Contributory parent temporary

Hi Greg

Thanks for this. I hadn't thought of using a credit card to pay the 2nd VAC in due course. I'm in touch with a really nice guy who has just been granted Contributory Parent visas for himself and his wife. They went straight for the CP 143 pernanent visa, as my mother is also doing. Because there are two of them, this couple transferred about £40,000 to Australia for the Bond and the second VACs, and they may have started shifting other capital into Australia as well at that point.

Apparently the reason for picking a foreign exchange company is that they shift the money for a flat fee (my chum says that the company they used charged £15 for the transfer and that was it.) He quoted another company that does it for less, and I thiink Ozforex does it for free. I think what happens is that you watch the exchange rate, and you buy your Australian dollars on a date when the exchange rate favours you, which might be some time ahead of actually needing to transfer those dollars to DIMA.

If you pay by credit card, you will get whatever exchange rate is in force on the date of the Transfer. I gather that by buying the Australian dollars at the right moment, you can save more than you might save by using a credit card. I've read various threads about this (not that I understand the foreign exchange game properly) and the gist seems to be that if you do the currency-exchange at the right moment, you can really save yourself a pile. At least one type of visa involves either paying $100,000AUSD or at least lodging it with the Australian Government, and the guys getting those visas all seem to discuss the foreign exchange companies with one another, so there must be some advantage in copying them, I suspect. One for both of us to try to discover more about, perhaps?

In early March, there was an interesting thread on the POPC's time-line. A lady had had her application ackowleged in November, and the application-process began formally on 2nd November 2005. The POPC told her at the beginning of March that they were just in the process of appointing Case Officers to the Parents whose applications had been received in September 2005. So that looks like about 6 months from submitting the application to getting the CO. Once the CO comes aboard, they begin the process of asking for the meds and the police clearances, unless those have already been done, and the CO triggers the process of lodging the AoS and the Bond. How long that bit takes depends on how busy Centrelink are, because igetting to see Centrelink can take a few weeks, it would seem, and you cannot make the appointment with them until DIMA asks them to see you.

Once the AoS is signed and the Bond has been lodged, you have to get the receipt from the Bank and give that to Centrelink. Centrelink then write to DIMA confirming that Centrelink's end of things is complete. After that, the CO then issues the pre-Grant letter and asks you to pay the second VAC. My mother's application is being treated as having been received on 29th November 2005. Her meds had been done in advance. Nothing is happening at the moment except that we now have the UK Police clearance as well, and are wondering whether to get the Australian one done too, or whether to leave that for a while longer. I don't know how long the Australian one will take. To judge from the time-line above, Mum won't get a CO till late June or sometime in July, I imagine.

However, if you keep in touch (e-mail me if you wish) I can let you know as and when we have further news, which might help you to gauge progress for your Dad. We are not using an Agent. Are you?

Cheers

Gill