Marisawright Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 2 minutes ago, RosieH11 said: I don't know too much about Aussie politics these days but it seems that they really don't get along and perhaps this cap on flights is more a political move than anything else. The Australian system is set up so that all the states have to fight each other to get a share of Federal funding. So it's not a case of "not getting along", it's more a case of that's how it works. What's been noticeable about the current situation is that they've all got together to form a "National Cabinet" and largely, they've all stuck together and supported each other surprisingly well. The only disagreements, really, have been them against Scott Morrison, who has been pushing to ease the measures and open the borders earlier than the Premiers want to. Whlie there's been a lot of nasty sniping at Dan and Victoria from individuals, you don't see the other Premiers having a go. None of the other states has complained about Melbourne shutting down the airport and in fact some have explicitly supported it (though personally, I can't quite see why they're doing it). I think Scotty is under pressure from his party because of costs. His party is all about having a government surplus and they're haemorrhaging money on this pandemic, so they're looking for ways to rein in expenditure. He knows the average Aussie will think the taxpayer shouldn't pay for travelers - let them stay at home if they don't want to pay. Likewise, there are already Australians calling for a halt to migration because there are so many Australians out of work. We know those are ill-informed opinions, but he isn't called "Scotty from Marketing" for nothing. If he thinks those slogans will win approval, he's going to use them. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parley Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 1 hour ago, Quoll said: I agree - we self isolated and I was surprised that there were no random checks. I'd have had the ADF doing those right from day 1. There was no guidance on masking or onward travel just "well there ya go, stay at home" and that was it. what more do you need to know other than stay in your home for 14 days ? That is what self isolation is. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wanderer Returns Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 @RosieH11 is your partner an Australian citizen? If so, then that's a substantial tie and you shouldn't have any problem getting an RRV valid for one year. You just need to make it clearly that you wish to accompany him back to Australia. We applied about this time last year for my wife's RRV. It took me about 20 minutes online and it was granted 4 days later. I'm not saying that it's a formality, especially given the current situation, but you stand a good chance. The cost is about $400. If you're partner isn't a citizen and you can't prove any other substaintial ties, well that could be tricky. If it were me, I'd just try and get to Australia before my visa expires, even if it meant leaving my partner in the UK to sort out everything there. At the moment I'd be looking at flights with Qatar (who've been the most reliable througout all of this) and maybe throwing the extra money at business class so you don't get bumped off. Having just spent 5 years in the UK and the last 6 months here in Australia, I know where I'd rather be. In my humble opinion the UK is going down the pan fast and the quality of life there is poor unless you're either stinking rich, or claiming every benefit under the sun. At 53 I ummed and erred about returning but I feel I've made the right decision. At 40, and with Australian PR in my hand, I'd say that your decision to return here should be a no-brainer. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toots Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 2 hours ago, Quoll said: I agree - we self isolated and I was surprised that there were no random checks. I'd have had the ADF doing those right from day 1. There was no guidance on masking or onward travel just "well there ya go, stay at home" and that was it. Most people are as good as you were Quoll and self isolate when returning to Tasmania. They have groceries delivered etc. The local police do random checks too. We aren't in a terribly large town so it is probably easier for the police to regularly check up on returnees. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lavers Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 5 hours ago, Tulip1 said: It seems that whilst majority of people where travelling to Vic & NSW the other states where happy and it was easy to say that returning people shouldn't pay for qaurantine. The minute VIC started diverting the traffic the other states where quick to start capping and charging. It's hard to know what to do for the best, you dont want everyone getting Ill but you still have a business to run. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quoll Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 3 hours ago, Parley said: what more do you need to know other than stay in your home for 14 days ? That is what self isolation is. Well, yes, that's what we did but there was no guidance about how to get from Sydney to Canberra and what our obligations should be. Given the fairly laissez faire attitude of most of the people on our flight I was surprised there was no random checking. Few of them had masks and no one seemed to have much of a clue. We ticked the box to say we would be in our own home but that was it. And fairly obviously when they did start random checking, they found that the compliance levels werent what they were hoping they would be. