KittyMB

1 hour ago, TresOz said:

I know, then what do you do! Don’t think anyone will be flying anywhere for a while again now. So we will be having to do our Medicals again now in February, and recently had to pay another 2,159 dollars for Visitor’s Visa’s. This really is never ending! 

Could you not get a test the day before you're due to depart? Say you leave on a Wednesday, you test on Monday night or early Tuesday (depending on timing for results up there)? When you're boarding to leave, they're checking you in to fly back so you already have the negative test? 

I wouldn't be overly concerned with numbers being halved, mostly, because there are not that many people coming through Singapore and Singapore is fairly COVID safe, I'd expect the numbers to reduce in flights from riskier countries, if you can find the plane ticket, you're fairly ok to rely on it (My feeling)

I really understand your being hesitant, the issue is that this is a moving beast so potentially you don't do it now and something else will come up later and so on. 

All my good vibes for an optimal resolution for you guys. 

@TresOz  We purchased tickets through expedia and I vaguely recall seeing travel insurance being offered, I think it was also offered when I was trying to book through Singapore Airlines website. 

The issue is No travel insurance will cover you for COVID-19 related, whether illness, cancellations, etc, as they're all specifically stating that it is an excluded event. You're looking at travel insurance as a precaution, say for example if someone were to make the trip and unexpectedly pass away from a heart attack on the plane (touch on wood). 

Feel free to PM me if you need any additional guidance, there is a flight coming back on the same night of the day they arrive over there, where possible, try to take that one, they don't need to be out of the country any extra time as they'll already have the visa as soon as they're across immigration. 

If you're still in talks with WA Parent Centre, can I suggest you ask them if they could do the same via NZ? It'll save you the quarantine, ours happened too fast to explore that option but I don't see why you couldn't do the same, Fly out of Brisbane to Auckland and then back to Melbourne/Sydney - you could then fly straight up to Brisbane without having to quarantine. I guess the benefit of Singapore is that is a tried and tested process that many of us have gone through. 

Also, if I can give you any advice at all, is to stick to your guns and ask for a contact number for the WA parent Centre, in case you have issues at the Airport. My experience is that initially they told me 'no number, there are protocols in place to make it all happen, don't worry', eventually I got a phone number and we needed it, as soon as we got to Airport, airline said they didn't know anything about it and to go away.   

@Samvaz99 Hi, 

First, there is only two approved airlines to take transit passengers into Singapore, Singapore Airlines and Scoot, for you to be a transit passenger, you must have the whole itinerary in one booking so you can't fly with SQ and then come back with Scoot. 

I rang the bookings for Singapore Airlines and found it too hard, they want you to give them exact dates and I was looking for anything available, for me that also meant if one flight is economy and another business then that's ok, as long as we get the flights, but she also didn't cope with that. In the end, I used the google search flights functionality 

https://www.google.com/search?q=melbourne+to+singapore&rlz=1C1GCEB_enAU907AU907&oq=melbourne+to+singapore&aqs=chrome..69i57.3095j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Put how may people and start going one day at a time, there is a flight out of singapore at night, I think, and one in the morning so I did flights same date, then move return one more day and so on until I found availability for Singapore Airlines, going in economy and coming back in business class, the flights I found where sold by expedia, had no issue with that, I bought them through expedia and it was all ok.  (Also, I'm not sure that it'll work if you leave and come back to same city so we did Melb-Perth via Singapore,  I'm happy with that choice now too, because the parents are in Quarantine at the Westin in Perth -  I think the hotels being used for qauarantine in WA are much nicer than the ones in Melb,)

Send me a PM if you need any more help, I' happy to.

Where are you guys from? And did you only apply for an extension of 6 months for 600? As a general comment, my experience has been that they tend to accept what you ask for, so ask for more rather than less

We're from South America and parents had been here since March 2019 with a multiple trips,12 month on each entry visa, we were lucky that we had a holiday in Bali in November last year so that reset the 12 months, effectively that visa expired in Nov 2020. Before knowing they were making us go offshore, I applied for another 600 based on exceptional circumstances, being that South American borders are closed and the difficulty in sourcing flights to go back, they granted that 12 months, took them a couple of months to grant and they backdated it to when I first applied.

Something to consider, I'd suggest that you wait until about the 10sh Jan to apply for a 12 month one , she'd be granted a bridging visa when you apply and may take them a couple of months to grant it in which time, hopefully you'll have a better idea of how quickly 143 are moving and if not, potentially start moving to apply for 870. 

Best of luck

Hi All, 

We were one of the ones who got told to head offshore to be granted visa, no other way about it. 

My parents left Melbourne to Singapore as transit passengers, they are now in Quarantine in Perth. They were granted the visa after 10 mins having gotten across departures

If you're in the same boat and have any questions, please by all means send me a message. Lucky for us, after nearly 5 years, we're done. 

