Summer05

Well, I have been a member of this forum since 2008 when we were desperately trying to get a visa to move to australia. Who would have thought I would come back to ask for advise on a return resident visa.

Anyhow, I hope someone can help please. We moved to australia in 2009 and became permanent residents in 2011. We came back to UK in 2012 with our three children ( one of them Australian born)

Our perm visa in the passport indicates we must be in australia by Nov 2016. However we have a 15 yr old who is due to sit GCSEs next May 2017.
My question is - can we apply, lets say this August, for a one year return resident visa ( offshore) which I understand if granted will cancel our current PR and give us time until Aug next yr to enter Australia ( by which time our son would have finished his exams)?

If we are not granted the visa will our PR still be available or cancelled because we have made another application?

We will be moving permanently to Australia this time but thought we give our son the chance of taking his GCSE exams since he did so well here at school.
What are our options?

Thanks all for your advice. This forum is priceless.

Bermudashorts

You ask the question " can we apply..". Well yes, of course you can apply..

I guess what you really want to ask is "what are our chances of success?" And to this there is no good answer, you will not know until you apply as decisions appear to be taken on a case by case basis and it is all shades of grey not black or white. I gather you were only in Australia for a few months during the duration of the current visa?

If you apply in August and are unsuccessful, well you still have a few months left on the current visa so you could move then or even just one of you move then. With one person in the country having established a home, the rest of the family should secure a RRV fairly easily because that first family member will provide the significant ties.

If you are unsuccessful with the RRV, nothing happens to your current status as permanent residents. You just won't be able to do anything with it as you cannot get into the country!

As an aside, GCSEs are of little value in Australia and if you intend this to be a permanent move I would think your son would value more from a extra year in the Australian system prior to commencing high school exams.

Summer05

Thank you very much for your reply. Much appreciated. And yes it makes sense - I should have asked are 'we going to be successful'

We were in Australia for 3 yrs and the last one as pr so only one year on current visa. So as I understand it, if I return with two of the children, and my husband stays here with our son, and if they apply for a resident return after nov 2016 they would have a much better chance of being granted the visa due to substantial ties with the country - I.e myself and two children.

Does it matter how long it has been since their pr lapsed and when should they make an application, in order to give our son time to complete school? I am thinking around March April 2017.
It's so difficult - we love both countries and hard to split families. Thanks again.

Pollyana

The RRV doesn't cancel your PR visa. Your PR visa still exists, getting the RRV just extends the travel portion of it.#If you are in Australia when the travel part runs out (ie Nov 2016) then it remains in effect and you can stay here permanently no need to do anything. Its only because you are offshore that you have the problem.
So if you apply and are granted a RRV you get travel rights for the length of the RRV, and so really need to be in Aus before that expires. Your PR stays in effect and gives you the right to stay here.

Granting of RRVs does seem to be a lot more common these days for people offshore so its certainly worth a try, no one can predict whether you will be successful.

Summer05

Thank you Pollyanna- nice to read your reply as well as bermudashorts, and see you are still helping others in this forum.

We would give it a go then and hope for the best. It will be difficult to get a one year extension to our travel facility but I dot know other than one of us going back what other options we have.

I would be interested in hearing if anyone else has been in this situation.

Bermudashorts

Before you split the family temporarily, I think you should just try and get the RRVs from overseas and see what happens. To save fees, as it is a few hundred each, apply for one of you first of all. If that person is successful, the others can then apply and you are all good to go.

I was suggesting as a back up plan only, that IF you are unsuccessful with an initial application, then one of you could move ahead on the current visa and then once that person is established the others apply for a RRV with the intention to join post exams. If you do need to use this back up plan, I don't think it matters when they apply, whenever the first person is established I guess.

Pollyana

If part of the family are back over here, yes it gives your husband and son a much higher chance of the RRV being granted.

Summer05

Yes you are correct- I kind of thought we might need to do the split as a back up anyhow.
I might try applying for it myself and hopefully they don't grant me a three months one. Not sure what would classify as substantial ties with Aus other than we have visited Aus on holidays during our time we have been away and we had loads of very close friends there and one Ozie child.

Thanks again. Eda

Bermudashorts

You are very unlikely to get a three month RRV. This is really more of the emergency RRV and would be more likely to be granted onshore for somebody that needed to make a trip back but hadn't yet put down roots say. It will be a one year RRV or nothing.

The Australian child is good thing to highlight. Otherwise I think all you can do is highlight the families plans to return for good and cross fingers.

Good luck.

Summer05

Thanks for all of this bermudashorts. I will keep you all updated. From research that I did on this website there were quite a few cases similar to ours but it couldn't establish their outcome.

Kind regards
Eda

airlineguy1980

summer 05 check your PM

spouse of scouse

Why are you asking forum members to check their private messages? The OP hasn't posted for 6 months. If you want information, or think you have some to offer, post it on the open forum so others can either benefit from it, or can correct any mistakes.

airlineguy1980

I do help scouse just I don't like to be judged. Then every body will jump like oh it is unfair bla bla. Check other rrv post. When ever a person say they didn't make the move and want to keep the pr. Instead of the advice majority will start this judgments oh you should move and leave you family or children school or forsake the pr. In fact many people can sometimes keep the pr and settle their stuff overseas in respect to education or work

mikelincs

Quite true, but offering advice by pm to someone who hasn't been on the forum for 6 months is likely to be a total waste of time, also we do ask that advice on visas etc is given in open forum so that other members, who may well be visa specialists, can make any comments as we all know that visa requirements do change, If you are a visa specialist then that would be helpful to know as people would then realise you were posting with relevant experience.

airlineguy1980

I only suggested to share it in pm. I don't ask money or anything. Just I keep my head down and reduce the stress of people who really need rrv and they follow the rules