bonanza

My dual national partner was living in Perth and used to travel with just his (under age) son, also dual national, on annual visits to grandparents in UK. They used to get stopped at border control both ways because there was no mum travelling. Son used to get questioned separately from dad. Would agree you should over-equip yourself with evidence as well as approvals.

On 25/04/2024 at 10:57, paulhand said:

Except when the eGates blow up  

Is there something you're not telling us Paul, or do you have second sight!?! 

On 23/01/2024 at 06:42, Marisawright said:

 you may find you'll also need to keep an Australian mobile phone so you can receive SMS messages for two-factor identification.  

You might want to consider moving your bank accounts to HSBC because they seem the most flexible when it comes to overseas customers.

 

you don't need an Australian mobile phone for banking from the UK with ANZ. I live in the UK and have an ANZ account which I sometimes need 2f authentication to operate certain transactions but it works with my UK mobile number. I get my new debit cards sent to my UK address. It's true HSBC has a global currency account which is aimed at people who travel a lot,  not sure which financial jurisdiction this operates out of? You might want to be aware of different rules eg anti money laundering, deposit protection and independence of the state. For day to day UK to UK transactions I would check out the UK bank that best serves your UK interests and hold on to your Australian bank rather than moving all your accounts. Before you open a UK bank I would check out the reviews for their IT systems. Some of them are rubbish! HSBC UK (regulated in the UK with deposit protection etc)  is one of the better ones but their subsidiary First Direct is better still.

2 hours ago, Blue Manna said:

Without residency you won't get access to the NHS, plus there are many other things that residency gives you. You won't get residency without right to abode. Hence that is why residency is stronger. But of course having both residency and a British passport is even better.

And register to vote as soon as possible. Being on the electoral register for 6 months gets you a credit record too.

On 01/05/2024 at 20:48, Amber Snowball said:

I didn’t think you got a NI number until you are 16 or thereabouts. My son wasn’t issued one that I am aware of. Is this a new thing or do they only tell you about it later on even though it’s created earlier? I’m just curious!

You get issued with an NI number at age of 16. Perhaps you don't get a nice little card in the post like you used to! However you can go and get one by attending the local DWP office. They will expect ID ... a UK passport so that is definitely top priority. Plus a UK address, which is hard to prove until you've been offered a job or obtained a bank account. My step son also found it challenging to come back to the UK from Australia as an adult because of the circuitous nature of not being able to get ID without having ID. but it takes perseverence and it starts with geting a UK passport and NI number.

14 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

That's interesting, they must have tightened up recently.  No one asked us that question in 2015.

it's the law and has been for some years. As a UK landlord you can be prosecuted for allowing non eligible people to rent your property.  I personally had the case of an American applicant,  who had a start up business in the UK, try to get round this by trying to sign a tenancy agreement as a corporate entity. But the law applies to the individual occupier, not the legal entity. 

12 hours ago, Samanddave said:

My partner and I plan to marry at the end of the year in Australia. 

I have dual citizenship Australia and the UK 

My partner is a UK resident currently.

We plan to apply for partner visa next year.

We do not have shared bank account, shared mortgage or tenancy.

How can we show evidence of shared finances?

We have been trying to open a shared bank account as this is number one on the visa approval. However with us being in different countries this is proving most difficult because he does not have any Australian ID yet and when we look at UK bank accounts they all say must have been in UK (on the electoral register) for 12 months.

Does anyone know any banks UK or Australia that would allow this?

Can anyone give me examples of shared finances that are not shared bank account, mortgage or tenancy that could be used as evidence of shared finances?

My own circumstances were very VERY similar to those you describe! I did get a partner visa approved and several years later still do not have any joint financial accounts with my lovely partner despite the fact we've now been together in de facto relationship  for 11 years.

Just like many other people, we have separate accounts which were in place before we met. It's convenient for us. Therefore the mortgage is in my name not his, etc etc just as you describe. One thing we do have however is credit cards whereby one person is the account holder and the other is a  a second cardholder whose spending is shown separately on the monthly statement. American Express does this but some other credit card companies do not.  See if you can apply for second cards for each other if the spending is shown separately. The account holder will still have sole responsibility for the account balance payment and debt but it demonstrates that you trust each other with spending your own money. (It could also be practical in advance of your wedding !). 

