Geoffandgill

Thank God that is just your opinion We have been here since 2017 and have endured the whole of the Covid outbreak, thank goodness we have been in Victoria and abided by Victorian rules. 
So far here we have not lost anyone to covid, unfortunately can’t say the same for friends and neighbours who I had known since 1978 back in England. 
The only thing I agree about your outburst is the sad state of Australian politics but as in most democratic countries, you get what you vote for. 
In defence of the Federal Australian Government, they were originally hampered by the wisdom of the EU  who purposefully delayed our first shipment of vaccine and then put out the propaganda regarding to blood clots. All to punish the UK  for voting Brexit.  
As far as I am concerned I have Dan Andrews and his Victorian Government to thank for being as healthy as I and my wife are at the moment, even they will admit that we will never eradicate Covid but do there best to keep it at bay until a much higher % of the country is vaccinated so we can re-join the rest of the world. 
Just a thought

Geoff

20 hours ago, Pertenhall said:

Has anyone had a problem in applying for a credit card once you are in Australia?  We have been banking with Westpac for over 4 years and have just tried to get a credit card with them.  We were so used to using our credit card for monthly shopping in the UK, paying the balance off each month and would have liked to continue that way now that we are here in Australia.  We were very disappointed that Westpac didn’t even want to know what our income from our UK pensions was (I have a very good state pension and hubby has state pension plus military pension plus work based pension, all very good).  The reply we got was that we needed to have an Australian taxable income.  We confirmed with them that we are registered for tax in Australia and that all our UK pensions were liable to Australian tax.  Their reply “I have double checked this with our credit team today and they have confirmed that we cannot accept only UK Pensions as a sole income to support a credit card application. Our current policy will not allow it. We would need you to be drawing a Australian pension as well for the UK pensions to be able to be used.”  We will try other financial establishments but did just wonder if anyone else has come up against this problem.  We are fully retired so won’t be able to get an Australian work based pension and won’t be eligible for an Australian state pension for another 9 years and even then because of our income from UK pensions and assets this will probably be close to zero.

We joined NAB in 2015 but also were unable to get a credit card for the same reasons as yourself. There maybe on line credit cards available?? but we didn’t bother in the end and just use our debit card now

Geoff & Gill

9 hours ago, Sadge said:

Converting UK to Australian Licence (Victoria)

Can somebody who has done this please tell me if I have to complete the green licence application form, or is there a different, specific, form to complete for this purpose? 

Thanks.

Go into Vicroads office and arrange appointment for driving licence transfer. Fill out transfer form and hand in with sight of UK licence. New licence should take no longer than two weeks to be in post.

Geoff & Gill

8 hours ago, Doris said:

Hi Geoff & Gill

Thanks for your kind reply. Yeah I thought that’s the one - 12months from the date of each arrival. May I ask which date is that on your “must not arrive after” ?  She granted visa on the March 2018 and must not arrive after June 2018. So I don’t think she can re enter now. 

Just hope I can reapply straight away after she leaves. 

Thanks again for your time. 

8 hours ago, Doris said:

Hi Geoff & Gill

Thanks for your kind reply. Yeah I thought that’s the one - 12months from the date of each arrival. May I ask which date is that on your “must not arrive after” ?  She granted visa on the March 2018 and must not arrive after June 2018. So I don’t think she can re enter now. 

Just hope I can reapply straight away after she leaves. 

Thanks again for your time. 

Hi, our visa was issued 12 May 2017, with a “ must not arrive after 12 May 2018”  

Geoff & Gill

On 26/03/2019 at 20:05, Doris said:

Hello everyone. 

I lodged my Mum’s 143 on Feb 2016 and still haven’t heard anything yet.... 

 I’d been told it’s 18months waiting at the time I lodged it. Then after 18 months it increased to 35months. So I decided to apply for her a family sponsored visitor visa (600) and she got granted on April 2018 for 12months stay straight. My mum actually sold all her property in her hometown as we thought it could be enough time for her 143 been kicked in while she’s here.. But sadly she will have to fly out of Australia this end of March  

As I heard from someone there is a condition 8558 which doesn’t allow to stay more than 12months in 18months. My mum visa doesn’t have this condition anyways but she does stay for 12 months straight. 

So Does anyone have any ideas if I can apply for another visitor visa for mum after a couple months she is out of Australia or  have to wait for 6 months? 

Thank you and really appreciate all advices  

Hi, did rely to your query but forgot to link it to your post, so will repeat it. When we applied for our 600 visa we were given 12months from the date of each arrival with a must not arrive after date. This enabled us to leave before the first year was up ( a trip to Bali) then re enter for another year. Does your mum have this type?

Geoff & Gill

Hi, Doris, does your mums visa state  with a stay period “12 months from the date of each arrival”, with a  “must not arrive after date”? This was the 600 visa we had, and were able to leave before the first year was up and re enter for another year.

5 hours ago, Alan Collett said:

Don't forget to investigate the tax deduction for the Undeducted Purchase Price (UPP) of your pensions.

Best regards.

Hi where would we go to find this info? Would HMRC UK and the private annuity pension provider have this information?

Geoff & Gill

4 hours ago, Sadge said:

Hoping somebody can help with my query?

