polsteam

Two of our three sons have emigrated to Oz and are now citizens. Our third son is expecting to emigrate out there later this year. We applied for a parents visa two and a half years ago and have been accepted but have been told that we will have to wait for several years before we will get our visas. One of our sons has been married to an Australian girl for ten years and they are desperately wanting to have children but need to have some family support before they do so as our daughter in law suffers from quite a severe arthritic condition. The DIMA know about this but seem to be either unwilling or unable to help us out. Our daughter in laws family live too far away to be able to help out and unfortunately we are not in a financial position to be able to swap over to a contributary visa which ofcourse would get us there much sooner. Has anyone out there got any suggestions as to what our next course of action should be? My husband is retired but I am still of working age.

The Bread Knife

I am sorry to hear about your situation, it must be frustrating.
I know that the contributary visa does allow you to pay half now and the second half in two years time.I don't know if this is any help to you or not.Hope things works out

The bread Knife

polsteam

Thankyou Bread Knife, that's a good bit of helpful information for if things get really desperate. Do you think it would do any good to consult an immigration agent at this stage?

Stewie

Hi

We have applied for a contributory parent visa.
I know you said you're not in a financial position to go this route, but do you have a property here?

The only reason I ask is that the only way we can go the contributory route is to use the money from the sale of our house.

Just a thought.

regards

polsteam

Hi Stewie, thanks for your reply. Yes we do own a property here but it is in an area where house prices are relatively quite low so to take a chunk of £20000 or so out of the sales proceeds would not leave us with enough to buy another house in Oz. I wish you good luck with your own application.

cheakyboy

Hi Stewie

We applied for a parents visa last November. We have thought about applying for the contributory visa and after reading polsteams plight thats made me think harder about it.

Have they given you any clues on how long you will have to wait to get your visa?

cheakyboy

tinaj

Sorry to hear your plight. I don't know if DIMIA take any notice of individual circumstances, they seem to have the parental retirement visa way down the list of priority.

An expat friend of mine applied for her parents to come out 5 years ago and they are still on the list and waiting. She was told 5-10 years wait and then they have to have their medicals done again before they are actually given the visas.

I hope there is some solution for you soon.

JAJ

The rules are the rules.

Option is either to wait your turn in the regular parent queue, or switch to the contributory parent queue.

DIMIA will *not* show any flexibility because of particular circumstances.

Parliament has legislated quite clearly that the majority of parents are generally expected to make a financial contribution to reflect the fact that (on average) many of them are going to use a lot of Australian healthcare and not necessarily be a part of Australia's workforce beforehand. Hence the Contributory Parent visa.

Those who want a visa without making this contribution need to wait because demand for PR on this basis far exceeds what the Australian community is prepared to supply in the way of visas.

If the relative's need for care is substantial and no other source of assistance is available, then there is a Carer visa potentially available:
http://www.immi.gov.au/migration/fam...hers/carer.htm

However - be warned that this is a *difficult* visa to obtain and good professional advice is needed before you can even think about proceeding along these lines. Otherwise there is a high risk of lots of money and time being wasted on an application doomed to refusal from the start.

Jeremy

letsg2au

I learned from somewhere, currently there are some 18,000 applications in the pool, the quota is 750 per annum. If you apply now, you'd have to wait 20 years to get through

Alan Collett

Are your children in a position to help you financially with a Contributory Parent visa application? Just a thought ...

Best regards.

CadburysFingers

Just a thought, but if you sell your house, then rent over here instead of buying, then you would be able to fulfil your application. Alternatively the majority of houses over here are so big you could all share a house, and not even know it. Also there are many properties with separate annexes/granny flats/childrens dens attached, I am sure if you look around you will find suitable accomodation almost in every suberb.

JAJ

From the DIMIA website:
http://www.immi.gov.au/migration/fam...ts/parents.htm

"There are currently around 15,800 parents in the queue and around 7,000 parents being processed towards placement in the queue."

The quota for the *regular* parent visa is 1000 per year.

However, not all of the 22,800 figure quoted will actually receive regular parent visas in the end. People will leave the queue for a variety of reasons other than visa grant including:

- transfer to Contributory Parent;
- death;
- refusal (normally on health grounds, or because of problems with sponsorship/assurance before visa grant)

Also note that there are two queues - an onshore and an offshore queue, with a different age profile (because you need to be 'aged' to apply onshore).

Jeremy

Timber Floor Au

arent you assuming she or he would be going there to retire, isnt it a case that they could migrate off their own back, using a business skills visa etc

JAJ

It's quite open for parents to apply as a business migrant if they meet the requirements.

The age limit for state sponsored business migration is 55, while it's 45 for non-state sponsored business migrants.

Some parents even go the general skilled route, but the 45 age bar excludes most of them.

There is no specific rule that *insists* that parents go down the Contributory Parent route. If they qualify for another visa, they can apply that way.

Most people who qualify for the business visas would have enough money to pay the Contributory Parent charges, and because business migration only gives you temporary residence initially it would make more sense for many to pay the charges to get a PR visa. But that does depend on circumstances. Some people might choose to try a business visa, with a contributory parent application as a fall back if necessary. Professional advice is important in comparing these two complex visas.

If a Contributory Parent visa holder wants to work or set up a business they are free to do so. However the Government is of the view that most will not, hence the charges.

Jeremy

mpooley

My Father in law would like to apply while he is in Australia. Could anyone tell me how long the queue would be please?
He is 79 yrs old and cant afford the contributitory visa

Also would his medical bills (if any) be covered by some reciprocal arrangement with the UK . while he's on a bridging Visa?

Thanks
Mike