Bridgeman

Oh thanks, that's interesting.  I did look but couldn't find anything.   I don't see anything on the electric bill though that relates to ambulance cover.  We seem to be quite lucky in Queensland compared to other states.

I am not sure if this should be in the Health forum but we are planning a trip to the Pilbara WA to see family and spending a few days sightseeing in Perth. We are in Queensland. I am taking out travel insurance but I note that none of the domestic policies cover for medical emergencies. 

I am just wondering if for example if we had an accident and need an ambulance is there any way of taking out insurance for another state?   I am finding it very confusing  and I know ambulances are not covered my Medicare in most states.  We have private medical insurance for extras but not for ambulance as it's free in Queensland.  I have looked at the private medical insurers but most won't insure you for ambulance if you live in Queensland and I can't seem to find any that meet interstate requirements.

Secondly, what happens if you need to be transported back to your home state, possibly by an interstate medical air service.  Is this covered by Medicare and if not can this be insured against?

Can anyone clarify the new rules for eligibility for the aged pension in Australia,

I understand that now you have to have a period of continuous permanent residency, compared to previously where you had to have 10 years of permanent, with one continuous period of 5 years.

That aside, some media sources are quoting that you now need 15 years of continuous residence unless:

'at least five years of that time being during their working life – ie before they’re of age pension age – or if they have lived in Australia for a decade and never received any welfare for five years in total'.

Presumably. although we have not worked in Australia,  as we have been living here on our UK  state and private pensions and not claimed any welfare payments we would only have to wait 10 years?  Not sure what they class as welfare payments, we have received heating allowance which all seniors get and the seniors supplement (now discontinued).

"Also, do you know if we can change our application midstream from a 173 to a 143, without going to the back of the queue?"

Susieroo we cancelled our 103 and applied for the 173 and the time we had spent in the queue for the 103 was taken into consideration.  It might be worth checking with immigration, unless this has now changed or it doesn't work for going from 173 to 143.

He would need to apply for the 884 Onshore, but for the 173 he would need to be Offshore.

There is nothing to stop your father from actually submitting the 173 while he is in Australia. The important thing is that he would need to go offshore when the visa is granted. He does not necessarily have to apply for one or the other. The only difference is that he can be in Australia on a bridging visa while he waits for his visa grant if he goes for the 884 although I don't think he would be entitled to full Medicare. If he goes for the 173 he would need to make sure his visitor visa allows him to stay in Australia till visa grant.

I don't see why there would be anything to stop you from cancelling your 864 visa and then reapplying for the 804. This is what you have to do anyway if you do it the other way around. It might be best just to check with a migration agent such as Alan Collett or maybe post this question on the Ask a Migration agent section on this forum to see if you get any responses as to whether there would be any repercussions while the switch over is taking place as you would need to ensure that you can legally remain in Australia. If you have cut all ties back home then this could be a problem.

The main downside of the 804 is the long processing time. You may also have limited Medicare while on the bridging visa, although I assume you are currently on a bridging visa of some sort at the moment. Also, due to the long processing time you would be required to pass another medical shortly before visa grant which could be problematic after such a long time. I have heard of people not passing the medical but have not heard what the outcome was as to whether they were allowed to stay or not. Also you would probably not be entitled to apply for any benefits during that time.

Is there a possibility that you could go the 884/864 route? The 884 is a temporary visa for 2 years and then you need to apply for the permanent visa. It would at least allow you to split the cost.

Alternatively there is a new temporary parent visa being introduced in July which would allow you to stay in Australia for 5 years and would give you a breathing space. However, as has already been mentioned, the parent visa fees are likely to increase and there is talk of limiting the 103 (the offshore version of the 804) to applicants on humanitarian grounds.

It might be advisable to have a chat with a migration agent to see what your options are.

It is taking 29-30 months at the moment. If you look here:

http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=77756&page=1245

you will see where parents applying for the same visa have posted their timeline.

The only visas which would allow your parents to live in Australia while waiting would be the Contributory Aged Parent Visa 864 or the onshore equivalent of the 103, the 804 but one of them would have to be over 65 to apply for this.

