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johnbshepherd

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  1. johnbshepherd
    Hi palaceboy1 If you apply for the 804 visa while you are already legitimately in Australia you should get bridging visas which will allow you to stay in Australia until the 804 application is settled one way or the other. The snag is that you may end up waiting longer for the 804 visa than you would have for the 103. For the 804 it will be about a year before you even have a queue date.What follows is a quote from the latest update from immigration about waiting times for the 103 and 804 visas. From this you can calculate that if you apply for the 804 right now you will reach the front of the queue in about seven years time. For the 103 visa it will be about seven years after whatever your queue date is. Take no notice of the estimated waiting times on the DIBP website which claim anything up to thirty years. These estimates seem to be deliberately exaggerated. Begin quote ONSHORE APPLICANTS (Subclass 804). Once your application is allocated to a case officer (which may take up to 12 months) you or your authorised contact will be contacted and asked to provide more documents including police certificates and health clearances to complete your application. As soon as you are assessed as meeting all requirements your application will be placed in a queue and assigned a queue date to wait for a visa place. We are currently assessing for a queue date applications lodged up to 17 February 2015 We are currently assessing for finalization applications with a queue date up to May 2009 OFFSHORE APPLICANTS (Subclass 103) Once your application is allocated to a case officer (which may take up to 18 months) your eligibility for a visa will be assessed and if you are found to meet eligibility requirements your application will be placed in a queue and assigned a queue date to wait for a visa place. We are currently assessing for a queue date applications lodged 1 October 2014 We are currently assessing for finalization applications with a queue date up to February 2009
  2. johnbshepherd
    Yes, but it's not quite that simple is it?. Most parents will have some sort of income from the UK by the time that they get to the Aussie retirement age, even if it's just the UK State pension. The Aussie age pension reduces by 50 cents per fortnight for each dollar earned over $160 per fortnight. see http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/income-test-pensions Even the basic UK state pension is equivalent to more than twice this amount and a fairly small occupational pension, or reasonable savings, can easily push you over the limit of around 25,000 pounds per year. If your income is above this the Aussie age pension is zero so your "investment" return is zero. For aged parents - those over the Australian retirement age - the best bet is still the 804 visa. Have your parents come to visit you on holiday and if they like it here they can apply for the 804 visa. All being well they will then get a bridging visa which will allow them to stay here until the 804 application is finally settled. I know that immigration says that the waiting time for the 804 is up to 30 years but I doubt whether this is true. For non-aged parents the total of around $100,000 per couple needs a lot of thinking about.
  3. johnbshepherd
    For the 103 visa the second installment has to be paid after you have passed the second medical and submitted police certificates etc. Along with fixing up the Assurance of Support it is the last step before they actually award the visa. When this will happen depends on your queue date. At the moment they are processing 103 applications with queue dates in April 2008 but it has been stuck at that date since early August. The immigration website at the moment claims that the waiting time for the 103 visa could be as much as 30 years after the queue date but I would take that estimate with a large pinch of salt. Up to now the waiting time has been 6-8 years but the allocated number of 103 places was reduced this year so the waiting time is likely to increase - not as much as 30 years though.
  4. johnbshepherd
    The 143 (contributory Parent) and 864 (Contributory Aged Parent) visas are Permanent Residence visas. If you hold one of these you are entitled to full Medicare from day one. The same applies to the (now closed) 804 visa. I am not sure about the temporary versions of the visas. Medicare is about equivalent to NHS cover in the UK, with a few minor differences. The only relevance of the RHCA with the UK is if you visit back to the UK. Like any other person covered by Medicare you are entitled to basic NHS cover whilst visiting the UK. Regards
  5. johnbshepherd
    Hi Deesydney It sounds as if two different people wrote the two paragraphs you quote! The Immigration Dept , under its various names, has a history of exaggerating the waiting time for the non-contributory parent visas - perhaps to encourage people to apply for the contributory versions. I had a queue date of May 2007 for the 804 visa and when I joined the queue I was told that I would have to wait twenty years or more before I heard from them again. In fact I actually got the visa in December last year - less than seven years after the queue date. Other people I know had similar experiences with both the 804 and 103 visas. If they are already processing people with queue dates in March 2008 your mum would have about 4-5 more years to wait. It is really up to you whether you think that the shorter waiting time for the contributory visa is worth around $50,000. Take little notice of the queue date calculator by the way. It still says that there are several hundred people ahead of me in the queue even though I already have the visa Cheers