The other thing is that (unless their policy has changed recently) ANZ will accept overseas applicants for its bank accounts in anticipation of migration, so your fiance could open one from the UK based on his UK credentials. He will have to make a deposit but will not be able to operate the account (ie withdraw any cash, get a debit card etc) until he presents himself with ID in a branch in Australia. (He can however print statements etc. )  I have personally found ANZ very helpful and suggest you see if they will accept a joint application on this basis. However, as I can attest, you do not absolutely need to have joint accounts in order to demonstrate an exclusive commitment to each other.

However I recommend you contact a qualified migration agent like Paul Hand who can guide you. I have consulted with Paul recently on another matter and his advice is both pragmatic and useful.

Good luck!

Good luck to you  and enjoy Bali.

Gnarabup has stunning beaches and is a couple of kms from the town of Margaret River, it is a good spot to stay with lots of holiday rental options (or stay at the smart Cape Lodge Hotel though it caters more for international tourists). While in Gnarabup visit the White Elephant Beach cafe and take a few detours up and down Caves Road to Cullen Wines, Vasse Felix, Stella Bella, and Moss Wood (if the latter is open for visitors). Many of the wineries do great lunches, Voyager being the glitziest and there are lots of little boutique wineries also worth a visit. 

We recently stayed at Redgate Beach Villas just a bit further down the road from Margs, a great spot but more isolated. (We are going back in March  )There are lots of great places if you liike the outdoors. If you llike walks then a local guide book 'Walking Round In Circles' has some interesting short and longer walks in the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park that include interesting landmarks and beaches too.

Albany's worth a couple of days visit (whalewatching boat trips with Naturaliste Charters and the old whaling station) and if you have the time you can do a circuitous trip heading first to Albany then Margaret River then Bunker Bay. Albany Highway (does what it says) is a good fast road, allow 5 hours to/from Perth. There's also Porongarup (Sleeping Lady Retreat) and Mount Barker area further south east, with the Stirling Ranges and the Great Southern an interesting environment too.

If you don't mind a long drive you could head from Perth down to Bremer Bay and go out on an Orca sighting boat trip (need to stay 2 nights), or head further east towards Esperance though that's a l-o-o-o-o-ng way . Have a great time, I'll be heading over right behind you!

Book accommodation asap because this is still summer hols and options will disappear fast.

On 11/01/2024 at 09:20, Jon the Hat said:

I have no doubt he is a fantastic choice - he is certainly extremely helpful on here and deserves a lot of credit for that.  For many people using an agent is the right thing to do to help get it right or to just not stress about it for 5-6 months. I just wanted to make the point that is it not always a requirement.

15 hours ago, Alan Collett said:

How do you know what evidence to gather?

How many partner visa applications have you lodged previously?

Lodging with the support of an experienced advisor improves the likelihood of getting it right and securing the visa outcome you want, in the timeline that suits your circumstances (eg if you want to migrate to Australia by a date in the not too distant future).

Onwards!

 

My partner and I (he Aussie/Brit and me Brit) used Alan's team in the UK and the points he makes here are spot on. I am an experienced professional person and would normally consider myself as pretty competent at preparing and writing detailed documentation,  but am glad we went down the route (and expense) of using an agent . Go Matilda were really helpful in showing us how to evidence our case as strongly as possible, in the most succinct and well structured way. The experience we were able to draw on as to what the authorities were looking for, and what to include vs leave out was very valuable as some of the evidence might otherwise have been a bit lightweight in some areas. I received a temp 309 visa in April 2016  followed by  a permanent 100 visa in June 2018.

1 hour ago, Philip said:

 

I wonder if that's because you need to submit ID (although not always verified) to have an Australian number so they regard it as a bit more "secure"? Australia seems worse than the UK for wanting a phone number for everything.

I have an ANZ account and can log on to the website without 2FA - the website also lets me send up to $5000 (sometimes with 2FA, not always) while the app only lets me send $1000

I know this is old fashioned but I dislike using apps for financial transactions, preferring the sanctuary of my own laptop and relative privacy of home to make bill payments in a more considered way. Plus as you point out, apps only work as long as you keep the one authenticated device on you. So ANZ were not very accommodating when I said I had no need of an app and moreover didn't use an Aussie sim. 

I was slightly gobsmacked to discover how few hurdles there are to getting into their desktop banking though. 