Best of luck to you all

5 hours ago, Marisawright said:

I think it will all depend on what is in the legislation.   Parents are not classed as "immediate family" and there is no way the government will agree to change that definition. If they did, then parents would be eligible to be included as part of the family when someone applies for a skilled visa, and that would cost the taxpayer an absolute fortune.  

They are not changing the legislation. The proposed approach is to have an interim regulation which waives the requirement to be offshore for a number of visa pathways, currently only those for immediate family members. Any such regulation could be easily worded to also include parent visa pathways.

I think the success will depend on how much noise is made and how many families are willing to come forward and provide testimony to the  media. 

33 minutes ago, cfernandes said:

It's funny how there is a bit of discrepency in some being given 3 months vs some being given 28 days to leave the country to activate the 143 visa. I wonder how and what drives this decision making on the case officers side. 

In some cases the 3 months is given without requesing . Whilst in some you have to ask for it. 

In the current scenario it should be 3 months for all by default. That's the least that they can do.

Is it for those of us whom have delayed once, they're saying you have to do it now? And for the ones that are just being requested - 3 months? To be fair, case officer who rang me told me they were not requesting us to leave within 28 days but to provide itinerary within 28 days, so we could still have bought tickets for say, Feb 2021...

54 minutes ago, Bigtrev said:

Hi Kitty, you should email Julian Hill MP and tell him about this. He is trying to get parent visas included in the concessions.

 

Done @Bigtrev. Thank you!!

Hi All, some of you may recall my parents have also been here on tourist visa, we paid 2nd VAC in Feb and in March when COVID hit, got a delay to grant of visa pending heading offshore. 

Last week on Wednesday, they sent request to provide itinerary, I applied for another delay citing Christmas, difficulties sourcing flights and the complex COVID situation elsewhere, by Friday arvo I received a call, saying we're happy to refund your 2nd VAC and let you be, if you're not willing to go out. 

Told to go to Singapore as transit passengers goes without saying how difficult and expensive it is at this time, looks like parents will be in quarantine through Christmas. 

Hi All, Can I just post a very friendly reminder that this is a "Parent visa application timelines (143 & 173)" chat?

It helps all of us waiting on progress and newbies looking for info when we keep the thread related to the topic. 

Cheers and I hope you continue to have an amazing life!

5 hours ago, Millynguyen said:

Hi Kitty,

Yes, we were on the same boat situation and I did ask for special consideration when my mom was stuck here unsure when she could depart, same answer that the applicant needs to be offshore as written in law. If she couldn't make it before the health exam expires then we will be requested to redo another one. 

Luckily we have a repatriation flight to my mom's home therefore we are now met their requirements and just waiting for visa to be granted. Unsure what has hold on our application unless has reached quota.

Good Luck!! We're sticking it out on tourist visa until a safe travel bubble pops up with NZ....

14 hours ago, AlwaysVet said:

I truly believe that once the 2nd VAC is paid, it is common sense to understand that no other document including a health certificate is further required, although they may ask for it.  I could be wrong though.  Your part is fulfilled when 2nd VAC paid, and the process is in the department's hand.  And I am confident that they understand. 

Good luck.

Not correct. My parents are on the same boat, paid 2nd VAC and couldn't head offshore before Covid hit. Our application is on hold until such time when they can head offshore, we requested special consideration for a visa grant and the response was that it is written in the law that they have to be offshore.

We were clearly told when our police clearances and medicals expire, we will be requested to provide new ones if we don't make it before they expire.

As a side note, I'd rather provide and receive 'advice' based on facts than opinions. Above are the facts of my parents case. 

20 hours ago, Kathss56 said:

Yes Im onshore ,12mths is up in Dec and have 8558 and 8503  condtion. 

Hi Guys. My parents were actually asked to get out for 5 days to get the parents visa, this happened in mid-March and we chose not to leave the country, this means we now stay with Tourist visas until there is the ability to safely fly overseas.

For my parents, we will ask for a new Tourist visa. 

@Kathss56 I believe you first need to ask to get the conditions removed. Once that occurs, then ask for Tourist visa. You will not be eligible for Tourist visa onshore until you get condition lifted. Hope this helps

Kitty

Not sure if this applies to many of you. https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/news-subsite/files/coronavirus-general-20200201.pdf

It may explain though why some people are not hearing from Immi.

Quote

 

I have applied for a permanent visa. Will that still be processed?

The Department continues to process Skilled and Family permanent visas for people usually resident in China. Visas will be granted where travel restrictions are lifted.

 

14 hours ago, JeremyNg266 said:

HI all lovely people.

