Les Avalook Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 Well here we go, just received email from CO giving us 28 days to send her 68,000 AUD, so will be watching the rate and hoping we can get 1.6 for the pound. At least everything else ok, so we nearly there, and although a lot of money, it is nothing compared to being with our Granchildren in Aus :jiggy: This must be the curse of PIO, as soon as some mentions they need to buy some Oz $s the rate drops.:mad: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sirmatt101 Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 We heading for Busselton, south of Perth, our son in law is a Police Officer there, was in England, but moved over there over 3 years ago, our daughter, and grandsons Jacob 6, and Lenny 1 Was your son in law in the Norwich/Norfolk Police Force by any chance? Our nephew in the Norfolk Police Force had a mate who transferred to the Perth area! Cheers Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sirmatt101 Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 My OH went to register at the doctors today as she needs to get her supply of warfarin. Well after about a 35 minute consultation (ever know that in the NHS) she has an appoinment to see the specialist as the doc doesn't think she needs to be taking rat poison for life, plus blood tests for all sorts of things, so we are highly impressed!! Cheers Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linday Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 Good luck with the new baby Linday Where you headed? My 2 girls are 16 and 14 so there was no chance of them not going,thank god ! My husband had 2 boys from his first marriage, they went over to OZ with their Mother some 20 odd years ago,after visiting oz for one of the boys weddings in 2004, we decided to make to move too. We are going to Perth to be with our daughter. I also have a brother in Queensland. They couldn't be further apart! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clubby67 Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 Hi there yes Zoe is coming too not looking forward to putting her on the plane and then being without her for 30 days but she is so friendly I am sure she will be fine, think I will be worse than her. She is a typical cocker totally mad but very loveable!!! :cute: Our Grand Daughter was born on the 13th January last year, same birthday as my Daughter, can't wait to see her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clubby67 Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 I know its such a big country!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clubby67 Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 Good luck with it all, we are just waiting for the grant letter now. Wilma Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Cakey Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 Hi I'm just watching Location down under. Phil Spencer is helping a retired couple who are going to join their children. They have just got the cpv and Phil was explaining what that was, but he made a comment that although they would receive the UK pension you have to be careful because it would be fixed at the exchange rate at the time of leaving the UK. I know we don't get the annual increases but I didn't know about it being fixed to the exchange rate and with it being such a garbage rate at the moment wondered if this was right? Does that mean that the people who emigrated four years ago when it was over two dollars to the pound are still getting that now? and the rest of us who will get our visas this year have to struggle along on whatever poor rate happens to be on offer. Hope someone can tell me if Phil was right or wrong Cheers Cakey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian927 Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 Hi I'm just watching Location down under. Phil Spencer is helping a retired couple who are going to join their children. They have just got the cpv and Phil was explaining what that was, but he made a comment that although they would receive the UK pension you have to be careful because it would be fixed at the exchange rate at the time of leaving the UK. I know we don't get the annual increases but I didn't know about it being fixed to the exchange rate and with it being such a garbage rate at the moment wondered if this was right? Does that mean that the people who emigrated four years ago when it was over two dollars to the pound are still getting that now? and the rest of us who will get our visas this year have to struggle along on whatever poor rate happens to be on offer. Hope someone can tell me if Phil was right or wrong Cheers Cakey Hi Cakey That's us - Julie and Ian.....and no Phil has obviously got it wrong - what he means is that the OAP is frozen at the amount when you leave the country, i.e. not index linked - nothing to do with the exchange rate. ......we haven't seen the programme yet, but are happily living in the house he found for us. Ian and Julie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Cakey Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 Hi Ian and Julie Thank you for your reply and I am so pleased to hear that Phil was wrong, it got me a bit worried. The house you picked is beautiful, I am so envious of you but glad you are both so happy living there. Cheers