Craig Colas

I guess if you have lived there your whole life and seen a place decline over time I can sympathise. You're right about the use of Meth being low in the UK, maybe due to the fact you can get every other drug easily, and the opposite applies in Australia and New Zealand where they are more scarce so the production of Meth is more prominent. But I would take Perth for safety over any city in the UK nowadays, hopefully they crack down on the problems in the future to make it even better.

@Blue Flu Do you have a personal vendetta against Perth? Every post you put is constantly about crystal meth. Now I understand you might have had a bad experience being near to some activity, but drugs are found in every city in the world. Perth would come no where near the rates of drug use found in Manchester and Liverpool etc. Sure you get the odd bad suburb but labelling all WA with having a drug crisis is exaggerating and misinforming the OP.

We are very close with my Mum and Dad and they are still young and active so we are very lucky. Will see how the first 3 months go you may be right though . Agree with Ramot when your retired its a lot easier to travel and take time and the costs aren't as bad. Two working parents it would be hard to go back every year for just a couple of weeks and wouldn't feel like it was worth it. Will see what the future holds, not getting to optimistic at this point though.

I would say it's a first world problem to have but not a problem just for the rich. Pre-Covid my parents planned to be out to Australia for 3 months every year. Flight is what £3,000 maximum for two people. Stay at our place for the duration so just the expenses you would pay for at home anyway. Invaluable time taking the grandkids to school while we are at work etc. Most people have a holiday a year anyway so for them that's their holiday. A lot harder going the other way though with kids, just for a few weeks if you managed to do that every year I might of consider you rich. But seriously if you have been accustomed to seeing your family every year then to have that stopped and not know if and when you will get to chance to see them again is going to be very troubling for a lot of people. Especially if your parents are older, mine are early 50's so am quite fortunate and hope there is plenty of trips to come.

Yer was a dreadful trip to be fair. Went for a friends wedding was staying at a load of different locations up the coast. Missed the quarantine by 12 hours which was lucky. But they started closing borders etc. Wedding was cancelled and we decided didn't want to get stuck so changed our flights and headed home. Would of been worse if we had never been before but still was a big waste of money, basically paid a load of money to go to Australia Zoo for the day

We flew to Brisbane and back within 6 days in March 2020 with a 4 and 2 year old. All you can do is keep them entertained as best you can and try get them to sleep as much as possible on the plane. Like someone said above its the two weeks stuck in a hotel that might tip you over the edge .

We have a 491 visa through my wife, she is a nurse. So need an exemption with that visa, which requires a job offer. Just waiting on APHRA registration and she has a job pretty much secured. We lived in Brisbane for a few years previously, I'm a geologist and got a job out there straight after university. The downturn after the mining boom brought us back home as I was on a business visa and my wife needed to finish her degree so we decided to come back home. We have always wanted to move back once we had kids etc. Took us a while to get the visa and now we have got it in what looks like the worse time. We are going to rent our house out here for a few years as well until we achieve PR then sell it to fund our house purchase in Oz when the time comes. That is the plan anyway. Saw from your other post you had lived there before as well

Maybe not so reasonable then. There is 4 of us and I have seen some between 3-4k around september / october time. Problem is we cant really book them until we get that exemption. The closer we get to those dates the price goes up, so Im not sure what it will cost us in the end, but needs must i guess.

Haha i can imagine! Good luck with it all! Pleasing to see that someone has got a reasonable flight and got there without too many problems. Hopefully the same can be said when our time comes.

Nice to see someone has made it there recently. Did you book economy or business class for your flights with Qatar? Still waiting on APHRA registration and at the moment and wife has a job offer lined up once she has that so hopefully will get the exemption then and will be booking flights asap. Do you have any children? If so how are they doing with the quarantine? Not looking forward to two weeks locked up with a 3 and 5 year old for us .

Thanks Parley, I thought that would be the case. In the grand scheme of things its not a huge amount of money compared to some. But being quite young I have never had to transfer such an amount and our budget is based on it etc. so didn't want any unforeseen bills.

Do the banks or anyone for that matter, question large amounts of money being transferred into your Australian Bank? Guess what I am asking is when I transfer say £100,000 from a house sale back in the UK is there any further tax implications on it after I have declared the sale in the UK etc. Has anyone done the full process? Thanks!

