mt9754

Worth waiting for agents but from what I have read you need a travel exemption approved and attached in order for any visa application to be processed (until the borders reopen). Or are you onshore?

It’s a personal choice. If you don’t mind the cost then keeping your application good to go so you can get a grant with no CO contact is the fastest route. The preferred route is to only get them done when asked, it will cost less money but will also take a little longer overall as it takes time to get them done and then some more time for the CO to review them. I understand the border is still closed to most temporary visa holders, given this i’d be tempted to hold fire on renewing docs until Oct/Nov earliest when Australia will be contemplating opening the border (unless your occupation is eligible for a critical skills travel exemption).

It really depends on the Etihad flight. If it’s the same flight number the whole way there and you don’t have to get off the plane at Melbourne (with no domestic travellers boarding in Melbourne) then you may be able to quarantine in Sydney. Singapore Air and a few others have some flight routes like this. If the flight is separate and you have to disembark in Melbourne then you will definitely have to quarantine in Melbourne and will miss your Sydney flight by around 14 days as rules currently stand.

Ah sorry, he didn't have a signature, I stand corrected.

If you submit one EOI and choose all states then you won't get picked by any of them as they all have their own systems in place. However, there is no harm in submitting separate EOIs to different states. There is nothing wrong with expressing interest in 2 visas, 2 states or even 2 countries?

Yes that’s fine, no implications. It is the only way to apply for a subset of states. You will need a new account and get a new EOI number. Make sure you write down your EOIs and passwords, it can be a bit confusing when you get an email to know which account it is referring to.

Although there are no stereotypes, it should be a serious long term relationship demonstrable from many angles with solid evidence. https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/supporting/Pages/evidence-of-relationship.aspx Having been apart recently doesn’t bode well. Have a read of the criteria on the website, your comments make it sound as if the relationship might be quite casual but wouldn’t want to jump to conclusions based on 1 or 2 sentences. https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/supporting/Pages/evidence-of-relationship.aspx

Full details on health examinations required are here: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/help-support/meeting-our-requirements/health/what-health-examinations-you-need If you're applying for a eVisitor visa, your parents are from a low risk country, and they are under 75 years old then I don't think they'll need to undertake a health examination? Were you looking at the 651 or the 600?

I scored too poorly in the written section even though I got a C in English at GCSE. You need to demonstrate you can use complex structures for your sentences, I rarely use them as my line of work is very technical. Another challenge with IELTS is that it's paper based. For me it meant it took me a long time to write my answers and I couldn't restructure them at the end. Personally I would recommend Cambridge or PTE. PTE is easiest by far and Cambridge is the same as IELTS except you can use a computer if you book the right one.

Pretty quickly - we completed ours at a Centrelink so didn't need to mail it through. It took about 2 weeks max plus Auspost took about another 2 weeks to send it out.

Sometimes it can be difficult to make a decision if the time is not right. You might find it becomes easier to make a decision later when there are less plates spinning (eg more years of retirement under your belt, more certainty with your siblings - you might find they both decide to stay in the UK afterall for example).

Lol, oh sorry - yeh me reading your message totally wrong haha

I guess they must be getting down to the dregs from each age group, plus the final chunk of younger people who do seem more reluctant. Out of 66 million people: 34 million invited (40+, vulnerable and health care) 16 million being worked through (from 18 to 40 years old) 16 million ineligible (from 0 to 18 years old) 34 million people jabbed so far. So it's looking pretty high take up thankfully despite some numpties

Yeh I found it weird too. Out of politeness I went for 1 year (there is 20% discount code). Having used it for a bit now, as long as you’re subscribed then items in your connected bank accounts will be automatically categorised and added to a draft return for next year. Useful to ease the pain especially with buy-to-let income and expenses. But I agree, potentially not a big enough reason to stay subscribed for most.

An old thread but just thought i'd mention there are some apps out there these days for Self Assessment including SA109. Untied is one example.

I'm depressed about how long this will drag on for, unfortunately a lot of the Australian population are not bothered about opening the borders at all and so the government attitude is currently reflecting that. I just hope the daily grilling from all those travel eager journalists and influential economists/big businesses will really pile on the pressure haha. For once big business is actually on my side lol.

https://covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au/leaving-australia#toc-6 Check out Ordinary Resident section. So the 12 out of 24 months is not actually a thing and the real legislation disagrees: https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/covid-19/Documents/outward-travel-restrictions-operation-directive.pdf So it boils down to common sense, I think for most of us we would be considered ordinary residents in Australia.

I hear that today the UK has secured 60 million additional Pfizer jabs for a booster programme in Q3. Yet Australia can’t even secure a decent number for a first jab until Q4. The mind boggles.

It makes sense to stay in Oz, i’m just so frustrated at the glacial pace of the vaccine rollout and opening up :(. Especially now deaths are approaching zero in UK and they are opening back up for good, the US not far behind too. Thanks everyone for your replies, wish there were other options but I will just need to suck it up like everyone else haha.

You have to meet the criteria, as i’ve not been in Australia long and most of my ties are still with the UK and I currently meet the criteria. For me, leaving is fine but wouldn’t feel right to return (morally) until they open up international travel a bit more and the caps are gone. Otherwise I’d feel i’d be travelling against the spirit of the rules (but not the letter).

Fingers crossed we can hold it at bay. In the meantime I think i will move my flights back to december on the off chance they start vaccinating under 40s by November.

I think this is where we disagree, I know so many close friends who have had Covid deaths in the family from the UK, I worry about what would happen if the UK variant got some traction out here.

That’s fair, I think my point is i’m not sure we have the luxury of waiting until Q4, I worry the gvt. might regret that decision. For me it’s weighing up a 20% (?) chance of a widespread outbreak killing 20,000 people vs 25 deaths from bloodclots.

I am keen to travel back to the UK as soon as I can. I’m also not sure how long hotel quarantine will keep working. Just to put the blood clots into perspective, you’re 400 times more likely to get a blood clot from the pill than Astra.

I think hotel quarantine has done well but we’re always on the cusp of losing control of the virus. Pretty frustrated by the lack of urgency from Australian gvt too. I’d be all over Astra if they offered it to me.