Jump to content

Marisawright

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    18,669

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    275

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Marisawright

  1. Marisawright
    I'd say yes, get a migration agent to check it over. It's not going to cost much in the scheme of things and better safe than sorry. Immigration are pretty unforgiving - if you make a tiny mistake, they don't come back and say, "did you mean.....", they just reject it and you've lost your money. Better safe than sorry. It might also be worth asking the agent what your chances are for the 190 in your state. Many states are moving away from granting 190's to 491's, so you might have a long wait. A good agent will have a fair idea based on their other clients.
  2. Marisawright
    Good question. If you meet the following criteria you do not need to apply for an exemption: people ordinarily resident in a country other than Australia people whose travel is associated with essential work at offshore facilities people engaged in the day to day conduct of outbound and inbound freight people travelling on official Government business (including members of the Australian Defence Force (ADF)) airline and maritime crew and associated safety workers Exemptions will be assessed on a case-by-case basis for those who meet the criteria listed below: People whose travel is as part of the response to the COVID-19 outbreak, including the provision of aid People whose travel is essential for the conduct of critical industries and business (including export and import industries) People who are travelling to receive urgent medical treatment that is not available in Australia. People who are travelling on urgent and unavoidable personal business. On compassionate or humanitarian grounds Where the travel is in the national interest
  3. Marisawright
    Fingers crossed they will agree to open the border to New Zealand soon.
  4. Marisawright
    You transfer your pounds into your Moneycorp (or Transferwise or whatever) account in pounds. Then you ask them to convert it to dollars. Then when you are ready, you instruct them to transfer those dollars to your Australian bank account.
  5. Marisawright
    Did you not notice that word "additional"? They still have to meet the benchmarks as they were before 2017, which were already higher than a lot of banks in other countries. It's only the extra, higher benchmarks introduced in 2017 that they're being allowed to miss.
  6. Marisawright
    That's an exaggeration. It hasn't been scrapped, just reduced to 2017 levels. https://www.apra.gov.au/news-and-publications/apra-adjusts-bank-capital-expectations
  7. Marisawright
    I did not suggest the customers were at fault. Why would they understand a bank formula? As you say, the banks are under pressure now and that's what caused them to become aware of this mistake - because people were suddenly wanting to withdraw amounts larger than they expected. I don't doubt there is going to be a financial tsunami, but when it happens, it's hard to see where else one could put one's money that would be any safer than the banks. After the GFC (during which none of the Australian banks failed, BTW), the Australian government changed the legislation so that banks now have to keep much larger reserves of cash than they ever did before.
  8. Marisawright
    I'd say yes, quarantine in the first Australian port would be my guess. As Ali says, there are very few, if any, internal flights, because the borders between states are closed. Several people who are coming out of quarantine now, are struggling to get to their home state. Your solution might be easier than some: buy a car in Melbourne, since you'll need to buy one anyway, and drive to Adelaide. It's a full day's drive. I would suggest getting in touch with the South Australian government to check that you'll be allowed in - but I think the SA border closure is less strict than some of the others.
  9. Marisawright
    If it’s a 189 or a 190 then it’s ok
  10. Marisawright
    Construction is still going on so I’d say jobs would be available as usual. I agree that I think the govt will start charging for quarantine at some point. It would be a gamble but I don’t expect flights will get any easier or cheaper for a long time
  11. Marisawright
    The reason is simple. If they let citizens and residents leave without a compelling reason, people would go for a short visit overseas and then come back, bringing Coronavirus with them. It’s true they go into quarantine when they get back, but currently that’s paid for by the govt so it’s an unnecessary expense.
  12. Marisawright
    You're right. What happened is that ME Bank's formula for calculating redraw amounts has been wrong for years. The result was that people could have withdrawn too much, leading them to be in arrears with their loan. ME Bank has now corrected the formula. The trouble is, people made extra payments on the basis of the old formula, and many were banking on withdrawing the lot in the current crisis.
  13. Marisawright
    It doesn't. Your right as a UK citizen to enter the UK isn't affected by Australian law. But as an Australian resident (whether you're a citizen or not), you are limited in your rights to leave the country right now. There are plenty of laws which are based on where you are RESIDENT rather than whether you are a CITIZEN. Investments and tax are just two examples. This is another one. Apply for the exemption.
  14. Marisawright
