Karl D

I’m happy to do that, I don’t want anything from the Australian benefits system. And quite rightly don’t want to burden Australian tax payers.

I have worked since I was 16, never took a benefit, we have a large sum in savings and very good UK private pensions.

Just want to be closer to our kids and grandkids now.

5 hours ago, Faastwalker said:

Coming up to 10 years in Aus. Married an Aussie in 2007 that I met in UK. Had twin boys, moved here when they were around 1. Was apprehensive about moving. But was really up for it in the end. Moved to my wife's parents in Cessnock. That was a mistake. We lived near London, so going from there to Cessnock was a culture shock to say the least. Felt like I'd gone back in time. Struggled to find work, became quite depressed, turned to alcohol. Fking nightmare. Started working, wife fking useless with money. It was a struggle. We eventually split up a few years ago. Was going okay on my own. Then work contract ended a year ago. Looking for work now, but also thinking about home. Missing family and friends. Never really assimilated into this place. I like it in Newcastle. But I'm completely cut off here. Feel like I'm wondering through a boring dream. Stayed for my boys. They are 11 now and ex wife has a new partner who is an arsehole. He thinks I'm an arsehole. Not going to work out is it?! Maybe time to go home? I miss a lot in the UK. Family and friends, the buzz of the cities, the countryside, the culture. Aus is a place without culture, heritage or history. All of what it has is bad, boring and dull. And I don't really go much for the beach either. Fucking sand everywhere! English skin burning. Yeah, FUN!!

Wow, a lot to unpack there, sounds like UK is where you really need to be. 
 

This thread has fascinated me from the off, we are in the 143 queue, at first I thought that the 3 years or so quoted wait was eternity, now with more research and thanks to the visa thread I can see that we have at least a 10 year wait ahead of us. I’m now more than ok with that.

I am 53, my wife is 58. The reason is I want it to be our last ever move and the older we are if things are hard, I think we will stick it out through our age as much as anything. 

On 27/12/2021 at 20:18, Sue 320 said:

I really wouldn't worry I don't honestly think it is that significant. As long as you have uploaded all the necessary documentation to support your application for exemption and have entered the reference numbers for your 651 applications you should be fine.  The exemption grant should trigger the visa grant - just be aware that the e651 can take a little longer to process then in pre-pandemic days but you should be prioritised.  Good luck!

Hi- just an update - got our exemption today and the visas approved separately within the hour.

so timeline if it helps anyone;

applied for e651 on 22nd Dec- received confirmation and TRN of pending 

applied for exemption on 26th Dec quoting TRN from visa app

received exemption email 31st Dec

received completed visas as granted on 31st Dec

just travel declaration to do 7 days prior to travel and we are off!

Grandkids here we come!

On 08/11/2021 at 01:41, Sue 320 said:

I've no idea what the 'right' answer is to this question but going on advice from FB forums - it has confused many! - we just put 'Parent of an Australian Citizen'.  

Oh sh**t..we put Lead Passenger. Hope that doesn’t go against us. We are parents just didn’t understand the box.

the gov website says apply for a visa first ( we did 651 ) and in previous years had that back approved in hours. Then we applied for the exemption as on the form it asks for a TRN for the applied visa.

we travel in Feb, flights been booked and moved several times over the last 24 months 

6 hours ago, Marisawright said:

I wonder that too.   Judging by all the articles full of British migrants complaining about feeling trapped in Australia, you'd think there would be a massive exodus.  But I wonder.   

I can see people who've been in the habit of visiting every year, deciding not to risk this kind of thing happening again, so they might go back. Especially if, as has been suggested, air fares will stay very expensive for a long time to come, so annual visits will be less affordable.

However there are a lot of migrants who see their families only once every two, three, five (or even more) years even in normal times.  They've been angry during Covid because they felt deprived of choice, but once they calm down, they'll realise that actually they've only missed one visit, so what's the big deal?  Especially if they enjoy their life in Australia. 

Hmmm, we come over twice a year, since 2013, to see our two daughters. The last time we were there was November 2019, we just saw our first grandson born and two days later left thinking we’d be back in 6 months. Our second grandchild is expected in January. It’s a big deal to us not getting there I assure you.