Some parents come for a visit on a visitor visa shortly before their visa is granted and then go offshore to Bali or New Zealand for example while the visa is granted.

You might want to start by looking at the parent visas:

https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Brin/Pare

Your mother might be eligible to apply for the onshore 804 but you may need to speak to a migration agent as to an appropriate strategy. Plus there are downsides such as having to pass a medical before visa grant which may take several years.

You might be interests to know that there is a new temporary 5 year parent visa being introduced in July

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/09/23/temporary-visa-parents-immigrants-announced

This would at least give your mother the opportunity to see whether she wanted to stay in Australia. Hope this helps.

Hi Pommysheila

If I may say so you are very brave contemplating a return alone. If we were a couple of decades younger we would not hesitate as we would still have the stamina (and time!) to come back again if it didn't work out, although it's an expensive business.

'the best I have come up with is if you came before 2001 we should be able to keep some of our pension that is the Aussy one but is that right?'

As I understand it, you get a proportion of your Oz pension pro rata depending on how many years you have worked in Oz. We don't have that problem at the moment as our pensions all come from the UK, hence the worry about the exchange rate. We are not entitled to an Oz pension for several years yet, but doubt if we ever will be as they keep changing the rules! We would certainly be better off financially in the UK a price we were prepared to pay to be with family. Our UK pensions were frozen the minute we set foot on Australian soil. Luckily we do have some other private pensions.

I think it is natural to feel a little afraid when facing the unknown. I expect like us you everyone felt a little of this before moving to Australia. You are still relatively young and therefore able to cope with the challenges more easily.

We are in our mid 60s and contemplating whether we should return to the UK. We came here to be with family but circumstances changed. We feel like this is not home and are struggling with the weather, especially at the moment and worried about the exchange rate. However, we are apprehensive about the fact that we will have to start again if we go back to the UK and have no friends or family left there and not sure if we will be able to cope with the winters. It will break my heart to leave my only grandchildren here. But we miss the British way of life and walking in the countryside. However, the thought of having to deal with the stress of packing everything up, move and start again is fairly daunting at our age.

Hi,

 

My contributory visa application is currently with centrelink and we are awaiting feedback from them. Theyve had it since the end of December and ive not had any recent feedback. Any idea how long this process typically takes and what the next steps are.

 

Thanks

When you say your application is with Centrelink, do you mean you are going through the process of setting up an Assurance of Support? In that case, then I do know that some parents have had to wait 10-12 weeks for the AOS to be processed. It depends on where you have submitted it. Once the AOS is in place you should then be asked for the final VAC payment and after the payment is processed the visa should be granted within a couple of weeks.

If you mean you have just submitted your application to the Parent Visa processing centre in Perth, then see the replies from others. You may be interested in the parent visa thread which is a sticky at the top of the immigration forum as you may get more detailed information from there.

Hope to do this too in retirement - escaping Brisbane summers! But concerned about health. Think I would set it up so UK resident (7 months?). Not sure how that would work if needed Australian health care though...

Oh yes, we are finding the Brisbane summer unbearable at the moment. But not sure if we could cope with the English winter, My cousin posted that it was -6 this morning! If only the seasons weren't reversed it would work out so much easier!

We met a couple a while ago who came from Aus to UK for three months each year. They had bought a roomy towing caravan and car, both second hand but in very good condition, and used the combo to travel around while they were in the UK. They paid for the car and van to be stored (ie just parked up not on a holiday site) while they weren't here - the storage was inexpensive and they said they enjoyed having their own space when they were over.

That's interesting, I wonder how they managed to get insurance?

Health care shouldn't be an issue as UK/Australia have reciprocal agreements.

Hmm, yes, but the reciprocal agreement only covers emergency treatment. There are other threads on here about people who are actually returning to the UK permanently having to prove that they are habitually resident in order to register with a doctor's surgery and access the National Health system.

