The Brand New PIO Parents Visa thread

[Guest guest36187]

When Mark came back from the UK this year he brought back 4 lots of Bisto, `flying saucer` sweets, marmite, cereal bars, Colmans packet mixes and an assortment of other stuff. He declared the lot and was let through no hassle!!! Just shows I suppose....you get a jobsworth!!!!

 

We had way over the $10,000 when we came in too. Declare it , fill in a form and alls good x

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Sayma

Welcome to PIO, unfortunately I am not qualified to advise you on the visa front. Gill (Gollywobbler) is an expert in this field, alternatively you could try contacting one of the registered migration agents who post on the forum.

Good luck and I hope you find your answers.

Kate

 

Hi Kate

 

I think I have made a blunder with this. As you know, Sayma started a new thread about CAPVs and APVs. You replied to her one and only post. I decided to move Sayma's original post and your reply into this thread, since we are trying to keep all the Parents visa information in the same place.

 

Your post has moved into the new thread with no problem but I can't find Sayma's original post at the moment. Can you remember when it was posted by any chance? Is it a post from several days ago and you happened to notice that nobody had responded?

 

If push comes to shove, I'll have to ask Cerberus1 to find Sayma's post and put it into this thread. I think that the forum software does automatic back-ups so if I have lost the post, I hope (fingers crossed) that Cerberus1 (Site Admin for those who don't know) can find it for me. :cry: PiO does not go around trashing members' contributions. :cry:

 

I'll keep hunting for now, but I thought I would let you know about the problem because your own post doesn't make any sense on its own!

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest guest36187]

The post is there Gill - post 268. Im guessing it slots itself in on the date it was originally written. Copied it below

 

CAPV and APV issues

I have never posted on a forum before so please bear with me. I have been reading lots of threads and have questions on the Aged Parent Visas.

 

My husband is 65 - does that mean we have to apply for an Aged Parent Visa? If not, is there any advantage in an APV over a PV? We meet the BOF test.

 

My understanding is that if you apply for either a CAPV or an APV you have to be in

Australia. Does this mean you are there on a tourist visa and, if so, presumably you have taken all the paperwork with you, meaning that you had thought about this before your visit and so is not that open to refusal by the authorities? Can you then return to the UK while the application is being processed? Or are you expected to stay in Australia and live with your son or can you buy or rent accommodation?

 

Once the permanent CAPV or APV is granted, how soon do you have to take up permanent residence and are there any restrictions about returning to UK to see elderly mother?

 

If we decide to apply for CPV (assuming we're allowed to) instead, how soon do you have to take up residence and are there any restrictions about returning to the UK for visits?

 

Any help would be very much appreciated and or advice on participating in forums.

 

Sayma

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Joanne

 

Very many thanks indeed for your help.

 

I moved the thread without checking the date of Sayma's original post, so I then expected to find Sayma's post and Kate's reply in the same place, on the (currently) last page of the thread.

 

When I couldn't then find Sayma's post, I started to panic and I thought that I had somehow lost the post from the message boards completely.

 

Then it dawned on me to look in the members' list, find Sayma, find her post and deal with my search efforts that way. The average search & rescue dog has not been more industrious than me this morning! The dog is merely 5 times more efficient than me!

 

Very many thanks, once again.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest Gollywobbler]

I have never posted on a forum before so please bear with me. I have been reading lots of threads and have questions on the Aged Parent Visas.

 

My husband is 65 - does that mean we have to apply for an Aged Parent Visa? If not, is there any advantage in an APV over a PV? We meet the BOF test.

 

My understanding is that if you apply for either a CAPV or an APV you have to be in

Australia. Does this mean you are there on a tourist visa and, if so, presumably you have taken all the paperwork with you, meaning that you had thought about this before your visit and so is not that open to refusal by the authorities? Can you then return to the UK while the application is being processed? Or are you expected to stay in Australia and live with your son or can you buy or rent accommodation?

 

Once the permanent CAPV or APV is granted, how soon do you have to take up permanent residence and are there any restrictions about returning to UK to see elderly mother?

 

If we decide to apply for CPV (assuming we're allowed to) instead, how soon do you have to take up residence and are there any restrictions about returning to the UK for visits?

 

Any help would be very much appreciated and or advice on participating in forums.

 

Sayma

 

Hi Sayma (at last!)

 

Welcome to Poms in Oz.