  6. johnbshepherd
    I'm not sure that I follow the reasoning here. If the initial £3000 is hard to swallow, what about the additional A$87,200 which you will have to pay (for both parents) as the second installment for the 143 visa? To say nothing of the A$14,000 which you lose the use of for 10 years. The 143 visa is a really​ expensive alternative to the 103
  7. johnbshepherd
    I would think carefully before giving up your mum's position in the queue for the 103 visa. It all depends on what her queue date is. In February this year, people with queue dates in December 2007 reached the front of the queue and probably have their visas by now. Since then, two relevant things have happened. The first was that the allocation of visas for 2013-14 ran out so no more 103 visas will be awarded until the new year begins on July 1. The second is that the total allocation of non-contributory parent visas was reduced from about 2250 in 2013-14 to 1500 in 2014-15. Of course new applications were stopped altogether but this does not affect people who are already in the queue. Even allowing for the reduction in allocation, if your mum had a queue date in 2008 or 2009 she would probably have reached the front of the queue within two years - about the same waiting time as for the contributory visas. If her queue date is later than 2009, as it almost certainly is, the waiting time will be longer but I doubt whether it will be as long as ten years, despite what immigration (and the queue date calculator) say. You have to decide for yourself whether the reduced waiting time for the contributory visa is worth the extra $50,000 or so which you have to pay. Cheers
  8. johnbshepherd
    Don't worry! For the last few years people have been waiting about 2-3 years between the initial acknowledgement and the next stage - medicals and police clearance certificates. Provided those are OK you will eventually be allocated a queue date. As you probably know, new applications for the 804 were suspended on June 2 this year but if you have the acknowledgement letter you are in the pipeline. You probably know also that if you take the acknowledgement letter to the local Medicare office you can get a reciprocal Medicare card - provided you are from the UK that is. Cheers John
  9. johnbshepherd
    The RHCA card covers you only for conditions which arise after you arrive in Australia and which need immediate treatment. This made no difference to me; I only ever go to the Doctor if I need immediate treatment. Anyway, you probably would not pass the initial medical for the 804 visa in the first place if you had a serious pre-existing medical condition. Some expensive drugs are not covered and some long-term treatments - like kidney dialysis - are problematical on the RHCA card. Regarding the question asked by Gilly333 I'm afraid that the British OAP is frozen as soon as you get the bridging visa. Regarding the points made by Alan Colette he is perfectly correct that if condition 8503 is applied to your visitor visa then you will be unable to apply for the 804 visa. The issues surrounding this point have been discussed at great length on a sister site at http://www.pomsinadelaide.com/forum/adelaide-migration-issues/4509-cheap-parent-visas-part-i.html The whole thread is worth reading carefully if you are interested in the 804 visa. If you arrive in Australia with the genuine intention of visiting relatives - i.e. with a return ticket and no great volume of baggage - then there is no reason why condition 8503 should be applied. If you change your mind while you are here, there is nothing illegal about that. In fact you can only apply for the 804 visa if you are legitimately in Australia for some other purpose. How else are elderly people to be legitimately in Australia if they are not here as visitors? Nevertheless, I take the point and will say no more. If anyone wants to share my experience please feel free to contact me by PM. I am not an expert on the subject but I can at least share my own experience. Cheers Cheers
  10. johnbshepherd
    Just to clarify this point, applicants for the 804 visa are indeed entitled to a Medicare card under the Reciprocal Health Care Agreement with the UK - that is, provided that they were resident in the UK immediately before coming to Australia, The RHCA card does not provide the same benefits as a full Medicare card but we managed perfectly well on it (without private insurance) for the final five years of our wait for the 804 visa. Cheers
  11. johnbshepherd
    I was on the 410 visa until last December. I applied for the 804 visa in September 2006 and got the visa on December 16 2013 - total waiting time a little over seven years. One distinct advantage of being in the queue for the 804 is that you become entitled to an RHCA Medicare card. We relied on it totally during the waiting period and got just as good treatment as we did before then with private insurance. At the moment there are tax advantages to being on the 410 visa but there are proposals in the most recent UK budget to remove them. Total cost for the 804 including medical tests is around $8,000. For comparison the tota cost for the Contributory Parent visa is around $100,000 but the waiting time is much less (1 - 2 years). Incidentally your parents can keep the 410 visa while they are waiting for a decision on the 804.
