Is there a way around a DOUBLE parent visa?

[Guest debsch]

Hello!

My parents are aged 64 & 71 and both living in the EU and are EU citizens.

I've been living in Aus now for almost a decade and have been an Australian citizen from around the days of kevin07.

They visited me for the first time last year and loved the place (finally - they have seen the light!!) and want to migrate.

 

We were all shocked to read on the immi.gov.au that you have to either wait 10-20 years or pay close to $90,000 for a double parent visa (the Contributory Parent Visa Subclass 143). So I've been reading up about it

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/visa-costs-force-choice-on-migrants/2269916.aspx

and of course this forum

http://www.pomsinadelaide.com/forum/adelaide-migration-issues/4509-cheap-parent-visas-part-i-9.html

 

Having been through the migration process myself years ago, I know that there is more than one way to find a way in.

Is there a way around having to fork out $90k? (That's seems like a dodgy bribe not an admin payment!!!!)

 

Can one parent come in on the 103/143 and the other on a temp visa and then apply for a partner visa?

I've read about bridging visas as well.

 

I'm just hoping that there is someone out there who has been in a similar situation and can offer some practical advice.

(And yes I will be ringing the Perth office as soon as they're open!)

 

Thank you.

[Diane]

Hi and welcome to the forum. Have a browse through previous posts (the search facility is quite good) and read some of the posts a member called Gollywobbler has posted on the subject of parent visas and various options. This is her user page: http://www.pomsinadelaide.com/forum/member.php?u=1341

 

Are you living in Adelaide or Perth, as you may find ringing the Adelaide branch of Immigration is moe helpful, if this is where your parents want to move to. Alternatively, if you haven't found it yet, the parent site Poms in Oz has some useful threads there about parent visas.

 

Good luck

[Guest debsch]

Hi Diane, Thanks for the reply. I am slowly working my way through the post http://www.pomsinadelaide.com/forum/adelaide-migration-issues/4509-cheap-parent-visas-part-i-5.html It's very informative and I'm picking out the bits that relate to our situation. Will google poms in OZ next if I need more info. I know it can be done (migrating to Aus) because I've done it myself. I know my situation was different to my parents because I'm obviously a lot younger and am a working and tax paying citizen, but I'm sure they'll be able to migrate. It just WON'T BE EASY! (It wasn't easy for me!!)

Thanks for the suggestions.

[Gollywobbler]

Hi Diane, Thanks for the reply. I am slowly working my way through the post http://www.pomsinadelaide.com/forum/adelaide-migration-issues/4509-cheap-parent-visas-part-i-5.html It's very informative and I'm picking out the bits that relate to our situation. Will google poms in OZ next if I need more info. I know it can be done (migrating to Aus) because I've done it myself. I know my situation was different to my parents because I'm obviously a lot younger and am a working and tax paying citizen, but I'm sure they'll be able to migrate. It just WON'T BE EASY! (It wasn't easy for me!!)

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

Hi Debsch

 

It is possible for one parent alone to get a CPV 143. 5 years after the date of the grant of the CPV, the other Parent can apply for a Spouse/Partner visa.

 

It used to be possible to get the CPV and then get the Spouse/Partner visa immediately afterwards but DIAC decided that this was a "loophole" and blocked it in about 2009. They now insist on the five year gap.

 

http://www.immi.gov.au/migrants/family/whats_new.htm#f

 

That said, ypur father would be old enough to apply for an APV 804 visa. Because he is old enough, Mum's age does not matter so they could both apply for APV 804s.

 

Which EU country are they Citizens of, please? I think it would be important to check whether their home country has a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement with Australia because these RHCAs are bi-lateral Agreements so not all EU countries have them with Oz.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Gollywobbler]

Hi again Debsch

 

I'm sitting at home today nursing an extremely sore eye. (I'm 55 and I fear that the time has come for me to give up wearing contact lenses. They have become the cause of too many days when one eye or the other is too sore for words. At the moment my optician is trying out different types of contact lenses to see whether he can stave off the Evil Moment but I don't feel optimistic about that today, I must say! I've relied on contact lenses since I was 17 and I can see better with these than with glasses but it really isn't worth putting up with regular discomfort, in my view.)

 

To continue to try to answer you fully, I think the second Parent (the one who does not have a CPV) has two possible options. One is to try to rely on a series of subclass 676 long-stay Tourist visas:

 

http://www.immi.gov.au/visitors/tourist/676/

 

Officiallly, DIAC frown on the idea of someone using a succession of sc 676 visas in order to "live" in Australia rather than "just visiting." That said, at the moment DIAC say that they have seen a marked decline in the number of applications for CPV 143s. They attribute this to the Global Financial Crisis (which seems to be on-going) the fact that the AUD is deliberately being kept strong against a basket of other currencies and so forth. Also, the people who process applications for sc 676 visas are in Hobart if the application is made on-line. There is no particular reason for them to want to know anything about Parent migration.

 

I reckon that there could well be room for at least 3 years' manoevering on this one!

