nyorksgrannie
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Everything posted by nyorksgrannie
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Congratulaions! we are 7 months behind you so fingers crossed the processing doesn't slow down further. Enjoy your new life.
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We should all know by now that this is not for our convenience or expense incurred and I suppose by Australia standards the distance is not that great - glad we are not in Scotland!
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Hi Fisher, hope your house sale goes through without any hassle we exchanged early May and complete in a couple of weeks with baby due in August and 4yr old to look after, can't wait despite nights without much sleep! At least when you get there there is no more waiting. Safe travels, Sue
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It surely can't be long for you now Catlady, get ready to sprint to the plane!
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Yippee it's July and the start of a new visa year, here's hoping the 143 processing time speeds up, trying hard to be optimistic!
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Hi Angela, My husband went on to Australian Bupa website and it cost us oldies Aus$ 3,268 for 12 months cover for both of us, hope this helps, they would take Amex for payment. Sue
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Hi Angela, sorry to but in, but we have organised BUPA cover for when we arrive. My husband did it on line quoting 600 visa and paid with credit card, you can pay a year in advance or monthly. Our previous annual travel insurance wouldn't have covered it. Sue
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Hi, a warning to others shipping furniture, we are awaiting our parent visa and are putting furniture into store before shipping when we have a 143 visa. We have just discovered however after completing an insurance proposal that to ship our rosewood dining table etc., from any European country, we need a Cites export certificate even though we have owned it since the early 70's and it is for our own use, we may also need an Australian import license. This is because some rosewood is endangered. We were warned that without this we could be heavily fined or the whole container sent back! Further info www.gov.uk FED0172 Cites.org (go to national contacts Then select country ie Australia) More paperwork!
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A bit late for us but I am sure others will be interested, thank you for clarifying.
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Hi the reason a lot of us didn't go down the 864 route at the time of applying is that you have to be living in Australia before applying - hindsight is a wondeful thing, had we known how long the wait would be for the 143 we may have done things differently.
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We changed our plans about taking our cars which we had updated in the last couple of years to qualify by owning them for over a year, the figures made sense at the time and we loved our cars but with the longer than expected visa processing it no longer makes sense as we would have to pay for storage in uk and the cars would be depreciating , ( can't ship on a 600 vsa) . We were also advised that although many cars in Australia may look the same they are often not made in europe, for instance a mercedes we would get here from Germany over there comes from South Africa totally different factories, and someone in the trade said they are maybe not as good but getting parts for the european version would be expensive. The trade generally does not like grey imports. If you are waiting until your visa arrives it may be worthwhile depending on exchange rates but we need to go out temporarily on the 600 to help when second grandchild is born and we have enough hassle without the complication of all the paperwork required for cars. Having seen some of the very steep driveways and car park entrances in Oz we may well have to go for a 4x4 type vehicle with more ground clearance depending on where we end up. Everyones circumstances are different just keep on researching while in this never ending queue!
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Perhaps the revised timing is also due to them cutting the processing staff by 355 and we don't know what percentage this is, hopefully we might get a bit better indication from 1st July (their new financial year) when we can see how many get processed each month. Here's hoping it is not as bad as we fear. Sue
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Hi again Clarkesville, it must be even more difficult if your grandchildren were in the uk with you, our grandson was born in Oz. I would definitely speak to your agent re the 600, I think if you leave by say 11 months and then re enter before the date on your visa expires it renews for up to another 12 months. I don't know however if they take into consideration how long you have been waiting for a 143. I don't think you can renew it beyond two years. Ours has a multi entry facility allowing us to leave and go back as needed within the time frame. You do need Bupa or equivalent healthcare and can't buy property although I believe you may be able to buy a new build project or a block of land. I think others on this site have done this. It is a risk as there is no guarantee as we all have to pass medicals which hopefully won't be a problem.
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Hi, I feel your frustration and pain, we too have missed so much of our only grandsons young childhood and now another is on the way and as we are 26 months in the queue we are going to go for 12 months on the 600 visa as our help is needed.We have no close family left in the uk. The concerning thing is the processing time keeps getting longer and longer and we went for the 143 thinking it was the quick route! It is going to cost us more in storage in uk etc., but our life is ticking away in this waiting room so I would seriously consider it if you are retired - you can't work on the 600. Having sold our house we were really hoping the £ would be stronger today so not a happy bunny with news! Good luck and plan ahead visits so you have something to look forward to, as you say there is no quick fix!
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Hi, we too did it online and it only took a few days, I would check with your agent.
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Hi Alan you didn't think it at the time but you were one of the lucky ones! Glad you are enjoying life there those of us left in the crowded waiting room (standing room only) are getting more and more frustrated with the longer than expected wait, we could do with some good news instead of which we are told processing times will be longer. Miss your funnies you used to post!
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That's very interesting BrendaM processing times seem to be a bit eratic it would be nice to hear if any members on here applied in November and whether they have been contacted yet.
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Good luck Nana Jan I hope it all goes well, we are already into the farewell lunches, dinners etc., and weeks to go yet, I think I will need to diet when we finally get there! We are taking most things having changed some of our furniture in the last few years even taking washer and dryer - our movers said it was worthwhile if good quality german products so we replaced ours 18 months ago. I am not taking fridge/freezers though, I don't think they travel well and lots of Oz houses have a space for a big fridge which will be for Oz sized fridges.
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Thank you Gilly333 it is very helpful to know what to expect. Sue
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Hi Gilly, how much should we expect to pay for a prescription, I presume it is per item?
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What an awful experience for you so glad it came right in the end, a warning to all new applicants - make sure you receive a receipt with lodgement date, we have an agent and she sent the copy from immi to us, it might take a few weeks.
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Hi, so did I, I understood shippers (Anglo Pacific in our case) will not ship without 143 or similar. You can send boxes to family in Oz (as we still have some things of our daughters we will do this) but not a container.
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Hi Geoff & Gill, we fully intended taking both our cars but the first problem we hit was that one car wouldn't be able to have Sat Nav updated (making it more difficult to sell when we changed it) and the other only a year old could, but whereas the sums made sense had we been going with our 143, having now to put it in to storage here plus the fact that it would be older and therefore less valuable if and when it could be shipped it didn't seem worth the hassle, the problem we all have is not knowing how long things will have to be in store awaiting the 143 whilst being in Oz on 600 visa. Frustrating!
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Good luck Nana Jan, we are not far behind you, we have exchanged on house and fly two days after completion in late July. I was interested that you have arranged post re-direct - to Australia? or do you have family in uk? We do not now have any close family in UK and have been cancelling everything and could give a friends address for bank etc., but I hope the post office can just put a stop on all the rest. There is such a lot to think about but we are making progress. Not good news that staff on visa processing are being cutback, it can't be an easy job with everyone complaining and now some may lose their jobs. I hope it works out for you and everyone else, we decided to drink our wine stock but now it has gone down so much we will have to buy more!
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Hi, I have a distant memory of someone saying don't move all your money until you have a permanent visa as it is harder to get the money out than it is to move it in, does anyone know if there is any truth in this other than currency rate changes?