Cakey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Avalook Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 Hi CakeyThat's us - Julie and Ian.....and no Phil has obviously got it wrong - what he means is that the OAP is frozen at the amount when you leave the country, i.e. not index linked - nothing to do with the exchange rate. ......we haven't seen the programme yet, but are happily living in the house he found for us. Ian and Julie Shame he (Phil and editor) got such a big fact wrong on an otherwise interesting program, on a small point your pension is frozen at the rate you would claim it (at your UK retirement age) not when you leave the country (for those of us that are more youthful CPVs). :wink: DYOR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sirmatt101 Posted February 4, 2011 Share Posted February 4, 2011 Shame he (Phil and editor) got such a big fact wrong on an otherwise interesting program, on a small point your pension is frozen at the rate you would claim it (at your UK retirement age) not when you leave the country (for those of us that are more youthful CPVs). :wink:DYOR For you & me Les, thats definitely an upper! I thought it was from when we left the shores of UK. Cheers Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peewit Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 Hi Living in Sydney, it does seem that everything is very expensive even with the import purchasing power of the strong Aussie dollar. I just compared a few items using a generous 1.6 AUD to GBP rate. Large tin John West Red Salmon $10.45 (£6.53) at local IGA, Waitrose price £4.38 Large sliced quality wholemeal loaf $4.59 (£2.86) at local IGA, Waitrose price £1.32 125ml Nivea spf30 sunscreen $17.80 (£11.13) at local pharmacy, Waitrose for 200ml Nivea spf30 sunscreen £6.67 I looked online at some USA websites for kitchen domestic appliances. The Oz prices online are usually double the USA price, even though there is parity at the moment between the Oz and US dollar. I guess it is the price you have to pay for living in a top ten destination. Peewit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikenSueNW3 Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 Hi Living in Sydney, it does seem that everything is very expensive even with the import purchasing power of the strong Aussie dollar. I just compared a few items using a generous 1.6 AUD to GBP rate. Large tin John West Red Salmon $10.45 (£6.53) at local IGA, Waitrose price £4.38 Large sliced quality wholemeal loaf $4.59 (£2.86) at local IGA, Waitrose price £1.32 125ml Nivea spf30 sunscreen $17.80 (£11.13) at local pharmacy, Waitrose for 200ml Nivea spf30 sunscreen £6.67 I looked online at some USA websites for kitchen domestic appliances. The Oz prices online are usually double the USA price, even though there is parity at the moment between the Oz and US dollar. I guess it is the price you have to pay for living in a top ten destination. Peewit G'day I agree that the cost of living seems high these days, but the Ozdollar is undoubtedly overpriced at the moment, and purchasing-power parity is, IMHO, more like $2 than $1.60 to the £. Also, one has to be ever-vigilant for "specials"! Nivea SPF30 sunspray (200ml) was recently on offer at my local IGA in Cremorne at about $13.50, while bread is extremely variable with more basic types involved in a Wooworths–Coles price war (eg, "2 large loaves for $4"; likewise own-brand milk at about $2 for 2 litres) at the moment. In the same way, "own brand" salmon or tuna is usually available at a good deal lower price and just as high quality as the known brands. However, I would agree with anyone who suggested that there is not enough supermarket competition in Oz – Woollies and Coles have the market pretty much sewn up, with IGA running a distant third, along with Franklins. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Avalook Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 For you & me Les, thats definitely an upper! I thought it was from when we left the shores of UK. Cheers Matt Dear Les, Thank you for your enquiry dated 3 December. The pension would be frozen at the level that was due when you reached your state pension rather thanany other date,when you left forAustralia forexample. Best Regards Alex Leahy Information and Guidance Team Advice given by The Pensions Advisory Service is an opinion in good faith on the basis of the documents and information made available but The Pensions Advisory Service cannot be held responsible in law for opinions expressed, nor should any such opinion be regarded as grounds for legal action. The Pensions Advisory Service Ltd 11 Belgrave Road London SW1V 1RB Email:enquiries@pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk Web site:www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk The Pensions Advisory Service Ltd: company limited by guarantee No 2459671, registered in England & Wales. Registered office 11 Belgrave Road, London SW1V 1RB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peewit Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 G'day I agree that the cost of living seems high these days, but the Ozdollar is undoubtedly overpriced at the moment, and purchasing-power parity is, IMHO, more like $2 than $1.60 to the £. Also, one has to be ever-vigilant for "specials"! Nivea SPF30 sunspray (200ml) was recently on offer at my local IGA in Cremorne at about $13.50, while bread is extremely variable