 

I'm terribly sorry that your queries have been ignored until today when Kate (moving2melbourne) spotted your thread and replied to it earlier today. I then faffed about with trying to move your post into this thread and got myself into a muddle with trying to do that. I do remember that when the idea of having a moderators team was first created, Site Admin absolutely assured all the prospective mods that the forum software had been set up in such a way that none of us would ever be able to do anything moronically stupid without Site Admin being able to find and correct the mistake. A mod has more controls than an ordinary member but Site Admin has a full set of controls, looks after the forum maintenance and so forth. (I don't know any of the details - working the front end of the forum is difficult enough for me, sometimes. There is something called the "back end" as well, which is all the technical stuff. I haven't got a clue what Site Admin and the forum's software do in the background and I don't want to know. I'm not curious about computers, cyber space and how it all works!)

 

Never mind, though, because with some sterling help from Joanne, it is now sorted out and your questions have not been lost!

 

I think that the easiest way to deal with your queries is to give you some general information, and then leave you to ask more questions later. I started a thread on Poms in Adelaide some time ago, which I think deals with most of your questions. The thread is below:

 

Cheap Parent Visas Part I - Poms In Adelaide

 

You say that you have an elderly Mum in the UK and that you want to be able to keep an eye on her. Once your Parent visas are granted (no matter which one you choose) you are free to come and go from Oz as much as you like during the first 5 years after the grant of the visas. Once this 5-year "travel period" expires, you can apply for Resident Return Visas, which last for another 5 years at a time, unless you are able to obtain Aussie Citizenship at any stage and you decide that you would rather get Citizenship than muck about with RRVs.

 

Five Year Resident Return Visa (Subclass 155)

 

Do this reply and the PiA thread between them deal with all of your queries at this stage?

 

If not, please sing out. Between us, the other parents and I can answer any questions that you might have.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Sheila2010]

Gill,

I am new to this site, although have been reading it for a long while! You are a mine of info.! Forgive me, but how do I PM you?

Thanks.

[PhoebeW]

Hi does anyone know if Visas for NZ are the same as for Australia or is there dedicated forum for NZ? I'm asking on behalf of a friend. Thanks

 

Phoebe

[Stellathedog]

Gill,

I am new to this site, although have been reading it for a long while! You are a mine of info.! Forgive me, but how do I PM you?

Thanks.

 

Hello Sheila Welcome!

Gill certainly is a mine of information, as are a lot of the other posters.

To send Gill a PM, just click on her name Gollywobbler on the left of any of her posts and a drop down menu appears. Choose 'send private message' and follow instructions.

Hope you find all you are looking for!

 

Pam

 

ps To Gill, Sorry I only just realised this was 'addressed' to you. Apologies!, Pam

[Generalis]

Am based in Qld and would like to find out the information to apply to bring my mum over to live with us next year. We have only been here 6 months at the moment but by the time we apply will have been here 1 1/2 years. I've had an initial chat with a migration agent and she said she cannot advise further unless I instruct her formally.

 

Here is my dilemma: can my mum come over as if on holiday and then lodge an application onshore for an aged parent visa (non contributory) and remain here until and if the visa is granted some 7 - 10 years down the line and that a bridging visa will automatically be granted as part of the initial application. Also the DIAC website makes mention of an assurance of support bond being payable which I think may be $5,000 (?) does this need to be paid at the time of my mums entry to Australia next year or when and if the visa is granted years down the line? Also apparently the tourist visa she comes on needs to have certain conditions attached in order to then apply for an onshore parent visa, not sure which tourist visa this should be? Thanks and hope someone can help further as the mind is boggling.

[Guest cazbeckham]

Hi

 

Check out these pages

 

Family - Visas & Immigration

 

 

I am not sure if your Mum can live in Australia indefinately while waiting for her visa.

Gill (Gollywobbler) may be able to help more on this

 

Caz

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Am based in Qld and would like to find out the information to apply to bring my mum over to live with us next year. We have only been here 6 months at the moment but by the time we apply will have been here 1 1/2 years. I've had an initial chat with a migration agent and she said she cannot advise further unless I instruct her formally.

 

Here is my dilemma: can my mum come over as if on holiday and then lodge an application onshore for an aged parent visa (non contributory) and remain here until and if the visa is granted some 7 - 10 years down the line and that a bridging visa will automatically be granted as part of the initial application. Also the DIAC website makes mention of an assurance of support bond being payable which I think may be $5,000 (?) does this need to be paid at the time of my mums entry to Australia next year or when and if the visa is granted years down the line? Also apparently the tourist visa she comes on needs to have certain conditions attached in order to then apply for an onshore parent visa, not sure which tourist visa this should be? Thanks and hope someone can help further as the mind is boggling.

