Fisher1

That’s not true. If you go to Spain after the end of December when all is done and dusted, you won’t be able to stay longer than three months, but people currently resident can stay, providing they register. You still have time to go to Spain and establish yourself as a resident. I believe the Spanish government are accepting rental leases as evidence of residence. It’s not as simple as all that, but I’d look into it if I were you. And yes, anyone seriously intending to make a life in Spain should learn Spanish.

I thought permenant residence lapsed after four years’ absence?

There will be mega long delays. But as long as you know it’s the new normal and it hasn’t gone astray you’ll be fine.

The difference being that if you urgently needed your passport and were in the UK you could go to Liverpool in person and pay to have it quickly.

That’s a bit sharp isn’t it? I lived in Luxembourg for years, and renewed my passport more than once at the British embassy there. Having an elderly mother in the UK at the time, I found it worrying when the UK govt decided to cut costs by processing new passports elsewhere. It was my choice to live there, but I had been seconded by the Uk govt on the service of the crown - so was I supposed to apply for leave from work in order to fetch my new passport in person? You know that is allowed to leave Australia at the moment without official permission? So returning to the UK for a passport isn’t a viable option. It is something of a leap of faith to send your passport thousands of miles away to be renewed - I was very concerned about security when I sent mine. Discussing the renewals process is not asking for concessions. It’s just being a human being.

Hi, we moved here in August 2017 when our buy to let property already had a sale agreed. The actual sale didn’t go through till October 2017 which meant we sold it as non UK residents and we had to pay CGT here in Australia rather than in the UK. The CGT this end was calculated on the gain since 2015, while the CGT in the UK would have been calculated on the gain since 2006. A massive difference. Don’t write to the UK to ask for help, they incorrectly told us we had to pay in the UK. There is also a poorly publicised rule that you have to inform HMRC WITHIN THIRTY DAYS if you sell a property after you leave the UK - we wrote and asked them for clarification and they said we could include the gain with our tax return at the end of the year - then fined us for not informing them! The whole thing is an absolute minefield - I strongly urge you to get hold of an accountant who understands both systems and cough up what will seem like a hefty fee ... we did and our accountant not only saved our sanity but saved us a serious amount of money. Thank you Alan Collet.

My advice is don’t panic when it takes forever to come back! I think it’s a terrible system because you can’t fly in an emergency (mind you we can’t do that just now anyway...) I sent mine back on April 6th this year and got the new one about two weeks ago. Naturally they took the full payment on April 6th. They did at least send regular emails to say that the delay was due to Covid 19, and finally sent one to say that my application for a passport ‘had been approved’ (!) then one to say it was on its way. We got it in the end.

Me too Quoll. My sibling didn’t seem to notice that I had moved countries and taken early retirement in order to live down the road from mum should she need me - she actually once gave me a lecture about how difficult it was living some distance away ... Ah but you know what, I’m glad I was there, mum appreciated it - she once said it was a good job I was around because I knew all the family stories and could remind her what had happened.

That’s so sad. They have no idea.

Don’t forget to do the soles of your shoes, esp. walking boots. We did ours with a steam cleaner and wiped the over with jeyes fluid.

Aha! We lived twenty miles away from the hospital in Bangor, and to get home by public transport it took a bus, a train and a walk. We were round the corner from the care home so the ambulance always waited for me, which meant I had no way to get back. I once left the hospital at six in the morning having sat in a hard low back chair since two - that’s when I planned the hospital bag

We all have our own lives to live but for many people that goes out of the window when our elderly parents need us.It’s a very difficult time if your oldie needs a lot of care, but I couldn’t not help my mum - she was always there for me when I needed her. Well done you and your wife for stepping up, wishing you many happy times with your mum. A small tip about those hospital visits - I used to keep a ‘hospital bag’ in my wardrobe, ready to grab at any time. In the bag were: a gripping paperback, change for the drinks machine. a small cushion (for low backed chairs at two in the morning) a packet of mints, toothbrush and toothpaste, face wipes, deodorant, tissues, a clean tee shirt.

