The Brand New PIO Parents Visa thread

[clubby67]

Hi there, glad to hear they are moving down the list hopefully wont be long till we get ours.

 

Good luck

Wilma

[sandch]

Can Gill, Steve or someone help with a form please !! :confused:

 

I have been asked by the CO to send the form 956. I do not have a migration agent as we are doing this ourselves. How do I fill in this form when it asks about changing agents etc. I have got to part 6 and ticked the third box which then tells me to go to part E and promptly asks for details of migration agent or exempt agent or authorised recipient details. Do I put my own details:arghh: in again ?

Hello - it seems to me that if you have never appointed an agent, and are not intending to do so, the form is not applicable. If you believe this to be the case you should ask your CO why he/she has asked for it - explaining your circumstances.

 

It may be related to a question in your original application.

 

Cheers

 

Steve

[clubby67]

Hi there can you up date our time line as we had our medicals done on the 29 July.

Thanks

Wilma

[Guest Lively]

Our agent is about to lodge mum & dad's application but without form 956. When I asked them about it, they said CO doesn't normally ask for it.

 

Has anyone else using an agent and been told they do not need to sign form 956?

 

Also, I act as the applicants sponsor and agent has asked me to provide 2 passport photos. It isn't listed in form 40, has anyone else been requested the same?

 

Lively

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Our agent is about to lodge mum & dad's application but without form 956. When I asked them about it, they said CO doesn't normally ask for it.

 

Has anyone else using an agent and been told they do not need to sign form 956?

 

Also, I act as the applicants sponsor and agent has asked me to provide 2 passport photos. It isn't listed in form 40, has anyone else been requested the same?

 

Lively

 

Hi Lively

 

It is true that historically the Parents Visa Centre have not been fussy about Form 956. The previous Manager of the PVC told me that they used to an "open door" policy, meaning that the Parent-applicants, one of their children or a migration agent acting for the Parents could contact the PVC at any time. As long as the relation to the visa applicant could be proven to the PVC's satisfaction, they did not mind about any queries they might receive - they simply answered whoever was asking them.

 

The old Manager retired in June 2009 and a new Manager was appointed on 1st July 2009. I've never spoken with the new Manager so I don't know whether he still runs the "open door" policy established by his predecssor.

 

Form 47PA does now require that the Parent-applicants must complete, sign and submit Form 956 if the Parent-applicant wants anybody except himself to be responsible for communicating with the PVC. This includes a situation whether no migration agent is involved but the family decides that one of the children (not necessarily the Sponsor) should be in the front line for communications from and with the PVC.

 

It is open to a visa applicant to use a migration agent so that the agent can help to check whether or not the application is complete and is ready for submission. The agent can even submit it. However the applicant might decide that from then on, the applicant will run the visa application and the agent will only be a sounding board if the visa applicant requires further assistance at any stage. IN that situation, I would not see any compelling need to submit form 956.

 

Migration Agents are normally the people who insist on Form 956 because they want to control every nuance of the visa application themselves. Without a completed Form 956, the PVC might well adopt the default position - which is to deal with the visa applicant and with nobody else. That is rarely what the migration agent wants them to do. However Form 956 can be submitted at any time. So I agree with your agent that it probably isn't necessary to submit it up front.

 

That said, you are worried, which the agent should not allow. I suggest that you e-mail the PVC yourself, on parents@immi.gov.au and tell them about your concern. They normally reply within about 48 hours and they will tell you whether or not they are fussy about completion of Form 956.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[yomvard]

I have just heard back from my CO and we do not need to send form 956 unless someone else is acting for us, family or agent. Thanks sandch you were right.

[Sue Ashforth]

Hi Gollywobbler - can you advise us please? (We'll have to start paying you for all your excellent advice!)

 

We note that the DIAC currency converter shows a rate of A$1.57 (ish) to the £ from 1st July 2010. Yesterday’s rate from Reuters was A$1.73/£.

We've just been assigned our CO and will probably be asked to pay our second CPV143 visa payment around October. Our question is, do you think it might be worth asking our CO to delay payment for a month or two until the rate changes on 1st January 2011? Otherwise, it’s costing us almost a further £4000 – plus the extra on the AoS! The more we try and save, the quicker the charges increase!