 

If DIAC become difficult about the second Parent's application for a repeat sc 676, another option would be a Student Visa for the second Parent. There is no upper age limit on being able to study in Australia. The TAFEs are run by the individual State Governments. I've heard of cases where the boss of the TAFE has been so shocked to discover the sheer cost of a CPV that the TAFE has offered to charge the Parent no more than the domestic student price for a course.

 

At the moment, it is not taking as long as 15-20 years to get an offshore Parent sc 103 visa. At the moment, it is only taking around 10 years for a sc 103 and 7-8 years for an APV 804.

 

The history of Parent migration is pretty complex. In 1999, the Howard Government reduced the annual quota of Parent visas to 55 (sic, fifty five) visas only that year. This was because John Howard was pushing for the introduction of the Contributory Parent scheme but the Opposition kept rejecting his attempt to introduce a Bill. He seems to have decided to force the issue by slashing the annual quota. Eventually in 2002 the Opposition agreed to the idea of the Contributory Parent scheme and the first CPVs were offered wef 1st July 2003.

 

Originally there were only 3,000 CPVs and CAPVs each year and about 2,000 PVs and APVs. To start with, around 3,000 CPVs a year were OK because the Contributory Parent scheme took some time to become popular etc. In the very early days, DIAC were processing applications for CPV 143s within 3-4 months. That crept up to 6-8 months and then when we applied for my mother's CPV in November 2005, the Parents Visa Centre estimated about 9 months to process her application and it took exactly 9 months.

 

There was then an explosion in the number of applications for CPVs in 2006/7. A man called Phil Lovering was the Manager of the PVC at the time. In December 2007, he suddenly announced that he had granted all 3,000 CPVs & CAPVs for 2007/8 and that the remaining applicants would just have to wait until after 1st July 2008. He estimated that it would take more than 2 years to process each new application for a CPV. Phil himself never commented on the rumours but the suspicion was that he had deliberately created a PR crisis in order to force the Government's hand.

 

At the time, Senator Chris Evans was the Minister for Immi. He caved in and agreed that the annual quota of CPVs should be 5,900 a year, then 6,900 a year with 600 CAPVs in order to make 7,500 in total. However he halved the annual quota of non-contributory PVs and APVs to 1,000 in total each year.

 

Then in 2010, it all changed again. The PVC no longer needed an annual quota of 7,500 CPVs so Minister Bowen seems to have agreed to chop 1,000 off the quota for CPVs and to add that back onto the quota of PVs and APVs.

 

For the time being, there is peace and harmony! It is taking about 12 months to process an application for a CPV and about 6 months for an application for an onshore CAPV instead. 1,400 PVs are available each year and 600 APVs. This is what has halved the waiting times for PVs and APVs.

 

My feeling is that this will alter again when/if the Global Economy picks up again. Like all new visas, the Contributory Parent scheme didn't proceed exactly as expected. At the outset, the Government assumed that most of the applicants would be British or at least on the WASP-ish side! Phil Lovering retired on 30th June 2009 and I had a chat with him on the phone not long before that. He said that the majority of the CPV applicants were no longer WASPS and they were no longer predominantly English-speaking. He reckoned that the Government had underestimated the amount of wealth that was going to be created in countries like India and China, though Phil said that he was sitting on CPV applications from Parents in almost every other country in the world. He said he reckoned that the Brits were actually in a minority of applicants.

 

I think that what happens next will depend on what happens about the Euro and how the economies of India and China fare over the next couple of years. At the moment, Chancellor Merkel of Germany is saying stoutly that she won't let the Uro collapse. A lot of economists seem to think that the pollies won't be able to prevent its collapse. The markets seem to regard President Obana as being a twit and apparently the Chinese economy is slowing down due to decreased consumer demand from the West. I've no idea how all that will pan out but I think that it will affect what Australia does about Parent migration in future.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest debsch]

Hi Gill and thanks for the detailed reply.

 

Sorry to hear about your eyes. I started out with soft contacts and went on to daily disposables but only wore them on "special" occasions. Got my eyes zapped ten years ago so I no longer need them and apparently I wouldn't be able to wear them even if I wanted to. Looking at a computer screen though with sore eyes is probably not the best thing at all for them so thank you again for your reply!

 

All the information above is very interesting and will help us hopefully find a clear way forward. My father is not from a country with a RHCA so Contributory might be the way to go for him as he'll be 65 soon (he's the younger one - way to go mum!). I'll be talking to my parents today and showing them this thread. I remember forums helping me enormously when I ploughed through the migration process myself in 2003/4. I know this type of forum is not "official" and some information could be out-of-date or incorrect but generally speaking they're frequented by people like yourself who have been through the ordeal of migration (with your mother), people who therefore totally understand and sympathise with others who are going through it and want to help. What makes your "cheap parent visa" thread and replies to other threads stand out is that the information is so thorough, informative, well researched, written, and explained. BRAVO!

 

Meanings of some acronyms used above for newbies...

WASP White Anglo-Saxon Protestant

PVC Parent Visa Centre

CPV Contributory Parent Visa

CAPV Contributory Aged Parent Visa

APVs Aged Parent Visas

DIAC Department of Immigration and Citizenship

TAFE Technical and Further Education (like college)

 

Please correct me if I am wrong!