Marisawright

AFAIK, you can't apply for a bridging visa.   I'm not sure whether it's even possible to get a bridging visa for a RRV.   Has he applied for his 2nd year WHV?

9 minutes ago, Malisa said:

Thanks for all the info everyone, really useful, it sounds as if it might be worth us getting an automatic licence here and then at least he can drive in WA. 

There is a pathway to upgrade his licence later in WA if he wants to drive manuals, too.

https://www.transport.wa.gov.au/licensing/car-c.asp

5 hours ago, not a hillbilly said:

Hi Marisa,

Can never go home to live again, tried in 2000 - too expensive & difficult re-settling.  Just getting a bank account was almost impossible, LLoyds TSB was the only one that helped me (probably by bending the rules a bit).

I understand about the expensive, but you're wrong about the bank account.  It is complicated opening a bank account, but it is by no means impossible. All you need is to have a residential address in the UK, and provide proof of that fact.  Of course, if you have just arrived from overseas, you don't have a residential address so you just have to wait until you've signed a lease or bought a property.  That can take weeks of course, but one can understand why they do it, because they are trying to prevent non-residents money-laundering. 

Same with renting a place:  you have to pay six months rent upfront, which seems harsh. But if you think about it, you can undersatnd why they do it. If your income is coming from overseas, they've got no recourse if you default on your rent, so they need to be paid upfront.  

Anyhow, sounds like your decision is made so not relevant now.

On 29/11/2023 at 05:43, Tulip1 said:

All the more reason to find a way to do test in the UK then.  He if returns to the UK he’d be stuck with only being allowed to drive an automatic. 

I think we're losing sight of @Malisa's problem here. She's saying there is NO way he can do his test on a manual car before they leave, because they're dependent on the instructor's availabilty. So that means his only choice is to go through all the hassle of logbooks and a test when he gets to Australia.

She also mentioned that she and her partner both have automatics and potentially they could get a test appointment using their own car.  That would mean he'd only get an automatic licence, but for everyday purposes in Australia that's likely all he would need.  Then he arrives in Australia and just transfers his licence and off he goes. If he wants to drive a manual later than he can always do an upgrade. 

Of course that assumes he's had some practice driving their cars!

I'm so sorry to hear you're stuck where you don't want to be.   It's sad that we see so many people in your situation.   It seems to be a common thing, that people who don't settle in Australia will soldier on, telling themselves "I can always go home when I retire", only to discover it's not practical when they get to that age. 

If you like railways, maybe a rail tour?  https://experienceuk.com.au/tour-category/rail-tours/

42 minutes ago, Toots said:

I think Marisa has you muddled up with another poster who had a query very recently.

You're right, I beg your pardon @cg9456

@cg9456,  I'm confused why you're not going to Europe, which is where you really want to be?   If your partner is Lithuanian, then there are no barriers to you settling in any EU country you like.  Brexit makes no difference to you, because you're the partner of an EU citizen. 

I appreciate that it'll be difficult to get a job as a secondary school teacher in Europe, but you could offer tutoring in your subject and in English, and perhaps consider other jobs.  Once you are residing in a city, you'll have the advantage when applying for international schools in that city so eventually you could land one of those jobs.  

I guess it comes down to what's more important to you. My advice would be, activate your Australian visa, then move somewhere in Europe and try it out for a few years.  Once activated, you've got almost 5 years before you have to make a move to Australia.

Of course you could do it the other way:  give Australia a try for a few years, then if it doesn't work out, come back to Europe.  However, that's going to be a much more expensive way of doing it -- even taking into account possible periods of unemployment or under-employment if you try Europe first. 

1 hour ago, Lottierh said:

Hi

ive been granted a 491 visa which was sponsored by QLD. There are no specific conditions attached to my visa about having to live in QLD - does anyone know whether this is a requirement? Would it affect a subsequent visa application if we lived in another state? 

I'm sure you know the 491 is only temporary and to get permanency, you'll have to apply to transition to the 191 visa.  If you can't get the 191 visa, you're going home.

To get the 191 visa, you must satisfy certain criteria:

• hold an eligible visa for at least three years.
• provide notices of assessment issued by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) for three income years out of the five years of your eligible visa. There is no minimum income requirement.
• have complied with the conditions of the eligible visa you hold or have held.

The 491 requires you to live in an eligible regional area, not that you must live in the sponsoring state.  HOWEVER, you've probably signed an undertaking, promising the Queensland government that you will live in Queensland for at least two years.  That's a separate thing.  If you make absolutely no effort to settle in Queensland, and instead go somewhere else immediately, the Queensland government will be suspicious that you got your visa under false pretences, i.e. that you never intended to settle in Qld in the first place.  If that happens, your visa could be cancelled.  

We also can't predict how the rules may change in the future, and remember you won't be transitioning to the 191 visa for another 3 years, so overall it's a lot safer to at least make the effort to start out in Queensland, even if you subsequently move on.