5 hours ago, InnerVoice said:

Despite being almost a boomer I'm quite happy to use an app for most things, especially as they are often quicker and more convenient that the desktop interface. However, it really gets my goat when businesses only give customers an app option. Some apps are well-designed, but others are hard to navigate and the functions that were easy find on the desktop version are often obfuscated. There's also a tendency for organisations to design the app UX in a way which benefits them more than the customer. I gather there's been a backlash against 'app only' and people are switching providers, just as they did a few years ago from companies that had overseas call centres with unintelligible staff.

Totally agree. We boomers get labelled as 'old people not able to use new tach' which is nonsense. Apps are for the providers' convenience. If you lose your phone, then what?!

17 hours ago, InnerVoice said:

You've raised a very good point. Most banks now require 2FA to login in and there's no longer the option to disable it like there was in the old days. I got caught out on one trip to the UK because my Australian mobile service with Amaysim didn't allow international roaming, so I couldn't receive the security PIN via SMS. Fortunately, I still had a UK credit card which I was able to use for most transactions, and enough cash to last for my trip. I've noticed that a number of banks now provide app based authentication, so as long as you have that enabled on your phone it shouldn't be an issue.

2fa is fine with most uk banks offering a combo of desktop, email, sms, tokens and good ole fashioned passwords or memorable data as part of the options for 3fa logins as well as apps. Anz seems to have assumed that the entire customer base wants to use just an app and an Aussie sms. My partner, who used to live in Perth for many years had some problems with anz after moving to the UK because for transferring large sums their sms authentication kept failing but the Anz system wouldn't allow him to change his phone number to a non Aussie one. Hence we always seem to end up visiting the Anz Freo branch at least twice on every visit over from the UK!

14 hours ago, Marisawright said:

I'd say no unless you go for the HSBC account that FirstWorldProblems mentioned.  Some Australian banks will let you open an account before you arrive, but you can't actually withdraw money from it it until you've got an address in Australia, so it's not really achieving much.

I did open up an account with ANZ from the UK before my first visit to validate my PR visa then validated my account credentials on my 'recce' trip to Perth from the UK. I just had to make an appointment to go into branch (fremantle is helpful and less busy than Perth CBD). I didn't need an address in Australia. The only bottleneck was that (as with an increasing amount  of ID security in Australia), the bank's systems would not accept a non-Australia mobile phone number as ID authentication and since the pandemic Australian banking systems seem to be heading rapidly towards 100% cashless and 100% mobile phone requirement  - with only an Aussie phone number rather than international numbers accepted by their systems. However... there are workarounds, but you need to see the branch personnel in order to get around this then set up your international ie +44 mobile number instead... Anyway, I can confirm this works,  I use my UK address and UK mobile phone for ID and my replacement bank cards arrive at my home in the UK. Everything else is online with no problem.

22 hours ago, StevenP said:

I have just been invited to apply for my 189 and wondered if it was possible and worth setting up an account. We are travelling in November to look at Schools, areas to live and will be in Perth for 3 weeks. Not sure if their is any benefit on having an account pre travel?

There is a small HSBC branch within Claremont Quarter shopping mall which you may find helpful. It seems to be set up to  service non residents. I am living in the UK for now and opened up a basic ANZ current account from here using my UK address and can operate it easily in both countries. The ANZ branch in Fremantle is very helpful for the stuff you can't do online. There are minor benefits to having an account in place before you travel in Nov. but the obvious one is that you can be up and running quickly for things like paying for rental deposits etc (and saves you getting hit twice on FX surcharges if you get your deposit returned etc).

6 minutes ago, InnerVoice said:

Hi, you don't need to be in Australia to apply for a RRV - you can do it just as easily from the UK. Making additional trips here isn't really going to make any difference to the strength of your ties with Australia unless, as Marisa said, you bought a property while you were here. You have an Australian partner, so that in itself is usually a strong enough tie to Australia for an RRV to be granted. Bear in mind that an RRV is what it says it is - a visa for permanent residents to return to live in Australia. The expectation will be that when you apply for it you have some solid planning to return to live in Australia permanently, rather than continue to live in another country. You'd be wise to consult an RMA, but in terms of obtaining an RRV you should be fine.

An important consideration is that because you don't meet the residency requirement, then you will only be granted an RRV for one year. If you're going to want to visit the UK after you've returned to Australia, you're going to need to reapply for an RRV every year until you've met the two-year residency requirement (when you will more than likely be granted a 5-year RRV).

