Fisher1
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Just a thought - since it's already possible to get a one year tourist visa for £100 (or so I believe) does this new five year parents visa actually confer any benefits at all? Seems to me it just entitles you to have a series of one year visas????
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OH convincing tactics used on recent trip: Found a golf driving range (he's just taken up golf) within easy reach and encouraged him to visit and practice. Swapped houses so we stayed in a comfortable family home and had our daughter visiting and staying over (just as though we were living there....) Found a suburb of Sydney he really liked. Sadly it was Avalon so unless we win the lottery that won't be a plausible destination. Not after meeting the 'sell your own grannie' visa costs! Kath:wacko:
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I'm glad I'm not the only one with a reluctant OH. I didnt want to push but our recent holiday seemed to go a long way to convincing - particularly coming back to this!! I like the smiley faces too :xmas12:
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Just want to say hi to Phoebe. I notice you are unfailingly happy for everyone else, while still 'in limbo' yourself. I'm sure everyone is hoping the very best for you and that YOU will get there in the end. Kath
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Hi all I'm wondering how other people paid their visa fees? Although the 103 costs a relatively small amount to set in motion, I would prefer to pay it in oz dollars, as I have read somewhere on here that the oz govt gives quite a poor rate of exchange if you pay in stirling. How are fees paid can anyone tell me? In your country of residence or by transfer to oz? All advice welcome.
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Hi Pam I know how you feel - just got back last Saturday after two months in and around Sydney. I felt so down when we left but am beginning to settle again now. Have downloaded forms for the 103 today and sent the link for the sponsors form to my daughter, so at least I feel as though I have done something constructive. Wishing you a safe flight home Kath
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Re: Frozen pensions Hi all I've just looked up the site I originally found dealing with frozen pensions: http://pensionjustice.org/information-centre/ The group is the consortium of international pensioners and the site gives all the information about this issue to date. Kath
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Hi Stella the dog. The house swap experiment went really well. We had two lovely houses for two weeks each and really enjpyed 'living like locals' It was a really relaxed few weeks and saved us more that just the accomodation costs - because we were so comfortable we shopped locally and ate in a lot of the time. Our daughter stayed at 'our' place for the last week and it really did feel like we were living here. I think it was instrumental in my OH coming round to the idea of living here eventually - we found a driving range for him to practice golf, explored the fabulous surroundings (northern beaches) and have generally had a fantastic time. I would definitely do it again in the future. Some things to note about your own place before a potential swap: You can get your post withheld for up to two weeks for a fee of - can't remember - about £20 is I think. We took away all our personal paperwork and computers and planted them in my mother's spare room for the duration of the swap. We are lucky enough to have a detached garage and were able to lock up things we thought we might need, like camping gear, in there, where we could access it without disturbing the swappers. We informed the neighbours about what was happening We checked with our house insurers. Having said all that, the swappers were great - we went out for a drink one evening with the second couple, also about our age, and they had us round for dinner pre-swap when we got here. Hugs all round when we left, they felt like old friends.
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Phoebe Good luck both of you for Monday. The frozen pension issue is huge. I discovered a whole web site devoted to it a while ago and, providing the information there was accurate it seems that if you emmigrate to some countries (e.g. the Phillipines) your pension is raised in line with inflation, but if you go to others (e.g. Australia) it isnt. I also gathered that if you are temporarily in a country where your pension would be regularly raised in line with inflation, you have the right to be paid the full current amount for the period of your temporary stay - even if it is just a few weeks - then when you return to (say Australia) your pension drops to the lower rate again. The iniquities of this system are obvious, particularly when you consider that by leaving the UK we are saving them all the money they would have spent on our medical care etc etc as we got older. This has been brought before the European court of human rights but the case was lost - I don't know why Kath
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Phoebe You have to be over 64 to apply for the 804 but not the 103. Confusing isnt it :-)
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Thanks again Linday - great minds think alike, this is the way we have been thinking during the last few days. It all seems to be very pressing at the moment as we are on the last few days of our visit here - I really don't want to say goodbye and it sort of helps if there's a plan in mind, however tentative! Will be doing a lot of thinking during all those cold winter days to come in the UK. :-)
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Have just checked out the fees via link above - has it gone up AGAIN?
