Please help. My parents emigrated to Australia back in 2009. However after a few years in Oz they decided to return to the UK for good. In order to emigrate to Australia on a Contributory Parent Visa they had to pay something like $64,000 into Medicare. Is it possible to have some of this money refunded to them???? Can Medicare look into how much of that was used by my parents while in Australia and then refund them the difference? Obviously this is a huge amount of money and it was a very expensive mistake to make.

Not sure if this is the best place to ask, if not please can you point me in the right direction.

Many thanks for your help
Janine

Unfortunately the large second VAC is non refundable.

The $64,000 question is a little ambiguous - was this the sum of the CPV PLUS the $10k and $4k bonds? If so (and like my own case) the $14k should be refunded after 10 years. (We are currently waiting for ours to come back)

No its the Medicare contribution. We know we can get the $14,000 back from Centre Link after 10 years, its the buying into Medicare bit they had to do for the visa. It was a long shot I didn't think they would be able to get a portion of it back, but I was hoping. I though it would be easy for Medicare to see exactly how much of that money was used, maybe deduct that and a same fee and then return the rest. I guess I was being hopeful lol.

Thanks guys

Well it isn't specifically called a Medicare contribution, it is just a second visa application charge and visa application charges are not refundable because the applicant decides they don't like Australia.

It is certainly a cautionary tale, that parent visa is a massive investment and fact is Australia is not for everyone.

I tried repeatedly to find the page where it says what the CPV "contribution" is, and what it represents, but cannot locate it. Not surprising....

The contribution is a visa application charge paid for faster processing of the visa - http://www.immi.gov.au/Visas/Pages/143.aspx

Current costs are here - http://www.immi.gov.au/Help/Pages/fe...rges/visa.aspx

Thanks for all the comments, appreciate the information. My parents didn't decide they didn't like Australia, just for clarification. They moved to OZ to be with family, the family then relocated due to work and they were made homeless. Unable to afford the huge cost of living they returned. Yes it is a cautionary tale, that nothing in life is forever or certain. Some times you have to take risks and they don't always work out. I don't think they regret what they did. I just thought it would be worth exploring the chance of some of the money being returned. Never hurts to ask.

Thanks again everyone

I've been looking at those pages but nowhere can I find the costs - only the *visa* application prices.

What costs are you looking for other than visa application charges?

We paid the $25,000 each on top of the application charges. I can't find the current amount anywhere.

Then there was the $14k bond....

Did you look at the notes under the parent visas - the second application charge of the different visas is given there with varying amounts up to $43600

No - too simple for me! Having scrolled down now, I see the costs and have lost the will to live. Aussies just LOVE to make everything complicated, don't they?

It's not the easiest to follow is it

Not us ordinary Aussies Wol, just the bureaucrats Sends us troppo as well!