Will our CO allow us to wait if we explain why?

 

Sue Ashforth

[MikenSueNW3]

Hi Gollywobbler - can you advise us please? (We'll have to start paying you for all your excellent advice!)

 

We note that the DIAC currency converter shows a rate of A$1.57 (ish) to the £ from 1st July 2010. Yesterday’s rate from Reuters was A$1.73/£.

We've just been assigned our CO and will probably be asked to pay our second CPV143 visa payment around October. Our question is, do you think it might be worth asking our CO to delay payment for a month or two until the rate changes on 1st January 2011? Otherwise, it’s costing us almost a further £4000 – plus the extra on the AoS! The more we try and save, the quicker the charges increase!

Will our CO allow us to wait if we explain why?

 

Sue Ashforth

 

Pre-empting Gollywobbler's reply, I think you'll find that the $1.57 rate only applies if you pay via the Oz High Commission in London, in Sterling. And who knows what the rate may do between now and January?

 

If you pay DIAC direct on Ozdollars (which, as others have pointed out, you can do by credit or (I think) debit card so long as you preload the appropriate account so the payment won't be refused), then you're subject to the exchange rate prevailing at the time. (It would be worth speaking to your bank or credit card company first, to check that they'll handle such a large amount.)

 

Or, transfer the required funds to your son/daughter's Australian account, and get them to draw a bank draft (it has to be on an Oz bank) and send it to PVC.

 

What I've never seen anyone refer to – does anyone know? – is whether there is a DIAC/PVC account into which you can pay funds direct from your own bank in the UK. That would probably be the best of all.

 

Mike

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Gollywobbler - can you advise us please? (We'll have to start paying you for all your excellent advice!)

 

We note that the DIAC currency converter shows a rate of A$1.57 (ish) to the £ from 1st July 2010. Yesterday’s rate from Reuters was A$1.73/£.

We've just been assigned our CO and will probably be asked to pay our second CPV143 visa payment around October. Our question is, do you think it might be worth asking our CO to delay payment for a month or two until the rate changes on 1st January 2011? Otherwise, it’s costing us almost a further £4000 – plus the extra on the AoS! The more we try and save, the quicker the charges increase!

Will our CO allow us to wait if we explain why?

 

Sue Ashforth

 

Hi Sue

 

I don't understand your question. The currency converter is only relevant if you plan to pay your money to the Aussie High Commission in London. DIAC's own official currency converter is changed twice a year, on 1st Jan and 1st July in each year.

 

At the moment the open market is offering a much better exchange rate than DIAC is offering. In that situation, you would simply arrange to pay the Parents Visa Centre directly, rather than doing it through the Aussie HC in London. It is not compulsory to make any payments via the AHC in London.

 

If you want to ask your CO to delay the whole thing because you want to speculate on whether sterling will improve against the AUD if you wait, you could ask your CO whether s/he would be prepared to permit a delay. However if the CO allows a delay and sterling then falls against the AUD, you will lose out!

 

The PVC's imagination does not extend to the idea that George Soros might apply for a CPV and even if he did, he wouldn't be worried about £4,000 sterling! The PVC won't allow repeated extensions whilst CPV applicants gamble on the likely future of the sterling/AUD exchange rate.

 

Does this answer your questions, please?

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Sue Ashforth]

Thanks Gill, yes. I was under the impression (from somewhere) that payment directly to London was cheaper as they offered a better exchange rate, so was a bit shocked to see what it was! However, if we can pay the PVC directly, we don't have a problem. You're right - no-one knows what the future value will be - we'll just go with it and pay PVC as you suggest. Many thanks!

[Les Avalook]

Thanks Gill, yes. I was under the impression (from somewhere) that payment directly to London was cheaper as they offered a better exchange rate, so was a bit shocked to see what it was! However, if we can pay the PVC directly, we don't have a problem. You're right - no-one knows what the future value will be - we'll just go with it and pay PVC as you suggest. Many thanks!

 

I would not expect paying in London to be cheaper for a long time. The rate is set twice a year and always starts below the current exchange rate. It has only been worth while paying in London twice in recent years because of the rapid collapse of sterling within the six month set period.

