The All New CPV thread

[Guest ruth&phil]

Hi John, Very interested to hear your comments, we are in exactly the same position as you in that we have sold our house and have sufficient funds available to move to and live in Australia as soon as we can get a visa. Currently we are visiting our son in Adelaide on a one years tourist visa.

 

We would love to know how you get on as we were told by CPV just two weeks ago that we should not have our medicals done until we have been allocated a case officer. Our acknowlegment was Sept l 2008.

 

We would recommend that everyone applying for a CPV 143 put their information on Steves tracker located at Gainwave.co.uk. This is the only realistic information available as it is based on actual dates. The more people that contribute to this tracker then the more accurate will be everyones predictions of how the visa timelines are progressing.

 

kind regards

Ruth & Phil

[Guest missymon]

We are eagerly anticipating getting our CO very soon and just wondered how they make first contact with us. Is it by email or snail mail?

Also what should I put on the Police Certificate Application form where it asks for UK departure date or do I just leave it blank?

 

Thanks

 

Monica x

 

[Guest gill_58]

We are eagerly anticipating getting our CO very soon and just wondered how they make first contact with us. Is it by email or snail mail?

Also what should I put on the Police Certificate Application form where it asks for UK departure date or do I just leave it blank?

 

Thanks

 

Monica x

 

 

 

Hi Missymon.

 

I can only tell you what my expereince was I have an agent .. the case officer mailed him however as it was a friday... and with the time difference I got the email from my agent on the monday...

I left the uk departure date blank on the police cert.hope that helps

 

gill58

[clubby67]

Congratulations on you visa great news.

 

Can you add us onto your tracker if you are still doing it.

 

Applied for CPV 143

Acknowledged 25 June 2009

We are doing it ourselves so no agent

 

Thanks

Wilma

(clubby67)

[sandch]

Congratulations on you visa great news.

 

Can you add us onto your tracker if you are still doing it.

 

Applied for CPV 143

Acknowledged 25 June 2009

We are doing it ourselves so no agent

 

Thanks

Wilma

(clubby67)

Sorry for the delay here - I only check this thread occasionally, and I don't seem to get notified of a posting! I will certainly add you.

Good luck

 

Steve

[Lanky Lad]

Just read this on Yahoo.... Which may explain why that split CPV/Spouse "loop hole" has been closed out.

 

 

Hundreds of sham marriages exposed

Hundreds of overseas-born spouses are being deported from Australia each year after failing intimacy tests.

Authorities have intensified efforts to expose sham marriages amid a surge in spouse visa applications, News Limited reports.

The Immigration Department said a special unit would assess whether relationships were genuine, the Herald-Sun reported on Monday.

About 40,000 visas were issued to married and de facto spouses in 2007-08, up from 26,000 a decade ago.

The Department of Immigration and Citizenship's Bona Fides Unit investigated more than 1150 couples in 2007-08 over "irregularities".

About 220 partner visas were cancelled after inconsistencies emerged in couples' stories. Another 3146 visa applications were rejected outright.

Immigration department spokesman Sandi Logan said a two-stage visa process was used to deter rorters.

Partner visas are first issued for two years.

Couples must prove their relationship is genuine and ongoing for permanent residency to be granted after a temporary visa expires.

The report says Indian and Pakistani newspapers have many advertisements seeking brides for expat men.

 

Source: Hundreds of sham marriages exposed - Yahoo!7 News

 

 

 

I suppose it related directly to Spouse Visa applications in teh "true sence", but its likely that the whole range of spouse options were investigated and have or are being revised.

Once again it seems - the abusers create grief for nice people.

 

L.L.

[Les Avalook]

Hi early birds,

 

Just filling in our CPV form here in sunny Brisbane and want to double check that the visa evidencing number that is in our son's passport is the number that starts CD followed 6 numbers reading down the righthand edge of his Australian Visa.

 

Thanks, Les

[Les Avalook]

Is there a reason this thread has stopped?

 

Is there a new thread or has everyone now been granted their visa?

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Les

 

This thread has not been stiopped, hon.

 

I think it is merely that the BE thread is where all the CPV action is happening at present.

 

EVEN NEWER SPARKLY contributory parents visa thread!!! - Page 87 : British Expat Discussion Forum

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Les Avalook]

Hi Gollywobbler, we have been back from Oz for a few weeks now, we got the paperwork from our son and sent off the forms.

 

We have not had an acknowledgment from Perth but today they took the first payment.:jiggy:

 

Rate was not to good at $1.89 but what the heck.

 

Thanks for your good advice which has prompted us to push the application forward of the '2 years settled guidance'.:notworthy:

[BandC]

Hi Everyone, Sorry I haven't checked this thread for somewhile as I have been riveted to "Even Newer Sparkly contributory parent visa thread " where there has been little action for the last three weeks on the CO front. Does anyone know why things are on a go slow as it seems to be lengthening the visa process to about 20 months at the moment. Can Go Matilda help?

