FirstWorldProblems

These last three posts from @Quoll, @Chris Gordon and @ramot make the point really well - that it's natural to wonder about the 'what-if' scenarios in life and even to beat yourself up about them. The probability is that if you'd chosen that other path, then some things would have been better and some would have been worse. Much of life is about finding a workable compromise isn't it? Often weighing up a dozen different factors at once in that compromise.

It's not, but it's not entirely accurate. The country you move to would have to recognise the jurisdiction of the country where you made the will. The will would need to comply with local law, which can differ on things like succession. You'd need to consider the type and location of your assets too. When asked, my solicitor said that it would be best to go to a solicitor in your new country, take your current will and essentially get it "translated" to work locally. She reminded me that inheritence can sometimes turn ugly and so even if you can't imagine that scenario with my own heirs, we shouldn't leave anything to good faith or chance.

From everything you have said, you should 100% go for it. And I say that as someone who much prefers my life in the UK to what Sydney offered/offers me. Worst case you have an adventure, clock up some new experiences and take a break from what is clearly a tough, tough time in the NHS. You can head back to the UK in a year if you want to and you'll walk straight back into an NHS role no bother. Ok your bank account might be a little bit lighter but that's all. On the flip side you might find it's a perfect fit for you both and the best thing you've ever done. I really don't see how you can lose by giving it a try.

I think you learn more about a company when things go wrong than when they go right and for that reason Qantas will never see my money again, and judging by the sheer number of people on forums and twitter who had similar experiences with them over the past few months, there's a lot like that. Appalling. Impossible to get hold of for weeks and weeks on end. Countless people sharing screen shots of being on hold for 5 hours only to have it disconnect. Twitter customer services useless. Months to return money on fully flexible fares - garbage. By contrast over the last couple years trying to get to Australia from the UK my experience with Air China was first rate and Etihad not far behind. Very responsive and available.

Having flown from the UK to Australia last month and back this month with dual citizens, I can share our experience. Passport Number & Booking Whilst you don't need your passport to book, you do need it to check in as others have said. However things are different at the moment. To leave the UK you must have a fit to fly negative Covid test. It is a requirement when booking the test to give your passport number. They absolutely compared these at check-in. The same is true to leave Australia. To book your test you have to provide your passport number and these were checked on departure. To enter Australia you need to complete a passenger locator form. As well as such information as where you will be staying, you also have to provide your passport information and your proof of vaccination - the names of which must match exactly. You have to do the same when returning to the UK but with the added step of having a booked and paid for PCR test on arrival - which again requires your passport number to book On arrival into Sydney our vaccine certificates and covid tests were checked after passing through passport control and before collecting baggage. I was pretty tired so can't remember if they compared them to the passport So right now, you absolutely need your passport to align to your booking. Which Passport I thought I was clear on this but now I'm not so sure. Here's what we did: used Australia passport outbound from the UK and on arrival to Sydney used British passport outbound from Sydney and on arrival to London So one passport for all of the outbound journey and a different passport for the inbound journey. At check in in Sydney, my son's British passport was flagged because it was a brand new passport and had never been used before. So it flagged up that you had this person in the country on a passport from outside the country that's never been used. A 30 second phone call for approval resolved it and the check in lady said it was no issue and we had done nothing wrong. My daughters British passport didn't flag as it had been used before.

I think you misunderstand or I haven't been clear. She moved to the opposite side of the world for me so I could be near to my eldest daughter (who was then 2 years old) and she's spent 20 years here and counting. She's the one who has done all the compromising. When she returns to Sydney it's to be with family. Not to be closer to family. I 100% get it and we'll find a way to make it work well

That’s not the life she’s looking for. Close family. “Dropping in” several times a week doesn’t align to a 2 hour train ride.

Is there a PIO recommended tax advisor who is able to offer guidance on how best to structure an Australian property purchase by a citizen living in the U.K. and their non-citizen spouse? Plus the tax implications upon an eventual sale. thanks.

