Please see this article on Go Matilda News, updated following communications with the Department of Immigration:
http://www.gomatilda.com/news/article.cfm?articleid=465

Best regards.

Hi Allan,

My parents lodged their application for 173 in May 2008 .Does this mean they are looking at 2010 for a visa grant.
Also 4 months have already elasped since they lodged their application, so I was thiking on frontloading their medicals and PCC's assuming that the case officer will be allocated in about 8 more months. Please let me kow if this is a bad idea.
Regards,
IB.

quote:

Originally posted by Alan Collett:
Please see this article on Go Matilda News, updated following communications with the Department of Immigration:
http://www.gomatilda.com/news/article.cfm?articleid=465

Best regards.

Having lodged our application on 27th September 2007, I reckon we will have to consider ourselves as borderline cases.

But it is great to have some clearcut information as to where we stand.( With our fingers crossed ).

Many thanks Alan.

PatnPete

quote:

Originally posted by ivanab:
Hi Allan,

My parents lodged their application for 173 in May 2008 .Does this mean they are looking at 2010 for a visa grant.
Also 4 months have already elasped since they lodged their application, so I was thiking on frontloading their medicals and PCC's assuming that the case officer will be allocated in about 8 more months. Please let me kow if this is a bad idea.
Regards,
IB.

Hello Ivana

Alan will advise you as appropriate. I'm merely tossing in my thoughts for you to consider.

According to Alan's discussions with the POPC, they expect to get properly organised with the Queue Calculator by the end of 2008. The intention seems to be that they will tell CPV applicants what their formal Queue Date is.

Applicants for the offshore CPV 143 and 173 do not have to undergo meds and police checks in order to be added to the Queue.

Therefore in your parents' shoes, I would do nothing about meds and police checks for the time being. I would wait, do nothing, let the POPC get the Queue properly organised, Queue Dates notified and so on.

Then watch the Queue during 2009. Consider frontloading the Meds once the Queue Calculator starts saying that there are 500 people ahead of your Parents - that sort of ball park.

However I would definitely NOT be inclined to frontload meds & pccs at this stage: it is a certainty that they would have to be re-done, so it would be a waste of money to do them before at least July 2009, I suspect. It might prove better to leave them till about January 2010.

After all, the POPC say they currently have applications from 13,000 would be Contributory Parents but only 6,500 visas per year available at present.

Best wishes

Gill

Thanks for the advise Gill. My parents were granted a 12 month tourist visa just last week. I already have a PR Visa and am planning to join my siblings in Oz for good by ths year end.

I thought of gettings their meds done this year end so that we can get it out of the way and my parents can wait in Aus for their CPV visas for 12 unbroken months. This way they can avoid an unnecessary trip if atall a case officer is assigned and asks for the meds before the 12 mnths of the tourist visa are elasped ( its only single entry)

Hi Ivana

Your Parents' visa meds can be done in Australia. HSA do them in Oz:

http://www.hsagroup.com.au/

It is quite a bit cheaper to get them done in Oz than in the UK. I do not know about meds prices except in the UK and Oz, though.

Best wishes

Gill

Hi Gill
Jeanette here, do you have to be in Oz to start this visa for a parent or could we start before we actually get there, I know we have to be living there to start remaining relative for my son but what about this one for my mum.
Thanks
Jeanette

Hello Jean,

Gill will advise you as appropriate. However I wil put in my thoughts on this.

First thing is that there is something called as the balance of family test where a "majority" of the children should be currently "living" in OZ.

Also a sponser is required to sponser your mum. The criteria for a sponser is that he/she should be settled ( generally 2 years ) in Australia and should be related to your mum.

So to answer your question "Yes" you should be living in Australia atleast for 2 years before you sponser her ( assuming you are the only child she has)

No, you do not have to be residing in Australia for 2 years before you are considered "settled."

See this article from Go Matilda News:
http://www.gomatilda.com/news/article.cfm?articleid=441

Best regards.

Hi Ivana, Jeanette

I am not a migration agent so I can't - and don't - advise anyone about visas. The most I can do is to offer my own thoughts.

Alan is absolutely right in saying that the two year idea is not set in tablets of stone.

However, I believe that you have two siblings, Jeanette? I seem to recall that this was the visa-problem for your Mum from the beginning?

That said, Mum has lived with you for some years. I've got another friend in exactly the same boat as you on this one. My friend's Mum had lived with her for some years and to start with, Mum was included in daughter's application for a skilled 136 visa.

Apparently despite the help of a very reputable Migration Agent in Sydney, DIAC cut up rough about my friend's Mum. The daughter (my friend) says that DIAC threatened to refuse the 136 visa unless Mum was withdrawn from the application.

My friend has two brothers in the UK who have no contact with their mother but that is irrelevant as far as this question is concerned because the legislation ignores the quality of the relationships between parents and children.

Obviously Alan Collett can't comment but I can. From what you have told me, and what my other friend has told me, Go Matilda obviously knew that DIAC might/probably would (?) cut up rough with you as well if Mum had been included in your application.

I just WISH there was something useful I could do to help you, Jeanette. We lived with the same problem as you for about 13 years in the end because of my half-sister and DIAC's insistence that she made 3 "children" belonging to my widowed Mum. Which idea always was factual and legal rubbish.

That said, where there genuinely are 3 children, I think this legislation simply gives no quarter to be honest with you.