    I can see that they're on the STSOL and the RSMSL lists, but they're not on the MLTSSL, which is where they need to be for the 491 as I understand it? There is a RSMSL list is for the 187 visa, meaning you need an employer to sponsor you, but I think that would be a tough ask.
  15. Marisawright
    Yes, it is means tested. The thing is, though, you never know if the money in your super fund is going to last as long as you do. When your super starts to run low, you'll be able to claim the pension to keep you going. Jock's problem is that he's living in the UK at the moment. So even though he's an Australian citizen, he can't claim the Australian pension, even if he's eligible. You have to be legally resident in Australia to do that, or legally resident in a country that has a special agreement with Australia.
  16. Marisawright
    Are you in the UK or Australia? There's a lot of worry here. Australians, especially the millenials, are very into running their own business rather than working for corporations. In the big cities, especially, there are thousands of tiny cafés, beauty salons, massage therapists, yoga studios etc., most of which operated on a shoestring even before lockdown. Also, the "gig economy" is massive here, and that's what has been hardest hit.
  17. Marisawright
    Can you post a link to that information? If you're saying that they're taking money from a customer's savings account to pay the customer's mortgage payment if they're in arrears, I don't see the problem. It's probably written into the mortgage agreement.
  18. Marisawright
    Hard to say. Hospitality has been badly hit, but Australia is much more of a café/restaurant culture than a pub culture - and most cafés and restaurants are offering takeaway food, so they are still employing some staff, so they have some chance of surviving and being able to ramp up again when lockdown ends. The bigger worry is service industries like beauty salons, yoga studios, massage therapists, dance studios, gyms etc. They're totally shut down but still paying rent. The worry is that theyll be too broke to get started again after lockdown. The same goes for the arts - theatres, entertainers etc.
  19. Marisawright
    We've had this conversation many times. Parents on the contributory visa cost the taxpayer far more in medical costs and aged care than the fees they pay. Like @ramot, I'm becoming very aware of how much I benefit from Medicare now we're in our late 60's - we're still (touch wood) pretty fit, but already lots of niggling things going wrong with aging bodies. When you see the actual cost of the treatments and medications vs what you actually pay, you understand how the bill to the taxpayer mounts up over the last twenty or thirty years of a person's life.
  20. Marisawright
    The bottom line is that to get a visa, your occupation must be on one of the Skilled Lists. If it's not on a list, you can't work in Australia, end of story. There are two lists. One is the STSOL. If you're on that list, you can come to Australia for a few years, IF you can find an employer who's willing to give you a temporary contract. However it's only temporary, and you are not allowed to apply for any kind of permanent visa thereafter. The other list is the MLTSSL. It's for permanent visas, granted either by the federal (national) government, or by individual states (the 189, 190 or 491 visas). Each individual state has its own rules about who they accept, which is why it's confusing. The bad news, though, is that I can't see Gardener (General) on the MLTSSL. I found a few websites that say it is on the list, but they're probably out of date. When I go to the official sites, I can't see it. If you want to be sure, then a quick consult with a reputable agent - which they'll give you free of charge - will clarify.
  21. Marisawright
    The harsh truth is that the current government wanted to abolish parent visas but weren't able to get it through parliament. They've been "going slow" with applications instead, and the virus has given them the perfect excuse to go even slower. They don't care whether you think it's fair or not.
  22. Marisawright
    When it was first announced in mid-March, we were told the borders would be closed for at least 6 months and probably longer. That warning has been repeated by both the Treasurer and the Prime Minister several times at press conferences. We're now being told that opening international borders is the very last restriction that will be lifted. Citizens and permanent residents can still arrive, but cannot leave unless they qualify for an exemption. Foreigners currently in Australia can leave but cannot return. It's possible Australia may open its border with New Zealand earlier.
  23. Marisawright
    I don't agree. Sadly, these days, politicians base their decisions on popular opinion, not what's best for the country. If there is high unemployment, Australians will become even more anti-immigration than they are already. You've seen how it worked in the UK - one of the big drivers for Brexit was the popular belief that Europeans were "taking our jobs". The same will happen in Australia, whether it's good for the country or not, and the government of the day won't dare go against it, for fear of losing power.
  24. Marisawright
    It has to. 99% of the Australian population has no immunity to coronavirus so quarantine has to stay in place until there's an effective treatment or a vaccine. If we don't do that, then we'll just end up with a UK or Italy or Spain scenario as soon as we start letting planes in. Furlough is a US expression I think. Unemployment is people registered as unemployed.
  25. Marisawright
    Well, legally they're entitled to do so, so personally I wouldn't want to take the risk
×
×
  • Create New...