I have a question to ask. How would you prove yourself as a dependant person for visa 143. I am currently at my last stage of visa 143 where they ask me to prove I am a dependant. I have proofs showing my mom sends me $2000AUD (sometimes $3000AUD) monthly, schools fee receipts, CoEs and academic transcripts, ATO report showing I work less than 5 hours every week in the last 4 years. Do you think this should be enough? What other evidence should I include? 

I am currently 26 and applied for 143 when I was 22 before the new age rules changed. I would like to share my timeline here too.

1. Visa143 lodged and accepted on 13/04/2016

2. Requested for additional documents on 22/01/2020

3. Lodged all required additional documents including health check, police check, form80 and AOS documents on 03/03/2020

4. Requested to prove dependancy on 12/03/2020

... Currently preparing for step 4.

Hi

When you say 'school fees', are you studying full time and so, what are you studying (i.e. Degree, Post-grad?).

Let me start with saying that I don't have a lot of experience in this area, I just thought I'd reply because nobody else has. 

Looking at the visa eligibility details, it says you are a member of the main applicant's family unit if you are:

• Quote

   

  • the main applicant's child, or their partner's child, who is not engaged, married or in a de facto relationship and is:

  • aged under 18 years, or
  • aged 18 to 23 years and dependent on the main applicant or the main applicant's partner, or
  • aged 23 years or older and dependent on the main applicant or the main applicant's partner due to a partial or total physical or mental disability

  • the dependent child of the child above

   

  However, when you search for dependent child under the Glossary, it states

   

  Quote

   

  To be included as a dependent child in a visa application, a child must be:

  • your or your partner's child from a current or previous relationship
  • not married, engaged or in a de facto relationship
  • wholly or substantially reliant on you for their basic needs of food, clothing and shelter
  • under 18 years old

  Dependent child over 18 

   

  To apply for a visa as a dependent child aged 18 years or older, they must be:

  • dependent on you more than any other person for their basic needs of food, clothing and shelter, or
  • unable to work to support themselves because they have a disability that totally or partially affects their bodily or mental functions 

   

  If they are applying for a visa other than a protection, refugee and humanitarian or temporary safe haven visa, they are dependent on you if they wholly or substantially rely on you more than any other person for their basic needs of food, clothing and shelter.

  If they are applying for a protection, refugee and humanitarian or temporary safe haven visa, they are dependent on you if they wholly or substantially rely on you for financial, physical or psychological support.

   

  In this context, to be honest, I'd find it difficult to say (as a third party) that you are a dependent. Is it that you have been studying full time and therefore relying on your parents financial support? I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, again, I have no experience on this so what I'm saying may not be all that accurate.

42 minutes ago, Arti said:

This is so good, thank you!

Can you please clarify if the cumulative number is the number of applications in queue or the number of applicants (primary+secondary)?

Applications in the queue. Applications are presumably assessed in date order irrespective of the number of applicants included in each.

@AlwaysVet How did you guys upload the AoS documents to Centrelink? The lady had told me to upload documents to Financial Assurance as that was a priority queue. When I uploaded, I first uploaded as Other documents with the title Financial Assurance; I was still a bit unsure so I uploaded again but selected Centrelink Forms - I'm sorry I can't remember the Form number but if you find Financial Assurance Form and upload to that. It may get you a quicker response. See my signature, ours has been moving pretty quickly.

@Aaron88 We sent acceptance letter to immi, I thought I'd have to wait for at least 3 weeks to hear back, a couple of days later I sent an email asking for possible timeframes as the parents current tourist visa is about to expire. I did not get a response to that but got the request for 2nd Vac payment. Just thought I'd share, as I think the email did the trick in getting a quicker response. (or maybe not and it's just been plain good luck :))

On ‎21‎/‎02‎/‎2020 at 17:46, bridgie said:

Hi, 

The only fly in the ointment is the footnote on the email asking you to go offshore. They advise you to be offshore for 5 working days our trip falls short by a day. If it comes to it we’ll book another flight and stay until grant. After all the costs over 4 years of back and forth it’s a small amount to stump up however, once back in Oz we don’t plan anymore offshore jaunts for a loooooong while.

 

Bridgie

 

 

Thanks for the info Bridgie. Safe travels, nearly there, Hip Hip Hurray!

14 hours ago, bridgie said:

We are playing dodge the Corona Virus holiday at the moment, go off shore next week to NZ for visa grant after cancelling China then Bali. We’re looking forward to not going anywhere after 4years of constant travelling.

Bridgie

Hi Bridgie

If you don't mind me asking, how come if you paid 2nd VAC 7/2/2020, you're only getting out next week? Is it your own preference?

We're a bit stuck in what to do at the moment. Completed AoS and all required documentation returned to Immi this week. My parents are in Au at the moment on a 600 visa, they have to leave by end March (12 months), and without knowing how long this may take, we don't know if to send them all the way back home to Latin America or to send them somewhere closer such as Bali.

Why did you guys end up cancelling Bali?

Thanks heaps