 

The current rate of $1.57 has not been breached since it was set and we all hope that will not happen again.

 

Mikensue's suggestion to transfer funds to your siblings account when you feel the rate is good is also an option. You could build up funds in Oz $s so that 50% (for example) of the money you require is already converted and when the time comes to pay you would just need to convert the rest.

[sandch]

Thanks Gill, yes. I was under the impression (from somewhere) that payment directly to London was cheaper as they offered a better exchange rate, so was a bit shocked to see what it was! However, if we can pay the PVC directly, we don't have a problem. You're right - no-one knows what the future value will be - we'll just go with it and pay PVC as you suggest. Many thanks!

 

As Les mentioned, there was a time in late 2009 when the "DIAC rate" was beneficial to applicants because it was set in Jul 2009 and the open market sterling/dollar exchange rate actually went well below it later that year. You will come across discussion threads from that era championing the London payment option.

 

However it is generally set to benefit DIAC not the applicant hence the "punitive" rate of 1.57 now; which should generally discourage applicants using this payment method.

 

Best wishes

 

Steve

[Sue Ashforth]

Thanks for your information - we'll have a rethink!

[MikenSueNW3]

I don't want to spread gloom and despondency among fellow-members 'looking forward' to paying their 2nd VACs, but you might be interested in this analysis from UBS. (It's mostly about Sterling against the Swiss franc and US dollar, but of course the Ozdollar tends to track the US dollar much more closely than Sterling these days.)

 

I'm no economist (and even less a currency speculator), but (or perhaps because of that!) it depresses me!

 

 

5 August 2010 by TPC

UBS says the British Pound could decline to $1.35 by year-end. In a recent strategy note they listed 7 reasons why the Pound could decline for the remainder of the year:

1) the pound has rallied because Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee member Andrew Sentance voted to raise interest rates. But the rest of the MPC seems unlikely to join him.

2) the pound has also rallied recently because of the new government’s Budget announcement.

3) the scale of budget cuts envisaged over the next four years – on average the UK fiscal deficit will be reduced by 2% of GDP each year – presents risks to growth.

4) exports can’t be relied upon to take up the slack. Britain’s main trading partner is the Eurozone, not resilient emerging markets. Despite sterling’s weakness over the last two years, the UK trade balance has not improved significantly as the Eurozone has also weakened.

5) the MPC remains willing to resume quantitative easing if the economy weakens. Though the BOE stopped purchasing Gilts in February, its policy setting committee has stressed that quantitative easing has been paused rather than being terminated. Thus if fiscal tightening later in the year does cause economic growth to falter, the MPC is likely to respond with more Gilt purchases if it feels it will miss its inflation target in two year’s time.

6) tighter fiscal and looser monetary policies can result in a much weaker pound as sterling’s performance after the 1981 austerity budget shows. In the early 1980s the pound fell for several years against the dollar and the German mark after the UK government cut the budget deficit and the Bank of England responded by cutting interest rates from 14% to 12%.

7) other major currencies have also experienced similar prolonged weakness when the authorities have tightened fiscal policy and loosened monetary policy during times of economic weakness.

How to play it? UBS likes put spreads on the Pound and straight short positions:

“Sterling is likely to weaken substantially in the second half of the year. We already recommended buying two month GBP-CHF put spreads with 1.6300/1.5425 strikes on June 10. We now also recommend clients add to sterling shorts by selling spot GBP-USD at 1.4975 with a stop above the recent highs at 1.5270 and an initial target of 1.4000.”

Source: UBS

 

Mike

[Sue Ashforth]

Oh heck!! Think we'd better transfer to daughter's account in Australia pretty quickly! Thanks for your reply - it'll take some thinking over this weekend!

[Guest]

We have just made the first payment and now I suppose we wait. We are told it is anything from 17months to 2 years. Does anyone know anything different?? Not even thinking about selling our house, giving up jobs, friends etc.....but our children and their families are both in Oz....What else can we do.

[jtct]

We have just made the first payment and now I suppose we wait. We are told it is anything from 17months to 2 years. Does anyone know anything different?? Not even thinking about selling our house, giving up jobs, friends etc.....but our children and their families are both in Oz....What else can we do.

