can my mother come over to live?

[Guest wyles family]

Hello, we are moving to adelaide soon on 25th october and i am an only child, my mother heard from someone that she would be aloud to come over to adelaide to live because she has no other siblings. this would be when i become a citizen of australia, does anyone know if this is true or not, and if she can get her pension there or not. thanks

[Rob and Mel]

If you look in the Adelaide Migration Issues section on this forum you will come across this thread.

 

http://www.pomsinadelaide.com/forum/adelaide-migration-issues/4509-cheap-parent-visas-part-i.html

 

There is lots of info on this particular issue.

 

Hope it helps Rob and Mel

[JimandBarbinAus]

Hi yes, she should be able to come. We looked into this but it didnt work for us. They call it the balance of family, if you have no siblings she can go to oz with her pension although it will be frozen at the rate when she leaves. We couldnt take my mum as she has 2 sons in uk, me her daughter will be in oz so balance of family she has more family in uk than in oz so not able to shes gonna visiti lots though, love her to bits

[Guest wyles family]

hi, yeah i am an only child and mum hasnt anyone in uk apart from her sister, but mum hasnt much money, will it cost alot for her to apply, if it does then she will prob visit once a year but stay longer. otherhalf wont have her living with us!!!!

[JimandBarbinAus]

Oh right!!! Well this visa is pricey but allows her freedom or you can get a tourist visa for up to 3, 6, 9 or 12 months, can do this annually, costs approx £150, when they get over 75 think they have to have a medical and health insurance with it too, but would just be a routine thing to do on an annual basis and at least her pension wouldnt be frozen

[Gollywobbler]

hi, yeah i am an only child and mum hasnt anyone in uk apart from her sister, but mum hasnt much money, will it cost alot for her to apply, if it does then she will prob visit once a year but stay longer. otherhalf wont have her living with us!!!!

 

Hi there

 

How old is Mum, please, and is she British?

 

Also, you've said that your OH won't have her living with you in Australia. Would she be able to afford to rent or buy somewhere else to live?

 

If she is old enough to apply for an Aged Parent subclass 804 visa then the visa itself wouldn't cost very much but it would take several years to obtain. They are taking about 8-10 years to be processed at present but that is only because the annual quota of Aged Parent visas was doubled to 600 visas a year from 1st July 2011. Before that, Aged Parent visas were taking 18-20 years to be processed.

 

The quota will probably be halved again once the global economy recovers more in other countries. The applicants for Aged Parent visas can live in Australia throughout the time that it takes to process their visa application but they will NOT receive a cent in State Benefits until 2 years have elapsed since the Aged Parent visa was granted.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest wyles family]

hi gill, thanks, she is 65 and british, but doesnt own her own home and said she will work to look after herself but i think she is better off just visiting on a longer holiday visa but the travelling gets hard as you get older and she may find it too much later on, if she waited for the 804 visa which takes 8/10 years then she will be nearly 75!

 

also she doesnt drive or own a computer!!! so we cant skype etc.. will be hard .. thanks for all advice

[Guest wyles family]

thanks barb, think tourist visa would be better for her. she doesnt own own home and would have to rent and get a job to pay, i dont see this working out.. we may find house with an annex though and she could live there and at least we will have a baby sitter etc so i can go back to work...

[snifter]

It'd be worth getting a basic computer for her so you can use Skype. Or sorting out some sort of phone cam for you all to use. Wouldn't even need internet access all the time, could do what some of my family do and use a dongle.

[Gollywobbler]

hi gill, thanks, she is 65 and british, but doesnt own her own home and said she will work to look after herself but i think she is better off just visiting on a longer holiday visa but the travelling gets hard as you get older and she may find it too much later on, if she waited for the 804 visa which takes 8/10 years then she will be nearly 75!

 

also she doesnt drive or own a computer!!! so we cant skype etc.. will be hard .. thanks for all advice

 

Hi Wyles Family

 

I'd suggest getting Mum out to Oz for at least one fairly lengthy visit before you try to decide anything else:

http://www.immi.gov.au/visitors/tourist/676/

 

Some people's parents turn out to love Australia. My mother has always loved Australia but I think she'd be happy anywhere as long as she has close family members nearby. Although my late father liked Australia, he wouldn't have wanted to live there permanently and it would have been unkind and unfair to have tried to force him to do so.

 

So I reckon one just has to take things one step at a time and just see how it all pans out in the end.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest Chris_J]

Soooo if my parents ever wanted to live in Aus, they could apply for the Visa mentioned above, live there and wait for the Visa to be approved? They have a home they could sell or rent out for income, other investments, and my Dad has his works pension, and they will both soon have old age pension too (Mum does already). I can't ever see my in-laws being interested, which is a shame for Lizie, but you never know.