[Alan Collett]

Update is here: Go Matilda - Your Gateway to Australia - News

 

To the last poster: if your application is some 20 months old and appears to have stalled it might be necessary to make a suitable enquiry of the processing centre.

 

Best regards.

[les-babs1315@hotmail.com]

Update is here: Go Matilda - Your Gateway to Australia - News

 

To the last poster: if your application is some 20 months old and appears to have stalled it might be necessary to make a suitable enquiry of the processing centre.

 

Best regards.

 

Hi Alan,

Thanks for the info lets hope you are right, when you check it against the gainway site it doesen't look like its happening.

 

Les

[Alan Collett]

Well the timeline mentioned reflects our caseload of Contributory Parent visa clients ... if yours is outside these timelines by a couple of months I would be making an enquiry of the PVC.

 

Best regards.

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Everyone, Sorry I haven't checked this thread for somewhile as I have been riveted to "Even Newer Sparkly contributory parent visa thread " where there has been little action for the last three weeks on the CO front. Does anyone know why things are on a go slow as it seems to be lengthening the visa process to about 20 months at the moment. Can Go Matilda help?

 

Hi BandC

 

I don't think there is a go slow with CPV applications at the moment.

 

Parents to Oz

 

Do you have a different user name on BE, please? I've just tried to find your timeline on Steve's excellent tracker, alas without success.

 

The PVC receive new CPV applications at a rate of around 550 per month. I don't know how many COs they have but the Britons posting on the forums are only a tiny percentage of CPV applicants overall.

 

Also quite a few applicants have been asking for extensions of time in which to pay their 2nd Instalments, initially because of the global downturn but now because of the exchange rate as well. Meds processing is another thing which can cause delays.

 

I absolutely understand how neurotic one becomes as the months pass without a word from the PVC. I was the world's very worst for fretting and worrying back in 2006 when my mother's CPV 143 application was being processed.

 

There is a book on the Go Matilda forum about the saga with Mum's CPV! On GM I met a lady called Anne H. Our two Mums were both widows, both in their 80s and they applied within a fortnight of each other, both of them for CPV 143s. Anne H became a dear friend of mine and we still exchange regular e-mails 3 years later. At the time, she and I kept each other going because when one got downhearted the other one was feeling upbeat & positive. It was a very long thread that went on for 4 or 5 months. It had a lot on common with Coronation Street!

 

However I doubt that there is anything to worry about with the current crop of CPV applicants. When was your application lodged, please?

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[sandch]

I'm guessing it's les&babs acknowledged on 2 Oct 08 Gill. Alan's news update pretty much aligns with the info we are receiving for our small band of hopefuls - May 08 applications are being processed. There does seem to have been some lengthening of the timeline recently, but that may be due to DIAC staffing issues - temporary we hope if the promised 12 months is to be achieved. Even 12 months remains something of a mystery for these very expensive visas.

 

Back last night from Oz having validated our visas! Amazing how much work you can do before the sun comes up if your brain is in another part of the world!

 

Cheers

 

Steve

[les-babs1315@hotmail.com]

I'm guessing it's les&babs acknowledged on 2 Oct 08 Gill. Alan's news update pretty much aligns with the info we are receiving for our small band of hopefuls - May 08 applications are being processed. There does seem to have been some lengthening of the timeline recently, but that may be due to DIAC staffing issues - temporary we hope if the promised 12 months is to be achieved. Even 12 months remains something of a mystery for these very expensive visas.

 

Back last night from Oz having validated our visas! Amazing how much work you can do before the sun comes up if your brain is in another part of the world!

 

Cheers

 

Steve

 

Hi Steve,

Yes thats us Les&babs, don't know who BandC is , its good that they have increased the number of visa's but as you say if they don't have enough staff its not going to improve.

 

Regards

Les&Babs

[Les Avalook]

If there is any UK CPV people do not also follow the BritExPat CPV thread there has been a recent successful payment of the 2nd Vac payment to London instead of Perth.

 

London has not been helpful with staff saying it has to be paid in $s in Perth. Not true.

 

You are allowed to make payment in the UK using sterling at a price that is fixed twice a year. As the £ has fallen so far against the Aus$ it is now trading below the official exchange rate of £1.95 to the £, this lasts until 1st January 2010 when a new rate will be set.

 

If anyone in the UK has to make their 2nd payment up until that date there is a saving of about £3000 (for 2 people) at the current floating exchange rate if the payment is made in sterling in the UK before 01/01/10.

 

One other advantage to paying in the UK is the payment charge is set, with the recent rapid changing of the exchange rates people have preloaded their credit card with the current exchange rate and then found Perth could not take the payment because the rate had moved and there was 'insufficient funds'.:embarrassed:

[Les Avalook]

Anyone reading my last post, the rules have changed and the official rate is now $1.70 to £, as I type you would be better off paying in Perth not in the UK, but who knows where the rate will be by spring time.