 

Hi Generalis

 

Please don't worry about the migration agent. The information that you need is in the thread below and it is perfectly straightforward to sort the whole thing out by yourself.

 

Cheap Parent Visas Part I - Poms In Adelaide

 

I started the thread a couple of years ago but I update it whenever anything happens that is important or significant. Please read the whole thread, not just the first post because there were some relevant developments during 2009 and there have been some others in 2010. Please make sure that you understand all the issues completely & fully before you try to make any decisions.

 

As you will see from the thread, it is not possible to form an intention in advance that one will use a tourist visa for the real purpose of obtaining Permanent Residency in Australia. However it has happened that Parents have gone out to Oz for a visit and have changed their minds and their plans after they have arrived. If people go to Oz for a visit but once they are in Oz, they change their minds, well.... that's life. I sometimes put on a skirt and top in the morning, go to work and then decide that the two garments don't go together as well as I thought they did earlier on during the day. It happens.

 

There are loads of pros and cons with the possibility, so the easiest way to deal with it is to persuade your mother to make a visit to Oz because that way, you and she can have a proper chat about her future.

 

Having a proper chat about Oz is impossible unless she goes to Oz herself because she might take one look at Australia and loathe it on sight. That happens as well. Not everyone thinks that Australia is the promised land. What sort of network of friends and family, and what sort of lifestyle, would Mum have to give up if she moved to Oz? What (if anything) could she do in Oz in order to build a replacement network for herself? Once the initial novelty of Australia wears off (as it invariably does) people can become very lonely if they lose their existing networks of friends and general moral and social support.

 

How old is your Mum and has she ever been to Australia before, please?

 

.....the visa is granted some 7 - 10 years down the line

Make that the thick end of 20 years, not 10 years, please. The present Minister for Immi halved the annual quota for non-contributory Aged Parents recently. Only 300 Aged Parent visas are available for 2010-2011 as a result, so the waiting times have doubled. The quota might be increased in future years or a future Goverment might slash the quota, as happened in 1999:

 

http://www.ppilaw.com.au/parent.pdf

 

More recently, the Cap & Kill Bill did not exclude Aged Parents from its potential ambit. The Senate has refused to continue to consider the Bill since Parliament has now been prorogued. However if the present Government is re-elected, they might resurrect the existing Bill or they might introduce a new one containing the same basic ideas. The Coalition have also said that they plan to slash the annual intake of new migrants.

 

Aged Parents are at particular risk unless the Aussie Parliament insists that any Cap & Kill notions should exclude them as possible targets. I made a fuss about it in my recent submission to the Senate. I know that Peter Mares, the journo, is equally concerned about this particular group because he and I have discussed it in e-mails recently. My submission is #562:

 

http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/legcon_ctte/migration_amendment_visa_capping/submissions.htm

 

It would be unconscionable to treat Aged Parents badly but Evans is an unconscionable bloke, imho.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Generalis]

Hi Gill thank you. My mum is coming out in October this year until January but she's never visited before.

 

We always chatted about contributory parent visa prior to our leaving and since being here and now realise dont have a spare $40k so started looking into other possible routes. I've talked to mum about giving up her friends and lifestyle and she is so lonely now we have gone that she said she'd live on the moon if she could be with us. If she came here she would live with us and we would take her out and about with us and she would meet our friends and I'd take her to church to meet people and try to enrol her in some class that she would enjoy. She misses our 2 children terribly as well. My mum is 65 next week and has been on her own for years. My father died when I was young, she was never married to him but changed her name by deed poll to take on his name. She is happy to take out private health insurance here also. Would I be able to submit an application online or is it a case of couriering it to the parent visa centre in Perth? I'm not sure which form it is for the onshore parent visa as want to get it right if do it myself and also re the assurance of support when is that paid? ie at the beginning or end of the process as got to save up. Also who should be the sponsor me or my husband as I'm home at the moment with my little boy and so have no income myself. My husband meets the income threshold for sponsorship.

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Gill thank you. My mum is coming out in October this year until January but she's never visited before.

 

We always chatted about contributory parent visa prior to our leaving and since being here and now realise dont have a spare $40k so started looking into other possible routes. I've talked to mum about giving up her friends and lifestyle and she is so lonely now we have gone that she said she'd live on the moon if she could be with us. If she came here she would live with us and we would take her out and about with us and she would meet our friends and I'd take her to church to meet people and try to enrol her in some class that she would enjoy. She misses our 2 children terribly as well. My mum is 65 next week and has been on her own for years. My father died when I was young, she was never married to him but changed her name by deed poll to take on his name. She is happy to take out private health insurance here also. Would I be able to submit an application online or is it a case of couriering it to the parent visa centre in Perth? I'm not sure which form it is for the onshore parent visa as want to get it right if do it myself and also re the assurance of support when is that paid? ie at the beginning or end of the process as got to save up. Also who should be the sponsor me or my husband as I'm home at the moment with my little boy and so have no income myself. My husband meets the income threshold for sponsorship.

