Cheap Parent Visas Part I

[Gollywobbler]

Hi All

For anyone who has missed the news, the ECHR Judgement was handed down last week and the British Pensioners LOST their appeal. My own mother is one of the 250,000 estimated losers living in Australia alone. There are about 525,000 losers world wide, it is thought. :(

There are about 360,000 winners who happen to live in the right parts of the world. Their pensions were index-linked by the first ECHR Judgement in October 2008 and they get the winter fuel allowance as well, apparently.

The Australian Government has made a formal Statement, supporting the losers in the recent Grand Chamber proceedings:

Breaking news on the issue of the pension freezing by the UK Government Release

The legal battle is over. There is no other court to appeal to.

I was in touch with the ICBP and with the BPiA last week. The organisers of both said that they intended to lick their wounds for a couple of weeks before deciding what else to do.

Give the Pensioners their due. I support the idea of swamping the DWP with alarming stories promising an imminent return en masse to the UK!

Give them a shock

They deserve a good fright in my view. If they get a fright then Gordon Brown gets a fright as well, which is even better imho.

To the stuff that the ICBP have suggested, I would also ask about sheltered housing in the UK, by the way (paid for by the Government via the local Housing Associations and Councils.) Paupers are entitled to Housing Benefit (rent) and Council Tax Benefit (rates) and all, by the way....

Also, if anyone is 65 or over and has the merest twinge of an ailment, it is worth mentioning Attendance Allowance as well, which is not means-tested in the UK:

Attendance Allowance - introduction : Directgov - Disabled people

Mum will be well & truly decrepit according to me.

She wouldn't dream of buying her own home in the UK again either, because the Government would snaffle that to meet the costs of residential care in the UK, so there is no chance of them getting any of that because capital can be left outside the UK.

Home page and reference site for the International Consortium of British Pensioners

Cheers

Gill

[katsmajic]

Thats a joke isnt it - good luck to all those expat parents - totally support the enmasse idea...that would really put the crappers up the uk government.

[Gollywobbler]

Hi,

I know that this an old post and I came across it completely by accident, but I really want my mum to come and live here, and reading this post has really got me thinking. I know we have to be here for two years before we can start the sponsorship process because we are here on a 475, but I think we will be classed as settled as Jon has a permenant job, both of our kids are in school and we have bought land and hope to commence, building our house shortly. We also have no assets left in the Uk, so here is definately home. My mum is on her own and I am her only surviving child she will be 69 years of age in April 2010 so when we are granted permanent residency she will be 70, so qualifies for the Aged parent visa. So if I am reading these posts correctly she could come over here for her normal regular stay and apply for her aged parent or contibutary aged parent visa, and then get a bridging visa to live here whilst it is being processed. It sounds very easy so have I got it right as if this is the case I am excited I hope you can confirm this for me

Thanks so much for any help you can give

Laurax:embarrassed:

Hi Laura

So if I am reading these posts correctly she could come over here for her normal regular stay and apply for her aged parent or contibutary aged parent visa, and then get a bridging visa to live here whilst it is being processed. It sounds very easy so have I got it right as if this is the case I am excited I hope you can confirm this for me

Yep. You are quite correct.

I know we have to be here for two years before we can start the sponsorship process because we are here on a 475, but I think we will be classed as settled as Jon has a permenant job, both of our kids are in school and we have bought land and hope to commence, building our house shortly. We also have no assets left in the Uk, so here is definately home.

You MUST have formal Permanent Residency before you could sponsor your Mum, but you could almost certainly sponsor Mum as soon as you have PR:

Go Matilda - Your Gateway to Australia - News

Although Alan Collett of Go Matilda speaks of the Contributory Parent visa in his article above, the Sponsor must be *settled* and a Permanent Resident at the time of the application for the Parent visa, and this applies to every single Parent visa that there is.

Any local Registered Migration Agent will confirm to you that I am 100% right.

Cheers

Gill

[Gollywobbler]

Hi All

I am worried sick. The proposed new Visa Capping Bill contains NO safeguards whatsoever to prevent either Taffy Evans (Grrrrrr ) or his succesessor as Minister for Immi from using the proposed new powers in order to attack the elderly and often very vulnerable people who have - in good faith - applied for Parent sc 103 or Aged Parent sc 804 visas.