Would suit me just fine - but it’s that bit too far for the wife to drop in on her mum and siblings a couple times a week. A holiday lake house at Lake Macquarie would do me as an escape from the suburbs…….. just waiting for that NSW house price correction (yeah right)

A great analysis. One that recalls a previously point made that the question isn’t as simple as Australia vs U.K. - it’s where you live in each. Back visiting Sydney from the U.K. for the first time since pre-Covid and I know there is no way I can be happy in any of the places where the wife’s family lives. Urban sprawl just isn’t for me. At home we live at the edge of a large town and I spend 6 days a week out in the country running or riding. That’s my happy place. I can’t live in Ryde or Castle Hill where the wife’s family are. I need to see green not red (fields not brick) and the traffic is horrendous. But a few kms further out to Dural…..that might work for me. I couldn’t live in London and I couldn’t live in the dense suburbs of Sydney.

Rules vary by state but typically there is a small allotment for unvaccinated per week. Two weeks quarantine. your challenge will be airlines. They change their rules frequently. Right now I believe Qatar and Emirates will fly unvaccinated

Too early for data on Omicron but for Delta transmissibility in studies was 25% vaccinated and 38% unvaccinated. source: The Lancet

I’ve used Expresstest drive thru twice and they were superb both times. Really efficient, very friendly and superbly organised. I shall be using them again for our post-return to U.K. test

Yes. When you go to the test centre you register with the same details you used on your Australian Travel Declaration (required before you depart for Aus). The test system authenticates you by sending you a QR code that just must use for the test at the centre. the centre will check your ID against the details registered to the QR code.

Rules change frequently and what is in place today is unlikely to be the same in February. They also differ state by state. But right now for NSW: - supervised PCR test from an accredited centre 72 hours or less from the time of flight departure - 3 days in strict isolation. They call and come visit the property to check - day 1 PCR test - day 6 PCR test - those not double vaccinated have a more restrictive isolation and some airlines (Singapore) won’t carry them - can’t visit high risk areas (hospitals, care homes, schools) for 7 days - if someone in your flight tests positive after arrival, everyone on that flight gets called and put back into isolation for 7 days from arrival.

“on or after day 6 after arriving in NSW” so for you that will be 10th https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/factsheets/Pages/recent-vaccinated-arrivals-guidelines.aspx we landed 3 days ago so if you’ve any questions I’ll try to answer them if I can.

Since you can't currently get an exemption for your heart condition and would prefer not to wait, my advice would be to go to a different Doctor. Tell him/her that you are clinically vulnerable because you suffer complication from being dropped on your head as a child. If you repeat some of the information you've shared here, I am absolutely confident the Dr will believe you.

I'm struggling to wrap my head around this one. Did they give any more details? If you were selling the property, you'd have to pay capital gains tax on any growth between the time you used the property as your primary residence and the sale date, but I've never heard such a thing for a mortgage. As the other respondent said, I'd speak to a specialist lender. We certainly didn't have to do this when moving out of what was our primary residence a few years ago into a new residence and retaining the first one for rental. If you have a good chunk of equity you can get really, really low interest rates - though you might have seen the Bank of England hinting at interest rate rises coming to help curb the very high inflation we have here so you might conclude it's worth trying to get that done very quickly.

It will be interesting to see if that gets abolished. Landlord mortgage interest tax relief has been removed in the UK. It was gradually stepped down over 4 years, ending last year. It's a move described as intending to stop very high earning landlords from benefiting from substantial tax relief - but it seems like it's a very painful for people who moved away from under performing pensions and set up a small property portfolio as a substitute. I suspect the real reason is it played well in the media, where second (and more) home owners have always been vilified as the reason house prices are high, when in fact it's a result of interest rates being low and help-to-buy schemes.