 

Hi Generalis

 

Please just slow down, lass (though I do know that this is much easier to say than to do!)

 

At the moment, the first priority is your Mum's forthcoming visit. Is there any reason why she should only stay in Oz for 3 months? If she is able to stay in Oz for longer than 3 months and you would like her to do so, you could consider applying for her to stay for, say, six months on a subclass 676 Tourist visa:

 

Visa Options - Tourists - Visitors - Visas & Immigration

 

Personally I think that 6 months is the best option for a Parent on his/her first visit to Oz. It is long enough for the Parent to start to "live" in Australia, and to see how that feels, but it is not long enough to become what seems like a prison sentence to a Parent who turns out not to like Oz.

 

Also, I think that is then important to let the parent go home to the UK for a while. Sure, there will be tears at the airport but the airline cabin crews are brilliant about dealing with that, plus the tears do not last forever. Back at home, in familiar surroundings, the parent can work out what s/he really wants to do in the future.

 

Some Parents do decide that they are not prepared to abandon a familiar lifestyle and familiar surroundings in the UK. It does happen and it has happened to some of the families whom I know. I think you just have to be prepared for the possibility at this stage and then see what happens.

 

I don't think that shortening a visit by means of a short-stay visitor visa is the answer. I think that that the departure clock starts ticking too soon and the whole thing turns into a mere "holiday" - which is not the idea if you have a permanent stay in Oz in mind! Just because somebody is permitted to stay in Oz for 6 months does not mean that they must grit their teeth and put up with Oz for 6 months. Personally I think 6 months is a happy medium.

 

The Aussies have not prevented anyone from leaving since 1841, when the idea of using Oz as a penal colony was abandoned because gold was discovered in Oz, so people in the UK started to commit trivial crimes in the hope of a free (if uncomfortable) ride out to Oz, with all the expenses of the trip paid for by the British Government. As a deterrent to crime, the idea of transportation to Oz no longer worked once the news about the discovery of gold got back to the UK! That was a right good Own Goal for the British Government imho! The dismal dump of a penal colony suddenly became The Lucky Country. Oh dear oh dear.....

 

The Forms are easy. Form 47PA for the Parent and Form 40 for the Sponsor. The rest is just bureaucratic rubbish such as producing a copy of your father's death certificate and your own birth certificate. That bit is tedious but anybody who tries to make out that it is necessary to pay an "expert" to do a very simple clerical task is dreaming imho. I'd like to employ a professional cook to make my toast in the morning but since I can't afford a cook, guess who makes the blinking toast?!

 

At the moment, applications for the whole range of Parent visas can only be made on paper. DIAC would like to do everything on line but since Parents are very low in the overall pecking order, don't expect on-line applications for Parents any time soon, hon.

 

The only money up-front is the cost of the visa application - the 1st Instalment. Everything else is paid at the very end of the process. Which can take several years....

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Generalis]

Hi mum can only come for 3 months as she lives in a council bungalow in UK and the council will only permit her to leave the accommodation for 3 months otherwise she's in breach of the conditions of the council housing tenancy. I was trying to find out the answers so that I can let her know whether its possible for her to come out and stay but still not sure what tourist visa she would need to come out on as it has to have a no further stay condition attached to it apparently. I want to do the application myself as its more or less straightforward but I dont have a copy of my fathers death certificate and neither does my mum but can find this out and obtain one. Thank you you've been very helpful. x Sam

[Guest hewett3]

Lovely to see someone else with very similar queries - i am reading the thread with interest. I too was 'excited' by the thought of an on shore aged application with a bridge (should my Mum arrive on hols and decide that maybe she would like to stay) - the 2010 developments have put me off a bit and I am now heading towards contrib - that being said - should a scenario occur where an aged parent on a 676 decides that they would like to look into staying and on calling the PVC are advised Aged Parent on shore is a possibilty do you HAVE to stay on a bridging visa or can you put in the app then return to UK and come back again on a Bridging visa once you have 'tidied' your UK affairs and remain in Aus on the bridging visa until decision time? Are bridging Visa's automatic or is there a risk here that even with an on shore app if you return to UK during processing you would not be able to return to Aus until the decision is made? Hope that makes sense!