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliQ Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 7 hours ago, Nemesis said: I'm hearing you, I've tried to explain to so many ozzies exactly why some people still need flights into the country, not just migrants but also people who have gone home for compassionate reasons and that kind of thing - people have gone home to sayt goodbye to dying relatives and are now unable to get flights back and will face a phenomenal bill when they do get here, even though they could quite easily self isolate in their own homes. Its starting to show that Australia really is a very insular country and only cares about the ozzies who are here onshore. They seem incapable of understanding the position we are in when everyone we love and care about is in another country. Well, we've had THREE flights cancelled on us since beginning of March. We now have to pay business class fares to get home (thanks to the cap on arrivals) I have searched on line for two seats, and can't find any until end of August ! We are happy to pay for our own quarantine. So to any critics still out there, we have been, and still are, trying to get home. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parley Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 24 minutes ago, Quoll said: Well, yes, that's what we did but there was no guidance about how to get from Sydney to Canberra and what our obligations should be. Given the fairly laissez faire attitude of most of the people on our flight I was surprised there was no random checking. Few of them had masks and no one seemed to have much of a clue. We ticked the box to say we would be in our own home but that was it. And fairly obviously when they did start random checking, they found that the compliance levels werent what they were hoping they would be. I think that was before a lot of the rules came in. Australia has never advised masks as necessary until this week when Dan Andrews decided unilaterally they are a good idea if you can't socially distance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parley Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 8 hours ago, Nemesis said: IIts starting to show that Australia really is a very insular country and only cares about the ozzies who are here onshore. They seem incapable of understanding the position we are in when everyone we love and care about is in another country. That is every government's first duty of care, o protect our citizens. Australia has been extremely successful in having only 106 deaths from Covid compared to 44000 odd in the UK. The greatest risk is in people coming in from overseas which is why all the rules are in place. The government has organised numerous charter flights to bring Aussies home where they were stuck in various countries. There have been flights into Australia from the UK and will continue to be. The main issue now is availability of hotel accomodation for quarantine. We can't bring back more people than there are available rooms in the quarantine hotels. But No 1 priority is always to protect our country from covid from outside Australia. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RosieH11 Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 6 hours ago, Wanderer Returns said: @RosieH11 is your partner an Australian citizen? If so, then that's a substantial tie and you shouldn't have any problem getting an RRV valid for one year. You just need to make it clearly that you wish to accompany him back to Australia. We applied about this time last year for my wife's RRV. It took me about 20 minutes online and it was granted 4 days later. I'm not saying that it's a formality, especially given the current situation, but you stand a good chance. The cost is about $400. If you're partner isn't a citizen and you can't prove any other substaintial ties, well that could be tricky. If it were me, I'd just try and get to Australia before my visa expires, even if it meant leaving my partner in the UK to sort out everything there. At the moment I'd be looking at flights with Qatar (who've been the most reliable througout all of this) and maybe throwing the extra money at business class so you don't get bumped off. Having just spent 5 years in the UK and the last 6 months here in Australia, I know where I'd rather be. In my humble opinion the UK is going down the pan fast and the quality of life there is poor unless you're either stinking rich, or claiming every benefit under the sun. At 53 I ummed and erred about returning but I feel I've made the right decision. At 40, and with Australian PR in my hand, I'd say that your decision to return here should be a no-brainer. Unfortunately no he isn't, i'm the one with PR he is currently coming in on a 600 with exemption, we lodged an offshore partner visa for him recently. I think honestly if i were in a position where i could for certain obtain an RRV in the future then we wouldn't be trying to make the move now, we would stay in the UK until this is over. We have good secure jobs here and our own home, we are taking a risk in trying to move now if it doesn't happen we've lost jobs and our house will have tenant in it.... so i don't know what we will do Thankyou for your advice regarding Qatar, i shall take a look. Currently we have business class seats book with Emirates, I hope its enough to get us there. 