Friday mark's one week since the announcement of international borders reopening on a limited basis. The announcement said that details would be following over the next two weeks, but so far we have seen little of that detail. I thought I'd just update the thread with my original questions, adding into one place other questions posed here and what has become more clear in this first week. I'm hoping this is of use to others hoping to visit family in Australia. Question: Are family of Citizens and perm Residents able to enter? Answer: Yes. Spouse and dependent children of citizens will be allowed to enter, including for tourism/visitor purposes. At least one PIO member (me) has had travel exemption approved on this basis. You are advised to apply not more than 2 months prior to travel and not less than 2 weeks. Mine took less than 48 hours. Question: How do the family of citizens get a visa to join travelling citizens? Answer: When you apply for exemption to travel, one of the mandatory fields is your approved visa number or your visa application number. I had a visitor visa (601) application sat in "Received" state since February, so I used the application number and that visa was approved at the same time as the exemption Question: What constitutes "fully vaccinated"? "Seven-day home quarantine for Australian citizens and permanent residents fully vaccinated" is great news for those visiting family. No need to spend two weeks in a hotel. But what constitutes fully vaccinated? Australia is very clear that this is 2 doses of an approved vaccine. In the UK (which is one of only two destinations Qantas is opening flights for), under 18's can only have one dose. So will they be allowed to travel? Update: precious little new info on this. In the government media release it states "Those who can’t be vaccinated, including young children and those with a medical exemption, will be counted as vaccinated for travel". I think this is cause for hope for those living in the UK with children where you absolutely cannot get a child double vaccinated unless they are extremely clinically vulnerable. Question: Will Qantas refund a flexible ticket? Given the uncertainty brought by the questions above, and the speed at which tickets are being bought, it seems sensible to book a seat via a fully flexible, fully refundable tickets. Qantas describes their "flex" ticket as "fully refundable", but when you dig into the detail on their website, the refund is always referred to as a voucher that has to be used within 12 months. Answer: Yes. Though it's clearly not their preference and they don't make it easy. If you are a paranoid sort like me, I'd advise doing the following. Call Qantas (make sure you have a spare hour or more to spend on hold) and ask the advisor the question explicitly. All calls are recorded and stored for 10 years. Ask the advisor for the timestamp of the call on their end, where they are located and their name write it down somewhere safe in case it's needed later Question: What proof will be needed to show someone is fully vaccinated @NicF Update: This remains unclear. Airlines have been told that they will need to ensure passengers are fully vaccinated, but they still await details of what that means and how it is to be proven Question: How will home quarantine work? @NicF Update: No official word on this. SA is trialling an app with facial recognition and geo-tagging. Details like restriction on other people who live in that home are unknown. Some reasoned speculation in this article Question: Flight reliability @Darrenowen Update: Qantas remain the only carrier thus far adding more flights and they are certainly selling seats quickly (we missed a few preferred options as we wrung our hands over the price). We won't know until they start flying in mid-November if they are reliable. A fully flex ticket is refundable, but it's often a lot more expensive than the cancellation fee of a saver ticket. If the airline cancel they'll refund you. Your grandfather probably wouldn't need the travel exemption as he is a PR. Question: How will quarantine work if you need a domestic flight to another state after entering Australia? @BusbyBoo Update: there is currently no information on this other than SA announcing an intention to allow fully vaccinated visitors from NSW & Victoria to enter SA by Christmas In the hope that this is of use to some people, I'll keep it updated as the details emerge

Yes, exactly this.

Happy to. Wife is Australian by birth. All her family are there Kids hold dual citizenship I have only British citizenship. I applied for travel exemption to Australia, from the UK as the spouse of an Australian citizen. I stated the purpose of the trip was to visit my wife's family in NSW. I didn't elaborate on why we wanted to visit them (I contemplated a sob story, but didn't), or who we wanted to see I provided marriage certificate and joint bank account statement as prove of our enduring marriage It was approved on that basis. The exact text is: The travellers listed have been assessed as meeting the following exemption criteria: Immediate family member of Australian Citizen or permanent resident Consideration for a discretionary exemption is not required in this instance.

My travel exemption and visitor visa were approved overnight. I submitted the visa in February but the exemption on Sunday evening (U.K. time), linking it to the visa. I wrote that the purpose of the travel was to visit family. So that’s one question answered - the reopening is not just for those permanents returning

Citizens, PR and their immediate families. If they are fully vaccinated you can quarantine at home. That’s all we know right now. So it’s clearly not for tourists coming over for a beach holiday, but neither does it say it’s for stranded aussies overseas returning permanently. My interpretation is that Citizens, PR and their immediate families (like me) can visit Australia. I've submitted my exemption, so I’ll find out soon if I am correct Clarification really is needed though.

And I appreciate that. I really do. But as I’m sure you can imagine, my wife, who has missed births , deaths and marriages of immediate family is absolutely desperate to see them and whilst I try to keep her expectations low, it’s my job to make it happen if it’s at all possible.