[clubby67]

Hi there just wondered if anyone knows where the contributory parent visa are at now, we applied June 2009 wondered when we would hear anything.

We got our medicals done on Thursday at Edinburgh.

 

Thanks Wilma:daydreaming:

[Stellathedog]

Hello Wilma

I'm sure someone will come on this thread and give you an idea of when.

Just wanted to say there is a 'sticky' Parent Visa thread at the top of the migration pages.

Expect you'd find it there and get regular updates too.

Hope you hear something soon!

Cheers Pam

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Wilma

 

Australian migration, contributory parent visa, information and progress tracker

 

The tracker suggests that the PVC have just started finalising applications received during April 2009. I suspect that you will probably have to wait until October 2010 before you hear from a CO, but after that, the process can be quite quick if you push it along.

 

I'm waiting for Yomvard to say that she has heard from a CO because I suspect that that will happen during August 2010.

 

I've moved your query into this thread because we are trying to keep all the Parent visa information together, in one place.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi mum can only come for 3 months as she lives in a council bungalow in UK and the council will only permit her to leave the accommodation for 3 months otherwise she's in breach of the conditions of the council housing tenancy. I was trying to find out the answers so that I can let her know whether its possible for her to come out and stay but still not sure what tourist visa she would need to come out on as it has to have a no further stay condition attached to it apparently. I want to do the application myself as its more or less straightforward but I dont have a copy of my fathers death certificate and neither does my mum but can find this out and obtain one. Thank you you've been very helpful. x Sam

 

Hi Sam

 

I'm in the UK and I made a classic mistake at 10.30pm last night (Saturday night.) Just I made my second mug of coffee after supper, I thought, "Tip that away and make hot chocolate instead or you'll be awake all night." I ignored my better judgement since I felt tired and sleepy..... or so I thought. Here we are at 2am UK time and I am flippin' wide awake - predictably - so I thought I might as well get up and do something useful.

 

Since your Mum can only visit Oz for 3 months at this stage, don't worry about it. 3 months will do fine and since she is not very old she should be OK despite the long flights. If your mother is British, she could get a subclass 651 e-Visitor visa (these cost nothing - she just arranges to get one on-line via the DIAC website.)

 

eVisitor

 

If Mum has a computer at home or a friend of hers has one, the DIAC website is likely to cause the computer in the UK to default to the form for an eVisitor visa. I don't know why this happens but my machine at home defaulted to an eVisitor when I thought I was going to get myself a subclass 976 ETA. (I'd never heard of the eVisitor visa and wondered what it was.) I think that the DIAC computer somehow "knows" that the other computer is in the UK.

 

Airlines and travel agents have a wider type of access to the DIAC computer and in the UK, they can get sc 976 ETAs instead:

 

ETA (Visitor) (Subclass 976)

 

ETAs cost about £12 each. The payment to DIAC is made on-line at the same time as completing the application form.

 

It doesn't matter which of the two options above is chosen. For yours and your Mum's purposes, they are identical. They permit the visitor to spend up to 90 days at a time in Australia and neither of them can attract Condition 8503 - no further stay - so you need not worry about that.

 

I would suggest that your Mum should visit Oz for 90 days this time and then let her return to the UK afterwards, so that she can think about Oz and think about whether she really wants to spend the rest of her life out in Oz.

 

As far as activities are concerned, have a look on the Internet for Seniors Clubs in your area. There seems to be one in almost every suburb. Usually they meet once a week, sometimes in a church hall but an equal number are based at lawn bowls clubs and similar. The British parents whom I have described in my thread on PiA showed no interest in the Seniors Club near where their daughter lives during the parents' first visit to Oz. Towards the end of that visit, the parents were getting bored and they were under their daughter's feet in her house, so she more or less forced them to head for the local Seniors Club one day, which meets once a week at a bowls club. Mary, the daughter, is an old friend of mine. She told me that she packed her parents off at 10am and expected them home within an hour or so, complaining that there was nothing going on at the Seniors Club etc.

 

Her parents didn't go home so at lunchtime, Mary snuck round to the bowls club for a look. Her mother had never played lawn bowls before but the other ladies had jumped on a newbie and Mary's Mum was out on the lawn with the others, learning how to play the game. She found her father in the bar of this club with some of the other men, all sampling the local brew and discussing the cricket - an important series was on at the time. Her parents absolutely loved the Seniors Club, spent all day there and made some good friends. During their next visit to Adelaide they went to the Club every week and absolutely loved it because they have met people of their own age and so forth. They were also persuaded to get a small, old car during their second visit so that they could go sight-seeing etc on their own. It has all worked out brilliantly well for them and they have visited the properties that some of the other Seniors live in so as to have meals with their new friends and so forth.

