carob

Thank you for your reply.  I was hoping that we could go on a spending spree haha!  Wishing everyone a Happy Christmas, not that it feels like it.  Here in Perth we are in the middle of a heatwave - 40 degs - early for WA.

Hello, a long time since Ive been on PIO, and I hope this is the right place for my question.

We came out here nearly five years ago on the 143 visa.  We have now been accepted as Citizens.  Will we now be able to have our Assurance of Support ($14,000) refunded, or do we still have to wait the ten years?  Of course, that all depends on being able to negotiate the Centre.ink system!!

Thank you, in the hope that someone else has gone through this experience.

Ooh thanks everybody for your replies.  I had thought it could be done from here, but I was concerned that it might take a long time.  I think I then I  have to notify Immi on form 9209 of the new passport details, although the Visa will still be on the old one. Let's hope it doesn't get lost!

thsnk you all again.

I did find a post for the year 2014, so thought the replies might not be accurate now!  On the post, it refers to being able to renew UK passports here in Australia.  Is this still the case?  I live in Perth WA now, Permanent Resident for the past couple of years, so if it's possible to renew here, would be so much easier.

Ii'm sure someone out there will have an answer, so I thank you in advance for any help.

There's a very good butcher in Ellenbrook Suzyq, called Cutting Edge. (not a hairdressers) ?? Its next door to a shop selling fishy things.

We go there when in the area going to other places, 'cos we live in Ascot.

Regarding a bank account.  I'm pretty sure we opened a Westpac account in London, before we had our 143, then confirmed it when we arrived in Perth.  However, this was a few years ago, and due to our advancing years might have mis-remembered!!

18 hours ago, tabitha10 said:

Hi there Carob,

How are you getting on then? wow 2 years that has gone so quickly !!

Yeah we waited until the last minute really to go for it.. still got lots to sort here. Just decorating etc at the mo in prep for selling.

ill PM you

Thanks for the PM Tabitha 10.  I will respond to it, but I'm still trying to resurrect this thread, as nothing is coming into my email; apart from the one you just sent.

best of luck with the decorating! xx

On 11/04/2017 at 3:17 PM, tabitha10 said:

Im still here..... got our 173....just waiting for the 143 now put in for that in Nov 2016...!!!!

1 minute ago, carob said:

Ooh tabitha10.  Still here then ??  I remember chatting to you at the start of our joint journeys.  We've been here two years now, and still learning.  It will seem a bit of a rush at the end, but will be worth it for you. xx

Ooh tabitha10.  Still here then ??  I remember chatting to you at the start of our joint journeys.  We've been here two years now, and still learning.  It will seem a bit of a rush at the end, but will be worth it for you. xx

I'm afraid I'm cheating a bit with this, due mainly due to the fact that I no longer receive anything from this thread into my emails.  So I'm hoping this will resurrect the process ?? 

Best of luck to all of you in the queue, we thought it bad enough at nineteen months, but we are pleased we sold our house and rented for six months whilst waiting.  It certainly took the pressure off whe it came the time to move over.

I think they pay interest on the Bond, half yearly, to the person who lodged the AOS.  In our case, it was our daughter, who doesn't tell us if it has gone into her bank account!!

Happy anniversary to us - two years in the waiting room today - tried to get out of our seats to stretch our legs but couldn't get up!

 

Anyhow we've got our 600 visas now so off to Perth on the 19 July to wait in a better waiting room!

 

All the best

 

Steve

Uuum, oh dear two years Steve, what a wait, but at least you will be here when the visa is granted. Well actually not here, but offshore somewhere exotic ??!! I will make a note in my diary for when you arrive, perhaps we will actually manage to meet up soon. You do sound very organised, long may you continue to be. First thing to do when you become a permanent resident, is to get your Senior's Card, then you are able to get a driving licence for 50% of the normal fee; plus other benefits.

Enjoy your next couple of weeks in the UK.

That's very useful - thank you!

 

Do you know if the granting of the seniors card has any effect on the AOS bond that we have to have on the CPV 143 visa?

Hello Steve, as far as I am aware the Senior's card does not affect the AOS. We use it regularly, and are always asking for senior's discounts; sometimes the card is asked for, but just by looking at us they can tell, haha. Although, when we asked for a senior's discount at the Titantic exhibition for visiting UK friends it was not allowed without them having a card. It also gives free travel on buses and trains plus more things I am sure, if I cared to read the booklet that was sent.

hope to see you soon over here ??

