Kenny202

You are exactly the sort of peanut I was hoping to avoid

Firstly have a clinical reason for needing a pill. Please....no motherly advice like change diet, get some exercise or some herbal thing Melatonin not effective For my wife actually. She is on a particular medication that keeps her awake She did tell the doctor and she sent her home with about 10 packets of highly addictive Benzo's (Valium) with no instruction apart from you can take up to 4 a day. Can anyone recommend a good over the counter, general sleeping pill? Nothing too heavy. One that wont knock you around too much the next day Generally the Thais take the little cheap allergy pills and they knock you out for sure But feel rough as guts the next day. Any help appreciated

Volunteer work to get Newstart you mean? After reading the post's I don't think I will qualify with some money in the bank TBH

Can't help be reminded of that latest Rowan Atkinson mini series on Netflix where he is housesitting lol. Did you register with some company to do it or something?

From my understanding I think you might be confused. The 35 year rule applies to portability from what I can see, it's not mentioned as a requirement for basic OAP. OAP says an Australian citizen that has resided in Australia 10 years or more is eligible for pension. I actually downloaded the portability guide this morning.

So it must be costing you something to live in Australia, even if you are rent free? When you are saying you are saving $2k a month is that the total welfare amount you are receiving or some of it? I thought all you would get from welfare is around 2k a month and surprised if it was even that. Genuinely interested. In any case I will definitely be above what someone mentioned as a minimum savings threshold so I guess any dole / government benefits are going to be out of the question

Yeah just talking to my son back in Oz about some of the realities of living there. Even in Woolongong where they are rent for a small unit $500-$600. Then talking about vehicle registration and insurance ???? It sounds horrific to be honest. I doubt Jobseeker would cover 30% of your living expenses unless you were out in the bush in a tent eating tinned food

I do have that option, but nearing retirement age with little work opportunities and the cost of living in Australia I don't see that as a viable option. Much better standard of living for us here....and I like living in Thailand (apart from the heat). My wife thinks it may be a good idea but I know of many Thais who have moved to Australia and were just miserable. Too much of a culture shift for them. Some fit in and see the opportunities but many don't. Unfortunately many don't have enough foresight to see past the first two weeks Facebook selfies and dreams of "big money". there is more money to be made in Australia for sure but the cost of living is also about triple what it is here. There would be benefits and good sides to repatriating to Oz for sure, but for me atm too many unknowns

Probably a few too many years to worry about it....but atm I am looking at a choice of returning to Australia permanently now / soon while I still have the means to relocate and re set up in Australia, or returning at 65 and after 2 years returning to back to Thailand to live. If not being viable to support my family here and live in Australia for 2 years or not being able to get portability of the pension I will have to choose my least favorite option and move back to Oz in the next year. The thought of selling everything here and re establishing everything / buying all the basics to live again in Australia makes me feel sick ???? Talking to a few people I know the cost of living in Oz re rent etc seems around 3 times the cost of living here at the moment and many seem to feel there is a recession imminent

I always pondered the same question. No drain on free social services. Just another way of excluding people from getting the pension. Seems to be their go to when they want to financially cover their handouts to minorities or cover for their latest blunders. I heard you have to be just about skint to qualify for the dole these days? As for lots of jobs I am not sure. People were hard to find immediately after Covid but not sure now. Simple job / livable wage is all I am after. Bunnings used to be the go to for pensioners lol but I imagine a lot of older people may have lost their nest eggs during covid and maybe many older people looking for work. I know that is the situation in Thailand now, people can no longer survive on their small businesses and traveling back to the cities to look for work in factories etc. Would much prefer to have a job....but no harm in hedging your bets and checking out plan B, C

Neither does replying to a post you have no clue about or trolling though posts on a country you are not from

Thanks for that. Given that it will probably be difficult to find work at 65yo, how easy is it to get benefits and how much per month are they these days? I don't have squillions in the bank but have some. Last time I checked you had to be virtually skint to get the dole

I did actually do a little more digging and to be eligible for the pension only goes on residency, but there is a 35 year working life rule on portability. I did a quick calculation and I am right on 35 years, but maybe be a month or 2 short depending on how they calculate it. Not sure what happens if you are just shy of the 35 years...they don't actually say if it is pro rata if you are below 35 or it disqualifies you. Looks like I will have to call them

I was always under the impression it was 35 years working which I would be in months of + or - but not sure if that is still the case. Their website only states you need to have been a resident in Australia for at least 10 years and a citizen to qualify

Weighing up a few options ATM whether to move back to Australia permanently or go and do the 2 year stint of living there so I can bring my pension over here. I am a ways off atm...my pension age is 67 yo so I would move back at 65, wait out the 2 years and come back at 67yo, hopefully with pension available to me living in Thailand. Just wondering what my options are in those 2 years leading up to receiving the pension. It would seem unlikely I would find work at 65yo. Is the dole a livable allowance and would it in fact be available to me? I am quite happy to live modestly for a couple of years. I have money in the bank but will have a family here in Thailand to support while I am away so the less I need to draw from savings the better position I will be able to leave them in when I eventually croak. Anyone have any insights, experience or suggestions?

No, no kids and not even married. Only de facto ????