 

I looked at the other Visas, but can't figure out how much they cost or if I would need to pay anything too. That's assuming my parents would even want to live in Aus, but they are fed up of the UK, and have no problem with travel at the moment.

[Gollywobbler]

Hello Chris_J

 

Would your Parents be OK on the Balance of Family Test, please?

 

http://www.immi.gov.au/migrants/family/balance-family.htm

 

The BoF Test determines whether or not Parents are eligible to apply for Parent migration and since the BoF Test is interpreted strictly, there is no *wriggle room* with it, which makes it crucial to check this point first & foremost. The BoF Test is described in identical terms for each and every one of the possible Parent visas.

 

Assuming that your Parents would be OK on the BoF Test then they can be reassured that Parent migration will become possible for them sooner or later if it is what they want to do.

 

If they would be eligible for Parent migration, the next question would be which type of Parent visa?

 

http://www.immi.gov.au/migrants/family/family-visas-parent.htm

 

http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/booklets/books3.htm

 

The charges for the 2011/2012 Financial Year are set out below:

 

http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/990i/parent.htm

 

The 1st Instalment simply covers the costs of processing the visa application and there is one payment per couple. That is paid at the time of applying for the visas. The 2nd Instalment is per person, not per couple, so you need to double the figures shown. Payment of the 2nd Instalment is the final thing that has to be done before the visas are granted.

 

In addition to the costs for the visa itself, there is also a compulsory Bond that must be deposited with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Depositing the Bond is done just before the 2nd Instalment is requested. For a couple, the Bond is currently $14,000 for them both if they apply for one of the "Contributory" visas and $7,000 for a couple who seek one of the non-contributory visas. The Assurance of Support and Bond process is administered by Centrelink on DIAC's behalf:

 

http://www.centrelink.gov.au/internet/internet.nsf/home/index.htm

 

The usual drill with Parent migration is that the Parents pay all of the moneys involved. However the person/people who will provide the Assurance of Support are means-tested by Centrelink:

 

http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/guides_acts/ssg/ssguide-9/ssguide-9.4.html

 

The Guide to Social Security Law (above) provides the clearest description that I have found about how to work it all out.

 

At the moment, the processing times for the visas are roughly as follows:

 

Contributory Aged Parent Visa: 4-6 months

Contributory Parent Visa: 12 -15 months

Non-contributory Aged Parent Visa: Roughly 8 years or so

Non-contributory Parent Visa: Roughly 12-15 years or so

 

It is NOT worth bothering with the offshore non-contributory Parent Visa subclass 103 if it can possiblly be avoided because it takes so long to process, the applicants are not allowed to live in Australia before the visas are granted (though they can get Visitor or Tourist visas in order to visit Australia during the processing period.) With the non-contributory visas, the Aged Parent sc 804 is usually preferable because the Parents can live in Australia (on Bridging Visas) whilst the APV application is processed.

 

If the money for Contributory visas is available then the immediately permanent CPV 143 is the most popular option. My own mother has a CPV 143. This is an "offshore visa" which means that the Parents must physically be outside Australia when the visa is granted. However they can visit Australia whilst the application is processed if they wish. It is not uncommon for the Parents to spend most of the processing period in Australia and then they just nip to somewhere like Auckland or Fiji for 7-10 days once DIAC say that they will grant the CPVs as soon as the applicants have gone offshore.

 

That said, a lot of the CPV applicants remain in their home countries during the processing period because they need to de-clutter their houses and maybe sell those, and so forth.

 

My own personal view is that it is worth checking the BoF Test as soon as possible. After that, I think the next priority is to encourage the Parents to make at least one lengthy visit to Australia if possible:

 

http://www.immi.gov.au/visitors/tourist/visa-options.htm

 

I stress the word "lengthy" because if a Parent is considering moving to Australia permanently, I think it is important to get used to "living" in Australia first, doing all the mundane things like shopping for food, helping to look after your house if they are staying with you, doing routine things like school runs for their grandchildren. On a short, whizz-bang visit it is too tempting just to show them the sights and eat out to an extent that they wouldn't do if they were actually "living" in Oz.

 

I also think that the Parents should go home at least once following a fairly lengthy visit. When they are at home by themselves, they have time to reflect on the period that they spent in Oz, they can compare notes etc and they do so in their own home, with all their familiar belongings and friends around them. Gradually, they reach their own conclusions about what they want to do long term.

 

With my friend Mary, who I have described on the "Cheap Parent Visas" thread, Mary & I had a devil of a job to persuade her father to make his first visit to Adelaide. He was sure it would be too hot/too humid/too full of mozzies and/or creepy crawlies/he would feel trapped/he would hate the long journey and blah blah blah.