Hi everyone

As some of you are asking for updates on life over here I will fill you in on a couple of things. First of all it is the same but very different if that makes sense. Because they speak English (well sort of) I had imagined that things would be quite simple. How wrong I was. Everything over here takes forever. We spent a whole week trying to transfer our driver licences! Maybe we were just unlucky. It was very frustrating but eventually it got done. On the plus side the staff are really friendly and nice. When you go to the driving licence place or centrelink you do have to leave plenty of time. At least a couple of hours in each place a

though a friend of mine was out in 40 minutes! I had completed all the paperwork for her and told her exactly what to do so I think that helped. You have three months from when you enter on a PR visa to change your driving licence over. You have to take 5 items of ID which can be a problem if you are staying with family. If you go on their website it lists 5 sections and you have to have id from each one. Medicare was easier I think we only needed passport and visa. You need to take out private health cover too. The minimum you need is ambulance cover and then you can add on whatever else you want. We have gone with hbf and have ambulance, minor and major dental and optical. There is a wide range of options to choose from depending on your personal circumstances. We bought a car on our second day. That was quite straightforward but be aware you have to pay stamp duty on the cost of the car so you do need to factor that in. If anyone tells you you don't need insurance because it is in the rego ignore them. You still need ins the same as in the uk. The insurance in the rego is only third party legal stuff so you can drive car immediately but if you were to have an accident you are not covered for any damage to any car. Car rego varies on the car but ours is about $600 per year and you can choose to pay it in 3, 6 or 12 month blocks. Definitely try and choose a car with a cloth trim as the plastic/leather seats get so hot you cannot sit on them. Also window tinting is definitely worth having. It does keep the inside a tad cooler so you can at least sit on the seats! And def check it has air conditioning. (I am sure you all know that but sometimes these things can get overlooked) If you are hoping to get employment it is very difficult here at the moment. My husband and I are both looking for work (he is an hgv/ forklift driver and there are over 200 applicants for the jobs he is applying for. I have had one interview but didn't get the job. It is quite worrying for us as we need a job to get a mortgage as we didn't have enough left after paying for our visa! We were mortgage free in uk so it is a bit of a backward step. Shopping wise you can get almost everything you would in the uk so no problems there. Phone and Internet are quite bewildering as is the tv setup. I found these to be the most stressful of all which is quite ridiculous when you think about it. There is not much unlimited internet so you have to choose how many gbs of internet you need. We have gone with foxtel for the tv just because it was the easiest. Every house seems to have different types of wiring for tv/internet and trying to get information I found very difficult as everyone has different systems. I am still none the wiser about our house which is why we have foxtel which is like sky through a satellite dish. And Telstra which is like BT I found to be a nightmare but that maybe just my experience. You certainly need to have lots of patience.

Having said that it is all worth it to be with my children and grandchildren. I am really enjoying living near them and being part of their lives is great. Seem to be doing a lot of babysitting duties!!!

Hope I haven't been too negative. But maybe my experiences will help you.

Good luck to you all

Linda x

Ooh, this is so true, although I don't remember the 5 ID's required. We were advised by a very helpful lady at the licensing centre, to put off getting our licenses until we had our Seniors Cards, thereby getting 50% off. Maybe we had enough as we had bank accounts already. We have been here a year now, and still get surprises. Of course, some of you will be too young to qualify for the Card! ??

all the best.

Our journey to the medicals also had an accident and diverted route, (Bloody A14!) which I'm sure didn't help matters, good advice re the meditation, I did something similar when sat in the waiting room. After the initial high test result, I just sat and put myself on Cottesloe beach for 5 minutes, worked a treat!

Ooh, I did have to laugh when I read your reference to the A14. It obviously hasn't got easier since we lived just minutes from it! Now been in Perth twelve months.

Sorry, realise it is not relevant to the thread but it did amuse me. Xx

The parent visa is very expensive if you don't want to wait all those years.

 

The only option now for migrants wishing to bring their parents to Australia is the "contributory parent" visa – at a cost of $47,120, plus a bond of $10,000 to cover any welfare payments made over a 10-year period. The total is $105,905 to bring two parents to Australia.

hello. With regard to the Bond, I thought it was $10,000 for the first person, plus an additional $4,000 for the second. Perhaps it has changed since we paid for our AOS at the end of 2014. If your sums are correct it does look to be so much more money than we forked out! ☺️

All the best!!

Hi Joe

 

I'm with you on this one. They know how many places they have to allocate per year on the CPV scheme and it' s not rocket science to press a button on the PC to know how many applications they have pending. Do the maths IMMI!

Good luck with Form 80, I'm not doing mine unless I'm asked for it. Sod's law says that those who have completed it won't be asked for it and those that haven't will. Maybe I'd better think about that one.

 

Julie

Hi there. I think you will find that everyone will need to complete Form 80. Knowing how long it took me to do our two, I would advise getting to grips with it sooner rather than later. An awful lot of information is needed, and a rough copy will prove very useful, in case you forget what you have been doing for all the years past!!

Good luck.

If you you don't mind me asking: how much is health care insurance?

Summerskybird, I have sent you a private message.

Other than medicare and WA senior card, are CPV holders eligible for any other benefits after 2yrs of residency?