Hi, we are both in receipt of uk state pensions plus my husband also gets a private pension. Since we received our visa we have obtained Australian tax file numbers. We then completed uk tax forms (Individual tax form 2003), which we sent to ATO in Victoria for authorising our residential status and them forwarding them to HMRC UK. This should enable us to have our pensions paid gross in UK and sent directly to Australia where if applicable tax will be taken. We also completed HMRC forms for any tax rebate P85 on line. We had to contact ATO after a couple of weeks to expedite the Indivual forms 2003, which they escalated and dealt with in 48 hrs. Still waiting to hear from UK.

Hope this helps Geoff & Gill

As confirmation of what has been said by others that know, we can add to the fact that we had our 143 granted on the 8th October 2018 and had been given until 8th February 2019 for initial arrival ie 12months after our Medicals and Police checks. 

Geoff&Gill

8 hours ago, Wishfull said:

We have just been granted a 600 visa and the only restrictions on it are that we cannot work and can only study for up to 3 months. We plan to travel to Australia for Christmas and then stay on and I have a couple of questions:

We will have travel insurance and the UK reciprocal arrangements for medicare, but we plan to take out limited private medical cover for dentist, ambulance cover etc. Has anyone else on a 600 visa taken out private medical cover and if so did you encounter any problems because you were not permanent residents.

We have been granted a multiple entry 600 visa. If, heaven forbid, after 12 months we have still not been granted our 143 visa, do we simply leave the country for a few days and then re-enter with another 12 months stay allowed or do we have to stay out of the country for 6 months before we can re-enter.

 

Many thanks

We took out private health insurance with HBF. We took what they call ‘Extras’ plan, in which you can pick certain things to be covered, ambulance being the most important. We also chose dental minor and major and optical. They knew we were on 600 visa. Also we went to Medicare and got a card which relates to reciprocal agreement with UK, which gaves us cheaper prescription and we had to show it at the doctors. We signed on at a ‘bulk billing’ practitioners so didn’t have any bills to pay. Regarding travel,we came in June 17 and renewed it in March 18 by going to Bali ( our 600 was granted in May 17 so we had th leave and return before this date). Our visa then extended to March 19. Hope theses details help. 

Geoff & Gill

Just tried with subject line “143 visa info” got immediate response.
OFFSHORE APPLICANTS (subclass 143 and 173)

When your application is allocated to an assessing officer, you or your authorised contact may be asked to provide more documents, including (but not limited to) an Assurance of Support (subclass 143 only), police certificates and health clearances to finalise your application.

We are currently assessing applications lodged up to and including 12 June 2015

Try putting a word or two in the subject line.
Best regards.

Hi everyone, well we finally left Melbourne Sunday morning 7th Oct and flew to Auckland for four nights. Our visa was issued on the 8th! Now home, no longer feeling in limbo, took 40 months in total Woohoo!

i have read that residential visas need a re-entry visa if you travel out of the country after five years , does anyone know if this refers to 143 visas?

Good luck to all left in the waiting room, we feel your pain and uncertainty but it will happen eventually

Geoff & Gill

3 hours ago, jimbob007 said:

HI we have done the same, sold up and came out on a 600 visa, visa expires o4 December 2018 not heard regarding the AOS/ second vac, has anyone extended their 600 or got another straight away?

congratulations to you both.  

Luckily we did not have the 8503 condition with our 600 Visa. We were able to travel to Bali in March this year which gave us another year from the date we re entered Australia. It seems that there is no rhyme or reason why some people have this condition , while others have multiple entries within that first year to extend.

Geoff & Gill

Do not use the word “Test” in email request. It has caught most of us out. Anything other than test will work

Hi, I submitted my application for 173 on 12/11/2015 Which obviously still waiting for it to be assessed. Up until the last month I have received automated email replys but now nothing, can anybody give me some info on the date they are up to, and is anybody on here with a similar date of application ?
Thanks in advance x
CJ

When we first thought about coming over on a 600 Visa, we contacted Immigration by phone and spoke to a gentleman who advised us that there had been a big influx of applications in June 15 ( as other people have commented on this forum), but that as we had applied early in the month we might be luckier than some. Maybe that is why they are only contacting people who lodged in June 15 at the moment! Hopefully Centrelink will speed up in the future. It does seem that Global Processing dates affect existing applicants and not just new. We are glad that we took the decision and made the move when we did ( albeit against the advice  of our agent) with the 600 Visa, sold our house early and took a chance. We figured at our age ( 70 & 67 now) time is precious with our family. But everyone has to do what they feel is right for themselves.

Geoff & Gill

Another week gone...
3 years.
1 month
&  6 days.
nothing till now.
does anyone have any idea why immi is not contacting new applicants from 1st july 2015...

Congratulations to you both. It’s a great feeling when it happens.
 

[emoji1303]

[mention=245108]Geoffandgill[/mention] congrats guys. [emoji846]

Wonderful news!!  [emoji106][emoji106][emoji3]

Many many congrats....When did you lodge your application 143???

It’s finally happened at last, we had a call from our agent in the UK tonight, we’ve been asked to pay second VAC! As we’re already in Australia on 600 Visa we have seven days to produce itinerary to depart Australia, for minimum of three working days following our departure,  28 days to do it in. So it’s offf to the bank tomorrow and a visit to Fight Centre to book a week in Auckland!

Geoff & Gill

Thanks for that bit of info, just tried it and received a reply within a couple of minutes.
Such a relief to have a first hand positive reply. Now definitely will sit and wait and look forward to that email from our agent in the UK [emoji1303]