Ian Ireland

Hi all. Does anyone know what box on the landing card I should tick when returning for the first time on BVB? Am I a visitor or am I relocating permanently? I am awaiting 804. My hunch is I’m a visitor. 

Are you there, Mr Collett??

POM. Derogatory term referring to the complexion of British people. Pomegranate, I’m told. 

I agree wholeheartedly about exchange rate. It’s making the whole experience into an even worse nightmare. Goodness only knows where it’s all headed this time. Sterling seems to be the punch bag of the traders. 1.75 at time of writing after a real hammering yesterday. The cause was Italy with Brexit thrown in for good measure. The financial journals are predicting a rough June but it’s knowing what to do that’s the problem. If only we knew where it was headed and how low. I’m tempted to stick some more over at 1.75 or thereabouts.  

4 hours ago, suelear said:

Try Staysure.

Thanks everyone. I eventually got sorted out. GoWalkabout were fantastic. They have a separate department dealing with the medical screening. They adjudicate that and charge the excess, providing a reference number for the policy before putting you back to the main site. I got 5 days one way insurance onto which the medical policy was bolted. 

Brilliant service. Highly recommend 

Help please! 

Does anybody have a link for one way insurance to cover travel to OZ. I need a policy for my wife who has had investigations. It is kind of urgent!

Every company I’ve looked at wants return trips. 

Thanks for the good report on PSS. We are waiting to do a video survey. That will be interesting!

Thanks for the replies. It will probably be PSS we use. They are really nice to speak to. They want to do a video tour of the house so they can give a detailed estimate. We have a car to sell when we which should help with the removal.  

Anybody able to give us ideas of costs for removal to E coast from UK? May vary from firm to firm and of course depends on volume. 

Always meant to ask this very important question!

If you scroll up, Alan Collett is one such expert who has experience of both systems. 

8 minutes ago, Alan Collett said:

To clarify - it isn't an ATO form.

You complete an HM Revenue form. with details including your Australian Tax File Number, and send it to the relevant ATO postal address so they can stamp it, and send the same onto HMRC.

A dialogue with HMRC is frequently required to ensure you recover all PAYE deducted on pension income that is wholly taxable in Australia.   That's where things can get difficult and frustrating - and is why some choose to instruct a tax advisor who can deal with both tax authorities.   No names mentioned, here  of course ...

Best regards.

 

Point noted! It’s good to know help is at hand. 

Ah, I see. That way there’s no way anyone will slip through the net with the Oz tax office. They’ll know about you at once because you can’t get HMRC to stop deducting until you’ve registered in Oz. You will continue to have UK tax deducted till that happens and because of the dual arrangements there will be no Oz tax till you have a number. The nightmare scenario I suppose is unintentional overlap with both deducting tax 

Do you have to provide notarised copy of address in Oz or of visa letter? They surely want evidence before unshackling!

On the subject of form filling, is the form for letting HMRC know we are leaving a simple procedure? The form p85 is downloadable I believe. Is it straightforward dealing with the Revenue? What is required? 

People who have moved can perhaps relate their experiences. 

7 minutes ago, Pertenhall said:

She had already been in, but has re-done with the new form and gone back in.  Hopefully everything will be OK and they won't get confused by two forms!  Will check that the Form 80 format hasn't changed since I completed ours a couple of months ago - will check before sending!

I don’t think it has changed for a while. I checked it last week and it hasn’t changed since we filled it in and saved it. 

On 24/12/2017 at 18:13, Kathss56 said:

If you can type directly into form then I would say yes 

We had them typed and saved from two years ago. That was my concern. I had a look at the latest version online and there is no difference from when we saved them. It says version 2014-2017.  Our daughter has printed versions ready to send. We have signed them and they just have to be dated before sending off. My passport will have changed so that will need altered too. It sure is a pain that form. 

I suppose the thing to do is ask the case worker when contact is made whether it can be submitted online. Anyone else being asked soon could maybe let us know. It’s preferable to posting. 

There was some discussion previously on the current form 80. We did ours some time ago but the format has changed. There is now facility to sign digitally. 

If anyone has used the new format please can they say if the form 80 is now fully digital and can be submitted online?

If this is the case it would be a great help when documents are aske for.  

1 hour ago, Catlady2014 said:

My Seniors Discount Card (with Gocard on the reverse) arrived in the post this morning!  I already have my Woolworths card, and a Coles/Flybuys card is on its way to me also. Woohoo.  

Imagine getting excited about discount cards.   

16 minutes ago, nyorksgrannie said:

We ticked No but hope eventually to be able to tick the “Permanently moving to Oz box” 

 

The indications are that Bitcoin is like any other bubble. Not worth the risk but who knows?

Just to cheer everyone up, have you noticed that Sterling has had a hammering against AUD this week. Today is especially bad. We are now below 1.74. So much for the Brexit good news. My contact who used to work in the city says AUD is on the up again. Party is over for now. 

Ah!  I see. Ta. 

However did you find that out? It’s good to know anyway. The three week holiday will not make that much difference as the world seems to shut down till New Year these days. Nothing can get done generally. Things do seem to be rolling along nicely. 

Yes. It must be an erroneous response. It is hardly likely to go backwards. Looks like it just hasn’t moved forwards. It’s shut for 3 weeks after next week too. Susie’s excellent chart for working out likely times of visa grant is the nearest we are going to get. 

That’s fantastic work! Many thanks for the effort. It gives us all some idea as to where we are. 

So let’s try and get a handle on this, given that information. They have reached end Feb 2015. Average of 6 months applications per annum to September. What’s the likely processing time from start to grant? Obviously it’s going to be longer for those applying now, but what about 2015 applicants? That’s the year they’re on now. Anyone hazard a decent guess?

There was apparently a massive snarl up in 2014, on which they blamed the whole pantomime, and so one would expect them to speed up now that backlog has been sorted out.