Heading4Tassie

Lovely pictures @Toots big difference between the North and the South this week weather wise it seems, though the pics of the South snowy scenes look beautiful too.

Hi @Skani I saw that on my Tasmanian news update this morning regarding the border will not open now in August at all . It is very re-assuring that the state wish to protect everyone on the island taking action accordingly and we can of course understand that wish too (Just wish we had already arrived there). It's a bit like trying to pin down jelly at the moment making renewed plans to migrate. We should have actually arrived in Launceston tomorrow (2nd planned arrangements) but we know we will make it eventually (fingers and toes crossed) just have to wait a little longer for our Tasmanian chapter to begin. Apreciate you posting the update

Thanks for the update on this Jon as I hadn't seen this yet re Tasmania. another thing to add to the ever increasing things that have to be actioned. I am still not sure if you have to quarantine where you arrive in Oz Internationally and then also in Tassie as we are planning to migrate here or whether we can try to connect via the 'mainland' and go straight to Tassie to quarantine just the once

I have been told I need to apply to DHA when ready to travel and they will look at issuing a travel facility for me to travel (having not validated by the inial entry date) my actual 100 visa is valid until 4 June 2024. It is a worry though having spent so much time and money so far and no specific offical notice re this on the DHA website.

I have seen a few online. Wish i had at leadt been able to do my validation trip but flights were cancelled. We had been looking at Qatar and Asiana in October but also looked at Singapore today. Waiting also to see if Tassie will open their borders to NSW as we cannot fly via Melbourne atm though who knows what the situation will be in a couple of months.Not sure if it means we will have to do quarantine in both places...? Looks like we do have to do quarantine where we arrive in Oz. I have to book flights before I can apply to DHA for the travel facility too.

This is exactly the scenario we find ourselves in now @Aussiebird House sale completed, living with my parents and all our belongings packed up ready to ship to Tassie but in storage here in the UK. Without my pr 100 being activated by the inital entry date feeling the pressure to try and move this year assuming I can be granted facility to travel by DHA.

Hi @Aussiebird This is the tel number for skilled & family visa progamme immigration in Qld that i have Ph: 131881. They will advise you that they cannot extend the initial entry by date as this is a legal requirement and can't just be altered/extended. It is a pity that there is not a general advice for Pr visa holders who have not activated their visas yet as to leniency if you cannot validate. We are also trying to move permanently this year, recently sold our house and now I am being made redundant too in 2 weeks time. I missed my inital enter by date to validate my pr visa in June this year as flights booked were cancelled. Have been told to contact DHA when I am ready to travel that they may not cancel the visa due to not validating it in time but there is no official notification of this as far as I can see. I have a pr100 my hubby is the Aussie citizen. Stressful times indeeed and we have a fur baby too we are trying to send and wanting to start our life in Tassie as soon as we can. Potentially looking at October/November now.

We have recently used Letton Percival for our shipping insurance. They do cover tools up to about £2,500 total I think but only personal tools they do not cover professional trade tools. They also covered our bikes. Decided to use a third part insurer rather than the one offered by our shipping company.

Thanks @MacGyver for the info good to know it is still possible atm. So many plans keep having to be changed and adapted at present this is now year 3 of our planned move getting all our ducks in a row (paperwork, partner visa, house sale etc) think we may have to just decide to go without having all the ducks lined up since they keep 'running off' on an tangent. 3 times flights have been booked now.

Thanks for the advice Nemesis the fur baby is the reason we keep moving the dates tbh. If it was just us we would bite the bullet and just take what comes as the borders open and close but with the dog it is a totally different story and whole set of things to factor in.

I know it does feel a bit like a Herculean ordeal atm but I just keep telling myself one day we will look back on our trials and tribulations in selling a house and relocating ourselves, possessions and fur baby to the otherside of the world during a global pandemic and laugh about it

Think you made the right decision @sydneygal to just go in time to meet your husband's visa initial entry date. I was due to be travelling in April to validate my 100 visa (2nd time flights were booked) but flights were cancelled. Initial entry date was 1 June and I did not make it to validate the visa as so few flights so I will have to deal with DHA again to apply for permission to travel when we book flights again. We were planning to move next month permanently anyway but just wanted to get it validated before the initial entry date. Now we are delaying again as its so difficult when you are also trying to ship your fur baby at the same time at present especially since our quarantine is presently longer than the dog's! I definitely feel nervous about putting plans in place before getting the go ahead I can actually still use my visa my agent has advised it should be fine in timescale we are looking at Oct/Nov. (fingers crossed)

Paul do you know if you have not activated a PR 100 visa yet whether they will be extendng the first enter by date in the current situation? Have flights booked for a week stay beginning of April but we are advised not to leave the UK atm. Assume it would need to be a minimum stay of 14 days now anyway to self isolate before returning home as am just looking to activate visa initially

Good luck scubacam with your relocation, I really hope it all works out for you all. We are also in similar position about to exchange on our house in 3 weeks time (2nd time lucky we hope) I was planning to visit Oz just to validate my PR 100 visa with a week stay on the 3rd April (2nd time for booking flights too) but concerned now not about self isolation required for 2 weeks but being able to get back to the UK as we are not ready to move permanently for another few months (maybe longer now with this pandemic) and flights are likely to be being cut down a lot fairly soon. Does anyone know if PR visas enter by first dates are possibly being extended at all due to all of the uncertainty and restrictions in place to allow more time for the initial validitaion? Tried to see if I can find anything online but coming up empty. Would be great if it could be postponed by a few months and hopefully we will be in a better place then and I can avoid sitting in a hotel room on my own for 2 weeks