Robin’s Emigrating

Thanks for the clarifications folks.

Always nice to get a check back, however if I had the money it would be going into a set of investments and earning interest, so would prefer to have it.

Interesting. I had a different experience at my last employer who worked with me to keep me tax amount relative only to my expected salary at year end. I also worked with HMRC to edit tax codes which then flowed back into my tax amounts. There’s also a mechanism to claim back overpaid tax back home prior to year end, although I’ve never exercised it myself.

Has anyone had a strange experience with paying too much income tax here in Australia when they’ve started a new job? In my last employer in the UK, the payroll department smoothed out your tax across the year. So if I had a payment delayed for some reason, it would still be taxed with my total expected renumeration for the year in mind. With my new employer here in Australia, on my first month my start date missed the payroll date by a few days, so I ended up receiving about 1.8 months worth of salary in following month’s pay check. However, it was taxed as if I would receive that amount every month, meaning I paid considerably more tax than if I had been paid each month separately! The response I’ve received so far seems to be that this is how it works in Australia (you’re taxed based on each individual month) and you can sort it out come tax return time. Is that right? We have no immediate financial need for the money, I think it just frustrates me that due to internal payroll timing mechanism you should have to forego quite a considerable lump of money until around a year away.

Dear All - I'm reaching out to see if any of you have experience, or know of tax accountants that have expertise, in the treatment of UK Declarations of Trust by the ATO. By way of background, we own a rental property in the UK that was previously held in a trust such that my wife received 99% of the beneficial interest. Effectively this meant that she declared 99% of the rental income on her UK tax return. Now that we've moved to Australia we're struggling to understand whether the ATO recognizes such trusts. We've spoken with a competent UK/Oz Tax accounting firm who've confirmed they can help, however they're currently awash with work and cannot pick up this item for a while, leaving us in a rather uncertain financial situation as we try to plan our financial affairs and secure a rental property. Any guidance or thoughts would be warmly welcomed. Thank you

Hey @ainzlondon79. We flew with Etihad and were really impressed all the way through. Only a 1 hour 50 minute stopoff in Abu Dhabi, and apart from a pretty complex check-in at London Heathrow (just because of the usual COVID travel complexities) it was very smooth. Yeah for the cough we just wanted to be really up front (and she actually coughed a couple of times in the airport, but barely ever since!). They take no chances, but are now planning to move us to a normal hotel on Sunday if our Day 4 COVID tests come back clear. Fingers crossed!

Just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone for all of your help with organising visas and such! We’re now in Melbourne and hunkered for quarantine in a health hotel (my daughter had a very slight cough from a previous cold that wouldn’t go away, and they weren’t taking any chances!). All the best for all of you, and feel free to reach out if I can ever be of any help.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing. There was a chap earlier in the thread that applied a little before us and got it in 3-4 months, but they might have got lucky or the backlog may have increased since then. We’re currently on about 4 mo the and crossing our fingers. Anyone heard anything about timing got eVisitors? The website said they usually respond within a day, but we’re currently on day 3. Hopefully will come through in the next few days.

Thanks @martymarty5436425. I've applied for the eVisitor visas now and will then apply for the exemption. Flights booked for May 3rd so fingers crossed either the visas and exemptions, or the citizenships, come through before then!

Also, do we have to apply for both a visa and a travel exemption?

Also, do we have to apply for both a visa and a travel exemption?

Or perhaps just an eVisitor Visa?

Hey folks - has anyone who applied for a 309/100 visa run into issues waiting for their kids citizenships? We're in that boat and getting very close to our flights now so considering applying for a visa for them using their British citizenship instead. Would anyone have any idea which visa we would apply for in this situation? Just an eVisitor visa?

Does anybody know what visa we would apply for if we're still not received our citizenship? Would this be a 600 Family Stream visa?

On a related note, did any of you get a message from the embassy in the lead up to approving your application, asking that you ensure all of the right documentation is uploaded? If so, how long before they approved did you receive it? we received one a few days ago so hoping that means it will get approved shortly

Congrats @bowbow. We submitted ours in early December so fingers crossed they'll get to it soon too. We fly in about a month, so if we don't hear anything within about 10 days or so we'll probably apply for a visa using their British passports too as a backup.

