Jellybean T

Thank you very much for the information, once the house is sold we will definitely look into going down that route.  Of coutse it could take a year or more to sell the house and then we might be better off in the 143 queue,  only time will tell. It gives us something else to think about while we are in the waiting room! 

14 hours ago, Pertenhall said:

I've just had a quick look at the processing times.  Hard to believe that the Aged Parent Contributory visas are now no longer available due to low volume!  This is a change since last month when I was thinking that we should have gone down that route from the get-go as we would have had our visas ages ago!

864 Contributory Aged-Parent (Residence)		Unavailable due to low volume of applications.	Unavailable due to low volume of applications.
884 Contributory Aged-Parent (Temporary)		Unavailable due to low volume of applications.	Unavailable due to low volume of applications.

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.

16 hours ago, bry45 said:

Hi all

There seems to be a fair amount of confusion between us all regarding who gets what conditions applied to their 600. So before I applied for ours and knowing we ideally wanted visa's without a no further stay condition, I did allot of reading before I applied to see how best to go about it to give us the best shot. For the benefit of others who are thinking of, or are about to apply, this is what I did for ours.

Firstly, I found out that there are differing types of the 600 visa, 3 of which come with a mandatory 8503 condition (below) 

Condition 8503 is a mandatory condition on the following visas:

• Visitor visa (subclass 600) (Sponsored Family stream)
• Visitor visa (subclass 600) (Approved Destination stream)
• Visitor visa (subclass 600) (Tourist stream) if sponsorship has been imposed on it

I then found that there was a fourth option, 

Condition 8503 is discretionary on the following visa

• Visitor visa (subclass 600) (Tourism/visit family or friends)

I therefore chose this option when filling out the application via our immi account. Luckily for us, the 8503 was not imposed. Having done some further reading, we can apply to extend whilst onshore. At the time of applying, we had hoped to have our 143's by the end of  our 12 months, but reading Wishfull's latest post stating the 143 queue is now at 39 months, it looks like applying for an extension will be inevitable.

Hope this is helpful 

 

Thank you the information on the different 600 visas, is very interesting for all of us in the queue that might have to go down that route now that we can no longer see the light at the end ofvthe tunnel! 

1 hour ago, Catlady2014 said:

I ended up having to do my passport renewal application in the Post Office at Asda.  However, having gone out very early this morning an d got my photos done "properly", or so I thought, it appears that they might have been a millimetre out (the distance between chin and head line has to be a certain number of millimetres now apparently).  I decided to take a chance on it and the application has gone off "check and send" which is a little quicker than posting it myself.  I was warned in the Post Office that the Passport Office might call me and tell me to get them done again, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  I suppose these new stricter photograph rules are part of anti-terrorism measures?  

Sorry to hear your having such a nightmare with renewing your passport. ...this is too late for you but anyone else needing to renew their passports, you can renew your UK passport 9 months in advance and that 9 months or what ever time you have left on uour passport will be added to the new passport. Eg. If you have 7 months left your new passport will have 10 years and 7 months on it. Hope this helps some of you.

2 hours ago, Geoffandgill said:

We went for the tourist visa and gave reasons as tourism/visit family. They asked for any significant dates on when we wanted to be there, to which we gave birthday dates and Xmas. Details of insurance we gave as ANZPLUS.com plus period covered ( date of flight plus a year) . We stated that type of insurance was Tourist Health Travel Insurance. (We got a quote from insurance company and it was just over £400 which is for emergency cover plus ambulance call out).

Geoff & Gill

Hi, That seems a very good price for insurance was that for both of you or each.

Shelagh 

15 minutes ago, NanaJan said:

OFFSHORE APPLICANTS (subclass 143/173
We are currently assessing applications lodged up to and including 3 October 2014.

Not quite the jump I was hoping for in a month, less than 2 weeks, but better than nothing I suppose.

Thanks for the update. .but like you say not a very big jump! At that rate we could be another 2 years and 4 months before they look at us...depressing to say the least. Just have to hope it was all the holidays with Easter etc.

7 hours ago, Fisher1 said:

Hi Jellybean      We also opened an account with Westpac, five years ago. I told them I had no intention of moving to Australia (at that time) and they were fine with that. We opened an account from the UK, dealing with their branch in London. It costs five dollars a month to keep the current account and I know some banks don't charge this. We have found the account easy to manage online - I gave them my UK mobile number when I opened the account and the code comes through here no problem. They recently offered a favourable exchange rate with no charges, so I tried them out, especially considering their offer to price match! I found it simpler to use than my former online currency trader and the rates were better. Very happy with them and the account has been super useful, particularly when we were paying for our visa last year.

Thanks for all the info I'll try again when I go in November. This group is full of good information. 

3 hours ago, Lynn Moore said:

Hi. Myself and hubby managed to open an account while on holiday last year my daughter puts money in for me. But we cannot get a bank card until we move over. It was with NAB. Hope this helps. Lynn

We were in Adelaide in March but I never thought about trying again but I definitely will when I go back in November.  Thanks for in info. Shelagh 

4 hours ago, AMP said:

Hi all.  I'm really taking the plunge now, house is going to be going on the market and once it is sold then I'm going to go for the 600 class visitor visa to tide me over until my 143 visa is procssed. Now having to therefore address all issues relating to me being in Oz on a "temporary" albeit long term basis.  My main income will be of UK source but I will have a little Australian source income from interest on my savings there.  I'm confused about the whole tax situation and now think I need some expert advice in this area.  Can anyone give me a contact please for someone who is totally au fait with both UK and Australian tax legislation?  

Many thanks in anticipation!

 

 

Hi Angela, We have our house on the market at the moment  hoping to be able to do the same as you, but will be heading out from Spain. Our lodgement date is the same as yours and we will be heading to Adelaide. Hope you don't mind me asking  how you managed to open an Australian bank account as we were told we could only do this when we had less that a year before our visa was granted?  Wishing you luck with  the house sale. Regards Shelagh 

The long journey has finally ended, flew to Bali last night and received THE email from immi at 9.00am this morning to say PR is granted. Our legs and bums are a little stiff from sitting in the waiting room for so long, but we have finally made to through the door. So after a very long wait it's great to say..... whooohooo.

11am is no too early to start a liquid celebration is it.

Never too early to celebrate! Congratulations

Our acknowledgement letter was four pages long giving us a reference number, confirming details of the application and various other info on the processing. We received ours a month after we lodged our application although I see that some received theirs in a shorter time and others longer, but I think you should certainly have had one after over 10 months. Zee.

Thankyou Zee for your very prompt reply. When you said it was 4 pages long with a reference number....I realised we received it together with our receipt of payment and my husband just filed it as the receipt. I was thinking it must be something else as some people had months between receipt and acknowledgement. I will now relax and wait for the next stage watching for the people who applied earlier than us in 2015 ..Shelagh

Hi, I'm very new to this but love reading all the messages back and forth. I just have one question for you, what is the acknowledgement you quote after lodgement and receipt? We applied for a 143 visa 8th December 2015, receipt by email 10th December 2015 but have not been contacted since....is that normal? Thanks for any help. Regards Shelagh