Marisawright

Why would you hand your notice in at your current job? There's no law that says you have to give notice if you accept a new job. Do you already have a visa for Australia?

The problem would be that you need the required qualifications AND experience, and your baking experience may be too long ago to count. But the agent will advise you.

I can't find emigrate2australia anywhere, are they MARA registered? They are not legit if they don't have that MARA registration. They don't have to be in the UK to have a consultation because it can all be done over the phone or online. I suggest getting a quote from Suncoast Migration or Go Matilda. There is one visa where your family can sponsor you. It's the 491 regional visa that I mentioned. However, you still have to have an occupation/skills on the list first.

I'm curious, what kind of family sponsorship do you think they would be eligible for? I thought these days, if you aren't an aged parent of an Aussie citizen, or a carer, there aren't any options.

The problem for him is that the waiting time for the parent visa is at least 12 years. So it's not a question of how well he is now, but how well he'll be in 12 years' time.

The bad news: to be eligible for any visa, either you or your wife must work in an occupation that's on the skilled lists. Then that person becomes the visa applicant, and the rest of you are included in that person's visa. If neither of you is on the skills list, then you can't migrate. End of story. No way round it. Having family sponsorship makes no difference whatsoever. If one of you can find your occupation on the skilled list, that's not the end of the story. You also need to check the requirements. They will specify what qualifications and experience are required, and you must satisfy those requirements. Again, if you don't meet the requirements, you can't migrate. As for choosing a visa: you have a choice of a 189, 190 or 491. The 189 is the Rolls Royce and lets you live anywhere in Australia permanently. The 190 is almost as good, but it's issued by the states, so you have to live in the state you applied to (though you're allowed to move elsewhere after a couple of years). The 491 is a provisional (i.e. temporary) visa, sort of like being on probation. If you meet all the rules for the 491, it leads to a permanent visa after a few years. I agree with Ausvisitor: you need to book a one-off consultation with a MARA registered migration agent (it can be over the phone). You don't have time to muck around doing your own research. If there are things you need to do to be eligible (e.g., do some retraining), then you're leaving it a bit late to get it all done before you're too old (the cut-off date for all of the above visas is 45).

When you say the rest of you are eligible, what do you mean? Age is only one of the factors you have to consider. For instance, if the mother has the qualifications and experience necessary to apply for a skilled visa, she can include the father on her visa and his age won't matter. The mother can also include all dependent children (but not children that are working). If one of the children can apply for a skilled visa, then that visa is just for the individual. The child can't include the mother or the father.

Is your visa still valid? Or do you need to apply for a RRV?

A more important question is whether sponsorship is the right choice for you. If it's just the two of you, no kids, then sponsorship is worth the risk. If you've got kids, it's important to think through all the implications of a temporary move.

Here's the eligibility page on the Immi website. It says you have to be an Australian citizen or permanent resident to sponsor. It also says you can't be a New Zealand citizen. https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/visitor-600/sponsored-family-stream#g=2

No, the dependent cannot be the main applicant because the dependent is not a parent. The visa application will be invalid.

Your pension shouldn't be taxable. From the Go Matilda website: If you move to Australia on ... a Visitor visa leading to a Bridging Visa once an onshore Aged Parent visa (subclass 804) has been lodged, you are technically a temporary visaholder and can make use of the exemption from the charge to Australian tax in respect of income arising outside Australia. In other words, UK pension income received in this situation will remain properly taxable in the UK. I assume your child/children will be supporting you, as I cannot imagine how anyone could survive on the British pension in Australia, even if it wasn't frozen. Assuming you are currently residing in the UK, you will be entitled to medical treatment under Medicare under the reciprocal agreement, but GP visits and prescriptions aren't free, they're just subsidised. A visit to a GP can cost anything from $40 to $120. A prescription could be $30 per item. Dentists and spectacles aren't covered at all, you have to pay full private fees. It will cost you over $200 just to see a dentist, and a filling can cost over $400. I got new glasses last week. I wanted multifocals but they would've cost over $500, so I settled for distant vision only ($300) and will buy cheap reading glasses at the chemist. I don't know how old you are, but I'm all too aware how medical expenses start to escalate in your 70s and 80s -- even if, like me and my husband, you felt robustly healthy in your 60s. And since you'll be on the bridging visa for the rest of your life (the waiting period is 30 years), you'll eventually be facing high medical bills, (we all have to die of something and it's usually expensive). Australian pensioners get extra subsidies on health care, which you won't get. Will you be living with your children? If not, are you aware of the extra fees and taxes you'll pay if you buy a property, and of the current prices for real estate?

