MTut

If applying from the uk then you’re pretty limited to the big four. I used commonwealth just so I had something set up.

If you’re already over then I think AMPs B3tter account is the winner if you can live without having a branch to go to.

3% savings interest, no ongoing charges and it manages your bills efficiently.

B3tter is an awful name though.

ING everyday Orange & Ubank offer next best interest.

Hi,

See what you think to this - hadn't considered shipping it but with the £/$ rate so poor, if I sold it here, I'd probably not be able to buy something as nice, and I probably won't add too many miles to it while in Sydney for a couple of years.

Thanks

- year of manufacture 2011

- make, model & variant Mercedes C250 CDi Bluefficiency AMG Auto 2Dr

- body type (coupe, convertible, etc) Coupe

- engine size & fuel type 2143 cc Diesel

- transmission Automatic

- drive type (4WD, front wheel drive, etc) Rear

- mileage 65,000 miles

- any special features, options or modification Sat Nav

- does it have aircon Yes

- realistic current UK market value £11-12k

- Australian RedBook value (www.redbook.com.au - click through to the page with 'Private Price Guide', 'Trade In Price Guide' and 'Price When New' listed, then tell us the 'Private Price Guide' range)           $25,000-$28,000

- Australian market value (http://www.carsales.com.au/all-cars/search.aspx - search for the closest matching vehicle) $29,000

- which Australian state/city Sydney

1 minute ago, Lever40 said:

Awesome news, Congrats! Just over 4 months! 

Wheres the move to? 

90% chance it'll be Sydney. Wife is from Canberra so it's close enough to them without having them under our feet.

Canberra get's a bad image projected of it but it's pretty nice, however I don't think we're quite ready to move there yet. Without an AFL, Football team or Test Ground, I'd get bored. Outside chance of Melbourne if my Wife gets offered a dream role within her company, Bupa, who's biggest office is there.

Hopefully November time for the move, can now look for some flight options.

Just got through my grant of a 309.

Timeline roughly as follows:

Jan 3rd 2017: Sent application forms with everything but Health checks + Police Records

February 2017: did Health assessments and submitted.

April 4th 2017:  Recieved first communication from Case officer asking for Police checks and my Wife hadn't uploaded her sponser form. Given 28 days to do so.

May 8th 2017: Granted.

All pretty straightforward I think although the lack of interaction is frustrating, best course is just to relax and let go through the motions. Very pleased.

4 minutes ago, snifter said:

Include the council tax and bank statements you mentioned. Both are good things. Can insurance for the recent year and previous years is good if it names you both at the same address. 

Also if salary slips to either of you have your address on, those are worth including some of. Then reflect that in the bank statements if possible where it gets paid in. 

Do you have any recent wedding invites or anything for the social side? Obviously as a couple they would be to you both. And the tennis club membership naming you both is worthwhile   

Yes, I need to chase up my cousin for a proper wedding invite for his one in September. He just handed out a load of identical 'Save the date' cards to everyone - useless for this!

19 minutes ago, snifter said:

That doesn't sound much to me. At least not in terms of covering the 12 months in full prior to lodging and then other evidence from the beginning of your de facto thrown in. 

Fwiw I submitted a bill or joint bank statement from each of the 12 months prior to lodging. Bill was either in both our names or one of the other of us but to the same address. But we had something from each month to show us at the same address that was 'official'. Water bill, council tax, electric, phone etc. 

I then also submitted life insurance policy naming the other, car insurance in my name showing my husband as named driver and a selection of bills and bank statements from each year we had stated we were de facto for (at the time it was 7 years or so so an extra 7 sheets of paper to show we could prove our relationship from when it began). We also submitted payslips to show funds going into bank accounts and moving between accounts, 

I think you are possibly a bit light on covering the official paper trail in more detail. I'd look at what you actually submitted and see if you can fill in any blanks for the 12 months prior to lodging, if it's patchy and also provide a few more offIcial things from the rest of the time you are claiming de facto. If you don't provide enough when it's requested they will probably base their decision on what they have in front of them and if it's not enough evidence you may find your application declined. Requests for more info should be taken seriously as they are asking for more evidence and you can take it they don't generally ask if they don't need it for some reason. 

If you've already submitted plenty of photos and social stuff I'd not go overboard on submitting much more of that side of things. I'd focus more in the official stuff and ensuring that is in detail and add a few social bits to compliment it. 

 

Car insurance is a good one actually, i'll dig that out. We've nothing for the months prior to moving in together really as that was just dating, so no joint responsibilities.

We've also got life insurance which I've already added.

The house was mine initially as she had no credit score, deposit and anyway, even at that point it was probably too early to put half my home in her name. So she's only recently on the mortgage although she's been paying towards the costs since moving in (I think I'll include as far back on one of the joint accounts as I can that we both pay £1k a month into and the bills come out.) Therefore all the utility bills intially were in my name. We've got Council Tax bills that show she was there though.

33 minutes ago, snifter said:

What visa are you applying for and what have you already submitted as supporting evidence? You need to ensure what you submit now will suffice and a heap of wedding pics and a couple of mortgage statements might not be what they are after. 

Partner Visa.

We've been together just under 3 years, lived together 2,, so i've uploaded:

Marriage Certs

3 different joint bank statements

joint mortgage statement

2x statements from Aus nationals

A few 'Thank you for attending our wedding' letters from other weddings we've been to.

Travel tickets

Plus the usual ID and stuff.

So, I'm going to add in some jointly utility bills, a copy of my tennis clubs membership list showing us both as members for social, a collection of wedding photos (to show it wasn't in a Wed-U-Qwik wedding chapel) and anything else I can find.

If anyone's got any other ideas, let me know but obviously when you've been together a relatively short time and are reaosnably independent people, other than getting married, buying a house and sharing the bills, there's not a lot you can do!

I'm not that worried but don't want to inundate them with frivalous stuff unless that's the way to go.

Applied 3rd Jan, just got our first contact from a case officer asking for Police Checks but also more info on our ongoing relationship.
Not particularly helpful as they've just listed all the criteria again, so just going to bung up a load more wedding photos and a couple of new mortgage statements and go from there.

Did my medical yesterday. Had to cough a few times but it was pretty straight forward.

Only put in my application in the first week of January but don't see the point in leaving it until asked.

Hoping to leave in November which I'm sure will be fine.

Sent in my application last week, uploaded all the documents and have started the ball rolling for a medical but might now defer that by a month or two based on the time it seems to take to even get a case officer.

I would hope my case is straight forward. Wife is an Aussie, we've been married nearly a year but only known each other just over 2.5 years.

Hoping to move at the end of October so that should be time enough to get things sorted. Does make it very hard to get motivated for the new year at work though!