I've written this elsewhere today:

Peter Mares and Mark Webster touched on the possibility that applications for Partner visas could be axed if the new Visa Capping Bill goes ahead.

Whilst I agree that it is theoretically possible, I don't think it is likely.

I want to speak up on behalf of non-contributory Parent visa applicants, please. Applicants for Contributory Parent visas are safe. They are cash cows and nobody is likely to kill a cash cow.

I have had an e-mail this morning from the Parents Visa Centre, confirming that the quotas of non-contributory Parent 103 and Aged Parent 804 visas have been halved for 2010-2011.

Minister Evans increased those quotas from 1,000 in total to 2,000 in total during his first nyear in Office in 2007-2008. He doubled the quotas to 2,000 for 2008-2009 and he held that in place for 2009-2010.

The total will be halved again for 2010-2011. 700 are to be earmarked for the applicants for the offshore Parent sc 103 visa. Some 15,500 Parents are waiting for those and, if the quota remains at 700 a year, those Parents are now looking at a wait of some 22 years.

I believe that applicants for the onshore Aged Parent 804 visas are in an even worse potential predicament. The quota for them has been reduced from 600 visas ayear to just 300 a year. I think there are about 5,500 applications in the pipeline for the subclass 804 visas.

If a couple, one of the applicnts has to be 65 or near enugh before thery can even apply for this visa. The Visa Capping Bill enables the Minister for Immi to scrap their visa applications, terminate their Bridging Visas at the same time and kick them out of Oz, potentially after giving them no more than 28 days notice.

Many of these Parents are in their 70s and 80s. The only life that they have left is the one that they have with their child or children in Oz. Nonetheless, they could still be kicked out of Oz with no rights of review or appeal.

No doubt Minister Evans would claim that he has “no intention” of ever treating elderly people so badly. He is nevertheless frightening them into an early grave. Why? If he has “no intention” of treating them badly, why have these elderly Parents not been ring-fenced in his preposterous new Visa Capping Bill, so as to reassure them – and me – that the Aussie Government would never stoop to such abominable conduct? If he thinks that my own reaction is one of “hysteria” then he will just have to live with it until he convinces me that the Government would never stoop so low.

These Parents and Aged Parents have not been ring fenced. I hope that the other Senators will protect these very vulnerable groups.

If I were the Aussie Parliament, I would not waste my own time on re-drafting this Bill. I would simply chuck it out in its entirety and tell Minister Evans to re-write the thing fully and properly if he expects me to consider the revised version of this iniquitous new Bill..

Gill

The new Bill and the rest of the stuff about it is described here:

Visa Capping - Senate Inquiry - PomsInOz Forum

Peter Mares is an Aussie journo. He interviewd the Minister and others on the ABC National Interest programme yesterday (4th June 2010.) The programme is here:

The National Interest - About

New immigration powers cause concern - The National Interest - 4 June 2010

I intend to make the mother & father of a fuss until vulnerable, elderly people are properly and fully protected from this rubbish.

If Taffy Evans chooses to claim that I am being "hysterical" then let him bluddy well claim that unless and until he convinces me that he has NO nefarious intentions towards Parents and that he will see to it that they are fully and properly protected. I will not be convinced until Parents have been protected by Statute.

I understand that Senator Xenophon can and might help to get this preposterous new Bill kicked ut:

Nick Xenophon - Independent Senator for South Australia

He is a Federal MP for South Australia, I gather.

Please, please contact this guy in order to help me to protect your Parents from this potential rubbish.

Very many thanks

Gill

[Celine]

Hi Gill,
thanks for all the useful info, I'm in the process of applying for a CPV 143 which is extremely expensive as you are aware - it's definetly given me 'food for thought'

[Gollywobbler]

Hi Gill,
thanks for all the useful info, I'm in the process of applying for a CPV 143 which is extremely expensive as you are aware - it's definetly given me 'food for thought'

Hi Celine

Have you already applied for your CPV 143? If not, I recommend that you should try to make your application (ie see that it reaches the Parents Visa Centre in Perth) before 30th June 2010 if possible.