Good idea. I didn't realise there was no waiting period before you can apply for divorce in the UK. However, it's only going to cut months, not the whole year. From my experience, divorce in Australia is pretty fast if it's amicable (3 months or so). Whereas in the UK, after you've submitted the application, there's a compulsory waiting period of at least 20 weeks before a conditional order is granted, then at least another 6 weeks before the decree nisi.

Just a note about this: in order to apply for divorce in Australia, you need to be living separately for at least a year (that might be in the same house, but you need to be living separate lives, e.g. separate finances, separate rooms etc). You will need to have proof of the exact date you began living separately. Usually you'll do that by sending each other an email or letter confirming the arrangements. Now here's the catch, for you, if you decide to stay together until the 186 is granted. Your separation date will have to be a suitable period after your 186 is granted, otherwise it'll be obvious to the authorities that your wife was granted the 186 under false pretences. So you're not going to be able to start divorce proceedings until a year or so after you get PR.

I'm sure he wasn't. It's clear from his first post that he was just asking an innocent question, and had no idea what a dodgy situation he was actually in. I hope it all works out for him.

That's not what you said in your first post, though. Having a marriage certificate isn't what matters. What matters is your relationship. For instance, let's say you'd met someone else, and you were already living with the girlfriend. In that case, the girlfriend would be the one who's entitled to be on your 186 visa, not your wife. As Paul said, it's complicated. good luck.

@Andrew1980, bottom line -- get onto a good migration agent pronto, before you do anything. Paul Hand (who posted above) is a good choice. Make sure they're MARA registered, whoever you choose. I say that because your wife is already at risk of losing her right to live in Australia. She can't be on your 482 visa if you're separated. And if you pretend you're together, and include her in your 186 application, you'll be committing fraud.

I'm doubtful about that. I'm Scottish by birth. I know my siblings/cousins/nieces/nephews and their friends in Scotland are only a small sample of the population, but they are all 100% Scottish and they all voted to remain.

I think the sense of isolation very much depends who you are. Australians who move from the rest of Australia often feel "cut off" because it's so expensive to visit family and friends anywhere else in Australia. However, if you don't know anyone elsewhere in Oz, you might love the fact that Perth is so close to Asia and Indonesia, plus it's 5 hours closer to the UK for visits home. Also, whether there's "not much else to do" also depends on what you like doing. Personally, I find WA a bit lacking in the kinds of things I like to do -- but many, many other are more than happy with the variety on offer. It's hard to find meaningful comparisons of property prices in Perth vs Gold Coast. Prices vary widely within Perth and within the Gold Coast. Also, you can't trust what you see on the real estate websites -- they shamelessly doctor the photos and underquote the prices. I don't envy you trying to make the decision!

I hope you mean parts inside not pets! It's worth asking on this thread, which is monitored by a company that does car imports to Australia. No idea if they'll handle a lorry but worth asking.

If you meet the residency requirements, then you get the RRV automatically and it is very quick.

Both would be good for the beach lifestyle. Apart from that, it's going to depend what other factors are important to you. Personally, I would choose the Gold Coast. Not because it's better than Perth, but because of its location. If you move to the Gold Coast and don't like it, it's not going to cost you an arm and a leg to move up to the Sunshine Coast, or down to Coffs Harbour or Newcastle -- or any of the cities along the East Coast. The distances are long but there are plenty of removalists transporting goods up and down the coast, so prices are reasonable. Plus you'll be able to drive to check out alternative places to live. Whereas if you settle in Perth and don't like it, there aren't any other cities in Western Australia to move to. You'll have to move East. That means expensive 4-hour flights to research where you want to live. Then, shipping your belongings from Perth to the East Coast will cost as much as shipping them from the UK.

Not necessarily. Like I said, that 25 months figure applies to people who need extra security checks etc. Yours might get granted tomorrow, for all you know.

Yes, processing times do go up and down all the time. However, bear in mind that the waiting time includes everybody, including people from 'high risk" countries, who need extra security checks that can take ages. Where did you apply from? If you're in the UK then yours is likely to be processed faster. Is the wedding planned or are you waiting for the visa first?

Good point. If you take it as a lump sum, you can lose a massive chunk of it to the British taxman because it will push you into a higher tax bracket in the year you take the money. However, the purpose of super is to provide you with a pension in your old age. If you convert it to an "income stream"(pension) then you will still pay tax, but as you're not likely to be earning a huge amount in retirement, you won't be pushed into a higher tax bracket.