daveedley

On 6/18/2017 at 14:18, Jellybean T said:

Has anyone changed from the 143 to the 864 contributory aged-parent? If so could they post how they did this and if time in the queue was taken into account,  as we now qualify for this visa and were looking at our  options. Have to sell the house first and as we live in Spain it's a bit slow. We are 18 months in the queue at the moment.  All  info gratefully received.

Hi

We originally applied for a 143 visa in January 2015 but once we found out the shorter processing times for the 864 visa we switched to that and submitted in November 2015. We then had a CO appointed in September 2016 so much shorter than if we had waited for the 143 visa. They don't take into account time in the 143 queue and you have to pay the 1st VAC again. You have to be onshore when applying and when the visa is granted.

1 hour ago, SusieRoo said:

I think you need to allow £3500 for shipping and all the additional costs, just  to be on the safe side. Husband is now reconsidering taking ours. He thinks he now needs an old Toyota with big wheels to drive on the beach. I'm saying nothing, he's already been though his Harley Davidson phase.

I reckon that new cars in Australia are cheaper than the equivalent cars in the UK, even taking into account the current poor exchange rate. We bought a new VW Golf and it was several thousand £ cheaper than we would have paid in the UK for an equivalent model.

2 hours ago, Kathss56 said:

I had a quick look at Form 80!

Having travelled a lot of the last 10yrs - I am not so sure I will remember all the dates and places so much!! ?

We have our permanent visas now and when we filled out Form 80 we only bothered with travel where there was evidence in our passports. I traveled extensively for business in Europe but there was no evidence of these trips that the visa people could access so I did no declare them. I think they are only interested if you visited "dubious" countries

7 hours ago, Suzyq said:

Hi my first posting so may be a bit garbled and include a number of topics! 

We have applied for a PCV 143, submitted only in October 2016. We were probably a bit premature but have sold our home and living in temporary accommodation. We were hanging our hopes on the new temporary visa expected in July this year (2017) to see us through to when we hope to get the 143. There so much uncertainty surrounding the new temp visa that I'm just about to apply for the Visitor visa 600 to allow me to stay for a year (hopefully). Does anyone know if you can apply for another 600 when the initial one expires? As we will still be some while away from getting the 143.

Then, as the £/$ rate is pretty good we were hoping to start transferring money into an Australian account. So far we've been unable to open an account with an Australian bank without having a visa other than an evisitor. My agent has discovered that the Commonwealth bank will apparently allow the opening of an account, but it cannot be used until we are in Australia. Prior to knowing this and in the meantime have jumped through hoops for our own bank, HSBC, and still waiting for a response from them. Has anyone else dealt with this issue and if so how did you go about it?

Finally, we're going to settle in Ellenbrook, Perth. Anyone else going that way?

Thanks for reading, Sue

 

We opened a bank account with the Commonwealth Bank before our visa was granted. You are right that you cannot withdraw money until you go in person to your bank branch (you can do this on a visitor visa). This is a government dictate to prevent money laundering. We sorted the application out with the Commonwealth Bank branch in the UK who were very helpful.

7 hours ago, Alan Collett said:

Yes, the doubling of the waiting time for the granting of CP visas over the last few years is not good.

Being the cynical chap that I am I can see a political positioning in the next month or two in which the Australian Government says look at the processing times for Contributory Parent visa applications - they are 3 years and lengthening, and that's with a cost of $100k+.

It would never surprise me to see the delays in CP visa processing being a deliberate move to justify changes in visa pricing.

In other words, a processing time of 3 years and increasing will be said to reflect demand exceeding supply, and will further justify a hiking in the VACs, to meet the findings of the Productivity Commission report that was released last year, which said a VAC of $335k to $410k was appropriate to meet expected healthcare costs.

