Pertenhall

Seeking advice on citizenship timelines.  We were lucky enough to get out visas granted in Sep 2018 and in Nov 2018 activate them with a trip out.  We then had to return to the UK to sort out our affairs and finally moved over on 7 Nov 2019.  It would seem that our "permanent residency" would be counted from 13 Nov 2018 when we activated our visa.  However  I am a bit confused over the definition for "lawful residence" . 

The website states " You need to know the date your 'lawful residence' started, that is, when you first started living in Australia on a valid visa.  For example, you might have arrived in Australia on 1 June 2012 holding a temporary visa. Then on 4 September 2016, we granted you a permanent visa. So, your lawful residence date is 1 June 2012 and your permanent residence date is 4 September 2016."

But this doesn't cover our situation.  Can we start our citizenship application now (more than 4 years since our permanent residency), or do we have to wait 4 years from when we finally moved here - i.e. 7 Nov this year?  Does anyone have any similar experience. 

10 hours ago, Kathss56 said:

I reported it. Seems to have been taken off 

Thanks Kath.  It looked so genuine in my in box, but I couldn't see it on the forum.  Thanks for reporting it.

On 23/12/2020 at 08:58, Pertenhall said:

Please be aware that I have received an email supposedly from Pomsinoz from a supposed subscriber Allenteext which gave a link to a rather vile video.  Not sure how this happened, but hope no one else has had the same problem.

6 hours ago, Pertenhall said:

Does this mean your plans have to change yet again?

Fingers crossed.

39 minutes ago, kimboslice said:

Singapore Government have just put this online.

"..........passengers with a travel history to the United Kingdom within the past 14 days, with the exception of Singapore citizens and Singapore permanent residents, will not be allowed to enter or transit through Singapore."

Does this mean your plans have to change yet again?

7 minutes ago, Quoll said:

That's interesting - did you have to have an Australian address in order to open one?  My son needs an Aussie bank account but he lives in London.

No - we just told them that we had applied for the 143.  At the time we thought it would only take a year from opening the account before we got here - in the end it was over 3, but there was no problem.

1 hour ago, Flangela100 said:

Hi does anyone know of a Bank Account I can open before I get my visa granted?  (Preferably a savings account)

We opened one with Westpac.  It was no problem at all.  We went into their branch in London but you can probably do it on line too.

6 hours ago, Alan Collett said:

Once you have permanent residency and are living in Australia UK pension income IS taxable income in Australia.

Indeed, IMHO it is a more secure and regular source of income that that of a salaried employee.

The banks are most bewildering organisations ...

Best regards.

Totally agree Alan.  Guess it's a good job we don't need a mortgage or a loan, I assume the same criteria would apply!

3 minutes ago, Alan Collett said:

Might be a blessing in disguise if you can obtain one of the cards that provides frequent flyer miles when you sign up ...

Have a read here for more information: https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/best-credit-card-offers-february-2020/

Best regards.

Thanks Alan - will give that a go.

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.

11 hours ago, kimboslice said:

Visa granted 28.1.2020 :), so happy.

Fantastic news - look forward to seeing you when you are settled!

7 hours ago, kimboslice said:

Just recieved email requesting 2nd vac, its getting real

So very pleased that things are at last moving on for you.  Fingers crossed it won't be long now!

1 minute ago, ramot said:

We have always had a Qld seniors card, we were on the temporary 410 visa for 16 years, before getting PR last year, so unless things have changed shouldn’t be a problem. 

Thanks.

Don't know if anyone can help.  We are now well and truly in Australia - hip hip hooray.  Has anyone applied for a Queensland Seniors Card.  No sure if we are eligible as we are not a Centrelink customer, or have a veterans Affairs file number.  

2 minutes ago, kimboslice said:

Next tuesday wow, all the very best after such a long and stressfull journey, we will definatly have that coffee at moffatt beach.

Look forward to it!

3 hours ago, kimboslice said:

Hi David

Slight  problem with medical so it’s holding the visa up at the moment, fingers crossed

Mark

Sorry to hear you've hit a snag.  Hope everything gets sorted soon.  We are flying out next Tuesday - can't believe it is actually happening!  Good luck.  Hope to see you when you get there finally.

3 hours ago, Paulie said:

Dears,

Would anyone know if having received Family Tax Benefit could affect eligibility to sponsor/provide AoS  for 143 and or 870 parents visas?

Thanks! 

As far as I am aware it doesn't affect the eligibility but you can't count the amount received into the annual income of the assurer.

We're getting close to booking our flights out.  Does anyone know of any discounts/additional baggage allowance that any airline might offer to emigres?  

