cathandtone
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Everything posted by cathandtone
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On the health insurance front. You have 1 year from when you register with Medicare after you have your permanent visa. We made the mistake of registering with Medicare when we came to validate our visa and then had just 5 months in which to decide whether to get private insurance. We did anyway, I just found the cheapest policy I could. Cath
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It doesn't seem like 7 months ago that we too were sitting in the self same lounge at Gatwick feeling rather like you. Enjoy the flight, if you're anything like us it is both the first and last time turning left at the aircraft door but worth it for the flight to end all flights!
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Glad everything went well with your packing. I know how you feel seeing the container disappear, I took loads of photos and then forgot to get the camera out when the container appeared here. It will be a poignant evening for you saying goodbye to your son. Hopefully we will be able to catch up very soon. Bon voyage. Best wishes Cath
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Hi Steve We have a very basic ANZ bank account and we do not pay charges at all. I hadn't realised that the Aus bank defined the rate so I just did a calculation on a pension payment received in April and the rate was $1.4938, I should go back to April to see what the top rate was then. It would be great to be able to hold the money in the UK until we reached £3000 but in practice, with no Aussie income, it's not very practical. Best wishes Cath
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Hi Cakey Just contact your pension providers (including state) and they will pay your pension straight to your Aus bank account. Government providers do not make a charge, other providers do make a small charge. Have to say I am having difficulty with one of my occupational pensions (don't read into this statement that I am rolling in it lol) who are still paying my pension into my UK bank account as they say that they can't do it because australian account numbers are 9 digits and they can only pay 8 digit accounts. Anyone had this problem. I'm not quite sure what to do. Cath
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Isn't it wonderful when a good plan comes together! We can't wait to welcome you to our weekly Pips lunch, I bet you can't either. You have so much joy and excitement to come, plus a goodly helping of stress if you are anything like me. Best wishes Cath
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I think it's no longer a waiting list as such, it's the processing time. Cath
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I'm pleased it was a useful link for you. I had forgotten about the annual ceiling, however I don't think we would ever make it (I hope not anyway). There is also the Commonwealth Seniors Card which you can apply for after 2 years which will also give reduced priced prescriptions but it is means tested. Cath
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Hi Sue, we certainly got a fright the first time we filled prescriptions here. The 5 items we have prescribed between us cost around $180 when we rather naively went to the chemist next door to the doctor. Since then we have used Chemist Warehouse and the cost came down to just over $100. Still a lot compared to free in the UK but there it is, we chose to come here with our eyes wide open. I've put the link to Chemist Warehouse below, I think you should be able to check the cost of your items to give you some idea. Also, do try to find a GP who will bulk bill, it saves enormously particularly as it seems to be our second home recently. Regards Cath http://www.chemistwarehouse.com.au/prescriptions.asp
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Hi MKF I think most people here can empathise with you, it made us feel quite lost when all our grandchildren were whisked away down under. The annual visit is just not enough! You said that all your family are here now, does that mean you have other children besides your son who just left? If so, how long have they been here? You will have read other threads that say you have to wait until the sponsoring child is 'settled' which is usually deemed to be 2 years. Others have done it in less time than that but you have to give evidence of the family being well settled. If you have other children here it would make sense for them to be your sponsor. Our situation was that our eldest daughter had been here for about 4 years, our middle daughter was here on a student visa so she didn't count in the balance of family test. We had to wait for our youngest daughter to emigrate (that then tipped the balance of family test in our favour) before we could apply using our eldest as our sponsor. Incidentally, it is very straightforward to apply for the visa yourself without the aid of an agent. You just have to be very methodical and double check everything and if you get stuck just ask away on here. Even if you use an agent you will find that you have to do most of the hard work yourself anyway. I'm not against migration agents, far from it, but when it's straightforward save yourself a bit of dosh. Good luck Cath
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Hi Tyrone & Catherine First of all it will depend how many (if any) brothers and sisters Catherine has. To get past first base she can only have none or one sibling in the UK. If your in laws pass the balance of family test you will then have to be deemed as 'settled' before they can begin the visa process. Usually that would be 2 years from your arrival but if you can prove that you are settled - you've bought a house etc it can be started sooner. Others have done that. You will need sufficient income to be able to sponsor your in-laws too, I'm not sure how much that is now but you can find all this detail on the immi website. Good luck, it's a bit of a journey but no worse than yours I don't suppose. Best wishes Cath
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sadly it's not just start times. How many times have we missed the end of a recorded programme cos it's run over and not just by a few minutes either. We always allow a good 10 minutes but have been caught out numerous times. Come back BBC, all is forgiven.