If I was in your situation I would leave applying for your RRV as close as possible to June 2024, and then make your permanent move back to Australia within a year from when the visa is granted.

Great insights, thanks very much. 

38 minutes ago, paulhand said:

Actually it’s only taking a few days to a week or so for these types of application to be processed at the moment. 
 

The OP should be fine, but it may be worth a short professional consultation to ensure everything is properly understood and the application is properly structured. 

Thanks for heads up on timescales, I think I need some help with getting all the ducks in a row both on 1. the application structure / content and 2. guidance so that my partner and I can optimise our next steps to get a successful RRV outcome.

1 hour ago, Marisawright said:

What ties would you establish?  I can't think of anything else you could do, other than buying a property.   

BTW you don't have to leave before your PR expires.  You don't need a RRV to remain in Australia -- hundreds of PR holders live in Australia without a RRV.  You also don't need a RRV to leave Australia.  You just need one when you want to re-enter.  Having said that, I would apply for the RRV before your PR expires anyway.

In your case, the worst that can happen is that you'll have to apply for a partner visa all over again.  Expensive and a hassle, but not the end of the world.

We are back in the UK at the moment having returned 2 weeks ago, but have another trip booked to WA for March. We had been looking to split more of our time between Australia and UK so to spend more time with partner's son in WA as well as UK aging parents in their 80s and 90s. But I only now realise that as a PR not having lived in Australia, we need to hasten our plans to be in WA more permanently from early next year. My 5 year travel permission ends in June.

My partner and I would spend several months in WA during which time we will try to rent a property in advance of buying once UK assets are sold. during this time I could apply for RRV so that partner and I can return to UK periodically to visit our parents. 

Applying for a partner visa all over again would be a drag and an expensive one , but my partner and I have now been living together for 11 years and our lives are much more straightforward than when we did the initial 309 then 100 , plus we know how to do it and have retained all our past and current evidence.

Frustratingly the pandemic delayed us spending more qualifying RRV time in Australia and hastened the isolation and decline of our parents' health here in the UK. While we did not see partner's son for 3 years. I'm sure lots of other people are in similar situations, it's sad.

thanks for your help.

9 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

Hmmm, good question.  To get the RRV, you must convince the department that you have 'strong ties to Australia'.     If you don't have strong ties, no excuses for your absence -- no matter how compelling -- will even be considered, and the RRV will be refused.  Having an Australian partner is obviously a strong tie.  Her son is not yours (assuming you didn't adopt him) so I'm not sure he would count. Personally, I think asking your MA to help you with the wording would be a good idea, but the application itself is simple.

Thanks, just wondering out loud  whether our next trip in March  is a good moment to stay on in WA to establish more ties for a few months rather than leaving at what will be the end of 5 Yr travel term and risk not getting an rrv to come back on. Thanks for your help.

Thanks very much for your fast reply. I know this is a 'how long is a piece of string' question but is the application likely to be straightforward  in this scenario or should I re-engage my MA ?

Hi its been a long time since I needed PomsinOz but I'd be grateful for help through the confusing world of RRV.

I am British with permanent resident visa granted though defacto partner who is dual brit and Aus citizen. PR was granted June 2019. We have been living in UK since applying for my PR. Entered WA in Feb 2020 to initiate the visa, opened an ANZ bank account looked at property, but went back to UK in March 2020 just ahead of lockdown as  partners' ageing parents in UK and my mum in Uk needed a lot of support in self isolation. Partner has son in Perth (Aus citizen)who is now adult. I have no children of my own so partner and his son are my family.

Didn't manage to get back to Oz until Feb 23 despite a few attempts during lockdown (airline cancelled flights, borders shut in WA). Have been back again last month and are  planning to go back to Perth in March 24.

Have not therefore been able to establish 2 yrs residency in last 5 years (90 days approx). Our intention has always been to move permanently back to Aus but at present we are having to attend to parents issues in Uk (nursing homes, sale of their properties, financial management etc). I am 63 partner is 61.

As my partner is Aus citizen and I have a partner perm visa am I eligible for RRV 157 when travel permit expires in June 2024?

If so, should I apply from Australia when I am there in March 2024? Would I also need to apply for bridging visa at that time before leaving Australia in advance of June 24 travel expiry?

Thanks for any advice on this.