  12. johnbshepherd
    It could be because the queue date calculator is inaccurate. In January this year they were processing 103 applicants with queue dates in December 2006. This suggests that the waiting time for the 103 visa is only a few months longer than the waiting time for the 804. Perhaps we could hear from someone who recently got the 103 visa. Added later I've checked my source and the above is not quite correct. In January they were processing 804 applications with queue dates in January 2008. For the 103 visa they were processing people with queue dates in December 2007. This means that the waiting times for the two visas are almost identical at the moment. Cheers
  13. johnbshepherd
    You probably qualify for the Aged Parent visa (class 804), Contributory Aged Parent visa (class 864) or Contributory Aged Parent visa (Temporary, class 884). The pros and cons of these visas are a trade-off between cost and waiting time. The contributory visas (864 and 884) are expensive, but the waiting time is fairly short (about 18 months for the 864 I believe). Current costs and conditions for the 864 visa are here http://www.immi.gov.au/Visas/Pages/864.aspx Cost is about $100,000 for a couple. The 884 visa allows you to postpone some of this cost for two years The 804 visa is less than one tenth of the cost but the waiting time is currently 7 - 8 years (NOT 13 years as it says on the immi.gov website). Details are here http://www.immi.gov.au/Visas/Pages/804.aspx For either of these visas you must apply while you are already in Australia. What most people do is to come and visit their relatives on tourist visas (with a return ticket) and take a look around to see if they like it here. If they do like it they can change their minds about going back home and apply for one of the Aged Parent visas. If the application is OK then they will get a bridging visa A which will allow them to stay in Australia until the substantive application is settled one way or the other. During the waiting period it is possible to visit back to the UK occasionally. The procedure is fairly straightforward but if you have doubts about it then by all means consult a registered migration agent - there are plenty of them on this site who are eager to help (at a cost of course). I recently completed the whole process for the 804 visa without problems. Cheers
  14. johnbshepherd
    The latest information I have is that they are currently (April 2014) processing people with queue dates in March 2008 but that will probably use up the allocation for 2013-14. The allocation for 2014-15 will be announced in the budget in July. Stick with it! The wait will be over before you know it. Cheers
  15. johnbshepherd
    Take care with the queue date calculator! The calculator for the 804 (Aged Parent) visa was completely out of action for the same 9 months. It is now generating numbers again but there is something fishy about the numbers. For example, it says that there are still 400 people in front of me which would suggest that I have about another year to wait. In fact, I reached the front of the queue in September last year and actually got the visa in December. Total waiting time was a little over seven years even though the immi.gov site says that the waiting time for this visa is thirteen years or so. Cheers
  16. johnbshepherd
    On a related subject, I receive a pension from the USS (Universities Superannuation Scheme). Until recently I was here on a 410 (Temporary Retirement) visa which meant that it made more sense to have the pension paid to my UK bank account and transfer it to OZ as needed. I retired from work 10 years ago. I have now moved to a PR visa so the tax advantages of doing it that way have disappeared. What are the options for having the pension paid directly to my Australian account? USS have advised that I should use an organization operated by Citibank called the Worldlink Payment Services. Does anyone have any experience with these people? Regards JBS
  17. johnbshepherd
    This thread is about the 804 visa. There are no offshore applications for the 804. You must be physically present in Australia when you make the application (and also when you receive the visa). See http://www.immi.gov.au/Visas/Pages/804.aspx Regards
  18. johnbshepherd
    Arshad Alan Collett is a professional in the field and, quite rightly, will not give you professional advice unless you pay him a professional fee. After all, he may be legally liable if the advice turns out to be wrong. If you do not require professional advice but simply wish to learn from the experience of other people then I recommend that you read the thread on a sister site at http://www.pomsinadelaide.com/forum/adelaide-migration-issues/4509-cheap-parent-visas-part-i.html Briefly, if parents come to OZ on an ETA and at the time that they arrive in OZ they have every intention of going back to where they came from then there is a very good chance that they will be admitted as tourists. It is possible, but fortunately unlikely, that condition 8503 will be attached to the visa. This would prevent them from applying for another visa while they were in Australia. Provided condition 8503 does not apply and once they are lawfully present in Australia there is nothing to stop them from deciding that they like it here and wish to stay permanently. They can then apply for the 804 visa and, provided that they satisfy the Balance-of-family conditions etc they should receive an acknowledgement of their application within a week or two at most. At this stage they should be awarded a bridging visa A which will allow them to stay in Australia until their application is settled one way or the other. The bridging visa A will not come into effect until the substantive visa expires. It is important that, on first arrival in Australia the parents have no obvious intention of staying here permanently. Arriving on one-way tickets with a pile of luggage would be a dead giveaway for example. It all sounds a bit daunting but hundreds of people have been through the same procedure successfully. I myself finally got the 804 visa in December last year almost exactly seven years after I first applied. Regards JBS
  19. johnbshepherd
    There used to be a visa called the 410 (Temporary Retirement ) visa. On this visa retired people could stay in Oz pretty much indefinitely provided they maintained adequate medical insurance and could demonstrate that they had enough money to be self-funded. This visa stopped accepting new applicants in 2005. It was replaced by the 405 visa which has pretty much the same conditions but requires a substantial investment in Australia. The OP's parents could have been on either visa.