55 minutes ago, Bear2015 said:

Rosiejaq,

I can remember some time ago, a parent  on the forum  had a similar problem with the AOS, and finally the child got in touch with the local member who  intervened  and the process was expedited. 

If anyone can remember that post pls give Rosie some help.

Hello there - have just picked up this thread again and see that Rosiejaq is having problems with AoS.  We had great problems with them, constantly advising us that it was being processed.  Eventually,  after months of waiting our daughter contacted her federal MP and things started moving – however not in a good way as the response once it came was that it had been rejected.  Our daughter re-submitted and, with think with a little more help from her MP, it went ahead pretty quickly.  It is certainly worth a try to contact your federal MP.  Good luck.

4 hours ago, kimboslice said:

We are on holiday in Australia visiting family, and we have just received the email from immi requesting extra documents. Can’t believe it’s finally happening.

Excellent news!  We had our request when we were out for Christmas in 2017.  Hopefully not long now until you can be out there permanently!  We are still having problems selling our house, but at least we have the visa sorted!

9 hours ago, Rosiejaq said:

Does anyone have experience of adding a third person to Aos if original application  of 2 people rejected.  Can you just submit the extra person or do you have to resubmit everyone together?  Thanks.....this is very stressful

We had problems with our AoS application which was rejected after months of waiting and being told it was being processed (daughter's income was just AUD1K too little in the previous year).  Our daughter asked if she could add another person onto the application and was told it was too difficult!  However I have read on the forum from months, maybe even years, ago that someone was able to add another person.  Fortunately our original application was rejected in May last year so we didn't have to wait long until the next tax year when our daughter's income was sufficient.  Ask the question, and if the answer is no then get straight on and submit another application - once our daughter re-submitted hers it went ahead pretty quickly.  Good luck.

@kimbosliceDo hope it doesn't take too much longer until you have your good news.

5 hours ago, Emmys Gran said:

Hi. I though people might be interest in our AOS saga. Our son submitted the Aos on 1 June 2018. About 20 December he had the phone call when he was told the AOS had been accepted and that he’d be getting the letter to pay the bond, shortly. About the same time he had an email from Centrelink requesting further ID to be provided within 5 days. He called in at the local office, the same day, with the requested document (which he’d submitted previously but they’d obviously lost it). After that....nothing. By the end of February we were getting more than a bit anxious particularly as we were within 2 months of the anniversary of our medicals. Our son is a busy dentist with full appointment books so has little spare time in working hours. He spent several lunchtimes on the phone to Centrelink being passed around automated menus or people who couldn’t help. We checked the Centrelink complaints webpage which says you can email a complaint linked to your My Gov account but again the links took us around in circles. Our son did email a complaint/query but this wasn’t even acknowledged let alone answered.

 As a last resort we emailed the local MP’s office.  We had a rely from one of her officers the same day. He needed to speak to our son, Huw, being the person submitting the Aos. That took a couple of days but then a few days later Huw had a phone call from someone in what’s essentially a complaints department who sorted it and importantly gave us her direct number. Apparently the extra ID submitted hadn’t been linked to Huws account so the whole process had been left pending!  Who knows how long we would have been kept in limbo without the intervention of the MPs office!

There was another hiccup when the Huw found his account wouldn’t let him access the bond letter which had been sent by mail but the nice lady in complaints sorted that too & he was able to pick up a paper copy from the local Centrelink office. Unfortunately he can’t get an appointment with the bank for a week but at last things are moving & our new friend will ensure we get the acceptance letter promptly.  

Phew!

Sounds very similar to our experience with the AoS procedure.  Our delay was for a different reason but it wasn't until our daughter's MP got involved that we actually got a response from Centrelink and things eventually started moving.  Thank goodness you are now on track, hopefully it won't be too long before everything is done and dusted.

30 minutes ago, LindaH27 said:

Is it acceptable to scan everything in and email to family in Australia  to print out and post by courier - might be bit quicker and safer? 

We applied in March 2015 - submitted Form 80, scanned passports and scanned Police checks by e-mail.  Everything accepted OK - this was Jan 2018.

2 hours ago, surfersj said:

We made a paper application for a 143 visa back in July 2015 and were advised that form 80, passport page and police certificates had to be submitted as hard copy paper submissions and we were not allowed to send them via email.  So, we sent them Royal Mail International Tracked which took 2 weeks.  We sent certified copies of the police certificates and passport photo pages as the invitation documents that we received asked for this - so didn't want to risk incurring delays.

We applied in March 2015 - submitted Form 80, scanned passports and scanned Police checks by e-mail.  Everything accepted OK.