 

It so happened that he loves cricket. The cricket season was just beginning so Mary got him a season ticket for the Adelaide Oval and the Ashes series were being played in Australia that season. Some of the matches were played at the Adelaide Oval, where he was able to see his beloved England team in the flesh for the first time. Apparently there are giant TV screens at the Oval when important matches are being played elsewhere. By going to the Oval, Father soon made friends with loads of other cricket fans etc and he only went home to eat, sleep, shower and change in the end!

 

Mary also sent them to a Seniors Club (there is at least one in every suburb in Adelaide.) The one her parents were sent to meets at a clubhouse where they play Lawn Bowls. The other Seniors fell on the newcomers with cries of joy and they soon developed their own circle of friends and social activities, instead of just tagging along to every party etc that their children went to.

 

After a shaky first few months of persuading Mary's parents not to try to judge Australia until they had actually been there, once they arrived Mary made darned sure that they would love the place just as much as she does! They never looked back after that and Mary's mother regularly tells me that they now have a much better social life in Adelaide than they ever had in the UK.

 

It took 3 visits over 3 years to persuade them to apply for Aged Parent visas but since then, they have never looked back.

 

So I don't think that trying to count the days is the right way to go about things unliess the Parents are giving you seriously positive feedback very quickly. Mary & I checked that her Parents would be eligible for Parent migration but we were careful not to mention the subject until they asked whether it would be possible for them to move to Australia permanently as well. We were anxious that they shouldn't think that Mary and I wanted to get them out to Australia and then trap them!

 

My own mother made several visits to my sister in Perth before we applied for her CPV. I think it important for the Parent to be sure before s/he does anything more.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Thorpe1]

Hi,

 

My mum is here on a 'bridging visa' awaiting her 'Aged parent visa". Just for info you are NOT allowed to work whilst on the bridging visa so will need to either have money coming in from the UK (pensions/investmants) or have someone here support you.

 

If anyone needs any info just pm me although I think Gollywobbler is probably more experienced than I lol

 

 

Cheers

 

Karen

[Guest Chris_J]

Hi Gill, Thank You very much indeed for your very informative post there :-)

 

Parents would indeed pass the BoF test, as there is only my Sister and I. Most of those Visas look like working out at about 80,000 AUD so may be a little out of their reach, but that's not really for me to comment or make a judgement call on. It's their money to spend how they like. However, the 804 would be more than achievable for them. I take it I would need to pay 7,000 AUD as an Assurance, and repay any benefits paid in the 2 year period of AoS? Not sure of what benefits my parents would even claim in that period, I would have thought the Aussie Government would just say no benefits in that period :-S

 

Would need to see if they like it first anyway, and I still need to get my own visa. Once again, thank you Gill.

[oldham poms]

i came out on 12 months holiday visa back to visit frends in uk then back for another 12months visa before i decided to apply to stay with my family

[Gollywobbler]

Hi,

 

My mum is here on a 'bridging visa' awaiting her 'Aged parent visa". Just for info you are NOT allowed to work whilst on the bridging visa so will need to either have money coming in from the UK (pensions/investmants) or have someone here support you.

 

If anyone needs any info just pm me although I think Gollywobbler is probably more experienced than I lol

 

 

Cheers

 

Karen

 

Hi Karen

 

I think you are more useful to people than I am with this stuff because you have personal, first-hand, recent experience of actually doing it all. I think that it makes a lot of sense for people to ask you and, once again, I'm very grateful to you for offering to help other people who want to copy your mother. You are on the spot, out in Australia, so people can phone you easily and so forth. It is not easy for them to phone me when I'm in the UK because of the time-difference.

 

Please tell me - did you get a Seniors Card for your mother?

 

http://www.seniorscard.com.au/

 

The details of Seniors Cards vary between States vut the one for SA is said to be particularly generous. Apparently the SA Card people don't bother about visa status. Is the person is old enugh and lives iin SA permanentlt, it is possible to get one of these Cards. I reckon it is worth investiagting this if you have not already done so.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Gollywobbler]

i came out on 12 months holiday visa back to visit frends in uk then back for another 12months visa before i decided to apply to stay with my family

 

Ho Oldham Poms

 

Yes - my own mother coped you. I thin it is worthwhile for a Parent to spend at least 6 months in Australia beforehand because I think they need to get used to actually "living" in Australia as opposed to "just visiting" for a short while. I've only ever visited Australia for a month at a time. In a short vsit like that, I always feel like a "tourist" because we make a special effort to do things that my sister doesn't normally do whilst she is living in Oz all the time. It gives me an artificial impression of the place, I feel.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Gollywobbler]

Hi yes, she should be able to come. We looked into this but it didnt work for us. They call it the balance of family, if you have no siblings she can go to oz with her pension although it will be frozen at the rate when she leaves. We couldnt take my mum as she has 2 sons in uk, me her daughter will be in oz so balance of family she has more family in uk than in oz so not able to shes gonna visiti lots though, love her to bits

 

Hi there

 

If your mother is on her own and she is old enough, would she be eligible for an Aged Dependent Relative visa?