10 hours ago, palaceboy1 said:

You could look at this in a different way . The more special exemption persons/groups that are given visas/entry the sooner the borders will open to all . We were lucky to make the move to WA in October 2020 but since here I have not met anyone who wants to open the strict borders but have listened to numerous people going on about their rights to not be vaccinated or to choose which vaccine . You can see where certain people are coming from , life is good with no restrictions other than travel and WA is a massive place to explore.

That attitude of “I’m ok in my bubble”  will see the restrictions/lockdowns continue forever. Until the vaccine is taken up in big numbers outbreaks will occur and the vulnerable will succumb. This virus will find a way into WA or any state /  country in the world. It’s just naive to think otherwise.

On 23/09/2021 at 16:27, Juniper said:

I read with mounting fury today that Boris Johnson has asked Scott Morrison for special dispensation to allow the Uk cricketers families to accompany them to Australia for the Christmas Test Matches!

I was incandescent!  There are thousands of us who would love special permission to spend Christmas with our families who live in Australia & whom we have been forcibly separated from since the outbreak of Covid 19, including new grandchildren whom we have never seen!

Boris Johnson will probably not even be aware of our heartbreaking situation but I am sure that Scott Morrison is only too aware!  Surely this cannot happen?

 

 

 

Same, November 2019 to see him born, not been able to get back since. Booked for April 22 but who knows?

On 10/08/2021 at 09:28, Parley said:

I said by December not now.

I do hope so, last saw our day old grandson in November 2019, now there is another on the way. We have rebooked our flights for April 22. Praying we can get out there to see the first and then newest grandchild. 

So cancelled my flights for the 5th time and just re-booked with Qatar today for 3rd April 22, any chance you could get yourselves sorted by then?

Found out this week we will have a second grandchild by then so really hoping we can get there.

On 27/06/2021 at 23:32, Marisawright said:

There are some uneducated people in Australia who think closing the borders was intended to rid the country of the virus.  However, the government never thought that.  The official policy has always been suppression of the virus, not eradication.   Eradication happened by sheer good luck.

The original purpose was to keep the virus out to give the health system time to ramp up, order extra ventilators etc.  Then, when it was so successful, borders were kept closed to give time to develop and distribute vaccines.  Unfortunately, Australia then bet on the wrong horse in the vaccine race, and was slow off the mark in obtaining supplies

What has happened since is that eradication is very, very popular with the electorate and we've reached a point where no deaths are acceptable.  There were 800-odd deaths in the Victorian outbreak and that is still seen as a massive national tragedy.  The Federal Government knows that they will never get 100% of the population vaccinated, so when they open the borders, deaths will happen and they'll get the blame - and there's a federal election next year.  Some are predicting that they will keep the borders closed until they are safely back in power for another term. 

this is what I was trying to say.

This is turning into a Monty Python sketch..we were so poor we didn’t have ought. 

I don’t think the UK have a negative opinion of how NZ/Aus have handled the pandemic. Just look at the respective death rates, and compare to 130k+  in the UK, it would be foolish to do so. The thing that I think is not being handled right, with respect, is thinking that closing this borders and quarantine hotels will rid the country of the virus. It won’t. Ever. It will find a way in.

Vaccination take up is the only way out of this for the world.

I have accepted my fate that I won’t be able to get down there this year, am still booked late December, but I believe you have to start promoting vaccine take up and get a plan together. Isolation does not work long term.

That’s sort of what I’m saying.

State the criteria to be met

that would allow for open borders and put a date on it.

I’m all for safe opening, but what I don’t understand is why the government there doesn’t say something using agreed metrics like;

X= Vaccine uptake by Australians at an agreed %

Y= state cases less than 5 a day

Z= Track and Trace up and running

“provided conditions X/Y/Z are met then we will allow incoming tourist visitors from low case / high vaccine populations with proven vaccinations / negative PCR tests prior to travel and a test on arrival  ON XX/XX/XXXX”

that would help Australia’s businesses plan and us travellers surely.

Hi all,

I have two daughters and a grandson in NSW, the last time I saw them was November 2019. Due to CV I have been rebooking my flight ticket since then. Six changes so far.

I do scan the Aus Gov website for updates and was hoping that we could come the end of this year. Which until today was dashed when I read that Scott Morrison says it’s not likely. What is being said in local media there? Is is really likely 2022?

Give me some hope please!