  20. johnbshepherd
    I promised to update people about our 804 application when anything happened. Well, we reached the head of the queue on September 10 this year. The queue date calculator had gone completely haywire - and still is. It has not moved since last June. At the time it alleged that there were 880 people still in front of us so we thought that we still had a year or two to wait and the final request for documents reached us in England where we were on holiday. As it turned out the Parent Visa Centre were very helpful and extended their deadline to allow us time to get back to Oz, Everything then went smoothly from then onward and we actually got the visas on December 16:biggrin:. We first applied in September 2006 so total waiting time was a shade over seven years. We did not use an agent. The final medical was much less daunting than we expected. We both got satisfactory reports despite having the usual ailments of people in their seventies. The biggest delay at the final stage was caused by Centrelink who took their time about approving our Assurance of Support. Given that the queue date calculator no longer works I suggest that anyone who had less than 1,000 people in front of them when it stopped working can expect to hear something within the next few months - the Parent Centre has now closed for Christmas. Regards
  21. johnbshepherd
    Migration agents certainly perform a useful function, particularly for people who have a poor command of English and those who have complex cases. On a forum entitled PomsInOz I doubt if many people fall into the first category and the 804 visa is a particularly simple one, so the services of a migration agent will rarely be essential. As Sids Dad has already pointed out, everything important about the visa is explained in simple terms here. Forums such as this one and a parallel discussion on a sister site here allow people to exchange experiences and literally hundreds of people have found them useful. Whether you want to use an agent is purely a matter of personal choice. If you do decide to use one it is as well to remember two things. The first is that migration agents are business people and like all business people they are in business to make money. According to the Migration Agents Registration Authority (Office of the MARA) the cost of consulting an agent about parent visas in 2012 was in the range $1,500 -$3,850. This seems to me to be an awful lot to pay for answers to straightforward questions such as those asked by Paulimouse. The second thing is that the immigration department itself is less than enthusiastic about recommending the use of migration agents and suggests several cheaper alternatives. See here. Incidentally, I am surprised that wrussell was not asked for police clearance and medicals until so late in the process. I was asked for them before I was even allocated a queue date not "before the visa was granted" (which has not yet happened). I will have to provide updated versions when I reach the head of the queue. Regards JBS
  22. johnbshepherd
    Sorry Jim but I only just noticed your post. Your UK pension unfortunately will be frozen from the time you get the bridging visa. The pensions people may not notice immediately but if you don't tell them they will almost certainly find out eventually and deduct all the back money (with cruel interest) from your ongoing pension. The one (not very) bright spot is that if you go back to the UK on a visit you will get the full pension while you are there - provided that you claim in advance. Regards John
  23. johnbshepherd
    Hi Mildygirl Our daughter is our sponsor and provider of support. I honestly cannot remember when I had to name her but certainly nobody has contacted her yet to make sure that she can provide the necessary support. Like you I assume that this comes at the last stage when they are actually thinking about awarding the visa. For us this stage will be reached sometime next year (2014) and I will keep the board informed when we reach that stage. Cheers John
  24. johnbshepherd
    There is a very long thread about the who;e question of the 804 visa on a sister site (pomsinadelaide) at http://www.pomsinadelaide.com/forum/adelaide-migration-issues/4509-cheap-parent-visas-part-i-12.html Gill who posts under the name Gollywobbler knows far more about this subject than I do but most details about the 804 visa have been discussed in this thread already Cheers John
  25. johnbshepherd
    It does not seem to be possible to apply for the 804 visa from outside Australia so everyone who has applied for this particular visa has used some variation of this procedure. The important thing is that you can only apply for the visa if you are legitimately present in Australia for some other purpose. I was here on a 410 (temporary Retirement) visa when I applied for the 804 but that route is now closed so just about the only way for an elderly person to be legitimately present in Australia is as a tourist. If your in-laws come to visit you they can legitimately enter Australia for the purpose of tourism on a tourist visa. If they then decide that they like it here and wish to stay permanently there is nothing illegitimate or illegal about that and they can apply for the 804 visa provided they satisfy the other conditions - balance of family etc. If all goes well they will be entitled to a bridging visa A almost immediately.This allows them to stay in Oz until the 804 application is settled - about 8-9 years at present. The bridging visas will not take effect until their existing visas - the tourist visas - expire so they can travel in and out of Australia freely as tourists until then. Once the original visas expire they will need a bridging visa B to go on holiday outside Australia. This is difficult to arrange but not impossible. Reciprocal Health Care cover (RHCA) is about equivalent to the NHS in England. The main thing not covered is treatment in private hospitals (or private treatment in public hospitals). I have relied on it for years and found it perfectly adequate. If you don't think the cover is good enough then several of the insurance companies offer visitors' health insurance, although it is fairly expensive Regards John
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