You will need to have been settled in Australia for 2 years before you can sponsor your parent for a visa. In addition your father will need to meet the balance of family test, ie he will need to have at least half his children in Australia on permanent visas. I would start by taking a look here:

https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Brin/Pare

Basically there are 2 main types of visas, Non-Contributory, which has a very long processing time and Contributory, which costs around $50,000 and is currently taking around 2.5 years to process. If your father is over 65 he may be able to apply for the onshore version of one of these visas. If you are settled and your father meets the balance of family test, it might be advisable to start the process sooner rather than later, as there is a suggestion that immigration may greatly increase the cost of the contributory visa and put restrictions on who can apply for the non contributory visa.

I assume from your user name that you are in Australia? We would also be interested in this as we have looked into it and it seems it would be quite expensive to do. Then there is the cost of accommodation in both places and a car. I think you would have to decide in which country you wanted to be resident for tax purposes and then you would do a tax return for that country. I think there are rules about how long you can stay in UK/Oz before you become resident for tax purposes.

We are in Australia. One of the problems we found was getting insurance for a car. Not sure if you are in the UK or Australia but it is difficult to get insurance for an English car on an Australian licence. Not sure how we could go about getting a UK licence renewed without a permanent address.

We looked into house swaps as well, but it is difficult to find a long term swap and then it would have to be in a place where you wanted to go.

Also we are not sure about medical cover. I assume you would have to get insurance in one of the countries if you were not a permanent resident?

I hope someone else can come along with a few helpful practical suggestions!

hi Bridgeman, I note your partner claims UPP on her teachers' pension. I am a retired teacher hoping to move to Australia next year, and so this is of great interest to me! Do you mind me asking whethe she contacted the education department in London or went straight to the pension provider, Capita, for this information? Many thanks.

Hi Fisher1, my partner contacted the pension provider Teacher's Pension for the information.

If you wanted your parents to be in Australia while they wait for their visa to be granted there are 2 options

https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Visa-1/864- - this cost quite a lot but the processing time is currently 6-12 months I understand.

or

https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Visa-1/804- which is less expensive but has a long waiting list.

In either case, after application your parents would be granted a bridging visa to allow them to stay in Australia till their visa was granted. There are downsides to this, however, as they would not be entitled to full Medicare or any benefits.

It might be worth having a consultation with Alan Collett of Go Matilda, who is a respected migration agent and can advise better on what the options are and the visa strategy.

No unfortunately it doesn't. However, you might be interested to know that they will count the time spent on the temporary visa towards the 4 years needed for citizenship so that' a bonus.

Hi

Your parents will need to have been permanent residents for 2 years and be over 65 to get the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card. It is also means tested. You can find all the details here:

https://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/centrelink/commonwealth-seniors-health-card

Aah, thanks for clarifying Alan. It was a bit unclear.

However, I do know that there is a cap on the amount that the ATO will allow you to claim as UPP.

 

=> I'll be interested to see where that is confirmed in legislation or Tax Rulings.

 

Best regards.

This is from the first page of the application form:

[TABLE=width: 349]

[TR]

[TD] You are able to claim 8% of your annual pension income (expressed in Australian dollars) as your deductible amount if you:

n

receive a category A or B United Kingdom State (UK State) pension (previously known as British National Insurance Scheme pension),and

n

it is paid from The Pension Service.

This method generally results in the maximum deduction

you are entitled to. If you think your deductible amount will be greater than the amount calculated using the above percentage, you will need to complete this form. [/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

Yes, my partner went through the same process and was given a UPP amount to claim for Teacher's Pension. I am also in a state of stalemate and haven't been able to progress my claim any further due to not being able to get the relevant information from my pension fund.

However, I do know that there is a cap on the amount that the ATO will allow you to claim as UPP. I was told that the UPP for the state pension would take up most of this and that probably gives rise to the belief that you can only claim a UPP on the state pension. Nevertheless, as I stated above my partner does have a UPP for Teacher's Pension on top of the state pension.

Thanks everyone for the useful replies which I have just seen as we have been away (no internet). Lots of good information.