pazza

Hi,

With the recession and a lot of people struggling with either lack of work or the £ against the $ making buying houses a lot more expensive, i wonder how many people in the UK go through the visa process, get accepted, then wait for everything to hopefully get "better", before moving over. That said, after you've been granted your visa and you've validated it, how long does your visa stay activated for before you've "got" to move over to Aus ?
It seems a real shame that peoples dreams can be shattered so easily, one minute the ecomony's fine then by the time you go through the visa stages, come to sell your home and move over, everything goes t*ts up.

cgreen

Your visa is valid for 1 year from the date you received your police check or medical. So if you completed your medical on the 3rd September 2009, your initial entry date to Australia to validate your visa will be 3rd September 2010.
I am an Australian citizen who will be returning to Australia with my husband who is Northern Irish in August. The rubbish exchange rate concerns me however 7 months is a long time where the economy is concerned. It is the risk you take. I thought it had bottomed out a little while there to $1.75 to the £1 however it seems to be getting lower. Here's hoping the pound strengthens within the next year.

JenJen

what visa do you have???

We had 6 months to validate our visa's - while our daughter has a year to validate hers now.
We validated our visa's back in 2007? and to my knowledge we had 5 years from that date to move out there, think we will need to get another visa while we're out there if we wanted to stay past 2012 but once we've done that we'd prob do citizenship if all was going well.

Janna and Nick

On an independent (175 or 176) visa you have 1 year from medicals or police checks (whichever is older) to validate, you then get a further 4 years to make your final move. 5 years in total from the granting of your visa to make the move.

Ours was granted on the 10th September 2009, we have until the 4th September 2010 (date the meds were submitted) to validate and then until the 4th September 2014 to make the final move.

We're um'ing and ah'ing at the moment. House has been on the market since the middle of November and we've had 13 viewings with 2 silly offers. We're set to fly out on the 20th May....

At this point I have no idea what we'll be doing.

I am trying to be positive, the house will sell and we'll be on the plane on the 20th May and on our way to Australia....

cgreen

I am Australian so my husband was accepted via a spouse visa. He needs to validate by the 3rd of September 2010 but we will move out August this year. Despite the exchange rate something else may crop up anyway so we'll make the move this year. The longer you leave it the chance of some change in personal circumstances or something else holding you back is more likely.

pazza

Thanks very much everyone for your replies.
Jenjen we haven't applied for our visa yet, i'll be going for skilled independent for a bricky.
I think it gives you a lot of time for it to change for the better when you've got 5 years to move over after the initial being granted.

Dorothy

Not true. It depends on what visa type.
You've got years before you even get a visa, so things will probably have improved financially by then. See the sticky in the immigration section for current processing priorities.

pazza

Hi Dorothy,
I Looked on that processing priorities, i'm not sure what the timescale would be, so how long do you think it would be to get a skilled visa ball rolling. I hope it's not years, as my biological is ticking away very quickly

Rossi

Do you keep your money in the UK earning 0.5% interest OR suffer the exchange rate and earn 6.5% term deposit interest here in Aus??

Maths never was my strong point

Dorothy

Currently non-CSL 175 visas are lowest priority, with processing expected in 2013. That means that if you applied for your visa today the application would be processed in 2013. Although, things can change overnight, so who's to say DIAC won't turn around tomorrow and start processing 175 visas in 3 months?

Your best bet is to make sure you are actually eligible for a visa, apply for your skills assessment, apply for your visa and sit back, get on with life and when/if your visa is granted decide if it's the right time to move.

JCSUPERMOTO

Yeah good call rossi!

So lets say for instance you brought over £10k and lost out on the exchange rate but gained on the banks interest rate,whast the sums?

ABC? "WORK YA MAGIC"!

Bermudashorts

Well of course it is impossible to answer until afterwards but here's some rough figures.

If I start with £10,000 convert now to AUD at 1.75 and place on deposit at 6.5% for one year then I end up with $18,637

i.e. 10,000 x 1.75 x 1.065

If I start with £10,000 keep in sterling at 0.5% interest for one year I end up with £10,050.

For me to be better off keeping my money in GBP for the year and then converting, the rate would have to rise to 1.854478 by the end of it.

i.e. 18,637 / 10050.

So if you think the rate will go above 1.854478 in a years time then you are better off keeping it in GBP. If you think it won't then might as well convert now.

It is crystal ball time I am afraid.

Also this is a bit over simplified because if the GBP is strengthening then it might indicate that the interst rate is rising too as the two are linked.

chilliman

Or put your money offshore where the interest rates are higher & the gap is narrower!?

ABCDiamond

Maths was my strong point, but this goes well beyond maths.

This is gambling with no rules.

MartinH

What do you call "silly"?