Here's an extract from that report:

(Page 27): The contributory visa charge of just under $50 000 meets only a fraction of the fiscal costs for the annual intake of roughly 7200 contributory parents. And an additional 1500 parents make a minimal contribution. Overall, the cumulated lifetime fiscal costs (in net present value terms) of a parent visa holder in 2015-16 is estimated to be between $335 000 and $410 000 per adult, which ultimately must be met by the Australian community. On this basis, the net liability to the Australian community of providing assistance to these 8700 parents over their lifetime ranges between $2.6 and $3.2 billion in present value terms.

Given that there is a new inflow each year, the accumulated taxpayer liabilities become very large over time. This is a high cost for a relatively small group.

Given the balance of the costs and benefits, the case for retaining parent visas in their current form is weak.

In the short term, a partial remedy would be to lower the taxpayer funded subsidy for contributory parent visas by considerably raising the visa charge, and to introduce more narrowly focused non-contributory parent visas. This would involve narrowing eligibility to non-contributory parent visas to cases where there are strong compassionate grounds.

The impact of this tightening could be partly offset by the introduction of more flexible temporary parent visa arrangements, subject to the parents or sponsoring children meeting the costs of any income or health support during their period of residence.

We've already seen yesterday a controversial move with 457 visas - arguably for political purposes.

Don't be surprised if something similarly out of left field happens with parent visa applications.

Onwards!

I wonder, though, if these figures take account of the contributions parents make after their arrival in the form of income tax and medicare contributions?

hi, we applied for the normal contribution parent visa. Our daughter has had a baby now and we are thinking of the quickest way to get to Oz basically. As we are both over 50 this was the only option available.

I read about 173 thinking it was an on shore application.....obviously I read it wrong.

We were thinking of going and applying onshore for a visa but don't know if this is possible or an option really.

any advice greatly received thankyou Alan

Are you over 65? If so, you can apply onshore for an contributory aged parent visa 864. You can then stay on a bridging visa until your permanent visa is granted, although there are restrictions on you leaving Australia during this time. We changed to an 864 visa from a 143 visa to take advantage of the much shorter waiting time.

Dave

I thought I would share our experience with the Onshore Contributory Aged Parent Visa 864. As the name implies it is only available to applicants over 65. If you meet this criterion the waiting time is much shorter than the 143 visa, typically between 6 and 12 months depending on when in the year you apply. We actually started out with a 143 application but switched to the 864 visa when we saw the 143 queue lengthening.

The other issue is that you have to be in Australia when you submit the application and when the visa is granted. You can stay in Australia whilst you are waiting for approval and will automatically be granted a bridging visa. It can be restrictive if you want to leave Australia with a bridging visa but you can avoid this by leaving whilst your visitor visa is still valid, which is what we did.

Like many others we found Centrelink dreadful, taking nearly 3 months to process our daughter’s AOS. To their credit the Parent Visa office then only took 4 days to grant our visa once they had the AOS confirmation!

Dave

I would like to get an idea as to how long it takes Centrelink to process an AOS. My daughter went to Centrelink on 8 September with her AOS form and supporting documents. She was told that they would pass the information to Immigration and she would hear again when the bond deposit needed to be made. She has not heard anything yet and I wonder how long other Forum members have had to wait for Centrelink to process the AOS

Thanks

Dave

For those of you who have obtained visas recently, were you able to get the letter allowing you to process your AOS before you had your CO appointed? Given that Centrelink can be slow in processing the AOS it would be very helpful if this were possible

Thanks

Dave

Is it possible to convert from 143 to 864 mid application or do I have to start all over again with application, deposits etc.Just thinking of going over there and speeding things up by changing from one to the other and so of course will then be onshore.

We changed from a 143 application to an 864 application to take advantage of the shorter processing time but you need to submit a new application and pay the 1st VAC again

Hi GeoffL

 

You are confusing two different visas, but essentially I think your plan is feasible.

 

The 103 visa is an offshore visa and you must be offshore when it's granted. Until Jan 16 we were on the 103 waiting list. You could check your progress up the list via the oz govt immi electronic queue calculator ( for a quick nosy, Google electronic queue 103 and the link should come up) you type in your queue date (the date given by immi NOT the date of application) and the type of visa and it tells you how many people are ahead of you. Although we were told about 10-20 years it would have been a lot less than that I think - probably about 8-10 years.