Yer I have heard different time scales etc. My wife knows more about it than I do tbf. Our 12 month deadline is the 7th of December. Like you say if it wasn’t for this would of hoped to have been there very soon. We lived in Brisbane for nearly 4 years. I’m a geologist and came out a while ago during the boom on a sponsored visa, when it slowed down had no choice but to return home really, wife needed to finish her degree but we have always wanted to go back. We was in Brisbane last March, day before they introduced 2 week quarantine. But our friends wedding was cancelled and I have two little kids and we only ended up staying for 6 days as we didn’t want to get stuck with the little ones there. Was a holiday to forgot but hasn’t put us off one bit!

Hi @NicMan last thing that CGFNS needed from the university was the syllabus which they have finally sent today so they have everything now. CGFNS then forward it on to APHRA so just wait to hear from them now. Qld 491 was hoping to be there around this time now but it’s been very difficult. Hopefully get there by September or October I hope. We are renting our house out here so we are not in a position where we are not in our own house atm which is nice.

Hi NicMan, We are in the same situation as you. Wife is a nurse, got granted our 491 visa in December 2020. She is also waiting on APHRA registration, her uni have been dragging their feet. We have applied for two exemptions under the critical skills list. We attached everything we could think of and what was asked. But both times they got rejected and their reply was basically that there was no evidence of employment. So I think its safe to say you will need a job offer once her APHRA comes through. Good Luck!

Well the 491 is less restrictive than the 489 in this sense so hard to see how the next visa will be even more restrictive when it hasn't been the case with this new one. Seems like the government and the states intentions is to encourage people to live and settle in more regional areas which will be of great benefit to the country. I'm sure the government is well aware how some people may take the opportunity to move and if they was that bothered they would have included it as a restriction within the visa itself. I'm not in a position to say whether i agree or not I can only tell the OP the truth into the question they asked.

I believe the intention of the 491 will be to push more people out regionally. There is no condition which states you have to be in the sponsoring state for the period required. 3 years regional work at $53,000 a year and live in a regional area set out by the postcodes they provide for 3 years. Here are the conditions: Visa conditions 8578 - Must notify of certain changes 8579 - Must live/work/study in a designated regional area 8580 - Must provide evidence of addresses 8581 - Must attend interview Obviously it is a moral situation you find yourself in. Would make sense to apply for the state in which you wish to reside to save argument which is what we have done but in no way are you obliged to stay there.

Your visa is given to you by the Australian government. It has nothing on it where it says which state has nominated you.

You can live and work in any regional area of Australia. You can work in any sector as long as you earn over the $53,000 a year you need to make you eligible for PR. Good luck!

Yer i cannot imagine how you feel. We only just got our visa in December so have got plenty of time to get an exemption hopefully. It is a real shame they aren't offering any guidance on what will happen if you run out of time etc.

Did you have any luck in the end? We are applying for exemption very soon and haven't read any positive cases really.

We are exactly the same. Our medicals run out in November 2021 visa grant was the 7th of december so we have until then as well. Good luck with it, let us know how you get on and I will do the same

Hi Lauren, We will be using a rental agent here. You just need to get a NRL1 form so the rental agent doesn't take tax from source and you would then do your yearly tax return in the UK on your rental and your Oz tax will be separate. We are heading to Perth. Don't know who your consultation was with but the whole of WA is classed as regional . Wife is a nurse so we was lucky with getting the grant so quick after lodging it is just the problem of getting there now. I am a geologist and we used to be on the list but over time have been removed. Craig

Hi Lauren, We are doing the exact same thing. We got our 491 visa granted in December 2020 and are renting our house out until we change over to the permanent visa in a few years time. As mentioned above you don't need to declare your rental income in Australia as it is a temporary visa. You would just need to do one in the UK. In regards to CGT it will be negligible if any depending on if it was your main house you lived in and there is lots of tax offsets against it if that is the case so I wouldn't worry about that either. I would just recommend a reputable state agent to manage it while away and you should be all set. Craig

Yes will do 100%, heard of a few that have had the exemption given but not very many. Helps to have a job offer as well apparently, just waiting for Aphra registration now. Maybe having the vaccine might help as well but who knows all you can do is try and hope you get one.