Steven O'Neil

Dear All

We heard yesterday that there is some possibility (that is rumour which may not happen or may happen but is strong enough for me to post a thread about) that there will be a significant change to this visa subclass from the 1st of November 2003.

To explain the change I will give a little background about the visa. It is a 4 year temporary visa that allows a person over 55 to 'retire' in Australia. It has to be renewed after this initial 4 years and renewals are for 2 years at a time. These renewals require a person to again pass medicals, character checks and financial criteria.

These requirements do not have to be met for people who applied for their first retiree visa before 1/12/1998. These people are called 'established applicants' and simply have to fill in a form and pay a small fee in most cases to get the additional periods of 2 years. So to be an 'established applicant' is very good.

For new Retiree applicants after this date DIMIA made it very clear that they would have to pass health, police and financial checks to get renewals and were supposed to tell all visa applicants after this date that if they failed they may have to leave Australia. However Pretoria (South Africa) seem to have continued to tell Retiree visa applicants up until very recently that they would NOT have to pass this additional criteria.

DIMIA 'may' make a decision that from 1/11/2003 many if not all the 410 visa holders around the world who got their visa even AFTER 1/12/1998 up until the present will also be known as 'established applicants'. Basically because of the Pretoria error and to be fair to all visa holders. Hence they would not have to go through these continuous health and character checks.

As I stress this is not official and details are very sketchy but when I hear I will put it in our newsletter

http://www.iscah.com/newsletter.htm

As well as post it on this forum.

Cheers

Steven O'Neil
Perth
www.iscah.com

Alan Collett

Steven,

That is very interesting. It would also explain the acceleration we have seen recently in the processing of 410 applications in London from about 6 months down to the 2 to 3 months at present - we (that's us at Go Matilda) have been wondering whether this might have been a pre-cursor to a change of some kind in the 410 Regulations ...

Best regards.

Steven O'Neil

Hi Alan

Yes, good to see London increase processing time. DIMIA Perth sort of let the cat out of the bag. Hopefully it is followed through as described ...

Keep well !
regards
Steven O'Neil
Perth
www.iscah.com

Jaj

It's entirely possible that a concession of this nature could be
accompanied by a closure of the 410 visa to new applicants. To me, it
seems unrealistic to expect people to leave Australia on health after
many years in the community - and if DIMIA are not prepared to accept
that, it makes more sense not to offer the visa in the first place.

If it's still desirable to give a facility to well-off people from
overseas to spend time in Australia, then long stay tourist visas
would seem to be a better solution.

Jeremy

    >On Fri, 12 Sep 2003 08:31:42 +0000, Steven O'Neil <[email protected]> wrote:
    >Hi Alan
    >Yes, good to see London increase processing time. DIMIA Perth sort of
    >let the cat out of the bag. Hopefully it is followed through as
    >described ...
    >Keep well !
    >regards
    >Steven O'Neil
    >Perth
    >www.iscah.com
    >--
    >Posted via http://britishexpats.com

This is not intended to be legal advice in any jurisdiction

Tony Bryer

In article <[email protected]>, Jaj wrote:
    > To me, it seems unrealistic to expect people to leave Australia
    > on health after many years in the community - and if DIMIA are
    > not prepared to accept that, it makes more sense not to offer
    > the visa in the first place.

Not only unrealistic, unfair. I fully appreciate the argument
about not allowing retirees to be a burden on the Australian
taxpayer, but the reality is that by the time health gets to be
an issue many retirees will have been Australian taxpayers for
years, perhaps a couple of decades. If I get to retire to
Australia when I hope and live as long as my father I will
probably have paid more tax than the average Australian ever does
with very little to show for it.

Surely it would make more sense *for Australia* (as well as me)
to encourage me to come rather than making the rules less than
inviting?

--
Tony Bryer UK

Bob&anne

We have read the various comments about the possible changes to the 410 visa and are a bit worried as we weren`t intending applying for the visa until this time next year. We too had wondered if the visa would be discontinued.

Is it possible to apply now and keep the proceedings going for quite some time (up to a year). I know that this is unlikely but if anyone has any suggestions of a possible way round this we would be very grateful.

We have a son in Australia but he won`t get his permanent residency for about 18 months and we don`t want to have to wait for what would be at least 4 years, probably a lot more, for him to apply for us to go as parents.