 

the he visa I think you are considering is the onshore aged parents visa, which I don't know too much about. I know you can get a bridging visa for that one and stay in Australia while you wait, but you have to apply from Australia having decided you'd like to stay once you got there ... In other words, no turning up at the airport for your 'holiday' with twenty suitcases and the family dog.

 

I believe the aged parent visas move much more quickly than the offshore 103 but I'm not sure about the timescale. I'm sure someone else will be along soon to tell you though!

Hi

We have applied for a contributory aged parent visa (864) and entered Australia on an electronic visitor visa. When we then applied for our visa we were granted a Bridging Visa A so we could stay in Australia whilst our visa was granted. It is true that the grant time for an onshore contributory aged parent visa (864) is considerably less than for a contributory offshore visa (143), around 9 months compared to 24 months. However for the non-contributory visas, the 804 and 103 the wait time is fairly similar as most of the time is spent in the 8-10 year queue (look at the data in the automated TEST email you can get from immi). One thing to be aware of with the Bridging Visa A is that it is not always easy to leave Australia whilst you are waiting unless you have a compelling reason.

Hi Julie, Yes, we thought we should just get them out of the way, and of course left the case officer blank. I don't see that it should be a problem, because for others who lodged before us, they received their info to get those, and medicals done, at a certain time - and they would not have case officers either at that time.

Amanda

Hi

We recently completed the Police Check form without having a CO appointed, left the appropriate section blank and received the Police Certificate about 10 days later without any problems

Dave

Does anyone know if you can get a HAP ID before a CO is appointed so that one could arrange a medical and so be sure if there are any medical problems?

Hi Katherine.

 

Unfortunately there's no refund of Visa Application Charges when withdrawing an 804 and lodging an 864.

 

You can reasonably expect an 864 application to be processed quickly if your parents in law lodge such an application. We're seeing 864s progressing from application lodgment to grant in about 6 months at the moment.

 

Not sure I follow the pensions question. They won't get an Australian Age Pension until they have been an Australian resident (as defined) for 10 years.

 

The definition is as follows:

Australian resident

An Australian resident is a person who is living in Australia and is either:

 

 

• an Australian citizen

   

• a permanent visa holder, or

   

• a protected Special Category visa (SCV) holder

 

 

=> The AoS period will expire at the same time as they meet the Residence requirement for the Age Pension.

 

Best regards.

As far as I am aware you have to be a bit careful when applying for your 864 visa whilst out there on a visitor visa. If you return to the UK whilst your visitor visa is still active then there will be no problems but once it expires you will get a Bridging Visa and it could then be difficult for you to return to the UK until your visa is granted. Obviously if you were planning to be in Australia whilst the visa is processed then there will be no problem. You must be in Australia when the visa is granted.

I submitted my application for an 864 onshore aged parent visa on 9 November 2015. I have been following the TEST immi emails and the assessment date for the 864 visa has been stuck at 30 June 2015 for several months. I have had no response from immi apart from them saying that they had a large number of applications in June. Are there any 864 applicants on the forum who can shed any light on the situation?

Contributory aged visa 864. It was only submitted at the beginning of March this year. Such a surprise today when the e-mail came asking for the various forms as above and the form 80 (also prepared ready to submit). I was expecting to wait at least another year.

I am considering applying for an 864 visa due to the shorter waiting time. I am aware that you have to be onshore when applying but did you then remain in Australia or were you able to come back to the UK?

Thanks

Subclass 864 applications take about 4 to 6 months from lodgment to a decision - so you are pretty much on track!

 

Best regards.

We are considering whether to apply for a 143 or a 864 visa (we are over 65). I gather that you need to be onshore when applying for the 864 visa and when it is granted. In the intervening period do you need to stay in Australia or can you return to the UK? Also what type of visa do you need to hold when applying in Australia - is a visitor visa OK?

Many thanks