I think I’d rather know the real wait time, we were informed 24/36 months initially ( verbally by an agent ) before we applied. This we soon realised was 48/60 months. Now, with the tables of published data It’s looking like maybe 10 years or more. 
 

sad end to the weekend.

2 hours ago, Tulip1 said:

Will you be renting somewhere until you can get over there then?  You may be selling your home a year or more earlier than you needed to and packed all your things up. I reckon it will be a year at best before tourists will be allowed over there, sadly.

Hoping for December 3rd entry, have cancelled 4 trips so far surely we can get over by then! Will be two years since we’ve seen our new grandson 

12 hours ago, Paul1Perth said:

Problem is keeping property in Ireland will be another worry and expensive. 

Never really fancied Alice Springs. Been through the airport a couple of times and now they've closed the climb up Ullaru or Ayers Rock as it used to be there's zero point going.

We thought Alice was relatively close to Ullaru, on a map looks like it. How wrong we were, 5am pick up and 5 hour drive there and back then in hotel at 2am the next day and back at the airport first thing for the flight to Perth. Alice had a lot of very shouty and drunk people in the streets, we didn’t feel unsafe it was just not like anywhere we’d been to in Oz. When we arrived at the airport we went to get a taxi and the guy at the information stand said “he’s probably already got a fare, so no telling what time he will be back” - like one taxi in town. We ended up getting a shared hotel dropper bus, all in 50c heat. . Won’t be going back.

We have to stay east coast really, I think we have settled on the Central Coast / Port Stephen’s area, we can afford Sydney suburbs but want to keep money in reserve and looking online you get a lot more for your bucks.

This is still a couple of hours from our girls but at least we are on the same piece of rock!

What we will have to weigh up is if having the “out” card of keeping property back here, will that mean it will just be easier to give up of things are temporarily bad? We do realise that the Australia we’ve seen is in short stays and not what actually being there to live so are not naive. We have been to the far north of QLD, stayed in Brisbane and the Gold Coast area, the Central coast, Sydney many times of course, Melbourne, Perth and had the strangest two days of our trips in Alice Springs. Now that place really is wierd. So had a brief look at the country.

anyway we have a few years to wait, thanks for the welcome.

Have to say I’ve read this this thread from the start, absolutely heartbreaking at times, other times uplifting. There’s a good book in there somewhere.

We have a great life on the South West coast of Ireland, beautiful Kerry mountains and coastline, but, our two grown up daughters are there in Sydney,  both permanent residents now and citizens. We have a new grandson born  in November 2019 and thankfully we there for the birth, we have been going twice a year for around six years now. COVID has made us feel so remote from them, we have cancelled four flights so far and no end in sight.

so, we are are applying for the 143 visa and are in the system. From reading these posts I feel we will need to keep a foothold in Ireland, just in case!

just to lighten the mood.

We only lodged our 143 last year and having read up and looked on some agent websites the wait looked anything from 18-36 months.

to that end, and only after after our application was accepted, l let a few friends and family know we were in the process, cue lots of emotion etc, I said don’t worry we won’t be going for two or three years and have to sell our house etc, . I did the same with work, told them I am only around for a couple of more years so start planning etc.

Since then I’ve seen 4/5/6 and even 8 years

may have to row back my leaving party plans!!!

Ours was one year old yesterday. We were lucky to be there for the birth, just about, the last day of our last trip. Talking on messenger or Skype is ok but not the same!!

Hi,

im booked with Qatar airways for April (I’ve moved it three times already ) so you are probably right that we won’t make that trip. Hopefully by Christmas we can get down there.

thanks for the reply

That’s fine, we are in for the long wait.

Booked to get down there in April and again at Christmas, hopefully borders / vaccines will allow for that. 

Hi, 

new to forum, we have 2 grown up children ( one a citizen and the other permanent resident just about to become a citizen ) and now a new grandson, so we’ve gone for it and applied for a 143 visa which was received in September. I expect a long wait, and that’s no issue for us, we travel down there twice a year anyway but do the following have ANY bearing on the time in the queue?

1) our ages, we are 51 and 57- is that looked upon more favourably than being retiree age?

2) finances, we’ve been lucky and have a fairly substantial sum to come with

does any of that move you up the queue?

just curious, thanks for any help.