 

It is worth checking out the Red Hat Society as well. It is an American idea but it has become very popular in Oz and again, there are local Chapters of the Red Hat Soc in almost every suburb in Oz. It seems to be aimed at women - as far as I can gather, it is usually an excuse for a Girls Day Out together. There is a lot about it on the Internet, though, so check it out and find out about a couple of the local Chapters in advance of your Mum's arrival, I suggest. Ditto the Seniors Clubs. Mothers in particular seem to want to natter to each other about their grown up children and their grandchildren, plus it gives a visiting Parent friends of their own, in their own age group, out in Oz.

 

If your Mum contacts the local Registrar of Births, Marriages and Deaths in the district where your father's death was registered, she will be able to get the Registrar to send her a copy of his death certificate. It costs about £10 and the certificate usually arrives within about 5 working days.

 

Usually, you would Sponsor your mother because you are the blood relly. The Sponsor undertakes that if the Parent should fall on hard times during his/her first two years as a Permanent Resident in Oz, the Sponsor will ensure that the Parent is provided with adequate food, clothing, shelter, medicines and suchlike. Your OH could sponsor his M-i-L instead of you being the Sponsor - the regulations do permit it - but the Sponsor is usually the blood child and whether you are working or not is irrelevant. The Sponsor is not means-tested. DIAC's concern is only that the Sponsor's own lifestyle should be "settled" because unless your own lifestyle is settled, it is not realistic for you to undertake that you will look after somebody else as well if need be.

 

The Assurer of Support is sometimes (but not always) the same person as the Sponsor. The Assurer of Support wears a different legal hat, though. The Assurance of Support is dealt with by Centrelink on DIAC's behalf. The Assurer is means-tested and there is no reason why your OH should not provide the AoS, or you and he could be joint Assurers. Please see the links below:

 

Assurance of Support

 

9.4 Assurance of Support Scheme

 

Giving the AoS and depositing the amount of the Bond with the Commonwealth Bank is one of the final steps before the Parent visa is granted. Whereas DIAC's fees "crystallise" for both of the 1st and 2nd Instalments at the time when the visa application is made, the income thresholds and the amount needed for the AoS Bond are liable to change at any time. A change would usually be effective from 1st July or 1st January because the Aussie Govt's Financial Year begins on 1st July every year. That said, the amount of the Bond is never likely to be astronomical and it is equally unlikely that the Assurer(s) would ever need to prove an unreasonably high level of income.

 

I would recommend that you check out the prices of private medical insurance in Oz. It is significantly more expensive for somebody on a Tourist visa or a Bridging Visa than it is for a Permanent Resident of Oz.

 

PrivateHealth.gov.au - Australian Health Insurance Information

 

If you have time (and can be bothered) go to some swap meets in your area in good time (like soon) I suggest. "Swap meets" are what we call "car boot sales" in the UK. Whenever my mother is in the UK, she hits the charity shops. She and my sister live in Perth, where items of bone china fetch good prices at swap meets, apparently. Mum buys small (and to my taste hideous) pieces of bone china rubbish such as soap dishes and ornaments. Asked what Mum wanted with this junk, it turned out that apparently my sister can sell it as long as it is bone china. Why anybody wants to waste time dusting junk is beyond me but apparently the horrid little china items in the charity shops in the UK sell very well in the suburbs around Perth. Trawling the charity shops in the UK for similar rubbish to bring out to you might give your Mum a sense of purpose etc, I suspect.

 

Please shout out your queries.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Lovely to see someone else with very similar queries - i am reading the thread with interest. I too was 'excited' by the thought of an on shore aged application with a bridge (should my Mum arrive on hols and decide that maybe she would like to stay) - the 2010 developments have put me off a bit and I am now heading towards contrib - that being said - should a scenario occur where an aged parent on a 676 decides that they would like to look into staying and on calling the PVC are advised Aged Parent on shore is a possibilty do you HAVE to stay on a bridging visa or can you put in the app then return to UK and come back again on a Bridging visa once you have 'tidied' your UK affairs and remain in Aus on the bridging visa until decision time? Are bridging Visa's automatic or is there a risk here that even with an on shore app if you return to UK during processing you would not be able to return to Aus until the decision is made? Hope that makes sense!