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Thanks Linday
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Hi al With everyone so desperate to get to Australia as quickly as possible my question is going to sound a bit odd, but here goes: If we applied for a contributing parents visa and paid the huge fees necessary I am assuming it would take about eighteen months. Can anyone confirm that, although you must validate your visa within the following twelve months, you can do this as part of a normal holiday, and can actually take up to five years to move over lock stock and barrel? I would also be interested to know whether, having moved over permenantly, there are any restrictions on the number of days per annum spent outside Australia after that? The reason for my questions? Well, my husband has just agreed to move out here if possible when the time is right. (yay!) We are coming to the end of a two month visit and I think he has just had the best time. I am now trying to figure out how to get our permenant visas organised. I don't want to delay because we already have health issues and I would like to know as soon as poss. if visas are out of the question. Also don't want to leave time for anything else to crop up. However, the issue of my elderly mother is huge. I have been doing some sums and I reckon that if we waited a couple of years and then applied, then waited as long as possible before moving it would take my mum up to the age of 101. I know this sounds calculating and awful but I love my mother and my daughter and am greedy enough to want to be with both of them. Any comments?
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Phoebe - sorry to hear your news - like everyone else I am thinking of you. Hope you have good news soon. Kath
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P.S. Also, I have read that if you swap from a 103 to a contributing visa things tend to move very quickly.
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Thanks for the explanation Alan. Also thanks Phoebe - yes I do know the waiting time for the 103. However, we have not taken leave of our senses:-) We cannot move over any time soon because I have a 91 yr old mother to look after. So we were going to just leave it for now till we realised that the new suggested 5 year visa gives a small advantage to people who are on the waiting list. Also, daft as it sounds, I like the idea of having my name on a list, however long .... also it will probably take me twenty years to persuade my husband to move :-) So the 103 application is a compromise.
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I am now totally confused - I hadnt realised there was a minimum age to apply for a parents visa. There seem to be two - the 804 and the 103 - I had thought that one was for people applying from within Aus. and the other for people applying from outside the country. My OH and I have just decided to apply for the 103 but are 'only' 60 and 62. Does this mean we have to wait? Also, the new five year thing - the way I read it, parents of Aus. citizens or P.R. s will be able to apply for a three or five year visa, depending on whether they are on the waiting list or not, but would only be able to stay for a maximum of one year at a time? thanks for clarification from anyone.
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Thanks for the information Alan, this is certainly interesting new information for me and could make life a lot easier in the future. Great news!
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That's awful!
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One way round the issue of mail from the bank going to an unauthorised person (ie the person renting your house) is simply to re-route your mail until it suits you to alter your address. You can reroute your mail in the UK for £30 for six months - but of course you would need someone trustworthy to reroute it to!
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Hi Pam Got to say, I choose my approaches with caution. Homelink tells you how good people are at replying - so unless someone has a rate of at least 80% I don't bother. Also I avoid the 'you've got to be joking' properties overlooking Darling Harbour and having gee whizz gadgetry. I know my limitations. I found that none of the people who approached me, although tempting in some cases, were quite what we wanted. I also had a couple of false starts, where people were keen and then cried off for one reason or another. The two we finalised are lending us their homes in the Northern beaches, which is a bit out, but fine by us. Daughter reckons she is moving in for the duration so she can go surfing - have been given permission but I'm not convinced :-) Still its going to be great to have 'our own place' this time - can invite people round for lunch - especially the kind friends who had the three of us over for Christmas lunch last time we were there. It's early days yet but I think it will have been worth it in the end. Watch this space:-)
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PPS you can go and look on the site without obligation, see whats available and how it works before you cough up the hundred pounds
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PS We also advertised our house as 3 bed when it has four - used fourth room as a storage depot.
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Hi Stellathedog We looked at a few home swap sites, too recommendation from a friend who had used one and decided on 'HomeLink' there are a couple of others with similar names ours is http://www.homelink.org.uk/house_swap_holidays.html To be honest I think they are all much the same. They provide some advice but really once you have the contact you are on your own. Many of the people on our site seem to be in a similar position to us - wanting to visit kids in another country or just wanting the adventure without the massive hotel bills. It's a leap of faith - I couldnt cope with a simultaneous swap and be all that way away while someone was in our house, mainly in case anything went wrong with the house. So we went for a non-simultaneous swap and so far so good. We made sure we checked with our insurance co. (Lloyds were okay about it but not everybody is) We got all our personal paperwork in a huge plastic container and left it at my mums together with the lap top and computer. We paid to have our post withheld for 2 weeks (£12) and locked as much of our stuff as poss in the garage, which is detached in our case so we could go and get things out in an emergency. It cost £100 to join the site.