with more basic types involved in a Wooworths–Coles price war (eg, "2 large loaves for $4"; likewise own-brand milk at about $2 for 2 litres) at the moment. In the same way, "own brand" salmon or tuna is usually available at a good deal lower price and just as high quality as the known brands. However, I would agree with anyone who suggested that there is not enough supermarket competition in Oz – Woollies and Coles have the market pretty much sewn up, with IGA running a distant third, along with Franklins. Mike Hi Mike Unfortunately I do not have a Coles, Woolworths or Franklins near me. I did try online shopping with Coles but they did not deliver some of the items I ordered and instead I got 400 cigarettes and some dogfood. I do not have a pet and do not smoke. If anyone knows of a dog that smokes, and is located in the North Sydney area it would be helpful. Regards Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KandM Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 Well since getting our CO on the 28 January 2011 my wife and I have had a busy week organising the next steps on the road to the CPV143 visa. · Downloading the Form 80 from the DIAC web page and completing it on the laptop http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/80.pdf . The hardest part is digging out all you old passports as they ask for all the passport numbers of all the passports that you have held. I’ve had 7, fortunately I have kept them all so not too much of a problem. Then of course comes all the trips abroad that you have made in the last 10 years. This form is worth filling in before you get your case officer and save it on the laptop until required, then all you need to do is print it and sign it before sending it off. · Police Clearance Certificates, we needed both the UK one from ACPO Farnham and South African ones from the SAPS Pretoria as we had spent over 12 months (Just) in South Africa on secondment from the UK. · The UK certificate is straight forward at a cost of £35.00 per person or a further £5 if you require an extra copy, we did just in case. · The SA certificate is a little more difficult, you need to obtain fingerprints from your local UK police station ( This needs to be a Police Station that has a custody suite) at a eye watering £66 per person. You need to complete a annexe 23B form obtainable from Application for Police Clearance Certificate then photo copies of your passports, a bankers draft at R59 per person, a covering letter and a prepaid return envelope to enable them to send you the certificate. · The Medicals & X Rays appointments have been booked for the 23rd February at Knightsbridge London as this is the easiest place to get to from the bottom end of Devon this at a cost of £270 per person, which does include the couriering of the medical results to DIAC Australia. We are going up by train the day before, staying overnight as the appoint is at 10am. · The AOS process has started with daughter calling the Centrelink office in Sydney for an appointment, they very politely said that would get back to her shortly with an appointment date as they are currently very busy dealing with claims for flooding in Queensland, and Victoria. So we are now back to waiting again!!!!! Still we moving in the right direction!!! :biggrin::biggrin: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest majortom Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 Hi all, Would any of you kind people know how long my Mum would have to validate her visa once she gets the OK from her CO. I know when we came over 4 years ago our validation was 12 months from the time of our police checks, is the CPV the same ??. Anyway good luck to all the familes either back in England or over here waiting to be reunited with thier love ones. Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest36187 Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 CPV is the same. 12 months from police check/medical which ever one was earlier Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest majortom Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 CPV is the same. 12 months from police check/medical which ever one was earlier Cheers for that Joanne, that will please her she's panicking about all the stuff she needs to get rid of !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les Avalook Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 Well since getting our CO on the 28 January 2011 my wife and I have had a busy week organising the next steps on the road to the CPV143 visa. So we are now back to waiting again!!!!! Still we moving in the right direction!!! :biggrin::biggrin: We got our case officer on 23/12/10, we emailed them on 24/12/10 to give them the dates we expected our meds to be completed by and :policeman:Police checks carried out because of the Christmas break and we got a 'out of the office reply' telling us they would be back in the office on 07/02/11 :chatterbox: Are they employing school children?:shocked: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peewit Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 Dear Les,Thank you for your enquiry dated 3 December. The pension would be frozen at the level that was due when you reached your state pension rather thanany other date,when you left forAustralia forexample. Best Regards Alex Leahy Information and Guidance Team Advice given by The Pensions Advisory Service