ktyler1961

Hi There,
Can anyone help me with a few questions I have. I have tried using the www.immi.gov.au site but cannot seem to find the answers or find an email address to send my queries to.
I have a class BN resident visa sub class 136 granted 5th March 2005 until 5th March 2008 and I am about to leave to emmigrate.
The first question is: My visa is actually in a British passport that expired in October 2005 and I now have a new passport. I am led to believe that I will need to carry the two passports when I travel and that this is OK. Do I need to get it transferred into my new passport or is it OK to use the old one to show my visa at immigration ?
The second question is: When my visa expires do I have to apply for another one whilst in Oz or can I just keep on living there ?
The third question is: Does this visa restrict where I can work in Oz or can I go anywhere ?
I know these questions may seem a bit dumb but it is three years since I got my visa and I'm having a problem contacting the relevant authorities via the net. Any help will be very much appreciated.
Moonbeast

Wendy

Yes you can carry both passports and then once in Australia you can arrange for the visa to be placed into your new passport.

No you can stay without getting a new visa, however if you wish to travel outside of Australia you will need to either be a citizen or get a RRV (residents Return Visa) to be able to get back into the country. You can apply for them from the DIMA website.
You can work or live anywhere in Australia on a 136 PR visa

Have a good flight

Pollyana

This might be a silly question but....if your visa was granted in March 2005, have you already visited Australia to validate it? because if not, check the entry date on it. 136 visas usually have a 12 month validation on them, which would mean you should have made your first entry by Mar 5th this year. If you've already done that, you can ignore this post!!

I'll agree with Wendy on all the rest of the answers!

Wendy

That was my first thought too.

JAJ

That doesn't sound right. 136 visas are usually valid for 5 years, not 3. Can you please check/confirm the dates, also let the forum know whether or not you have validated the visa by entering Australia.

Pollyana

You anticipated my - and probably Wendy's - next question!

Wendy

Yes,

I didn't really take notice of the dates as I was quite busy planning my trip round Australia !! Very excited about it

LoneRanger

When you off then Wendy? You will promise to keep a diary of your trip and let us all know the good, the bad and the ugly?

LR

The Norwegian

He says he got his visa 3 years ago, that should be in 2003, It expires in 2008 which is 5 years later.

The question is, did he validate?

Erik the Viking

ktyler1961

Thanks for that Wendy I think I'll be having a two month atop over in Thailand to have a short break from the flight.
Rgards,
Moonbeast

joho

Have you been to australia since your visa was granted.

Jo

ktyler1961

Hi Erik, Wendy, Pollyana. The question on everybodies lips, 'did he validate ?'.
Yes, I validated it in 2003 by flying into Sydney and then proceeded to travel up and down the east coast for a couple of months. When I got the visa in mid May 2003, the Oz authorities insisted that I had to validate the visa by June 30th 2003, so they gave me six weeks. I had to drop everything and go basically. And it was winter and I ended up coming home with Bronchitis. I thought I was going to die on the plane home. So my first taste of Oz was a bit rushed and I didn't get time to plan anything really which sort of spoilt my first impressions of the place. Where does all this twelve months to validate come from anyway ? I've never heard that before. And yes, the visa is a five year one but I haven't got my head around leaving the UK yet.
Cheers,
Moonbeast

Wendy

I have no idea when we are going at the minute. I have a sort of travel plan, just needs tweaking a little. Oh and I need the date we can go

All hanging on the sale of my house, we had a few hiccups like the survey saying she should have the roof checked and the searches haven't been started cos she forgot to sign the cheque

But, yes I will write it down and post it once I finally land in Adelaide. We're looking at taking about a month - six weeks to travel from Brisbane to Adelaide and it's unbelievable cheap. Only about as much as we would spend on a holiday to Greece.

Pollyana

Hi,
Its usually 12 months from the date of the police check or medical, whichever was earlier. and as visas took longer generally then that may have affected the length of time available to you.
Sorry it was such an awful trip for you. Lets hope the actual move will be more enjoyable.