'In my humble opinion the UK is going down the pan fast and the quality of life there is poor unless you're either stinking rich' ..... if you are broke in UK I agree, generally life is not great, i was pretty broke in Australia at one point and i was still happy! I spent my years in Sydney and Noosa on the Sunshine coast.... hard not to be happy in both of these places! I have said this many times to my family and friends who question why I want to leave my comfy life in the UK!! I just want a better quality of life and options for my family and children if i decided to have them. My other half's mother doesn't accept this, she is very unhappy about us leaving and has been for years since we told her the long term plan, i don't think she ever thought we would actually do it. And now here we are trying and I can feel her joy at our current situation, she will be very happy if it all falls through and were are stuck in the UK forever 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wanderer Returns Posted July 14, 2020 Share Posted July 14, 2020 On 13/07/2020 at 15:19, AliQ said: Well, we've had THREE flights cancelled on us since beginning of March. We now have to pay business class fares to get home (thanks to the cap on arrivals) I have searched on line for two seats, and can't find any until end of August ! We are happy to pay for our own quarantine. So to any critics still out there, we have been, and still are, trying to get home. On the brightside Ali, Derbyshire is lovely for the next couple of months - enjoy it while you can 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wanderer Returns Posted July 14, 2020 Share Posted July 14, 2020 (edited) 23 hours ago, RosieH11 said: Unfortunately no he isn't, i'm the one with PR he is currently coming in on a 600 with exemption, we lodged an offshore partner visa for him recently. I think honestly if i were in a position where i could for certain obtain an RRV in the future then we wouldn't be trying to make the move now, we would stay in the UK until this is over. Sorry to hear that it's not going to be that straightforward for you to return, Rosie. A 600 is a tourist visa, isn't it? I don't see how your partner would be allowed back to re-enter Australia as it's citizens and PRs only at the moment. My wife had to wait 40 minutes at the airport while Qatar validated her RRV, including phone calls to immigration, as there's nothing in the passports nowadays. Edited July 14, 2020 by Wanderer Returns Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ali Posted July 14, 2020 Share Posted July 14, 2020 On 13/07/2020 at 12:48, Lavers said: It seems that whilst majority of people where travelling to Vic & NSW the other states where happy and it was easy to say that returning people shouldn't pay for qaurantine. The minute VIC started diverting the traffic the other states where quick to start capping and charging. It's hard to know what to do for the best, you dont want everyone getting Ill but you still have a business to run. In fairness they couldn't pay for quarantine forever - WA has about 1,800 people in hotels and all of our recent cases have been from people returning from overseas and in quarentine - we've had no community transmission. The quarantine obviously works but it can't be paid for indefinitely. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lauram1 Posted July 15, 2020 Share Posted July 15, 2020 (edited) On 13/07/2020 at 09:57, RosieH11 said: Unfortunately no he isn't, i'm the one with PR he is currently coming in on a 600 with exemption, we lodged an offshore partner visa for him recently. I think honestly if i were in a position where i could for certain obtain an RRV in the future then we wouldn't be trying to make the move now, we would stay in the UK until this is over. We have good secure jobs here and our own home, we are taking a risk in trying to move now if it doesn't happen we've lost jobs and our house will have tenant in it.... so i don't know what we will do Thankyou for your advice regarding Qatar, i shall take a look. Currently we have business class seats book with Emirates, I hope its enough to get us there. 'In my humble opinion the UK is going down the pan fast and the quality of life there is poor unless you're either stinking rich' ..... if you are broke in UK I agree, generally life is not great, i was pretty broke in Australia at one point and i was still happy! I spent my years in Sydney and Noosa on the Sunshine coast.... hard not to be happy in both of these places! I have said this many times to my family and friends who question why I want to leave my comfy life in the UK!! I just want a better quality of life and options for my family and children if i decided to have them. My other half's mother doesn't accept this, she is very unhappy about us leaving and has been for years since we told her the long term plan, i don't think she ever thought we would actually do it. And now here we are trying and I can feel her joy at our current situation, she will be very happy if it all falls through and were are stuck in the UK forever Hi, how long did the exemption take to be approved? I submitted mine this week. Thanks x Edited July 15, 2020 by Lauram1 Amend Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wanderer Returns Posted July 15, 2020 Share Posted July 15, 2020 On 14/07/2020 at 20:10, ali said: In fairness they couldn't pay for quarantine forever - WA has about 1,800 people in hotels and all of our recent cases have been from people returning from overseas and in quarentine - we've had no community transmission. The quarantine obviously works but it can't be paid for indefinitely. I think it would've been fairer if they'd charged everyone $50/night from the start, with a reduction for couples and kids, and the rest subsidized by the government. That way everyone would have made a contribution, and there wouldn't have been too much moaning about the cost because it $700 isn't unreasonable when you consider how much it costs to fly to Australia from most international destinations. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ali Posted July 15, 2020 Share Posted July 15, 2020 8 hours ago, Wanderer Returns said: I think it would've been fairer if they'd charged everyone $50/night from the start, with a reduction for couples and kids, and the rest subsidized by the government. That way everyone would have made a contribution, and there wouldn't have been too much moaning about the cost because it $700 isn't unreasonable when you consider how much it costs to fly to Australia from most international destinations. The cost of quarantine has been huge for most states Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RosieH11 Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 On 14/07/2020 at 09:39, Wanderer Returns said: Sorry to hear that it's not going to be that straightforward for you to return, Rosie. A 600 is a tourist visa, isn't it? I don't see how your partner would be allowed back to re-enter Australia as it's citizens and PRs only at the moment. My wife had to wait 40 minutes at the airport while Qatar validated her RRV, including phone calls to immigration, as there's nothing in the passports nowadays. Thankyou, i just hope we can get on the flight, i heard a rumour today from July 20th the flights will be restricted even further. Im sick with anxiety over it all Partners of Australia Citizens and Permanent Residents that don't currently hold a PR visa themselves can still enter but they have to apply for an exemption and a 600 visa. You have to supply proof of your relationship with the application. We have a 309/100 application pending currently, if i don't get back.. well we will be in big trouble, il no longer have PR status so i wont be able to sponsor him any longer, $7000 visa fee down the drain, homeless, jobless & no longer allowed to live in Australia on my days what a mess Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemesis Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 2 hours ago, RosieH11 said: Thankyou, i just hope we can get on the flight, i heard a rumour today from July 20th the flights will be restricted even further. Im sick with anxiety over it all Partners of Australia Citizens and Permanent Residents that don't currently hold a PR visa themselves can still enter but they have to apply for an exemption and a 600 visa. You have to supply proof of your relationship with the application. We have a 309/100 application pending currently, if i don't get back.. well we will be in big trouble, il no longer have PR status so i wont be able to sponsor him any longer, $7000 visa fee down the drain, homeless, jobless & no longer allowed to live in Australia on my days what a mess what new restrictions are being brought in? can't find it on mainstream media? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parley Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 3 hours ago, RosieH11 said: Thankyou, i just hope we can get on the flight, i heard a rumour today from July 20th the flights will be restricted even further. Im sick with anxiety over it all Partners of Australia Citizens and Permanent Residents that don't currently hold a PR visa themselves can still enter but they have to apply for an exemption and a 600 visa. You have to supply proof of your relationship with the application. We have a 309/100 application pending currently, if i don't get back.. well we will be in big trouble, il no longer have PR status so i wont be able to sponsor him any longer, $7000 visa fee down the drain, homeless, jobless & no longer allowed to live in Australia on my days what a mess Can you upgrade to business class ? Airlines are giving preference to business class and first class passengers and often cancelling the bookings of economy passengers. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 7 minutes ago, Parley said: Can you upgrade to business class ? Airlines are giving preference to business class and first class passengers and often cancelling the bookings of economy passengers. The 50 passengers per flight limit is just crazy. Of course the airlines have to fill that quota with business class passengers to make the flight viable. They should have made it a weekly limit (which I thought Perth had done), so they can fly two or three full flights a week instead. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RosieH11 Posted July 16, 2020 Share Posted July 16, 2020 (edited) 24 minutes ago, Marisawright said: The 50 passengers per flight limit is just crazy. Of course the airlines have to fill that quota with business class passengers to make the flight viable. They should have made it a weekly limit (which I thought Perth had done), so they can fly two or three full flights a week instead. Yes we have upgraded, so fingers crossed ! i'm more worried they will just cancel the whole flight though. Yes 50 is crazy, but it gets worse. The Australia ambassadors to Thailand published a video today in which he stated from 20 July flights will be restricted further to just 30 people per plane a cap of 350 people max per day.... so far the UK ambassador hasn't commented on this. Can't help but feel like the end goal is they want these airlines to stop offering flights all together Edited July 16, 2020 by RosieH11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drumbeat Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 