 

Hi Caroline

 

If your mother applies for an Aged Parent visa onshore, she HAS to get a Bridging Visa in order to stay in Australia. If she chooses to get a Bridging Visa B, she would be allowed to leave Oz for a maximum of 90 days in each calendar year. If she tries to spend longer than that outside Oz in a year, there is a risk that she might not be allowed to re-enter Australia when she returns there. It is not worth the risk of having Immigration Control people at the airport in Oz becoming difficult, I suggest.

 

From what you have been saying, it sounds to me like the best bet for your own mother would be to apply for an sc 143 Contributory Parent visa and be done with it. There is no reason why somebody cannot submit an application for a CPV 143 or a CPV 173 and then use repeated Tourist or visitor visas to come and go from Oz as they wish. If the Parent wants to spend a year at a time out in Oz, apply for a subclass 676 Tourist Visa and request a stay of 12 months, I suggest:

 

Tourist Visa (Subclass 676)

 

The sc 676 can attract Condition 8503, unlike the short-stay visitor visas. However if an application for an offshore CPV has already been made, it doesn't matter whether a subsequent sc 676 visa attracts Condition 8503 because the Parent does not intend to apply for an Aged Parent or Contributory Aged Parent visa whilst the Parent is in Oz.

 

I chose this combination for my own mother back in 2005, I applied for a CPV 143 for her. I also applied for a long-stay sc 676 visa for her. This combination happened to be the easiest option for us and we could afford the cost of, and the costs associated with, Mum's CPV 143. If the money is available then there is no point in unnecessary complication in my opinion.

 

Does this answer your question adequately, please?

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest hewett3]

Yes, thanks so much - I am dithering because of too many options and too many unknowns and the attractiveness of trying to save Mum some money as it is going to be tight! A common human problem! The SC143 is the way to go - I am guessing you would recommend get it filled in and sent now rather than doing it with Mum when she's here in Nov as that will get us a couple of months earlier in the queue - so I really MUST bite the bullet and download those apps! Wish me luck :-)

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Yes, thanks so much - I am dithering because of too many options and too many unknowns and the attractiveness of trying to save Mum some money as it is going to be tight! A common human problem! The SC143 is the away to go - I am guessing you would recommend get it filled in and sent now rather than doing it with Mum when she's here in Nov as that will get us a couple of months earlier in the queue - so I really MUST bite the bullet and download those apps! Wish me luck :-)

 

Hi Caroline

 

I think that one does dither over Parent visa applications. With Mum, I didn't bother to download and print the forms immediately because it was obviously going to take at least a month to work everything out before we even started completing any forms.

 

I would suggest downloading and printing the checklist, though, and sending a copy of that to your Mum. They require several small, nit-picking items that I would have forgotten to include had it not been for the checklist. Mum happened to be in the UK, visiting me, at the time when it became clear that she would be eligible for a CPV.

 

I dithered about whether to choose the temporary CPV 173 to start with. I asked Elaine (my sister, in Perth) what she thought? Elaine is very pragmatic. She said, "If we can get the permanent visa immediately then let's get that instead of Temporary Residency. Otherwise we'll faff about with the whole thing now and then we'll have to stuff around again with another lot of form filling and bureaucracy later on. Let's do it in one hit and be done with it!"

 

I didn't really understand it at the time and nor did Elaine but since Mum got her CPV 143, I've learned that Elaine was absolutely right in our own case. As soon as Mum reached Oz she was a Permanent Resident of Oz. Emotionally, I think that it was very important for Mum because we had been told ever since 1993 that Mum did not meet the Balance of Family Test and so we thought that PR in Oz would never be possible for her. Once I had convinced Mum that the relevant Law had been changed and that PR was definitely possible for her in 2005/6, Mum told me quietly that she had once been on a flight to Oz, travelling on a long stay tourist visa. She sat next to an English girl who had PR. Mum said that she had been very envious of her fellow passenger.

 

Then as soon as Mum had lived in Oz as a PR for 2 years, Elaine took Mum to Centrelink to apply for a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card for Mum. Mum will be 90 later this year so she was 86 when she first got PR in 2006. Mum positively rattles with pills every day for various minor but chronic ailments that are mainly associated with her great age. Her GP prescribes all these pills and it is expensive to get the prescriptions filled without the CSH Card. Once Mum got that card, the price has come down to $5 per prescription for each of the drugs and the cheap price will now continue for the rest of Mum's life. That has saved Mum a lot of money, especially since almost all of her income arises in the UK and is paid in sterling, whereas the sterling/Oz exchange rate has been lousy, so the CSH Card really has saved us a lot of cash.

