage.Once a Case Officer ( or the dept) get in touch with you they notify you of when they want you to proceed with medicals, Aos etc, and as long as these are proved they will will be ready to grant your visa. They have already checked all the other stuff you've sent them by then.The term VAC means Visa Application charge & it is made in two stages; the initial VAC for processing your actual application, and the 2nd VAC , the huge visa cost which is requested after Meds/ AoS are completed.They would not request the 2nd VAC if they were not going to grant the visa.

Hi first post on PIO, been reading posts in anticipation of our application for Cont Parent Visa. We note the price has gone up a further 5% this year.... They don't make it easy do they ! My OH and I plan to join our only child in Melbourne, who has just received his PR. We aim to retire in Dec 16. From previous threads the time frames for visa approval Is up to 12 months .. How long is the granted visa active? We're optimistic that medicals and background checks will be straightforward. Any other parents out there that can offer advice and tips would be great  on how they coped with the move!! as the thought of this process is daunting. We have already chewed over the various visa options and the only viable one appears to be CPV subclass 143 for our situation. Any affordable suggested areas to retire in Melbourne surrounding areas (up to 1 hour from South Yarra) ?? We're going on a recci later this year to look at areas to consider...good transport links to CBD and strong community for newbies to integrate.

Your son will need to have had his PR for a year before you can apply- then add on the 18-24 months (approx) processing time. Once granted, the visa will be valid for 5 years . (You can spend up to a year of the waiting time onshore on a 600 though)

Don't know Melbourne at all (too cold for me!) but it looks as though lots of others here do

You have a lovely positive attitude Petina, and so did I until the later stages when negotiating with them over a few particular issues got a bit frustrating (such as suddenly being expected to leave the country for a set number of days, which turned out to be totally unnecessary in the end as they granted the visa the minute I went through the exit gates at the airport - pretty standard apparently but they obviously weren't about to tell me that - I could have come straight back!

The wait after the 2nd VAC was less than 2 weeks (but still that money should be earning interest for us not them), but the AoS was made a full 4 months before grant That's the sort of administrative delay I don't understand.

I'm sure you'll get yours soon , well of course you will & the long wait will have been worth it. I don't think many people realise how stressful the wait for Parent Visas is because you hear so little for so long ;

I sent an email myself recently regarding the lack of an official notification in the post of the grant of a 143- somehow after coughing up 60k it eels a bit slapdash & actually a bit disrespectful to only send an email. do you think they cared? no....

but the worst aspect of the process is the delay of the grant once they've taken the huge 2nd VAC- mine was long enough to annoy me, but I'm pretty stunned that Petina's has been nearly 2 months & still waiting.. that is disgraceful- I wonder why it's happening?

Well it sounds like you're pretty near to completion. It might be best to email them & ask the question so that you've got the payment ready when requested. Or wait till they email you for the payment & then you'll have a parson to contact directly.

Freesia - what you written is Mum all over - she'll happily turn around & come straight back here!

Of course Becky- we have similarly difficult circumstances- I was leaving a child alone & your mum will be totally stressed that you might go into labour the minute she leaves! No allowances made for our circumstances I'm afraid- a horribly inflexible attitude from Immi in my case.

however, knowing what I know now, in your mum's circumstances I'd plan the next flight back after checking her Visa Grant on arrival in NZ

Which means she can come straight back if she wants - wish I'd known they'd grant it as soon as I went through Passport Control- they insisted on 3 working days even though I specifically asked the question as I had to leave a teenager at home ( under family supervision I might add , but he insists on his independence & didn't want to miss school) -

& to go alone was the last thing on earth I wanted to do - fortunately I had my daughter & granddaughter with me in the end & a fabulous holiday- but we were lucky she could get time off at short notice because of them refusing to budge on the totally false 3 day rule.

They were not very human at all in my case !

And still waiting since 16th Feb for the letter giving the grant details in the post in addition to that simple email- not impressed!

Yes I'd say you're right Becky- that was certainly my experience- visa granted as soon as I landed offshore & validate whichever date we choose to return.

my AOS also took around 10 weeks - no reason that I could see for it to be held up for so long with Immi- they must just not want to be seen to be granting too quickly imho. Very frustrating for such an expensive visa which already has a long wait to grant. We are at their mercy. All the best with everything

Hi Julie- yes just under a year after I applied I came over on a Visitor visa which was still current (651)

when that 3 month stay was nearly up I applied online for 600 - granted immediately with 9 months on it

then had Meds onshore in Sydney

Yes- did it a few weeks ago- very straightforward

Hi everyone- could have got granted a bit sooner but didn't want to take a holiday offshore as we had family visiting- so the waiting time was really around the 19month mark.I had also tipped over the 12m mark for my own time in Aus accumulated over annual trips here, so had to get an AFP check.

but basically , as soon as I paid the 2nd VAC & it had cleared they wanted me to pop off so they could do the right thing & grant.

When I got off the plane & switched my phone on , I discovered that the grant happened the moment I cleared Passport Control!

could have just had a walk around the airport

And that's all you get- an email, still waiting to receive the actual written docs. I like things on paper !

Thank you Joe

I'm already here in Sydney- came over after almost a year -spent the last 8 months on a 600 Visitor Visa & just had a lovely break in Fiji for the Grant.

Hi everyone- my 143 was granted 16.2.15 from June 13- waiting time 20 months - hooray !

It's easy enough to do yourself. You will get an acknowledgement of receipt & then nothing further until ready to process, which with 103 will obviously be a long time so be prepared to let it go.

Same with Meds & further Documents. They'll contact you by phone & email.

for those applying for 143- my instructions for dates of Meds/Police checks came one year after applying- then was given a further 4 months to complete.

No he won't be asked for it at the time of application. If you go through the forms you're asked to provide as part of the application, you will see it's all about your personal info.

The AOS is not done until all other steps are completed, including Meds- so presumably if you failed the Meds you would never get to AOS stage anyway.