 

Timing sounds about right. We were oroginally told 20 - 24 months for whole process and about 15 - 18 months from confirmation of 1st payment to getting CO.

 

Have a look at the timescale on www.gainwave.co.uk on the Britishexpats site to see how things are moving

 

Still decluttering the house and 2nd trip up into the loft tomorrow to look forward to.

[MikenSueNW3]

We have just made the first payment and now I suppose we wait. We are told it is anything from 17months to 2 years. Does anyone know anything different?? Not even thinking about selling our house, giving up jobs, friends etc.....but our children and their families are both in Oz....What else can we do.

 

Welcome! Make sure Steve (Sandch) knows your details – date of acknowledgement, etc – and he'll put you on the gainwave tracker. (Then we'll be third from bottom instead of second!!!)

 

Mike

[Guest]

Thanks ...is Steve the same as www.gainwave.co.uk if so I have just registered with him.

[jtct]

Welcome! Make sure Steve (Sandch) knows your details – date of acknowledgement, etc – and he'll put you on the gainwave tracker. (Then we'll be third from bottom instead of second!!!)

 

Mike

....and we'll be 9th from the bottom instead of 8th!:biglaugh:

[MikenSueNW3]

Thanks ...is Steve the same as www.gainwave.co.uk if so I have just registered with him.

 

That's right. He's a regular contributor to this thread and Contributory Parent Visa - Still Sparkling!!! - Part 4 - Page 59 : British Expat Discussion Forum.

 

Mike

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Sandy (yomvard)

 

Every now and again I read the BE thread, to find out what is happening to the applicants who are conributors to the thread and so on.

 

I was particularly interested in your exchange with the lady called Elaine who has moved to Hastings, which seems to be somewhere on the Mornington Peninsula. I've never been to that peninsula and know nothing about it apart from what the people who have been there tell me.

 

It sounds to me as if certain bits of it are expensive and not affordable for Contributory Parents who have just had their pockets hoovered by the Government. (Remember this - cash is a fire hazard. Every marina on the South Coast of the UK has its hoover ready, to remove the fire risk from the owner of the yacht who ties up in the marina. The Aussie Government also seems to think that cash is a fire hazard.....)

 

From what Elaine says, other parts of the Mornington Peninsula do sound affordable - which is great news.

 

I don't understand why "units" seem to be despised in Australia. As I understand it, a unit is a house on an estate where the mains services are shared between the properties? If so, what is wrong with that? As far as I know, it is the norm with every new housing estate in the UK. Things like the main electricity cable for the estate is underground in the road and then there is a "spur" cable that leads from it to every property as far as I can gather from asking developers and from reading the plans. The main cable to the estate probably comes from under the main road outside the housing estate. The same idea seems to apply to the mains water and sewers etc.

 

So what is undesirable about a unit in Oz, do you know? (Or does anyone on here know, please?) Does Unit B get a voltage drop because the occupiers of Unit A next door are cooking a roast in the oven or something? I suspect that the safety rules for electricity and the Building Regs would not allow such a thing to happen, surely?

 

What happens with a typical "retirement village" in Oz? I've read quite a bit about those and they sound lovely to me. I know that a lot of what one reads will be marketing hype pushed out by the developer who is trying to sell the finished products but the retirement villages do sound lovely to me. Are the homes in them "units" or are they what an Aussie calls "a house?"

 

I would be grateful if Mike or somebody could please explain this whole house thing in Australia to me because I don't understand why a "unit" should be avoided if possible? (It has never cropped up with my mother because she was never going to try to live on her own out in Oz - she is too old and too disabled for that, plus she loves the hustle and bustle of family life, coaxing her grandchildren to do their homework etc. Elaine and Neil are able to ignore the Nagamatic element - Mum is a very lively and energetic Nagamatic!)

 

Many thanks to anyone who can explain this to me.

