lotsw87

Hi there Not sure where the appropriate place is to post this but i'm travelling (supposedly) to Sydney early November with my Aussie partner to live permanently. I'm double vaxxed with Moderna. We have applied for a 309 offshore partner visa, and I also have a visitor visa 651 and travel exemption. The plan is to be a tourist until my offshore visa is approved - hopefully early 2022. Anyway what with things opening up early October and talk of vaccine passports to get into restaurants and the like in NSW, does anyone know what will be the fix for someone like me who is a tourist in Australia?! I would hate to not be allowed into venues because of you have to have Medicare or something to be able to register your overseas vaccines! I was thinking just to get travel insurance for time I am in Sydney on a visitor visa, but is there a way I can enroll in Medicare? I can just see them not bothering to make a way for non residents to show their vaccine status. Thanks

Hi there I'm moving to Australia from the UK later this year and given the exchange rate is quite good at the moment, i'm thinking about exchanging a large sum into dollars to have ready for my arrival. This money will be used for living expenses, buying a car etc initially before I get a job and earn AUS, but ultimately I will be buying a house with my aussie partner in a couple of years. I've looked at Wise, but a bit confused about how it works. Does the money just sit in the Wise account as AUS until I want to draw down? It looks like they charge you to convert, and then to draw down. Is there a better, safer and cheaper way people recommend, to avoid it just sitting in a Wise online (I know I won't get interest in a bank account either!) and faffing with multiple fees of adding and then drawing down a few months later? I have an HSBC account in the UK. Perhaps I could open an international account or HSBC might let me house aussie dollars in a separate account or something? I'm guessing I can't open an Australian bank account from the UK to have the money sitting in. Or is this whole idea pointless and I should just wait until later in the year to buy dollars? It would make a difference of a few thousand dollars I think if the exchange rate changes. Cheers

Cheers i've messaged via your website as it won't let me message you on here

Hi there, I (a Brit) am after a bit of advice as to which route to take in terms of my move to Sydney this year with my Australian citizen partner. We both currently live in London. We see 3 options: - apply offshore now for a 309 visa from London (but how long is this taking? If borders open up before it gets granted, what happens?) We'd need to get married first to fulfil the criteria I believe as haven't been together long enough for de-facto. - just wait and pray and hope the borders open this summer/autumn and apply for 820 while in Sydney on a tourist visa, get granted bridging visa in the mean time - or basically do option 2 but expedite it while the borders are still closed by applying for a travel exemption and try and get over there without a visa while the pandemic restrictions are still happening. I didn't think this was at all possible but I have read it's possible to apply for it. Appreciate we'd have to fork out loads for business class flights and pay for quarantine. Bit of background on our situation: - I'm a British citizen and she is Australian, here on a 2 year working holiday visa which runs out July 2021. - We've been together 14 months (although technically can evidence we started dating 18 months ago). We can only evidence co-habitation since October 2020 sadly. - We are prepared to get married in the UK to make the commitment get taken more seriously, seeing as we don't have 12+ months co-habitation which i've read you need - We assume we will pay an agency to help us, so grateful of any suggestions for agencies or lawyers to use. We've been looking at Sable/1st contact. Money isn't really an issue, we just want to be able to start our life together in Sydney Summer/Autumn 2021. - My job isn't in demand, but I am Masters educated, no debts, good savings, good health etc. Many thanks in advance