Flying out of Australia on PR visa

[megan987]

Hi all,

I am in a situation now where by I might have to fly to Australia by myself (leaving my 3 young children and husband at home) to activate my Permanent Residency visa as my IED is March 2021 and our house sale is about to fall through here in the UK... 

I know I have to quarantine, even though I just purely need to pass through immigration to get it activated and would ideally fly straight home again that same day!!! But after quarantine, do I need an exemption to leave the country? I read somewhere that if you are a PR or citizen you don't need an exemption form to leave? I don't know if this is right. 

I have a 1 way flight booked for 4th Jan, because we were supposed to be moving as a family to start our new lives there, but to me it makes sense to keep this flight and book a one way flight back once I arrive in quarantine and know what day ill be released etc... but i don't know if it's as easy as turning up at the airport with my ticket booked! 

Any advice is greatly appreciated... 

[paulhand]

35 minutes ago, megan987 said:

I read somewhere that if you are a PR or citizen you don't need an exemption form to leave? I don't know if this is right. 

 

This is wrong ... if you are a citizen or PR, you do need and exemption to leave.

36 minutes ago, megan987 said:

Any advice is greatly appreciated... 

You don't need to be there until March and the Department is currently saying it has no issue with IED breaches, hence the 'facilitation letter' you refer to in your other post.

[rtritudr]

10 hours ago, megan987 said:

I know I have to quarantine, even though I just purely need to pass through immigration to get it activated and would ideally fly straight home again that same day!!! But after quarantine, do I need an exemption to leave the country? I read somewhere that if you are a PR or citizen you don't need an exemption form to leave? I don't know if this is right. 

You need an exemption to leave.  However, one valid reason for leaving is travelling overseas for more than three months.

[Marisawright]

11 hours ago, megan987 said:

Hi all,

I am in a situation now where by I might have to fly to Australia by myself (leaving my 3 young children and husband at home) to activate my Permanent Residency visa as my IED is March 2021 and our house sale is about to fall through here in the UK... 

I know I have to quarantine, even though I just purely need to pass through immigration to get it activated and would ideally fly straight home again that same day!!! But after quarantine, do I need an exemption to leave the country? I read somewhere that if you are a PR or citizen you don't need an exemption form to leave?

If you can prove your permanent address is overseas, I understood that you didn't need to apply for an exemption.

A bigger problem is that flights are still being cancelled at short notice and that applies to flights out of Australia too (after all, if a flight gets cancelled comiing in, there isn't a plane available for the outward flight).  So you might arrive and find you can't get a flight out.  

I would be pursuing the facilitation letter.

[paulhand]

5 hours ago, Marisawright said:

A bigger problem is that flights are still being cancelled at short notice and that applies to flights out of Australia too (after all, if a flight gets cancelled comiing in, there isn't a plane available for the outward flight).  So you might arrive and find you can't get a flight out.  

I think flights out are less of a problem as generally what we see are people being bumped from flights that were already less than a quarter full due to arrival quotas. These planes can go out full as there are no exit quotas as such. When Melbourne was closed to inbound international arrivals Cathay Pacific were still taking passengers out on planes that were flying mainly for cargo purposes. 
 

I completely agree though that there is little logic to flying in for a 2 week quarantine and then trying to leave immediately.