We are at present in Saudi Arabia and, as such we are committed for the next year plus have to put our UK home on the market. The Australian Embassy here does not handle immigration issues.

Anne & Bob

Alan Collett

There's no talk of the 410 visa category being discontinued. Rather those who apply for such a visa before the start of November may (emphasis - MAY) have benefits in years to come.

As to stretching out a 410 application through the AHC in London - I'd be surprised if you could achieve this given what we are seeing at the moment with what is becoming an almost immovable 49 day deadline for the lodgement of documents, including the situation where applicants are being asked to confirm they have the proceeds from the sale of their property within 49 days of the issue of the case officer's letter. It is fast becoming the case that 410 applicants in the UK who are relying on the release of the equity in their homes to meet the financial requirements are having to market their property for sale at the same time as their visa application is submitted.

Best regards.

Bob&anne

Thanks for your very prompt reply Alan

We will just hang on here and hope that if there are changes to the visa they won`t affect us too much.

It is very difficult to sort very much out from here.

Thanks again
Anne & Bob

Jaj

    >On Mon, 15 Sep 2003 10:49:36 +0000, Alan Collett <[email protected]> wrote:
    >There's no talk of the 410 visa category being discontinued. Rather
    >those who apply for such a visa before the start of November may
    >(emphasis - MAY) have benefits in years to come.

While I agree with Alan that there's no talk of closing down the 410
visa, the capacity of DIMIA to surprise should not be underestimated.



    >> Is it possible to apply now and keep the proceedings going for quite
    >> some time (up to a year). I know that this is unlikely but if
    >> anyone has any suggestions of a possible way round this we would be
    >> very grateful.

As long as you meet the requirements to be granted the visa, it should
be possible to get the visa now and then use it to go to Australia in
a year's time.


    >> We have a son in Australia but he won`t get his permanent residency
    >> for about 18 months and we don`t want to have to wait for what would
    >> be at least 4 years, probably a lot more, for him to apply for us to
    >> go as parents.

Your son needs to be a 'settled' permanent resident to sponsor you for
Contributory Parent visas, and you need to meet the 'balance of
family' test.

I suggest you contact an agent to understand your options and the
potential timescales more clearly. And also to see if an early
retirement visa application is feasible.


    >> We are at present in Saudi Arabia and, as such we are committed for
    >> the next year plus have to put our UK home on the market. The
    >> Australian Embassy here does not handle immigration issues.

The DIMIA office with jurisdiction over Saudi Arabia is the Australian
Consulate General in Dubai.
http://www.immi.gov.au/wwi/index_u.htm#dubai

I would think it would also be ok to apply to the AHC London as you
are British citizens. Again, an agent could advise in more detail.

Jeremy


This is not intended to be legal advice in any jurisdiction

Steven O'Neil

The legislation for this change has now been released. In short it seems to extend the requirement NOT to have to meet onerous health and financial renewal criteria to ALL holders of the 410 retiree visa. There are still checks for contageous diseases and police checks but in short it will make it much easier to extend retiree visas from 1/11/2003.




Policy ...

The criteria for the grant of a Subclass 410 (Retirement) visa are divided into two streams. One requires particular applicants to satisfy, among other things, certain public interest criteria (including health) and financial requirements. The other requires particular applicants to meet the public interest criteria, but not the health public interest criterion or financial requirements. The purpose of the separate streams was, in 1998, to require higher standards of health and finance for applicants who were granted a Subclass 410 or equivalent visa on or before 30 November 1998 or were granted a Subclass 410 visa on or after 1 December 1998 on the basis of an application made before 1 December 1998 and who have not held a different visa since then. The amendments also exempted existing holders from the more onerous criteria even for subsequent visas.


These amendments extend the availability of the less onerous criteria to a larger group of applicants. Without these amendments, the less onerous criteria are only available to applicants who were granted a Subclass 410 or equivalent visa on or before 30 November 1998 or were granted a Subclass 410 visa on or after 1 December 1998 on the basis of an application made before 1 December 1998 and who have not held a different visa since then.

These amendments allow any applicant who holds or has ever held a Subclass 410 visa an exemption from satisfying financial criteria for subsequent 410 visas. This is consistent with the policy intention that once financial requirements are satisfied for the grant of a Subclass 410 visa, they do not need to be re-satisfied for a further Subclass 410 visa.

