How Can Delay Paying My CVP 2nd Installment?

[wow]

For several reasons I wanted to ask how I might delay my Contributory Parent Visa (CVP) one main reason being the extremely poor exchange rate at the moment.

 

My application was June 2009 so i am expecting word around Sept/Oct for the visa.

How can I put off paying the 2nd installment without messing up my place in the queue?

 

I had heard something along the lines of transferring to a non contributory parent visa which of course takes a great deal longer to get. However, my queries about that are:

1) How is that done

2) What effect does it have on reverting to CPV at a later date

3) Does it adversely affect the waiting period

4) Is there a cost involved

 

Is there any other way of delaying paying the 2nd installment?

 

All help would be much appreciated.

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Wow

 

For several reasons I wanted to ask how I might delay my Contributory Parent Visa (CVP) one main reason being the extremely poor exchange rate at the moment.

 

 

LOADS of British CPV applicants have exactly the same worry as you at the moment. I've just been checking the Sterling/AUD exchange rate on xe.com. I've looked at the charts etc. Other currencies are giving Sterling a prize mauling at present.

 

Please click on my user-name to the left of this post. A drop down menu will appear. I'm in touch with some other British CPV applicants, who expect COs at about the same time as you and who have the same worries as you. Please send me an e-mail, NOT a PM but an e-mail, so that I have your e-mail addy and can put you in touch with the others.

 

I think that one of the ways forward for British CPV applicants will be for some of you (just a very small group - no more than 6 of you and preferably only 4) to speak with David Wilden in London. He is DIAC's Regional Director for Europe. He is very nice and very helpful. I've been to a meeting about skilled GSM migration at Oz House in London and I met him then because Mr Wilden chaired the meeting, and amazingly helpful he was.

 

I think that British CPV applicants need to explain the peculiarly British problems that all of you are facing to Mr Wilden. Then I think that Mr Wilden would need to discuss the problems with equally senior Policy colleagues of his within DIAC in Canberra. I am sure that with Mr Wilden presiding, each side will be able to understand the other side's problems and with a bit of luck, a viable solution can be worked out.

 

There is no way to delay a CPV application and at the same time to receive the visa on time. DIAC will not accept the idea of a deferred payment. No money = No visa.

 

However the way that the law and the Parents Visa Centre are set up at the moment, the British Parent simply lurks silently, saying and doing nothing till a CO makes contact. The CO is an Aussie Citizen who lives in Perth. S/he has no idea of the particular problems facing British CPV applicants at present. The present Manager of the PVC is new to the job, following the retirement of the hugely experienced Phil Lovering on 30th June 2009. The new Manager is also an Aussie so he also knows nothing about the particular problems in the UK.

 

Therefore what is happening is that British CPV applicants end up pleading with lowly COs for more time to pay. The CO asks the PVC Manager. He doesn't understand the problems either so he invokes one of the details of the Migration Act 1958 or the Migration Regulations 1994. I can't remember which one it is offhand but I can easily look it up and get the details spot on for you. Under [the detailed provision that I have in mind] the Minister for Immi (ie his delegate - ie the Manager of the PVC) can allow an extension of the time limits for a "reasonable period."

 

West Australia's conveyancing system is similar to the one in Scotland. In Perth, it is possible to conclude a house sale within 8 weeks of first putting it onto the market, so the PVC Manager thinks that extending the time limit by 2 months should be enough. If this extended deadline for paying is not met, the CPV will be refused.

 

Starting with the PVC Manager is not the right way to do this. The right way is to go to the very top of DIAC, via David Wilden. Mr Wilden is very bright and quick to understand problems, plus he is in London so he can easily speak with Estate Agents and with the Law Society in E&W, who can confirm the problems which are peculiar to the housing market in E&W but which are not found anywhere else in the world.

 

I think that a much better way to do this is to make a decision to delay about 6 months before getting a CO, and to defer the whole CPV application for a full 12 months, to give the situation in the UK time to settle down following the now imminent General Election on 6th May.

 

Technically, introducing a delay of the type I suggest and in the way I suggest it can be done. There is no need to change anything except mind-sets in order to bring it about.

 

I have not worked up a detailed proposal as yet and I would need to hear more from the present CPV applicants in order to do so.