 

http://www.immi.gov.au/migrants/family/family-visas-other.htm

 

There is a myth going arouund that if the Parent is British, it will be "impossible" to get an ADR visa, supposedly because the Welfare State in the UK makes it impossible for someone in the UK to be totally destitute without financial support from their child. To say this is to misunderstand the basic Law. The Mogration Review Tribunal is more persuaded by the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the official Poverty Line in the UK because many Pensioners in the UK are living below the official Poverty Line:

 

http://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/5584

 

http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/MRTA/2008/981.html?stem=0&synonyms=0&query=Aged Dependent Relative Parr

 

A couple of years ago, a friend and I consulted Nigel Dobbie about whether it would be possible to get an ADR visa for her mother? (Like you, there was a daughter in Oz and two sons in the UK.) Nigel confirmed that the Australian legislation does not require that the person has to be destitute in their country of origin and the case of Mrs Parr shows that Nigel was right because Mrs Parr is British. Nigel Dobbie is this guy:

 

http://www.ddilawyers.com/directors_profiles.php

 

Apart from being a very nice man, Nigel has a mind like a razor. He reckoned that he would be able to get an ADR visa for my friend's mother but in the end, the mother decided that she did not want to live in Australia permanently. In view of the lady's refusal to apply, there was nothing that Ngel could do unless she eventually changes her mind.

 

According to Nigel, if someone is living below the official Poverty Line in their own country and there is firm evidence of payments by the child in Australoa, the chances are that an ADR visa will be possible. Seriously expert Immigration Law solicitors don't come any better than Nigel so I believe what he said.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Gollywobbler]

Hi Gill, Thank You very much indeed for your very informative post there :-)

 

Parents would indeed pass the BoF test, as there is only my Sister and I. Most of those Visas look like working out at about 80,000 AUD so may be a little out of their reach, but that's not really for me to comment or make a judgement call on. It's their money to spend how they like. However, the 804 would be more than achievable for them. I take it I would need to pay 7,000 AUD as an Assurance, and repay any benefits paid in the 2 year period of AoS? Not sure of what benefits my parents would even claim in that period, I would have thought the Aussie Government would just say no benefits in that period :-S

 

Would need to see if they like it first anyway, and I still need to get my own visa. Once again, thank you Gill.

 

Hi Chris-J

 

I've got conjunctivitis in one eye, which is making it very difficult for me to see the screen properly. Please accept my apologies for typos.

 

With the Assurance of Support, the Parents usually give the Bond money to the Assurer. The gift is not taxable in the Assuurer's hands because the Assurer uses the money for the benefit of the third party who provided the gift, so the taxman ignores the event.

 

You are right that Centrelink will not pay any Benefits during the 2 years of the AoS period.

 

The most important thing is that your Parents wuld be OK on the BoF Test, though.

 

Contributory Parent Visas are becoming ridiculously expensive in my view. We applied for my mother's CPV in 2005. At the time, the 2nd Instalment was £27,850 but the exchange rate was also about $2.50 AUD to £1 GBP.

 

In the Budget for 2011/2012, DIAC said that they are seeing a drop in demand for CPVs. (Is anyone surprised?!)

 

With Parent migration, the amount of the 2nd Instalment is a notional contribution to the Parent's future health care costs in Australia. This contribution is 0.5% with the non-contributory visas and 12.5% for the Contributory visas according to the Australian Government Actuary:

 

http://www.aga.gov.au/publications/#parent

 

A couple of years ago, the AGA did a Review of the CPV scheme and concluded that CPV holders are healthier than Aussie of the same age. The Parent won't get a CPV if s/he is sick. Therefore I think the contribution should be dropped to 10% because at the moment, the immigrant parents are propping up the costs for the existing population and the Government is treating the CPV applicants as cash cows.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest Chris_J]

Totally see what you're saying Gill, and it doesn't look good. The aged parent visa looks good though, and the bond wouldn't be a problem either, in the grand scheme of things.

 

Really depends on what they want to do too, as it looks like my Sister may well go an live in The States in the next few years. If I'm out there next year, I could well see my parents liking it. They like to travel, but as you say, they need to experience the life out there. In all honesty, my Dad would love it just for the weather and the Aussie attitude.