 

Other Parents benefit from this Card in other ways. They provide a discount on car rego, Council rates for a house and so forth. Mum doesn't drive and she lives with Elaine so the other benefits from the CSH Card apart from the discount on her pills are of no value to her, but it will be the other way around for Parents who have their own homes and car but have no need of any drugs:

 

Commonwealth Seniors Health Card

 

Also, Mum is disabled after breaking her back some years ago. She can hobble around on a Zimmer frame at home but outside of the home, she needs a wheelchair. We didn't even know that it was possible for Elaine to claim Carer's Allowance for Mum but the lady at Centrelink who helped over the CSH Card asked whether Elaine was claiming Carers Allowance? Told no, the lady declared that Elaine is entitled to claim it. Elaine has a job so she only gets the minimum amount of $25 AUD a week or something, but every little helps, as they say, and we would not have known anything about it if the lady at Centrelink had not asked Elaine.

 

I bang on about Seniors Card as well! This is a different Card and the idea is that the Parent gets both Cards. Seniors Card is a scheme that the State Governments operate and there is no waiting period with Seniors Card.

 

Welcome to Seniors Card

 

Different States offer different concessions. Some of the States work it so that Seniors Card and the CSH Card together provide quite a substantial discount on rates, water rates etc. Also, Kevin Rudd decided to give every PR in Oz a handout of $900 AUD as part of his "stimulus package" during the Global Financial Crisis. WA Seniors Card felt that that was a bit mean so they gave everyone with a card an extra $100, to bring it up to $1,000. The idea was that Aussie Citizens and PRs were encouraged to spend the extra money in the shops, but Mum simply banked her money and put it towards income tax in Oz.

 

For Sam's benefit (Generalis) I know that Parents on Bridging Visas can get Seniors Cards in South Australia. The Seniors Card people in SA take the view that "permanent residency" means "an intention to live in Oz permanently," on which basis, applicants for Aged Parent visas can claim the card in SA. I don't know what view the other States take but it is worth asking the Seniors Card people in one's own State, I reckon.

 

The website for the QLD Seniors Card has been changed recently but the advice they gave on their old website holds good for everyone. They said that it doesn't matter if a shopkeeper or whoever does not participate in the Seniors Card scheme. They advised people to brandish their Seniors Cards, look old and helpless and to request a concession. They were right. Non-participants will sometimes provide a one-off discount anyway if one asks. (Trust a Queenslander to be so pragmatic about it. My sister is married to an Aussie whose step-mother, Nola, is a Queenslander. She lives in a suburb of Perth now because she and Neil's father are elderly now, but Nola was brought up on a farm in outback Queensland. She believes that one's mouth is for asking for things with!)

 

Mum says that when she goes to a shop or whatever, she is often asked whether or not she has any concession cards. She produces both cards and she gets discounts, she says.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Generalis]

Thank you will read up on the forms you mentioned. Are things likely to change next year do you know apart from the limit being reduced? I'm a terrible worrier I must try to stop. I did have one other query in that my husband tax return for this year was about $20k as only worked from March to end of tax year for the return so not sure if this will be a problem for the $40k income threshold for last 2 tax returns if he provides the AoS. ~Thank you again youre brill Gill x

[Guest hewett3]

As always loads of lovely good info - I am in SA so have followed other links you have posted on SA specifics with interest. Many Many thanks again for all you do. Caroline

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Thank you will read up on the forms you mentioned. Are things likely to change next year do you know apart from the limit being reduced? I'm a terrible worrier I must try to stop. I did have one other query in that my husband tax return for this year was about $20k as only worked from March to end of tax year for the return so not sure if this will be a problem for the $40k income threshold for last 2 tax returns if he provides the AoS. ~Thank you again youre brill Gill x

 

Hi Sam

 

Please don't worry about the AoS. The AoS is not dealt with until about 3 months before the visa is granted. It would be at least 10 years (and maybe 20 years) before an application for an Aged Parent visa reaches the final processing stage unless the present quota of 300 visas a year is at least trebled. There are about 5,500 Parents living in Oz on Bridging Visas, patiently waiting for their applications for Aged Parent subclass 804 visas to be processed. The situation is far from ideal but at least the visa applicants are able to be close to their children and grandchildren during the inordinate wait.

 

I think that a bigger problem for you, potentially, is whether or not the Government will say that it is impossible to apply for an Aged Parent sc 804 visa if one is in Australia on any sort of tourist or visitor visa. Such a change in the Law would be very easy to organise and I would not put it past DIAC and the Government to organise it.

 

I think that that is the issue that you need to watch for the next 18 months or so. The AoS will look after itself in due course, you would find.

 

Cheers

 

Gill