mike and margaret

We are retired UK citizens and felt despondent recently after making enquiries about immigration to join our only daughter and her family who are emigrating in the next few weeks. It appears that we cannot satisfy the balance of family test because of children from my husbands first marriage. The marriage was dissolved in 1974 and the 3 children from that marriage are now aged 42,43 and 44. Two of them have taken citizenship of the country of their husbands. They have settled and have families in their respective countries. One of them in USA and another in Germany, the third is still a UK citizen. We very rarely have any contact with them. I have been told that the balance of family test is to ensure that you have family support while living in Australia, but we are quite self sufficient and have many other relatives over there. Uncle, cousins and their families. As we get older, and less able to travel, we want to live near to our daughter and grandchildren and give each other the mutual support that we always have until now. Does anyone know any way that we can find a way to overcome this situation. A desperate Mike and Margaret

Grayling

Unfortunately those are the rules and many fall foul of them.

The balance of family test is not simply designed to ensure that you have support.

It is a way of limiting numbers of applicants. Parent visas entitle the holder to medicare and all the other benefits of a PR visa.

The remaining relative visa works in a similar way otherwise the demand for such visas would be overwhelming.

If you have the resources then a retirement visa may be appropriate. Requires a bond of $750000 and a minimum income of $50000 pa (less in regional areas).

G

mike and margaret

Thank you for your reply. Yes we had made some enquiries about the investment retirement visa and are aware of the basic facts. Is this visa something we could subscribe to while we were in Australia on holiday with the family, or does it have to be applied for before we go. Also, we know that after the initial investment period, we could to reinvest for further periods and the amount would be substantially reduced for those subsequent periods. For these further periods of investment, is the required income stream likely to remain the same, or would it rise together with the australian inflation rate. One big concern that we have is that if we were to make several periods of investment, how would we fare if we became too incapacitated or infirm in any that prohibited us from any further investments. Presumably by then, we would have cut all ties with our home country. Would we be asked to leave australia after many years there and have to leave with no home to go to? Is this where the additional amount paid to the Australian government for Social Security comes into play? Regards Mike and Margaret