@returningtooz That's remarkably quick and certainly a good sign! Typically folks wait quite a while before hearing anything. Certainly sounds like they're ploughing through their backlog of 309/100 requests at the moment.

They added some cost when we increased the square footage of our shipment recently, even though we were still staying within the same dedicated 40ft container. On reflection this makes sense as their folks are still having to pack, load and unload more items on either end. Would hope that they reduce the price for these activities if we decide to cut a few further items out of our shipment, but agree that the overall freight payments and other charges beyond the contents of the container will remain the same, regardless of how much we bring.

Interesting, I didn’t know that was the case. Any idea what’s driving that?

Folks - have any you had experiences with variances in the final bill versus the original quote and payment made? This hasn’t happened to us yet, with the exception of the increases in freight rates which I know a number of people have experienced recently, but it has become clear that the amount we’ve paid so far is contingent both on freight, forex and other variable costs remaining the same, as well as the shipping companies virtual inventory being aligned with the cubic footage they encounter on the move date. I.e. your final bill could be significantly higher, or potentially lower too - assuming they pass any savings on which I’m told they do, but you won’t know until the final bill arrives. Our anxiety here comes from a feeling of lack of control, and perhaps a need for greater transparency, over the final bill. Sort of feels like we’ve signed a blank check and the final bill could be very difficult to challenge with the minimal transparency we have into the various sub costs. It’s sort of all baked in with an expectation of trusting the final bill. We’ve raised this and they’re responsive and understand our concerns, but interested in others thoughts and experiences. We’re sort of used to agreeing a final price for something and then pulling a trigger. In this case we may end up agreeing on a price with one vendor, when another’s final bill would have ended up being lower in the long run. Perhaps that’s the risk of doing business in a game like this with so many moving parts, subcontractors and forex challenges, as companies don’t feel able to commit to fixed quotes, but interested in others opinions.

Thanks @paulhand. That’s useful. I guess the question that comes to mind is at what point we should apply for the visa if we’ve still not heard anything about the citizenship? I don’t know the name of the visa, how long it takes or how much it costs, but I’ve we’ve still not heard about the citizenship soon then I’m thinking we should apply for the visa - otherwise we could find ourselves with neither citizenship or visa come the day of our flight. I assume we’ll also have to apply for an exemption if they’re using the visa route. Not sure how long that takes, but would also need to factor that in.

Hey All - We've still not received the kids citizenships. Does anyone what would happen if we applied for a visa and an exemption using their British passports, and the Australia citizenship was then approved after the visa was issues, but before we flew? Would we still be able to use the visa to enter the country, or would we have to then wait for their passport to arrive (or seek an ADV)? We fly on May 3rd and I'm considering just getting the visas and exemptions now, particularly if they would remain valid after issuing of the citizenship as we could then be sure they've a path into the country on the date of our flights. Also, if anyone knows what type of visa the kids would need, it would be greatly appreciated.

Hey Guys, Been meaning to write this for a little while but we've been so rushed of late. Just wanted to say THANKS SO MUCH to all of the people on here who helped us, and that my 309/100 visa has now been fully approved. So exciting to be planning our move over - now booked for May 3rd! Fingers crossed to all others still awaiting or putting together your applications. Will remain active on here in case I can be of use to others. Cheers, Robin

Yes, we’ve gone with PSS. Got quotes from both, but PSS were slightly more competitive and we were really impressed with their customer service and non-pushy/non-salesy approach. Just struck us nice, genuine people which is important to us. We should arrive about the same time as our goods unless we get into big issues with flights.

Hey @krolley. We’re in the same boat and are starting to get concerned as our flights are booked for May 3rd. How long do you have before flying? Any folks have thoughts about whether we should apply for a visa using their British citizenship now in case their Oz citizenship doesn’t arrive in time? My understanding is that if their Oz citizenship is granted, we can no longer apply for a visa so would have to eother wait for their Oz passport or try and get their citizenship linked to their British passports using an ADV Declaratory 931 visa, as mentioned by @Laura Zorzi above. Any thoughts welcome! Perhaps we should also consider sending a letter to the embassy?