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I'm not so worried about download limits, we have loads to spare and don't get anywhere near using our monthly allowance. You might find you are the same. We had to go with Telstra and the way the plans seem to work it's all or nothing. We ended up with a far bigger monthly limit than we actually need at the moment. Cath
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Funny you should mention this. Tony just blasted off a complaint form to 1HD after the lamentable coverage of the Turkish grand prix interrupted with ads at the most unfortunate moments. It won't do any good of course but he felt more cheesed off than usual. Cath
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We gave our leftover alcohol to our removal men! I don't think it would be a fire risk exactly, it's not that easy to ignite if you have ever tried to set light to a Christmas pudding you will know what I mean. My carton of nail varnish would probably have been a more potent fire starter. Would love to have seen Poms in Paradise, it would be good to compare with the actuality of living the dream' I'm still trying to figure out a way of downloading UK tv programmes so if anyone can help with that we would be very grateful. Very off the subjet I know lol. There seem to be so many visas being granted at the moment and I hope that those of you heading for Perth with join Pips Aus and meet up for coffee/lunch with us. It's good to build up a group of like minded people away from one's family. Best wishes Cath
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Congratulations! We used PSS and couldn't fault either them or Australian Vanlines who deliver your stuff on this side. We also used Insure your move to cover our goods and chattels, much cheaper than using the removal companies insurance. If you would like to meet up with some of the other brave parents already in Perth find us on Facebook - Pips Aus. Just back from a very leisurely lunch in Hillary's with two of the other couples. Cath
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Lovely post Phyllis and should be a great inspiration to everyone following on. We too love it here and just can't regret the move. The only downside is that we can't afford our own home here and though that's a big disappointment it's more than compensated for by our new lifestyle and being near our children and grandchildren. We had hoped to work but are finding more than enough to do so I'm not sure. So far we are managing on our pensions. One point for people looking at removal companies and insurance. If you find (as we did) that the estimate of the amount of space you will need varies dramatically it's important to find out how much extra space will cost per cubic foot, the cheapest quote might not work out the cheapest overall is what I am trying to say. Also, insurance through the removal companies is a costly affair and you can get much cheaper insurance by searching on line. Every penny counts that's for sure. Cath
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First of all please don't panic. The police checks won't be problem to get done in the time scale but the medicals will probably hold things up. There is a link to enable you to get your police checks a couple of pages back. Since the Australian government saw fit to cut the number of authorised doctors I understand it can take a while to get an appointment for a medical. I suggest you contact the nearest or most convenient authorised doctor to you and make your appointments. If you are unable to get an appointment within the timescale contact your case officer to explain. They are generally very helpful, ours certainly was. We asked for extra time to make the second payment and our case officer was brilliant. When you are granted your visa you then have 12 months from the date of either your police check or medical to validate your visa (which ever date is the earliest). We hadn't sold our house within the 12 months and so booked a return trip to Australia to validate, that was a year ago last April. House sale went through in September and we finally made the move over in November. Whatever happens, you have 5 years in which to make your final move. We are so glad we made the move even though financially we are nowhere near as comfortable as we had hoped when we started this exercise. We also will not be able to afford a house but we have no regrets. Cath
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Crumbs, after paying an arm and a leg for your CPV you certainly don't need a visitor visa as well. Fly with confidence and good luck. We did the same thing last year only because of the volcano we actually missed our deadline. Thankfully the manager at the Perth Centre managed to sort us out as we were able to enter the country. We did have a reception committee from the Immigration which normally would not happen.
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We bought a new Dyson to bring with us and also a swing seat from Greenfingers. We unpacked both but it was obvious they were both brand new items so when it came to the manifest and the question about ownership we decided to be completely up front and declare both items. They both came through with no additional charges. We also brought an older vacuum cleaner with us which we cleaned thoroughly and also changed the filters. That was okay too. On a lighter note, we learnt the hard way that not thoroughly checking a new item was a mistake. When we came to erect the swing seat we found that we had a duplicate of two vital pieces rather than one and a second mirror image. Luckily our son in law knew someone who could help and they removed a fastening point and rewelded it to the right place. Incidentally, we had plenty of Christmas decorations and all those boxes were inspected along with a box of shoes and boots and our gardening gear. I just think if you clean everything thoroughly including the bottoms of your shoes etc it should be okay. Cath
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It's nice to see some familiar names posting here.
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We were never asked to complete form 80 and certainly didn't offer to do so. We received our visa no problem. So the message is if you aren't asked don't worry.