MikenSueNW3

An interesting and useful peice of news, Alan. I hope you won't mind it being quoted (with attribution) elsewhere.

Mike

Alan Collett

Is good with me, Mike.

Best regards.

DaveandLinda

Hi

You can pay to the Australian High Commisstion in London. Here's the link:

http://www.uk.embassy.gov.au/lhlh/fees.html

It's really swings and roundabouts, although the rate at the moment is fixed at 1.53 something so might work out a little cheaper than paying to Oz. Please note, though that the rate is only fixed until end of June and will probably change on 1st July, not sure if it will go up or down.

Use the currency converter here:

http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/990i.htm

to check how much you need to pay in £s.

You need to print off the payment mandate and complete it and send with a covering letter, a bank draft for the required amount and a copy of the 2nd VAC request. We got two 'silver pouches' (prepaid special delivery envelopes from the post office), the second one for them to return their receipt. Our CO then accepted a scanned copy of the receipt, although AHC very kindly also sent it to them.

If you are paying in Australia, many people send the money to their son'daughter's account and they then obtain the bank draft. Most people use one of the foreign exchange companies such as UKFored, HiFX etc.

MikenSueNW3

Thanks

durhamlad

At the moment if you have no funds in Australia then it is cheaper to pay in London than send money over to Australia and pay there.
The exchange rate is fixed on the 1st Jan and 1st July for 6 months and you can check how much you have to pay in UK£ on a on line calculator at http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/990i/converter.htm.
The details on how to pay in London can be found on the London web site http://www.immi.gov.au/contacts/over...nited-kingdom/

I just gone down this route and and posted more details on my experience in post 714 two pages back.
If I can be of any more help you can e mail me directly.

David

durhamlad

DaveandLinda - missed your reply to tinkerbelle146hp as did not see there was another page.
I paid in London and my CO e mailed me to let me know she had received the scanned receipt from the London office but had to wait until she received the original from them.
This is with her now and today I posted off our passports to London for our Visa's to be added.

David

Alan Collett

Some might be interested - from Senate Estimates on Monday (emphasis added):

"Even in the delivery of this year's migration program 2010-11, we are struggling to fill all of the places in the contributory parent visa category. When it comes to the second stage visa charge of around $37,000, which is quite significant for a person, people do struggle to find the money to pay that second visa application charge. So the change reflects the respective demand in the two visa categories. The other factor is client services, obviously.

With the allocation of only 1,000 places in the non-contributory parent category, parents in the queue will likely be waiting for around 30 years before they could be granted a visa, which practically makes the whole problem questionable. Why would we even have such a program if people need to wait for 30 years before the visa can be granted? The very small increase of 1,000 to 2,000 will reduce that waiting period from 30 years to 15 years. It is still significant. It reflects the cost to the budget and the community, but it is a small increase, and it was delivered from within another parent category where we are actually struggling to fill the program places."

(Hansard, page 33 here: http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/senate/commttee/s39.pdf)

Best regards.

SteveDW

Alan, thanks for making such a significant contribution to the forum. Does this mean that timelines for allocating COs should come down significantly? I can't see any reason why not.

jtct

...and now for some good news (for those who can still just about afford a CPV143). The process is getting quicker.......

Just received the request for our 2nd VAC and the house has just gone on the market - a viewing tonight and another on Friday!

What a day!

jtct

Just posted off the signed mandates to pay the 2nd VAC in London. Please could you update the tracker Steve? One more step and we're there!

pom1

Just to update any onshore applicants, we applied for our parents CAPV 864 in December 2010, paid 2nd Vac last Friday (20 May) and Visas granted on 23rd May. The process for onshore applications is quicker but looking at those being asked for 2nd vac not by too much these days. Good luck to those still waiting, hopefully it won't be too long before you can celebrate

jtct

I see there is not much movement on the tracker at the moment but I've seen various updates in other posts - is Steve around?

MikenSueNW3

Try "elsewhere"!

SteveDW

????

MikenSueNW3

Hi Have sent you a PM
Mike