 

However a formal Proposal that everybody is happy with could be put forward and explained to Mr Wilden. He would discuss the Proposal with his equally senior colleagues in Canberra and any glitches that they suggest could then be dealt with and overcome. Once the British CPV applicants and Canberra are both happy with the Proposal, the senior people in Canberra would simply give instructions to the visa processing foot-soldiers at the PVC, explaining what is to be done about British CPV applicants from now on and until further notice.

 

This is the correct and elegant way to deal with the problem. Starting at the bottom of the heap, which is the camel of an idea that is in use at present, is the WRONG way to do it and it ends up with the CPV applicant withdrawing the application at the last minute, usually. Which helps no one.

 

Another thing which Mr Wilden probably isn't aware of - yet - is that in November and December 2009, Sterling slid so badly that the cheapest way for British CPV applicants to arrange payment of the 2nd Instalment was to pay the money to Oz House in London in Sterling. DIAC's own exchange rate is set twice a year, on 1st July and 1st January.

 

Last Autumn (UK seasons) DIAC's exchange rate was fixed at $1.90 to £1. That had been set on 1st July 2009. The market was only offering around $1.79 to £1. Therefore a British couple could save about £4,000 simply by paying the 2nd Instalment in London, in Sterling.

 

To start with, both Oz House and the PVC jibbed at the idea because it has never happened with Parent visas before, ever. Be that as it may, the Law permits the idea, so it was done in quite a few cases.

 

Everybody knew that the DIAC exchange rate would fall on 1st Jan 2010 and it did. The new rate until 30th June 2010 is presently $1.70 to £1.

 

However, Sterling has slipped again so badly that DIAC are again offering a significantly higher exchange rate than the markets. Xe.com is giving me $1.65 to £1 today but the Banks and the Post Office in the UK are all paying about $1.56 to £1 sterling. Mum is in Oz and she told me last week that an ATM that she favours was giving her an equally disadvantageous sort of a rate. The DIAC rate of $1.70 is fixed for the time being. Using DIAC is cheaper and it makes planning much simpler and more secure at the moment.

 

I shouldn't think DIAC's in-house accountants are overjoyed because the Aussie Govt is taking any currency hits. Then again, DIAC bank with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and I am quite sure that the CBA have promised to pay DIAC not less than $1.70, no matter what the outside markets might be doing at the time. It is quite possible that DIAC only do the currency conversion once every six months - etc.

 

At the time when Mum bought her own CPV 143 in 2006, using DIAC in order to make the payment would have been a total no-brainer. They were offering $2 to £1 but with a bit of haggling, I was able to get the open market to give Mum about $2.50 to £1.

 

Turning to your questions:

 

How can I put off paying the 2nd installment without messing up my place in the queue?

 

You can't, but if we talk to Mr Wilden then it might be possible to defer your place in the queue so that a CO does not contact you for 6 or 12 months beyond the time that you currently expect, to give both Sterling and the UK housing market enough time to settle down and improve.

 

I had heard something along the lines of transferring to a non contributory parent visa which of course takes a great deal longer to get.

Can't be done. Upgrading from the non-contributory Parent to the CPV can be done without losing one's place in the queue and without paying the 1st VAC again. However doing it the other way round involves starting at the bottom of the pile once again and it involves payment of a new 1st VAC.

 

1) How is that done

Please see above.

 

2) What effect does it have on reverting to CPV at a later date

 

If you change again later, you would keep your place in the non-contributory Queue so a new CPV would probably be granted pretty quickly, and you would not have to pay another 1st Instalment again for the third time BUT you would have to pay a higher 2nd Instalment of the amount that is prevalent at the time of your third application.

 

3) Does it adversely affect the waiting period

 

Yes, because effectively you are describing a hellishly clumsy and expensive way of delaying the whole thing.

 

Whereas I think that it would be much better to tackle the problem at source, by explaining the issues to Mr Wilden and explaining to him that Policy needs to change, so as to allow for the possibility of a deferment, as I have described above.

 

4) Is there a cost involved

 

Using your method, yes. My method wouldn't involve any extra cost. It would simply permit one time-delay only, I suspect, but one delay might well be enough if it is a big, bold, time-delay to begin with.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[wow]

Hi Gill,

thank you so much for your very extensive and comprehensive reply.

 

I think your idea is indeed the best and simplest way forward if you think that you can pull it off.

 

I am sure that anyone else in a similar situation to myself would do anything they could to help you achieve this. Thanks again

I have emailed you as requested.

June

[wow]

Hi Gill,

I have re sent you an email as I have had problems with them getting through of late. I hope that we can move forward with this.