I have had a chance to read a bit more through the application after confirming with a friend it is actually the 309 defacto application. I was surprised to see the additional cost for a child was only around $2000AUD. I am sure a few years ago when I looked at it was going to be a total of $18k. I also read the child receives the same vis rights / benefits as the mother. My friend told me his GF received PR status only 10 days after arriving! And as you say normally 1-2 years. The only thing the agent could tell him was maybe it was approved earlier as it was during covid and immigration had very little to do. My main concern is paying the visa fee then not getting approval. She has a solid work history and we have been together around 6 years. No blemishes on either of us here or Australia. Only thing is I am older and have no property etc in Australia though do have a reasonable nest egg.

Exactly the sort of motherly advice / reply I didn't want. I am sure you mean well. I wont make a costly decision based on only the opinions of AN users however be nice to here some first hand experience or issues. It is virtually impossible to discuss anything with them these days as the Aus govt now use a third party agency to process immigration visas. Gone are the days of sitting down face to face for an interview and discussing options, eligibility etc. In fact if you apply (10k AUD +) and it is rejected you lose your application fee. If I can get some first hand advice / experience I will troll through the applications and see what's what.

Currently living in Thailand 10 years. I have a 7yo child (Australian citizen) and she has a 7yo Thai boy. We been living together in Thailand as a family around 6 years. Looking at the possibility of moving back to Australia. I am pretty sure she will qualify for the defacto visa which will give her certain rights to work, medicare etc...but what about her child? Will that give him the same rights as her or will he have to come on a tourist visa? How does it work for the woman? I believe they can work pretty much immediately and after a year they get permanent residence or something? What sort of rights as a citizen does that give them Has anyone gone through the process lately? I believe around $18000AUS for mother and child. Prefer to hear from Australians that have enquired or been through the process recently / last few years. What happens in UK / US will have no relevance

You would need to ask them...

Yet another inane post with someone taking a poll pondering the most inane subject. Must be 20 per day now. There are clearly some very bored people out there trolling for attention.

We have tried a couple of businesses here and its tough. We're up country so will be a different set of dynamics to a tourist area, and our customers were mainly Thai in the restaurant we had. We were doing well for the couple of years leading up to covid.....made money from day one...not a lot but enough to be worth while. Even during Covid we seemed to be still doing ok as that's when the home delivery companies really started kicking in up here. About 18 months into Covid things started to slow down. We had no staff and small overheads so never lost money but we shut the business recently, got tired of waiting for things to come back, which I don't believe it will in the near future. Even when things were going well I couldn't tell you what was our best day / days of the week. it was all so random. No rhyme or reason. I was a business coach back home and involved in business all my life but there never seemed to be any logic to it. Our customers were more middle / middle upper income type people. I couldn't work it out as many were govt workers, teachers etc and their income shouldn't have been greatly effected by covid. But thinking on it a little more even Thai people with a reliable income stream are usually in debt up to their necks....and the small amount of disposable income they would have had would have been eaten up by inflation of the past 2 years. All over the city we live whole streets that had busy restaurants and businesses have shut up shop. It is really dire and I can't believe it isn't more widely reported...unless ours is the only large Isaan city with economic problems. Home deliveries seem to have dwindled away....I can remember when the Grab / Food Panda riders where like swarms of locusts on the road, and by the looks of it with business dropping and the delivery companies squeezing the drivers, many of the drivers I assume have gone back to work in factories or a more reliable income stream. Apart from that money is very seasonal here. We started a little online thing a couple of months before Songkrahn and was going like a house on fire, then just dead in the water a month after. Apparently before Sonkrahn that's when people are getting bonuses etc and by the looks that's long gone. I pity some of the restaurants still hanging on, particularly when they have to prep a certain amount of food everyday, much of which somedays must go in the bin. I have stopped going to some of our favorite Thai restaurants and its quite obvious sometimes the food is old / not fresh....obviously not turning over as it used to. Don't know what the answer is. I pity some of these poor Thai people where if they don't sell they don't eat. Or people put money into businesses / franchises only to sit there looking at each other twiddling their thumbs night after night. So I guess my friend you are not on your own. best of luck but I wouldn't hang on to long paying staff etc waiting for the good times to return. I think there are a few more years pain to go before things get back to anything like they were

Thanks for all your detailed replies. Appreciated. Got my head around it all now for all the good its worth as the ME no longer available lol. I have been on the parental visa for 5 years now and apart from the multiple hoops you need to jump through on the initial application, I have found consecutive years pretty much a formality. Never any dramas. The only quirk is they ask for the 400k in the bank 2 months before which I believe in their own rules is only required on the day of application. I bring my child along, three photos of him inside and outside the house and all the paperwork and away we go. One year they did ask for a copy of every single page of my passport (90% are blank) which I think was a request from their HO for reasons best known to themselves. I have always had full time care of my son, his mother disappeared long ago. Always wondered what would happen in a share care situation if ever she tried that. They indicated to me sometime ago parental visas were only available to foreigners whom had full time care which seemed ridiculous. I asked how does a father get on that does the right thing and wants to see and support his children even if he doesn't have full time care....rather than simply does a runner? Blank open mouthed stare. Anyone here doing the parental visa that doesn't have full time care, or has very little actual contact with their children?

Yeah I think you will find many things written into Immigration rules and reality are not the same. IO seem to make up their own rules. But I think you will find things have changed. I think the first time I enquired maybe 3 years ago they had changed the rules at Savanakhet to say the mother of the child had to be present and the only other available office was Malaysia. About a year ago pretty sure Ubon Joe told me even Malaysia had stopped issuing them