[Les Avalook]

Anyone reading my last post, the rules have changed and the official rate is now $1.70 to £, as I type you would be better off paying in Perth not in the UK, but who knows where the rate will be by spring time.

 

 

Well it didn't even take until spring, transferred some £s this weekend and got $1.70 to the £:realmad:

 

Anyone paying the 2nd vac payment now has a choice, UK or Perth, either way it's now getting bl**dy expensive!

[les-babs1315@hotmail.com]

Well it didn't even take until spring, transferred some £s this weekend and got $1.70 to the £:realmad:

 

Anyone paying the 2nd vac payment now has a choice, UK or Perth, either way it's now getting bl**dy expensive!

 

Think you are right Les, We are due to pay ours in the next couple of months looks like paying in the UK is the option at the moment.

Allthough two weeks ago I got £1.79 so things change quickly, will be keeping an eye on the rate everyday now.:arghh:

 

Thanks

 

Les & Babs

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Well it didn't even take until spring, transferred some £s this weekend and got $1.70 to the £:realmad:

 

Anyone paying the 2nd vac payment now has a choice, UK or Perth, either way it's now getting bl**dy expensive!

 

 

Hi Les

 

Thank you very much for this update. Thanks very much indeed for the information.

 

I quite agree with you that CPVs are becoming ferociously expensive. People in the UK who seem to understand the currency market (which I don't) are predicting gloomily that if new Labour win the General Election in the UK this year, apparently sterling is likely to fall by 20% against all other major currencies. I have no idea whether they are right but if they are right then paying the 2nd Instalment in London might continue to be an attractive option.

 

There was no suggestion of an upward swing in sterling if the Tories win the Election instead - merely the prediction of a further fall if Labour win it.

 

In a different report that I read some time ago, the claim went thus: apparently the historical records show that once sterling becomes weak against the AUD, historically sterling has remained weak against the AUD for about 7 years. If so, that is bad news because it is only in the last 18 to 24 months that we have really seen sterling collapse.

 

Pundits in Oz are saying that the AUD is much too strong against some of the Asian currencies and that this is bad for Aussie exports but I really don't understand enough about currencies to understand any of this. I haven't seen any signs that Australia is considering cutting the value of the AUD?

 

Mum phoned about a week ago and she asked about the ECHR case involving British Pensioners. I explained that the Judgement is not expected until March or April. I would imagine that it will be major news in the papers in the UK and in Oz, whichever way it goes.

 

From Mum's point of view (and that of all the other British Pensioners in Oz) I took heart from the ECHR ruling about the Somalian mother recently. Apparently Harrow Borough Council had said that the mother is not entitled to Council Tax Benefit and Housing Benefit in the UK. It seems that the courts in the UK upheld the Council. The ECHR or the ECJ (I am not sure which one) differed. Apparently her children are Danish Citizens therefore they have a right to move to the UK and to be educated in the UK if that is the wish. The European Court said that if the children are at school in the UK then the UK must pay every possible Benefit to their mother. I thought that the mother could have done better than to grin from ear to ear for the benefit of the newspaper cameramen, but still.

 

It seems to me that if the UK was so totally woolly that it allows the EU to set UK tax and benefits policies then the British Pensioners may well be OK too. Fingers crossed.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Les Avalook]

Hi Les

 

Thank you very much for this update. Thanks very much indeed for the information.

 

I quite agree with you that CPVs are becoming ferociously expensive. People in the UK who seem to understand the currency market (which I don't) are predicting gloomily that if new Labour win the General Election in the UK this year, apparently sterling is likely to fall by 20% against all other major currencies. I have no idea whether they are right but if they are right then paying the 2nd Instalment in London might continue to be an attractive option.

 

There was no suggestion of an upward swing in sterling if the Tories win the Election instead - merely the prediction of a further fall if Labour win it.

 

In a different report that I read some time ago, the claim went thus: apparently the historical records show that once sterling becomes weak against the AUD, historically sterling has remained weak against the AUD for about 7 years. If so, that is bad news because it is only in the last 18 to 24 months that we have really seen sterling collapse.

 

Pundits in Oz are saying that the AUD is much too strong against some of the Asian currencies and that this is bad for Aussie exports but I really don't understand enough about currencies to understand any of this. I haven't seen any signs that Australia is considering cutting the value of the AUD?

 

Mum phoned about a week ago and she asked about the ECHR case involving British Pensioners. I explained that the Judgement is not expected until March or April. I would imagine that it will be major news in the papers in the UK and in Oz, whichever way it goes.

