Craig Colas

2 hours ago, Blue Flu said:

As a West Australian I do have a grievance or personal vendetta when it comes to the drug ice in  Perth and WA generally. Well spotted. Also upsetting is the facilitating  or at least lack of action by those with the means to bring change to a situation crying out for it. Not sure why you are attempting to play it down. It is a crisis. Pretty fair the matter is expressed on such forums as pre warned is pre armed. . You may care to explain just why Perth was and remains the number Uno capital of The World in the grub meth (ice) drug after Adelaide. Manchester has nothing on Perth for the use of meth, and that it purely to what I refer. They have their own drug problems but it is not meth. I have no idea how it is tolerated there and to what degree. But what I know through neighbourhood Watch it is everywhere and has escalated around me over recent years. I know it is a major problem in country WA. Mandurah, Bunbury (a few years ago a meth capital) Albany as well as seriously impacting  Aboriginal communities in places like Broome . If don't believe me just ask most young people. They will know or able to access meth with the greatest of ease. Easy to find as advertise on line. 

One thing I can safely inform you is no exaggeration on my part. If anything far worse than I articulate. 

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.

6 hours ago, Paul1Perth said:

3 months with the in-laws, under the same roof would be tough. No matter how well you get on.

We had my parents for a month then my wifes for a month. My parents were older and TBH my Dad was never easy to live with. We were happy to see them and happier when they went back.

My wifes Dad suggested that they might come for 3 months when we'd been here for a couple of years. We had a chat and me and the wife decided we would have to speak to our own parents with the idea that a month was do-able, any more than that they were dreaming.

Luckily our son who was about 4 at the time picked up the phone when my wifes Dad rang, my wife was still trying to psych herself up to tell them. My son said he'd heard grandad wanted to come for 3 months and said that's fine by me Grandad but I don't think Pauls too happy.

He never mentioned 3 months again.

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.

3 hours ago, Captain Ron said:

Brisbane and back in 6 days  

Craig, not gonna lie, absolutely dreading those two weeks!!  

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 

12 hours ago, Captain Ron said:

Any tips or advise on travelling with a very cute but oh so busy, stubborn, compulsive climbing girl-tot turning 3 in November? (with new rules and restrictions)... Sigh

Hoping to fly in November - will book next week!  

Thank you! 

 

 

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 

Just now, Cots said:

The flights cost £10150 for 5 of us  

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 .

On 06/05/2021 at 05:21, Parley said:

About 15 years ago i received an inheritance after my Dad died in the UK. Quite a lot of money. Transferred using the Bank to Bank (SWIFT).

I kept wondering whether i would be queried about what the money was but no one cared. 

Cash gets reported but i don't think a transfer of funds electronically gets any attention

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!

1 minute ago, NicMan said:

AHPRA have had all the additional documents from us since the end of March.  Everyone online appears to be having different experiences of how long it is all taking so there really is no telling at the moment.

We are looking at September, if it wasn't for the travel restrictions then it would be June due to the timing of certain things.  October 28th is our 12 month deadline on entering to activate the visa.

Have you been to Queensland before?  I spent some time there on my gap year and worked in Brisbane for a few weeks on my way south.  Great city, loads to do.

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! 

3 minutes ago, NicMan said:

Hi @Craig Colas

Sorry to hear that you have been unsuccessful with the exemption applications.  When you say that your wife's university are dragging their feet; is this over information that you have requested from them or have AHPRA advised you that they are waiting for something?  Which university are you referring to? Out of interest, if you don't mind me asking.  Which state is sponsoring you?

Nic

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!

8 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

So basically, people will just start moving around on the 491 the same as they did with the 190, and the states will get even more p*ed off, and the next visa will be even more restrictive. A case of the few spoiling it for the many, with the encouragement of agents by the sound of it.

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. 

6 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

This is interesting.  We're always being told that states are now offering the 491 because they're fed up of people taking the 190 and then not fulfilling the obligation (if someone leaves the state on a 190, there's nothing they can do).   So they're offering the 491 instead, because 491 holders have to fulfil the conditions of their visa in order to be granted PR at the end - and one of the conditions is to stay in the sponsoring state for the required period.

So are you saying that's wrong?  

 

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:

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!

18 hours ago, lynney45 said:

No luck sadly, i applied for exemption around late November and it was rejected.  My skills weren’t deemed critical enough to support the countries efforts and economic recovery during the pandemic.  Still none the wiser at this point months later.  The visa is starting to feel like scrap at this point, that’s my current sentiment.

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.

On 03/11/2020 at 18:16, lynney45 said:

Hi Laxmi and Jo.b extremely sorry to hear about your situations also.  Afraid i have nothing positive to report at this time, just keeping an eye on government announcements and news articles as to when international borders may reopen.  My only lifeline at this point is the concession that JetBlast shared, if the borders open in the first half of 2021 i am hoping i can leverage the concession.  If it's the second half of 2021 even the concession won't suffice as my visa will expire before i am able to do the 18 months.  I am surprised they haven't offered visa refunds or extensions under the circumstances.  Just staying patient for now and checking updates regularly.  If you guys hear any positive news on your end also, please do keep me posted.

Cheers and good luck!

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

On 27/01/2021 at 23:37, Ausimi said:

Hi Lauren, 

we are going to Perth, visas sorted only trying to figure out how to get there and when.

I have to enter Australia before November 2021, but not sure if that’s going to be possible, it’s all very uncertain!
 

It is difficult to plan anything at the moment when you hear stories about flights being cancelled and quarantine to think about! We are my husband, me and a 5 year old, so not easy at all! 

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 

On 27/01/2021 at 14:33, Lauren & Luke said:

Hi Craig,

Thank you for the info. Did you use a tax agent?

Are you using an rental agent?

Where in Australia are you heading? 

It would just be me, my husband and our british bulldog Daisy.

We initially wanted to head to Perth but when we had our consultation back in March 2020, the visa we were advised to take was the 491 but that didn't cover WA. 

My husband would be the main applicant as he is a joiner. I work for an insurance company, unfortunately that is not in demand

Lauren 

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

31 minutes ago, Lauren & Luke said:

Hey,

Yeah it is a bit of a mindfield isn't it? 

I definitely think it is worth the cost of a consultation with an expert. We like to do everything right and by the book so I am definitely going to take the advice given on this thread.

The sensible approach for us would be to rent our house in the UK, rent in Australia and IF we get granted the PR to sell up and then buy in Australia. We are thinking if we didn't get the PR then at least we have our home to come home too so we don't have to restart on the property ladder. We have already had interest in someone wanting to rent our house if we made the move at the monthly cost we would want. And we know the family well and it is a married couple so I don't think we would have any issues there. The hard part is just finding the right people because we don't want to be on the other side of the world and having to deal with any issues. But then there is the option of a rental agent. Do we go with an agent or don't we? There is loads to consider and everyones circumstances are different, it is just finding the right path for us. 

Where is it your moving to? We are right at the beginning of the process so it will be a while yet for us. We have already had a consultation with a migration agent back in March 2020 so we have an idea of where we are heading in terma of visa's. Just a few things to iron out here and this pandemic to deal with then we are ready. 

Lauren

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

14 hours ago, Marisawright said:

In your shoes, I would be applying for the exemption first, just in case you don't get one.  491 holders are not getting exemptions.  However, your wife being in a priority occupation could mean you are the exception.

If you do get refused, you can apply again. 

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.