psuwara

Melbourne rental market is a buyers market, entire buildings are almost empty. We have decided to stay with family instead of renting. Passed our PCR test ! That was one anxious wait as the Delta variant explodes around Europe.

DFAT flights are pretty much a no go for us anyway. Since DFAT connecting flights and VISAs have been impossible to coordinate. Just recently Germany shut down the border with Russia, then a week after opened it with self isolation periods. Its just still so unpredictable.

Go with Etihad, if you can book a business class ticket.

Better than Russia. They did the EURO Cup with 26,000 per stadium as cases rocketed, then after the EURO cup finished, oh, no more than 75 people in one place. $$$ . Very few people here in Russia trust the vaccine and only now, even in our small group of extended family and friends, are people thinking it's a good idea to vaccinate, given I got the Sputnik 5 vaccine (Similar to the AstraZeneca in design) and didn't die.

It's likely you will end up in Sydney then have on-ward tickets after Quarantine. But check with Etihad about this. There could be connecting flights for international arrivals going to Melbourne.

Regarding Question 3 If you bought your ticket this week, after the announcement of the caps. Etihad has adjusted all of their flights accordingly. I would say at this stage, your are highly likely to arrive. The problem would have been if you bought your ticket last week, with your ticket being for a flight during the July 14-August 31 period, that you would have had issues. Etihad has made it clear they have capacity and are flying to Australia at this stage, with reduced flights and intake. However, everything you see scheduled will likely happen. I haven't seen 1 flight cancellation on flight tracker flights coming from Abu Dhabi to Melbourne. You can see flight results here : http://flightstats.com Also, given the time period, people will have 2+ weeks of notice. Etihad have done well with this one. I cannot comment on other carriers, except I have heard that Qatar will likely drop most, if not all flights. They are too focused on the World Cup at this stage to be concerned with Australia.

If you have business class tickets, you should be ok with Etihad. Other airlines I’m not sure on. To be safe, just upgrade to business class and they’ll fit you in within a 1-2 week window. Qatar however is another story, they bumped my economy tickets 5 times… Persistently.

Etihad made an official statement regarding flight caps: A limited number of seats have been made available by the Australian authorities for flights between Abu Dhabi and Australia with a reduction in seats from 14 July to 31 August to manage the pressure on quarantine facilities. We are working closely with the Australian Government to open up seats where possible. Please check etihad.com/book for availability and to book tickets. From this site : https://www.etihad.com/en/travel-updates/all-destinations-travel-guides

The actual seats and service, in particular business class. If you can get Qatar Qsuites, that’s the best, but the 787-9 (layout 2) of the Etihad flights coming from Abu Dhabi are the best bet for the price, but after July 14, the price may go up a bit… maybe.

Of Emirates, Qatar and Etihad, Emirates is probably the least comfortable. But still well above Qantas.

Some updates from The Age. Looks like most airlines will try to keep caps until 14th as they are. https://www.theage.com.au/national/hunt-warns-against-gouging-as-airfares-soar-ahead-of-new-arrival-caps-20210703-p586j3.html

Does anyone know who we can get to manage the entire process for two Abyssinian cats from Russia to Australia? We have them with a friend currently while we sort out our own transport.

Who would sign a petition to ask The Australian Government for a formal apology to The Australian People for the disastrous rollout?

See if you can find a flight with a higher intake. SIA I take is Singapore? They may allow you to fly into Sydney or try to fly into Sydney. I wish you all the best of luck!!

There is a little respite for your situation. If worst comes to worst, you can always do this : https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/help-support/departmental-forms/online-forms/travel-facilitation-letter-request-form

Yeah, I'd just forget to getting back to Australia this year and see if you can focus on extending your arrival dates. Our flight is on the 12th of July. If something goes wrong and we don't get through, I'll be applying for Russian Temporary Residency and we'll just need to ride things out here, get an extension on our 309 arrival until next year, and organise Citizenship for our little one coming in November this year. Australians should be offered a full apology for the disastrous management of the Vaccine rollout.

Have you booked your flight yet? Looks like the dice is going to be rolled tomorrow on more international flight restrictions. Since The Australian government has failed to vaccinate adequately, more people will be stuck overseas. I cannot imagine a more disastrous management of state than Australia's failure to secure and manage a vaccine rollout. The USA and China would have vaccinated the entire Australia population 10 times over by now. What a sad day to be an Australian.

Any complex case should be dealt with by a Registered Agent.

I would wait till 2022 for any pet transport. We have unfortunately had to keep our two cats with a friend. The process if very difficult and requires an independent team to sort out. Especially for Group 2/3 countries.

ha we are in the exact same situation! Wife is not getting vaccinated, she already had Antibodies before getting pregnant. We booked business class just for that reason. We are flying July 12th to Melbourne on Etihad. A total of 24 hours flying, so we need to have comfy/sleepable space. Booked through Wotif when prices were pretty low for Etihad business flights a while ago. We got very lucky with out Ticket Class as tickets were on/off with availability. If we have to rebook now (given PCR results) we'll need to pay another $4k for an upgrade on the Ticket Class. Cost $11k total so far. Etihad have been really helpful, though a little frustrated with the way they class their ticket fare codes. So now it just comes down to getting the travel declaration done, packing everything, including all the medicines. Getting documents translated where necessary. We already booked a private OB/GYN for the week after we get out of Quarantine. I'll keep this post updated on our experience as we get closer to the fly date. We had to sort out some legal things first, which has been done. I have got my vaccine second shot was done on Sunday. Also need to make sure we get the Medicare stuff sorted. We sent my wife application last month and need to do a follow up call this week. Lots to do! But it's all part of the fun.

What are the G2G passes? I just thought you need to do your travel declarations... We got a free cancellation for our Airport hotel so if our PCR tests go bad, we can just cancel. It's always a risk, but I guess the only you can do is just have a Backup plan if the PCR goes wrong. It's a risk you need to consider.

Qatar will cut flights about 2-3 weeks from the date of departure. We got pushed back 5 times (including changing flight routes), until I just bit the bullet and bought business class with Etihad. So far so good. Have my vaccine, just fingers crossed on the PCR results two days before we fly really... that's the only thing that has me concerned at all.

Are you German? Most European nationals have a really quick processing time, even from Russia, if all the documents are in order. Also what is important is how long you have been together before applying. I think, I could be wrong, but if you have been married less than one year and you have not known each other long, then they will look at your application in a lot more detail and also wait for it to drag out, so people don't do these VISAs quickly.

We were in a very similar situation. But we did have plenty of photos, receipts and tickets. Including business class flights to Phuket for modelling and media work. We travelled to Australia and had photos of us with family there. That meant we also had support with our family/friends forms. Also, we never had any shard bank accounts. But I was sending funds from my wages overseas using Western Union, so I supplied the Western Union receipts (boy was that a lot of work). Everything was put together, tons of photos and documents, and we sent everything to our agent. Our agent mostly organised and double checked everything. They read through each page of documentation, they suggested which photos and documents to add, they also pointed out errors in our application. Very grateful to have spent that little extra to have a sense of relief, knowing someone is looking after this difficult problem. Remember, you can and need to delegate in many cases where the problem is beyond your capacity. Not only that, I used to put together VISA applications for international music artists coming into Australia for the entertainment industry. It's not easy to do an application, and people make mistakes, I just didn't have the time and brain capacity to handle the entire process. So even with our 309 documents, having an agent was worth every cent. Good luck!