2 hours ago, Marisawright said: The 50 passengers per flight limit is just crazy. Of course the airlines have to fill that quota with business class passengers to make the flight viable. They should have made it a weekly limit (which I thought Perth had done), so they can fly two or three full flights a week instead. There were 8 new cases in WA one day this week, all people returning from overseas. I think restricting the numbers is the only way to manage it right now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wanderer Returns Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 On 17/07/2020 at 05:29, RosieH11 said: Partners of Australia Citizens and Permanent Residents that don't currently hold a PR visa themselves can still enter but they have to apply for an exemption and a 600 visa. You have to supply proof of your relationship with the application. We have a 309/100 application pending currently, if i don't get back.. well we will be in big trouble, il no longer have PR status so i wont be able to sponsor him any longer, $7000 visa fee down the drain, homeless, jobless & no longer allowed to live in Australia on my days what a mess I'm no migration agent but my understanding is that you don't lose your PR status, but it's likely to become harder to get an RRV the longer you are away from Australia because you'll have less in the way of substantial ties. 5 years is a long time to be away and from your earlier post it sounds like you have a good life already established in the UK, and all your family and friends are there too. By comparison, neither my wife or I have any close family in the UK, and even though we were also back for 5 years I never felt settled there. My wife isn't British so she didn't have any strong affinity to the UK either, and preferred to spend time with people from her birth country. Returning to Australia was definitely more my decision, but we agreed that if she doesn't settle here then we'll move back to the UK once I retire, which will (hopefully!) be in about 10 years time. I hope you make it back okay as you'll never know otherwise, but it could be a case of the grass being greener on the other side - or FOMO as the young ones like to say these days! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ali Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 On 17/07/2020 at 08:54, Drumbeat said: There were 8 new cases in WA one day this week, all people returning from overseas. I think restricting the numbers is the only way to manage it right now 21 cases related to one flight from Doha 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RosieH11 Posted July 19, 2020 Share Posted July 19, 2020 13 hours ago, Wanderer Returns said: I'm no migration agent but my understanding is that you don't lose your PR status, but it's likely to become harder to get an RRV the longer you are away from Australia because you'll have less in the way of substantial ties. 5 years is a long time to be away and from your earlier post it sounds like you have a good life already established in the UK, and all your family and friends are there too. By comparison, neither my wife or I have any close family in the UK, and even though we were also back for 5 years I never felt settled there. My wife isn't British so she didn't have any strong affinity to the UK either, and preferred to spend time with people from her birth country. Returning to Australia was definitely more my decision, but we agreed that if she doesn't settle here then we'll move back to the UK once I retire, which will (hopefully!) be in about 10 years time. Yes we have an alright life here but I've never felt settled really, probably because since i got back i've had it in my head this is not long term and I was always going back to Australia in a couple of years. it's hard to just give up on the idea. 100% if i had Aussie Citizenship or my TF wasn't expiring soon I would not be making the move now, or even this year I know that for sure. The stress of trying to organise the move right now is awful, but we shall do it, or try at least. Hopefully we don't bankrupt ourselves in the process. If it comes to it & we cant get back, il have to apply for an RRV and pray they grant it. I really hope they will take these currently covid19 circumstances into account, but who really knows, they might just say tough luck. I would not of bothered spending thousands to get PR at the time if i felt i didn't want to make Australia my home. Its just very unfortunate that our time line to emigrate ran inline with a pandemic I don't think people should lose out on what they worked so hard for because of something so awful & out of their control, this goes for people in my circumstances and those who have a deadline to activate PR visa. So much anxiety could be put at ease if only the government would address this issue, it would also stop thousands of people trying to make the move right now, which is clearly what they want. 13 hours ago, Wanderer Returns said: I hope you make it back okay as you'll never know otherwise, but it could be a case of the grass being greener on the other side - or FOMO as the young ones like to say these days! Thank you I hope so too! My partner and I are defiantly the you never know until you try types, i know the grass is greener on the other side or at least it was 3 years ago.... maybe its not anymore!! I have no clue what FOMO means i'm not that young unfortunately!! I hope you get to retire in 10 years your wife will love Australia im sure 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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