is an opinion in good faith on the basis of the documents and information made available but The Pensions Advisory Service cannot be held responsible in law for opinions expressed, nor should any such opinion be regarded as grounds for legal action. The Pensions Advisory Service Ltd 11 Belgrave Road London SW1V 1RB Email:enquiries@pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk Web site:www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk The Pensions Advisory Service Ltd: company limited by guarantee No 2459671, registered in England & Wales. Registered office 11 Belgrave Road, London SW1V 1RB It seems hard to believe that. So if I reached retirement age and took my pension in England for say ten years, over which it may increase in payments by 40% (rising by 4.6% in April 2011) and then decided to emigrate to Australia, would they really knock 40% off my pension and take it back to a ten year old figure ? Peewit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie5 Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 It seems hard to believe that. So if I reached retirement age and took my pension in England for say ten years, over which it may increase in payments by 40% (rising by 4.6% in April 2011) and then decided to emigrate to Australia, would they really knock 40% off my pension and take it back to a ten year old figure ? Peewit No. In that case it would be frozen from the date you moved out to Australia. Charlie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sirmatt101 Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 Well since getting our CO on the 28 January 2011 my wife and I have had a busy week organising the next steps on the road to the CPV143 visa. · Downloading the Form 80 from the DIAC web page and completing it on the laptop http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/80.pdf . The hardest part is digging out all you old passports as they ask for all the passport numbers of all the passports that you have held. I’ve had 7, fortunately I have kept them all so not too much of a problem. Then of course comes all the trips abroad that you have made in the last 10 years. This form is worth filling in before you get your case officer and save it on the laptop until required, then all you need to do is print it and sign it before sending it off. · Police Clearance Certificates, we needed both the UK one from ACPO Farnham and South African ones from the SAPS Pretoria as we had spent over 12 months (Just) in South Africa on secondment from the UK. · The UK certificate is straight forward at a cost of £35.00 per person or a further £5 if you require an extra copy, we did just in case. · The SA certificate is a little more difficult, you need to obtain fingerprints from your local UK police station ( This needs to be a Police Station that has a custody suite) at a eye watering £66 per person. You need to complete a annexe 23B form obtainable from Application for Police Clearance Certificate then photo copies of your passports, a bankers draft at R59 per person, a covering letter and a prepaid return envelope to enable them to send you the certificate. · The Medicals & X Rays appointments have been booked for the 23rd February at Knightsbridge London as this is the easiest place to get to from the bottom end of Devon this at a cost of £270 per person, which does include the couriering of the medical results to DIAC Australia. We are going up by train the day before, staying overnight as the appoint is at 10am. · The AOS process has started with daughter calling the Centrelink office in Sydney for an appointment, they very politely said that would get back to her shortly with an appointment date as they are currently very busy dealing with claims for flooding in Queensland, and Victoria. So we are now back to waiting again!!!!! Still we moving in the right direction!!! :biggrin::biggrin: If you don't have all your past passports its ok just to put your current passport number and add consecutive passports held since whenever. Thats what we did and was ok. As to you SA police clearance we hope yours is more straight forward than our daughters. The SA police managed to send hers to someone in SA who had also applied for clearance, but weren't even the same name! We did eventually get that certificate about 4 months later, but in the meantime I have an email address of a guy in the UK who has a direct contact in the SA dept, he sends the application direct to him, he processes it almost immediately and sends it back, costs a bit more, but saves all the hassles that can come with anything from SA as you may know. Can PM it you if required. All the best Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiz Posted February 5, 2011 Share Posted February 5, 2011 No. In that case it would be frozen from the date you moved out to Australia. Charlie Not sure about this...in some earlier correspondence, either on this forum or elsewhere, I think it was said that your pension is fixed from when you start drawing it, assuming you are already in Oz i.e. Move to Oz at age 59 pension due at 60 (for a woman) defer for 2 years which increases monthly payments by about 20%(lets call that the deferred rate) start drawing it at 62 at the deferred rate, which is then the fixed price. Have I got this right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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