We have now been here five weeks, and have Medicare cards and the WA Seniors Card (bit like our bus passes, but can be used on all Transperth services, within certain time frames). This card also gives entitlement to many, varied discounts, including something akin to our Winter Fuel Allowance, providing you have registered by the end of May. Let's see if this actually works!!

I think you are thinking of the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card, this if my correspondence with Centrelink is correct, is not available until two years residency.

We waited for our Seniors Card to be issued before applying for Aus driving licences, as you get 50% off the process. We have also set up private health insurance, to avoid the government levy on 'old people'!

Going off the point a bit, but we are in the process of finding a rental property in Perth, as we have decided to live it up a little with our house sale proceeds

Been a bit of a bumpy ride at times, but we are almost there now, and enjoying the cooler nights!

Best of luck to all those still on the treadmill.

Thanks everyone for your good wishes. Nearly there, phew, what a relief. Carolyn

Hello to everyone still waiting, also those, who like us are waiting to depart. The packers are here at our rental, container tomorrow. Moving into a hotel for three nights (so we have time to do a spring clean!). Friend's house for two nights, up to Heathrow on Tuesday ready for our flight on Wednesday morning (don't want to risk getting stuck on the M25 'car park'!!). Arrive in Perth on Thursday. Have warned our daughter that she will not be able to see us behind the two moving mountains of luggage

All a bit daunting, and we are a tad apprehensive; our last great adventure though.

All our best wishes to you all, YOU WILL GET THERE IN THE END . Carolyn

Hi folks,

I'm going completely "off piste" here but does anyone know anything about health care once we arrive in Oz? I do know we could get private medical insurance and that its fairly expensive but what about just the general cost of a visit to a GP or perhaps blood pressure/statin prescription costs? What is Medicare and are we permanent resident visa holders entitled to access this? We are 61 & 58.

After long discussions we think its probably time to reduce our house again and try to sell asap so we can be there by our summer. This stuff that we don't fully understand is going to keep me awake if I can't get my head around it.

Perhaps someone who has actually made the move and is settled could answer me questions........

Thanking you in advance,

Regards, Val

hello Vava. We are going out on the 143 visa in three weeks time ie we'll be there on March 12th. As these issues are also to be sorted out by us, as soon as I have got my head round things, I'll try to supply a bit more info on what is what. Providing I can make sense of them of course haha.

Sorry your house hasn't sold yet. We were very fortunate in this area, but we are still getting rid of stuff, and packing clothes!!

best wishes C

Regarding extra baggage, I'm sure there have been other posts somewhere about this. We applied using the enquiry form on Singspore's site, giving visa details, flight and reference number with date. It has to be an unnvalidated PR visa, which the 143 is. A search can be done on PIO if you put in "extra baggage". We had a couple of emails from them, asking us to get our travel agent to issue another eticket. A couple of conversations ensued with my OH so I am a bit hazy on their content. However, the email does say that the extra will be confirmed at the airport, even though they state that we have got it!! Soo, make of that what you will! Obviously your ticket has to be booked to do this. I don't know about other airlines I'm afraid.

Hope this makes some kind of sense, sounds a bit convoluted when I read it back.

Just thought I'd pop back and update as it's always nice to hear when people get their visas!

 

My parents 173>143 was granted yesterday, so 2.5 years since their original application

 

Timeline was:

24th June 2014 - 143 Application Submitted

August 2014 - PCC and AOS requested

September 2014 - AOS Completed

2nd Feb 2015 - 2nd VAC Requested

7th Feb 2015 - 2nd VAC Paid

10th Feb 2015 - 143 GRANTED!

 

They are pretty chuffed to be PR now, especially as their contracts go through on some land they've purchased in the next couple of weeks - means they'll get their $10k FHBG instead of having to wait. Think they are a bit shell shocked at the outlay, but still love it every day they are here. And they are super happy as they are here in time to welcome their first grandchild - having my parents 5 minutes away when I have our first in August is going to be Awesome!!

 

Good luck everyone! :smile:

Ooh, you must all be very excited. Yes, understand about the shell shock! We arrive on Perth on 12th March, our 143 was granted about three weeks ago. We have the extra baggage allowance, which apparently will be granted at the airport, although we have email confirmation. The airline required quite a lot of additional info and they phoned us as well. As I said in one of my earlier posts it is akin to arriving at the bottom of a helterskelter. ??

Every good wish to you all.

Hi

Auto reply working again. They are assessing 143/173 lodgements for 21 June 2013 !! , which means they have progressed 7 days since 8 Jan (we were assigned our CO on 8 Jan with lodgement date of 14 June 2013)

Any more news for you Veronique. We leave on March 11th, we have just realised that is only four weeks away. Oh my goodness.

Didn't go for a PM this time. Hope you hear very soon.