I’ve often thought that it makes a difference if you have moved round a lot throughout your life? The longest we have lived in the same house is eight years and the longest time in one country is fifteen years. I think this made a big difference to our expectations when we moved to Australia. We didn’t feel we needed to be really close to our family - two hours is fine, once a week is fine - we have our own lives to lead and want to be around our daughter and grandchildren but don’t need to be sitting on their doorstep.

Unless this has changed during the last two years, this is definitely not true. We had owned property in the UK before we moved here and we got the first time buyers discount. If you’d owned elsewhere in Australia you didn’t.

I think it varies from state to state. We bought our established house two years ago in NSW - at that time you could spend up to $650000 without paying anything, then it tailed off until you got nothing (at I think $800000). If you google ‘ stamp duty’ and the state, I bet you’ll find loads of info.

Yes we had a terrible time when we swapped over. Thankfully we found someone who understood both systems - Alan Collet saved both our money and our sanity!

I thought it was strange! I’ll warn them!

I’m not sure you have to file for taxes in Australia even when you have a PR visa. I know someone who files for UK taxes only, while living here on PR visa.

The International Consortium of British Pensioners (google for more info) has been fighting to correct this injustice for years. They have been freezing pensions in some countries outside the UK for decades. The excuse given is that there is no reciprocal agreement with those countries - although no effort has been made to arrange such an agreement for about twenty years. In any case our pensions Are a domestic matter - nobody gets a UK pension if they haven’t contributed, and the amount they get depends on how many contributions have been made, so it shouldn’t matter where you are living. The Uk is also the only country in Europe to apply such a mean condition to your choice of location. It soon begins to bite as well - I left in 2017 and reckon I am already £50 approx p.m. down. Whatever you do, if you are selling a property on which capital gains would be due (I.e. buy to let) don’t sell it until you are officially resident in Australia.

You haven’t got yourself into a mess, you are just going through a bad patch - whatever you decide this experience won’t have been wasted. I think living outside the UK for many years (before Australia) has made me a much more tolerant and patient person. I have to tell you the my first experience of homesickness was when my family moved from a terraced Street in Liverpool to a little village near Chester. I was twelve at the time, and lost all my friends at a stroke, had to walk round my new school wearing the uniform from the last one (it was permitted to wear your former uniform out) and I used to sit in school sometimes with my eyes squeezed shut, pretending I was in my former classroom. We had moved about sixty miles. Sometimes things just aren’t right - my family all felt the dislocation in different ways and we moved again in under two years, without a backward glance.

Hi Anita85. My husband and I moved here three years ago to be with my daughter and grandchildren and have felt a bit homesick from time to time but nothing drastic. Since COVID I have had a few days when I’ve felt desperate to go home. I am absolutely sure this is a reaction to being unable to do so, nomatter what. A double whammy for me is that I haven’t even got a passport - I returned it on April 6 because it was about to expire and the new one is still not here! I think it’s a normal reaction to abnormal circumstances and we just have to ride it out.

I think that’s where your problem will be. We’re relatively new to Oz and we were warned at the beginning not to leave the country without first obtaining an RRV, because it could be difficult to get back in. The advice I read said that you would have to make a strong case for links with Australia (own a house, close relative resident, etc.) to get back. If you’ve never lived here, you are on shaky ground claiming to be returning residents. Alan Collet is reckoned to be a good agent. He often posts on here - I’ve never used an agent but have heard good reports of Alan.

Re: excercise online. Try Joe Wicks recordings on YouTube. Something for everyone and lots of ten minute wake-you-up stuff. Kept me going during two months in the house. If you excercise with weights you might have a problem because they seem to have gone the way of toilet paper ...

I’m just wondering, have you actually been residents at any point since your PR visa was issued?