Search the Community

Just wanted to know. I have just applied for a visa and am aware of the importance to clear all debts owed to the commonwealth Aus. How can you check if you owe anything. I met with an accident before my travel offshore and i know I have a hospital bill to pay which was suppoed to be taken care of by my insurance company and hasn't. I also have a ortho bill with a clinic. How do I locate what I owe If i dont have the bills or name of the place.. WIll this affect my visa application.

Rather complicated situation and I'm hoping someone here can help or point me in the right direction to find help. It's a long story (sorry :biggrin:).... I'm a kiwi/brit who entered on a special category visa (temporary visa that allows me to live, work indefinitely). I moved to Melbourne in mid December with my baby daughter (parter due to arrive at the end of the month after lengthy delays). When I moved over I was still employed and on maternity leave with my UK employer - this is due to end in June. My employer is a global media company that is an umbrella for various companies throughout the world. I informed them of my intentions to leave the country a few weeks before I left and we discussed the possiblity of me transferring to a Melbourne office. I also submitted a work proposal of duties I could perform for them from Australia working remotely from however this was rejected - I was suprised however let it go as was sure I'd get something over here (btw - I work in software development so this was definitely do-able technology-wise). So, I approached the 'sister' company in Melbourne but they also had no available roles (only looking for part-time). The reason why I am so keen to continue working for them (the job isn't that great!) is that I received additional maternity pay (on top of statutory pay) in the region of 7k GBP. In my contract it stipulates that if I do not return to work after my maternity leave ends and work for them for a further 6 months I must pay back the additional maternity pay. That's obviousy a great deal of money to pay back so I would rather work for them for 6 months and then resign. However, as I am no longer in the UK I can't return to the office I worked at, and they have no role for me in Melbourne either. My question is - can they chase me through the legal system over here to get their money, given that it is a global company?....or can they only threaten me via the UK legal system? I don't have that kind of money to just hand over - long gone with the expenses of moving etc - and it's they who rejected my reasonable work proposal. Can anyone advise?