51 minutes ago, BendigoBoy said:

Truesay, but in a few years' time, it could very well be far more appealing for someone jumping back to the northern hemisphere to settle in the EU rather than the UK - something that's lost if that Lithuanian citizenship was to be yielded up.

Very true

17 minutes ago, AmyMi said:

Thank you @rammygirl i actually hadn't considered his settled status lapsing. Very grateful to you for highlighting that.  He is eligible for British citizenship, but cannot have dual citizenship with Lithuanian. 

In that case, do give it careful thought.  It is much more difficult to get a spouse visa for the UK than it is to get a spouse visa for Australia -- and if you decide to return home in a few years' time, it's likely to be even more difficult.    The biggest hurdle is that you must meet a financial requirement which, of course, is raised from time to time.

@Worma, it's a minefield and I would just stick with the professional advice you get from Andy.  Get it wrong and it can cost you a fortune in tax!

One issue to be aware of is that right now, there is only one fund in Australia that is QROPS approved. It's a private firm and a very new player -- how do you know they'll do a good job or that they're secure?  Super funds aren't covered by the bank guarantee scheme.  I expect Alan will know more about the company behind the fund, who may well have a longer track record.  Good luck with it.

41 minutes ago, welljock said:

My daughter did hers in a manual a couple of years ago. A quick google search shows a lot of instructors with manuals. 

That's interesting, I wonder why anyone bothers getting a manual licence these days in Australia, when manual cars are so rare.   

My point is that if @Malisa's son is able to drive her automatic, then he could do his test in her automatic in the UK before he arrives, and he'd be able to drive in Australia because it's going to be very rare that he'll need to drive a manual car.  And if he does want a manual, he can do the upgrade test.

I remember even when we first arrived in Australia (Victoria), we had to buy an automatic car even though my partner wanted a manual, because we couldn't afford a new car and there simply weren't any second-hand manuals available. 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-17/manual-cars-and-licences-are-becoming-rarer/102222420

19 minutes ago, Malisa said:

Thanks for replies. Unfortunately our cars are both automatic so we are relying on the instructor and his car for the test which makes a  cancellation difficult, we are still trying to find a way around that though. 

Everyone in Australia drives an automatic car.  Only about 3% of cars sold in Australia are manual transmission.  So when he gets to WA, chances are he'll have to do his driving test in an automatic because instructors won't have a manual car.

Everyone is different.  I love my life in Australia (I've lived here over 30 years), and I have never once missed the UK.  The ONE thing I have always missed, is the ability to visit Europe.   While in theory, I could have afforded an annual holiday to Europe, it didn't happen in practice. Factor in the 2 days at each end for the journey, plus jet lag, and it's really not worth going for less than 3-4 weeks, and as soon as you decide you're going to Europe, you realise you can't fly all that way without visiting family and friends...and before you know it, you've spent the whole holiday with the folks and not seen Europe at all.  I used to go every 2 years, for 6 weeks, and always booked a European visit for the last week so I couldn't get sucked in by family hospitality.

A dog complicates things, of course.  If you want an annual or biennial trip to Europe for 4 to 6 weeks, does the dog go into kennels? 

I'd say what you need to do, is make that "soft landing" a month-long holiday, if you can.  Don't use it to see the sights (after all, if you decide to move, you'll have the rest of your life to see all those places).  Use it to see what it feels like to live here -- maybe a couple of weeks in Sydney and a couple in Melbourne, since those are the cities you fancy.

Sydney and Melbourne feel quite European to me.  They both had massive influxes of European migrants after World War II (which is why we all drink coffee, not tea). At one time, Melbourne was the second-largest Greek city in the world (after Athens). The food is much more European than British, too.  However once you get out into the country, things feel much more old-fashioned and conservative. 

You mention family and friends.  The biggest reason people go home is that they're missing family and friends.  The reality is that you're going to see them less than once a year.  They may say they'll visit but they probably won't, because of the cost and time involved. So it will be up to you and for the reasons mentioned above, you may not be able to visit that often. 

9 hours ago, AmyMi said:

Hi all

I am originally from the UK, but have Aussie Citizenship after living in Sydney from 2014-2019.  I relocated back to the UK two months after getting citizenship as I was in a long distance relationship with my now husband.  We now have two children and are looking to move to Australia to raise our family.  My husband is a Lithuanian citizen with settled status in the UK, having lived in London since 2000.  We need to sell our home, and our eldest son is due to start school here in September 2024, so ideally we would relocate around this time or ahead of this.

Apply now, it's highly likely you'll get the visa long before September next year.  

I know that if you're in Australia and want to work for a British company, you can't stay on their payroll because the tax would be horrendous.  You need to become self-employed (set yourself up as a sole trader) and invoice them for your hours.   I imagine that might be a solution in the UK too?

1 hour ago, Simontucks said:

Thank you so much for the reply.