While applicants for the less onerous stream are required to meet a less onerous health requirement, both groups of applicants will ordinarily be required to undergo health assessment with a relevant medical practitioner for the purposes of detecting public health issues, mainly tuberculosis.






Regards

Steven O'Neil
Perth
www.iscah.com

Bob&anne

That does seem like very good news about the changes in the visa. What it didn`t seem to say was what would happen if you apply after Nov 1, or maybe I just missed it.

I think we will have to wait as, although we have the assets for the visa we can`t get access to most of them before Nov 1.

And thanks for the info. I am sure a lot of people will be very happy to read your posting.
Anne

smurtaza

Hi,

I received a request for Medicals and PCC from DIMA for offshore application, with a letter stating that "provided you or other member should not be in Australia".

Can we complete our medicals in Australia (Melbourne)?

I am on Student Visa (Sub Class:574) here in Australia. Keeping in view the letter should I mentioned this (student visa sub class:574) and my entry to Australia on FORM 1022?

Question 13 and Question 14, in form 1022 states that (visa details) visa granted date/stay/visa class.And (Visa details) date of application/lodged at/Visa class etc.

Should I mention details of my student visa sub class : 574 in this space?Please confirm and suggest.

Thanks in advance.

yafm

Hi we applied for the visa in Februayr and wer advised we did not need to find the monies until the advices that the visa was available - like now we are selling the house to complete the matter and have been given the first 49 days grace to do so They have advised that if WE ASK we can extend the time for another 49 days.

Lilith

Wow, that is really good news. My mom handed in her onboard
application back in late August and is still waiting for it to go
through. Is there any official links that you can provide? I went to
the DIMIA site and didn't find the relevant amendments.

Thanks!

--Lilith

Steven O'Neil <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
    > The legislation for this change has now been released. In short it seems
    > to extend the requirement NOT to have to meet onerous health and
    > financial renewal criteria to ALL holders of the 410 retiree visa. There
    > are still checks for contageous diseases and police checks but in short
    > it will make it much easier to extend retiree visas from 1/11/2003.
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > Policy ...
    >
    >
    >
    > The criteria for the grant of a Subclass 410 (Retirement) visa are
    > divided into two streams. One requires particular applicants to satisfy,
    > among other things, certain public interest criteria (including health)
    > and financial requirements. The other requires particular applicants to
    > meet the public interest criteria, but not the health public interest
    > criterion or financial requirements. The purpose of the separate streams
    > was, in 1998, to require higher standards of health and finance for
    > applicants who were granted a Subclass 410 or equivalent visa on or
    > before 30 November 1998 or were granted a Subclass 410 visa on or after
    > 1 December 1998 on the basis of an application made before 1 December
    > 1998 and who have not held a different visa since then. The amendments
    > also exempted existing holders from the more onerous criteria even for
    > subsequent visas.
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > These amendments extend the availability of the less onerous criteria to
    > a larger group of applicants. Without these amendments, the less onerous
    > criteria are only available to applicants who were granted a Subclass
    > 410 or equivalent visa on or before 30 November 1998 or were granted a
    > Subclass 410 visa on or after 1 December 1998 on the basis of an
    > application made before 1 December 1998 and who have not held a
    > different visa since then.
    >
    >
    >
    > These amendments allow any applicant who holds or has ever held a
    > Subclass 410 visa an exemption from satisfying financial criteria for
    > subsequent 410 visas. This is consistent with the policy intention
    > that once financial requirements are satisfied for the grant of a
    > Subclass 410 visa, they do not need to be re-satisfied for a further
    > Subclass 410 visa.
    >
    >
    >
    > While applicants for the less onerous stream are required to meet a less
    > onerous health requirement, both groups of applicants will ordinarily be
    > required to undergo health assessment with a relevant medical
    > practitioner for the purposes of detecting public health issues, mainly
    > tuberculosis.
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > Regards
    >
    >
    >
    > Steven O'Neil
    >
    > Perth
    >
    > www.iscah.com

Steven O'Neil

Lnks are here to the 410 changes

http://scaleplus.law.gov.au/html/numrul/19/9887/top.htm
http://scaleplus.law.gov.au/html/ess...0030918239.htm

Regards

Steven O'Neil
Perth
www.iscah.com