 

From Mum's point of view (and that of all the other British Pensioners in Oz) I took heart from the ECHR ruling about the Somalian mother recently. Apparently Harrow Borough Council had said that the mother is not entitled to Council Tax Benefit and Housing Benefit in the UK. It seems that the courts in the UK upheld the Council. The ECHR or the ECJ (I am not sure which one) differed. Apparently her children are Danish Citizens therefore they have a right to move to the UK and to be educated in the UK if that is the wish. The European Court said that if the children are at school in the UK then the UK must pay every possible Benefit to their mother. I thought that the mother could have done better than to grin from ear to ear for the benefit of the newspaper cameramen, but still.

 

It seems to me that if the UK was so totally woolly that it allows the EU to set UK tax and benefits policies then the British Pensioners may well be OK too. Fingers crossed.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

 

We do not understand the currency markets either and that is why we have chosen to exchange a modest amount each week for the last 16 months so we have a fund to get us going when to time comes.

 

Our view is that Australia's major exports are minerals and these are on long term contracts and will not be affected by currency movements so we can see very little reason for the exchange rate to reverse anytime soon.

 

If a new UK government gets in, how long before whatever they do, takes effect in the UK?

 

I would agree that it could take up to 7 years to come round again, Australia could just price it's self out of the market next time round but I wouldn't bet on it and in the mean time most of the UKs money will go on repaying debt.

 

Our son went out to Oz with very little money to exchange, he and his wife have got on well, they earn in $s and are buying their house, they have never talked about the exchange rate at all.

 

Most people on this thread are looking at savings and pensions and the exchange rate is the most important thing to them and time is not on our side. If there's any chance that UK pensions would become index linked again that would be great news but how could the UK afford it?

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Les

 

Most people on this thread are looking at savings and pensions and the exchange rate is the most important thing to them and time is not on our side. If there's any chance that UK pensions would become index linked again that would be great news but how could the UK afford it?

 

According to the Telegraph the money has been ring fenced and apparently it just sits around collecting interest because the Pensioners are not in the UK and so they cannot claim it.

 

http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/money-finance/68053-uk-pensions-court-case.html

 

I stand by my point that if the UK Government's stance has been unlawful then any "consent" from my mother was void ab initio. She is not an expert on Pensions Law because she expects the British Government to understand what their own Law says and she expects them to know whether or not local law conflicts with EU Law about this. In short, she expects the British Government to know what they are talking about. This is not an unreasonable thing for an old person to expect from her Government, in my view.

 

Apparently the Australian Government cheered the British Pensioners in Oz because the Aussie Govt does not consider it reasonable that the Aussie tax-payer should foot the bill simply because the British Government declines to foot its own bills. I agree with the Aussies.

 

Then there is the argument about things like the winter fuel payment. My view is that the British Pensioners abroad should receive it. I discovered that this works weirdly in the UK. Mum was in the UK from 18th to 24th September 2006. She was booked to fly to Oz on 8th Oct 2006. The winter fuel payment arrived in her account automatically at the end of September/beginning of October, whilst she was still in the UK.

 

I queried it with a friend of mine who had worked in the relevant Benefits office in an earlier incarnation. She said that if the Pensioner was physically in the UK during the relevant week then the payment was proper and that Mum should grab it. So we grabbed it. I assumed that there must be lots of British Pensioners, living in Spain, who came back to the UK for a few weeks every September in order to grab this payment! Whether the rules are stupid is a separate question, I reckon.....

 

I can't remember the details of the ECHR ruling in October 2008. I am not sure but I think the Pensioners living in the EU got the annual increments plus the winter fuel payment. The fact that some of them may now live in a warmer climate than the UK is irrelevant in my view. Some of them might live in the mountains near Madrid, where it snows every year without fail. Most of Europe is warmer than the UK in summer but a lot of it can be colder than the UK at certain times in the winter.

 

I also think that Tim Otty QC was right to argue that if English Law/Human Rights Law says XYZ then what it says is not confined to Europe alone. If it applies then it applies regardless of where the British Pensioner is living, it seems to me.

 

So fingers crossed that he has managed to persuade enough of the 17 Judges in the Grand Chamber of the ECHR, I reckon!

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Les Avalook]

Think you are right Les, We are due to pay ours in the next couple of months looks like paying in the UK is the option at the moment.

Allthough two weeks ago I got £1.79 so things change quickly, will be keeping an eye on the rate everyday now.:arghh:

 

Thanks

 

Les & Babs

 

Hi Les, things are still changing quickly, but in only one direction - down.

 

We did our weekly transfer and got $1.65 :arghh: that's 5 cents less in 7 days!

We have decided to stop the weekly transfers because at this rate we could not afford to go and would only need a holiday fund in Oz. To buy a $400,000 house in Oz would cost us an extra £8000 more than last week!!!!!

 

Our 2nd vac is $34,330 per person so paying in the UK would be at todays rate would be £1224 cheaper for both of us.