My wife has options regarding job,the equivalent to what she is doing here would mean working for government in Australia and I'm going to be working in construction.

Just be aware that a lot of government jobs require you to be a citizen. What kind of govt jobs do you mean?

I worked for RAMS in the days when it was an independent lender.  As a small player, they had to have a mortgage insurer who insisted they stick to sensible lending practices.  That included things like assessing the borrower could afford the loan, having a professional valuer go out and valuer go out and value the property, and they could only lend up to 90% of the value.

That's why they were never really competitive.   The big Australian banks don't have any such limitations on their practices.   When I worked at RAMS, the Commonwealth Bank didn't even visit properties to value them.  They used retired bank staff and just sent them on a drive-by to make sure the house existed.   They didn't care about an accurate value of the property that much, so long as they felt they could recoup their loan if the borrower defaulted.    

RAMS had to ask self-employed people to present their books before they could offer a loan.  The bigr banks just asked for a statutory declaration stating what the business earned, no need for any kind of proof. Again, not worried if people could really afford it, because why should they care if someone defaults?  They sell the house, recoup their loan, they're happy.

@Jonjan, I suggest going to a Centrelink office and making a fuss until they give you a straight answer.  

What I do know:  The bridging visa for the 804 visa does not give you the right to access Medicare at all.   The only reason you're able to access Medicare is because you're a former resident of the UK, so you have reciprocal rights, the same as any British person on a tourist visa.   

The strict rules are that reciprocal rights cover essential treatment only, and you're meant to go back to the UK for any non-urgent treatment.  In practice, up until now, most people in your situation have been forced to do that, and have been able to access the same range of care as a permanent resident.   I don't know if the shorter timeframe means that they're thinking of tightening up the system. who knows.

On 19/11/2023 at 09:16, Wannabe Aussie said:

Just wondered if anyone had any tips for finding prospective employment I Australia so I can apply for this new pilot visa. 

If you read the page BendigoBoy linked to, it says, "The Early Careers stream will give Australian organisations the opportunity to participate in 12-month secondments, placements, or intra-corporate transfers of tertiary qualified UK professionals who are early in their career."

It's only for one year.  I can see international companies using it for secondments or transfers of their own employees from the UK to Australia, but otherwise why would an employer jump through the hoops for this visa, for the sake of just one year?  IMO there would have to be a really acute shortage of qualified employees, for them to even contemplate it. 

5 minutes ago, Toots said:

@Adam 005 I don't know your age but please be aware most Australian visas have an age limit of 44 meaning that those who have attained the age of 45 years are not eligible to apply for an Australian visa. 

Good point.  I've been assuming his wife is an Australian, but if she's not, then the bigger question is whether one of them can even manage to get a PR visa. 

30 minutes ago, Toots said:

Honestly, I think you would find it too hard.  You could end up hating it here.  Read what Nemesis has posted above.  That has caused a lot of problems for many migrants who yearn to return to their home country.

Yes, I sometimes wonder how @bug family is getting on.

The easy way is to look at the dimensions and mark that out on the floor and walls in your flat, or in the car park, with tape.   

9 hours ago, Adam 005 said:

I should have been clearer in my post.
It’s her sister who’s in Australia. 
...
Being a woman and a lovely forward thinking person she able to see the benefits and deal with the sacrifices and the emotions of the decision far better than me. 
I’m basically and emotional dinosaur . 

If you're an emotional dinosaur, here's another question to think about.   It sounds like you've got no desire to live in Australia, you'd be making the move purely for your wife's sake. You've said nothing about how you would feel about living in a foreign country, thousands of miles from your homeland?      Honestly, it's challenging enough to make the move when you really, really want it.  If you're just doing it to please someone else, you're likely to have a very hard time, and my worry is that you may find yourself stuck in a life of endless homesickness.

As for the kids -- they'll be fine whichever decision you make.  We have families here who love their life in Australia, but equally we've got families who didn't settle in Australia, went home and love their life in the UK, too.   Your kids will have plenty of opportunity to live outside the UK when they're older -- as Australian citizens they'll be free to visit or live here as often and as long as they like.  

3 hours ago, Adam 005 said:

I'll be quick promise,

In a nut shell my wife wants to move over to W/A to be with her family and to give our children the opportunity of living outside the UK.

While I fully agree with her on most fronts I find myself really struggling  with the idea of leaving my parents in the U.K, They are both in good health given their age 76 and 69.

I know ultimately it's down to me to decide but I can't help feeling like it's a awful thing to do. 

It's the curse of being in a 'mixed marriage'.  It's not so much about whether they need someone to look after them, because there are support services, after all.  It's more about their feelings on being separated from children and grandchildren.  However, your wife's parents have just as much right to see their daughter and grandkids, as your parents do.  Just because they've missed out up till now, doesn't mean they're not suffering as a result.  In fact you could argue that it's 'their turn'.