temporary vs permanent residency

[Caroline 72]

So yeah - we have a year or so left on our 457 visa and are thinking about what we should do next - whether to apply for PR or look at extending our temporary visa. Although we are settled here at the moment we are pretty sure that at the end of the day we will want to return to the UK. This is partly, although not wholly, due to the fact that we still have a house in the UK which is in the middle of Wales and which we are unlikely to ever be able to sell. Most of our capital is tied up in that house and so as long as we live in Australia we will have a pretty hefty mortgage.

 

I know that there are pension and tax implications with PR relating to UK pensions and rental income but also someone at work told me that if you have Aus PR and wish to return to the UK at a later date you are unable to take your Aus pension with you. This might be the single, biggest issue that swings us away from PR as our UK pensions have already taken a battering one way or another and we really don't want to lose any more of our pension pot. Does anyone have any knowledge of this??

 

I have had a read through some old posts and can't see anything about it but maybe I typed in the wrong search terms. I see that some people have gone backwards and forwards between Aus-UK so maybe they have some experience of this...?

 

I'm also still looking into what our visa options are following on from a 457. I'm kind of assuming that we can just apply for another four years. But maybe we can't?

 

We have a while yet before we need to make a decision but I feel that we need to get all the information together soon so that we can make an informed decision. It seems that applying for PR at this point would be the 'natural' thing to do but I think we need to be sure. If anyone else has faced this decision I would be interested to hear what they chose to do.

 

Caroline

[Blossom]

You are correct about the super.

 

If you never plan on staying for good, and you are happy to risk losing your job and having three months to leave then I'd just stay on the 457 visa.

[TeeTMI]

I'm also still looking into what our visa options are following on from a 457. I'm kind of assuming that we can just apply for another four years. But maybe we can't?

 

Caroline

 

From a purely technical point of view you would not apply for another 4 years but assuming they are still eligible your employer would need to sponsor you for another 4 years. For example depending upon whether their status as an approved sponsor is still valid they may need to apply for this again? Plus some of the requirements for sponsors have got tougher.

 

From the visa side of things other options might include - your employer sponsoring you for permanent residency or applying for a skilled independent visa. I have a leaflet discussing visa options from a 457 visa if you would like to email me I can send you one.

 

Tee

[Justine79]

Hi TeeTMI

 

I'm in the same boat as Caroline 72, OH, myself and son have got 1 year and a half left on our 457 and looking at ways we can convert to a PR visa.

 

Please could you email me a leaflet discussing visa options?