Visa charges will rise on 1st July 2010 and the rise in the 2nd Instalments for CPVs could be very substantial, I reckon. Please see the link below:

Publications — Australian Government Actuary

I don't understand the formula that the Australian Government Actuary uses in order to work out the Composite Index each year. However when he recommended a rise of 7.6%, the amount payable went from £29,330 each to $31,550 each. When he said that the Index should rise by 3.9%, the monetary rise went from $31,330 each to $32.725 each.

This time the AGA recommends an increase of 10.6% in the Composite Index. My Maths is nowhere near good enough to try to work it out in monetary terms but it could be a large increase. The recent Report below says that even Contributory Parents are a huge burden on publicly-funded resources once they get to Oz, apparently:

Commonwealth Expenditure Associated with the Contributory Parent Visa — Australian Government Actuary

I have not read the new Report but I may well do so this evening, to find out what this sudden pessimism from Krudd's Kronies is really about.

I don't think that the number of CPVs will be reduced, though. What you do with a cash cow is to milk as much cash out of it as you can. You don't go and kill the cow - at least, not if you have any sense! I think the non-contributory Parents are the people who are vulnerable to attack.

Cheers

Gill

[Celine]

Hi Celine

Have you already applied for your CPV 143? If not, I recommend that you should try to make your application (ie see that it reaches the Parents Visa Centre in Perth) before 30th June 2010 if possible.

Visa charges will rise on 1st July 2010 and the rise in the 2nd Instalments for CPVs could be very substantial, I reckon. Please see the link below:

Publications — Australian Government Actuary

I don't understand the formula that the Australian Government Actuary uses in order to work out the Composite Index each year. However when he recommended a rise of 7.6%, the amount payable went from £29,330 each to $31,550 each. When he said that the Index should rise by 3.9%, the monetary rise went from $31,330 each to $32.725 each.

This time the AGA recommends an increase of 10.6% in the Composite Index. My Maths is nowhere near good enough to try to work it out in monetary terms but it could be a large increase. The recent Report below says that even Contributory Parents are a huge burden on publicly-funded resources once they get to Oz, apparently:

Commonwealth Expenditure Associated with the Contributory Parent Visa — Australian Government Actuary

I have not read the new Report but I may well do so this evening, to find out what this sudden pessimism from Krudd's Kronies is really about.

I don't think that the number of CPVs will be reduced, though. What you do with a cash cow is to milk as much cash out of it as you can. You don't go and kill the cow - at least, not if you have any sense! I think the non-contributory Parents are the people who are vulnerable to attack.

Cheers

Gill

Hi Gill,

Yes I've already submitted my application & rec'd an acknowledgement in Jan this year so thank goodness I will not have to pay an increase - it's expensive enough as it is, thanks for your concern & information though, much appreciated

regards
Celine

[juliegio]

Thank you so Much Gill, It really has been an eye opener and definitely food for thought, as we would love for my Mum to emigrate with us! Perfect babysitter heheh

[aerotony]

Hi All,
This thread has been dormant for almost a year.
Has there been any further update available on the "freezing" of the State pension for UK citizens resident in Australia?
Regards
Tony

[Gollywobbler]

Hi All,
This thread has been dormant for almost a year.
Has there been any further update available on the "freezing" of the State pension for UK citizens resident in Australia?
Regards
Tony

Hi Tony

Very energetic and determined lobbuing is continuing. However the British Government has not made any concessions and shows no serious signs of wanting to do so, let alone actually doing anything.

Personally I think that the current stuff about voting rights for people in prison is a sign of how hypocritical the British Government is. They have defied the ECHR about prisoners' voting rights and say that they would rather pay compensation to the prisoners than put up with meddling by the ECHR. That same court ruled against the British pensioners but I haven't heard the British Government attacking them for that......

Even pensioners who live in the UK have been warned that they might not be given a winter heating allowance in future. So I can't see the Government doing anything to help the pensioners whom the ECHR says the Government need not help.

It is disgraceful in my view but it is unfortunately true.

Cheers

Gill