 

In the meantime, Sandy, I agree with your sons. One can worry oneself stupid whilst sitting in the UK but Parent visa holders do seem to sort themselves out once they get to Australia. Their standards of living might drop - and I suspect that they often do so - but I also suspect that having one's children and grandchildren nearby makes up for a drop in the trappings.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[jtct]

"Parent visa holders do seem to sort themselves out once they get to Australia. Their standards of living might drop - and I suspect that they often do so - but I also suspect that having one's children and grandchildren nearby makes up for a drop in the trappings."

 

Hope they don't frop too far - we've been pensioners for a while now having retired at 50 and have already dropped loads of 'trappings'

 

We rarely eat out, our only holiday is the annual trip to Oz and the next step could be getting rid of the second car (my lifeline)

[MikenSueNW3]

 

 

I would be grateful if Mike or somebody could please explain this whole house thing in Australia to me because I don't understand why a "unit" should be avoided if possible?

Gill

 

G'day Gill an'all

 

I'll have to think a bit more about the pros and cons of "unit" living, and post a considered reply in a day or two. I think I'll also forward your post, Gill, on to an old mate, Pete Lander, who is a family solicitor on Sydney's North Shore. He has years of experience in these things (including representing some "little old ladies" in a retirement home whose owners conveniently went bust leaving the residents owed a lot of money – a version of what Aussies sometimes call a "bottom-of-the-harbour" scheme, when a company is stripped of its assets then "sinks" or goes bust owing a lot to creditors – so it pays to beware in every kind of situation).

 

Pete would, I think, only ever live in a house. But he has acted for many unit-buyers, including ourselves. I'll see if he comes up with anything, but meanwhile make a few mental notes with a view to posting some thoughts and suggestions myself soon.

 

Meanwhile, however, I think I should correct you (if I may) on the use of the term "unit". When I was first went to Oz in the mid-60s, the word was applied to all sorts of things from a car – "That's a nice unit you're driving, Mike" – to a house. But now (at least among our acquaintances, who are mostly in the Sydney area) it seems to apply exclusively to a flat (abbreviated from the earlier term "home unit").

 

The sort of estate house I think you are referring to, Gill – generally semi-detached (or semi-attached, as Aussies seem to say) or terraced – is known as a "town-house" or "town-home". (Dontcha love estate agents' jargon? – perhaps its meant to sound more cosy, or simply to cover for the fact that it might not be, strictly speaking, a house but is rather more than a flat; what we'd call a maisonette or duplex, perhaps?)

 

What these and flats generally have in common is that they are not sold with outright freehold title. (Actually, Australia has a system called Torrens Title, which you as a solicitor would probably understand better than I, Gill.) I can only speak for New South Wales – and I believe there are some variations in other states – but there flats and town houses are generally held by either strata title (the great majority; which I believe has something in common with the recently-introduced commonhold here in the UK), company title (a bit like shared freehold where the flat-owners are all sharehlders in a company) and very rarely (I'm told particularly in the Manly area, where the Catholic Church owns/owned a lot of land and property) leasehold title. (This last is, of course, by far the most common in the UK, but in Australia is mostly restricted to commercial premises.)

 

A great advantage of strata title (at least, as I say, in NSW) is that what the "owners' corporation" – of which all flat-owners are members – can and/or must do is strictly controlled by law. As everywhere, however, there are well- and badly-managed blocks, since day-to-day matters are in the hands of an elected committee and the strata managers (usually a commercial firm – licensed by the state government – who collect strata fees [= service charges], pay communal bills, produce annual accounts, arrange for repairs, organise AGMs, and so on).

 

There are good and bad committees and strata managers – they're only human – so I (and I'm sure any good solicitor) would advise anyone planning to buy a flat to try to talk to other residents and ask how the place is run. Ask to see accounts, and check how healthy is the sinking fund (which is built up to pay for major repairs/redecorations, and is subject to quite strict controls and audits).

 

I started this post meaning to be quite brief, but have been banging on, as my OH would say! I'll try to be more succinct – think bullet points, Mike! – next time.

 

All the best, mike

[sandch]

Thanks ...is Steve the same as www.gainwave.co.uk if so I have just registered with him.

 

Hello - nothing has arrived in my inbox at this end? What email address did you use? It should be cpvtracker@gainwave.co.uk

 

I'll add you to the list anyway with the information I can find on this thread.

 

Best wishes

 

Steve