Best wishes

Gill

That's odd. I emailed DIAC a month ago about my parents' visa which I lodged in December 2007. They said that it would be allocated a case officer in December this year, and that the whole thing should be completed by next summer. Who is right?

Only time will tell, but I would be expecting visa grant in the 2009/10 program year (ie after 01/07/2009).

Best regards.

quote:

Originally posted by Cheryl007:
That's odd. I emailed DIAC a month ago about my parents' visa which I lodged in December 2007. They said that it would be allocated a case officer in December this year, and that the whole thing should be completed by next summer. Who is right?

Hi Cheryl

I think Alan's reply to you is spot on. By December 2007 LOADS of CPV 143 applicants had done absolutely everything except paying their 2nd Instalments. One lady in particular (a client of Alan's and I know her via the forums) seemed absolutely certain to get her CPV by the end of January 2008.

Then the POPC dropped the bombshell news that DIAC had checked the number of visa grants since 1st July 2007 and they had effectively run out of visas for the year. Nearly 2000 Parents ended up having to wait till after 1st July 2008 before their CPVs could be granted.

I think this will become the norm unless they increase the quota again on 1st July 2009 and permit, say, 10,000 CPVs a year. I am not betting on the idea that they will do that, however. It took them 6 years to do the recent increase. I'd like to think that the present Minister will accede to entreaties but I really wouldn't bet on the idea of his doing so.

DIAC's Annual Report for the year ended 30th June 2008 will be published in mid-December. I think once we see that we will all have a clearer idea about likely timelines etc.

Best wishes

Gill

Speaking about timelines...my parents applied in May 2008, so we are looking at the timeline around July 2010 for their grants. They have been granted a 12 mnth tourist visa but I fear that they will exhaust their visa in OZ before the grant. Is there any way they can reapply in Oz and further their stay in Oz once ther 12 mnths have elasped? ( The 8503 clause is not imposed on the visa)

Hi Ivana

Without Condition 8503 it should be possible for your parents to apply for another sc 676 visa, requesting another 12 month stay in Australia, shortly before their current sc 676 visas expire.

When did your Parents actually reach Oz because the 12 month stay begins on the date of arrival in Oz, not the date on which the visas were granted?

I am thinking aloud, really. Unless something very dramatic happens with the CPV quota, it is very highly unlikely that the POPC will be able to grant any CPVs during April, May & June 2010. They will start granting CPVs from and after 1st July 2010 once they have used up the quota of grants for 2009/10.

It would be completely silly to have a situation wheree your parents can apply for a new sc 676 visa in May 2009, DIAC grant it but impose Condition 8503 on it, and potentially the result is that your parents would have to go offshore in May 2010 for new tourist visas plus go offshore again in, say, July or August 2010 so that their CPVs have been granted.

It is just the sort of numbskull thing that a bored civil servant with no involvement in the CPV Scheme might do, however.

Depending on the exact dates when action by you will be required, I reckon it might be prudent to e-mail the POPC before you do anything about a new tourist visa, so that they can confirm - in writing - that they expect the CPVs to be available after 1st July 2010. You might be able to use that as a lever to prevent the imposition of Condition 8503 in 2009.

Best wishes

Gill

Thanks for the reply gill. My parents havent yet entered Oz. They will be doing so sometime in Nov. Not to sidetrack from the topic, but I am concerned about my mom. She is kinda overweight , she had her checkup done and is free from all problems such as high BP, diabetes etc wich can potentially be a problem for her visa. However her being overweight is something which worries us. I hope DIAC does not take it very seriously.

Hi Ivanb, I'll put my twopennyworth on the CP143.
Luckily I was granted my visa early December 2007. When I had my meds done I was overweight, was taking tablets for blood pressure and cholesterol, and I got in.
I think your mother will be very unlucky if she fails
Best of luck

Terry

Hi Ivana

I completely agree with Terry Brook. Unless your mother's weight is threatening her health in some other way (eg serious diabetes or heart problems) her weight by itself will not cause a problem with her meds.

My mother was 85 when her visa meds were done. She broke her back in an accident a few years ago so she is largely wheelchair dependent as a result. She's got loads of minor ailments associated mainly with her great age but it is a case of treating those so as to get rid of the symptoms and keep Mum comfortable, nothing more. Her major organs all work fine and that is the main thing. I was worried stiff about Mum's meds because the wheelchair etc makes her seem very frail.

However, her own GP, the Panel Doctor, the geriatrician whom the MOC wanted a report from and the MOC all agreed in the end that although Mum is disabled, that is really the only thing wrong with her and her disability has no cost or resource-implications. It is inconvenient for Mum but she has worked out loads of ways of coping with it and so have we.

They are not expecting Superman or Superwoman to arrive at the Australian airport, that is for sure!

Don't worry about this, hunny, though I know you will do so until you get the OK on your Mum's meds. Nothing short of that convinced me!

Best wishes

Gill

Thanks for the tip Gill and Terry!!!.. Well we have our fingers crossed. :-)

Dear Alan and Gill,

I know this is wishful thinking but I just gotta ask.

Is there any chance of the Immigration Minister considering raising the number of CPVs to enable those parents who lodged applications from October 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007 to make the 2008/09 migration programme instead of having to wait until the 2009/10 programme?

Any such talk on the grapevine regarding this?

Thank you and best regards,
Gerard.