It finally happened, we have been granted Permanent Residence in Stralia - guess that means we are staying put for a while and are no longer South Africans not living in the RSA, and also not temporary residents in Australia. At least one of the benefits will be Emmie will no longer be clasified as an International Student (and as a result, my bank balance should look better to the tune of $ 18 000.00 a year) and we had the pleasure of being given Australian Medicare cards and the resultant cover that affords us now.
So what does this mean?, not much else really, except I will lose my Living Away From Home Allowance (a tax free portion of my salary) but then not pay tax on the first $ 6 000.00 I earn each year, but I will be able to claim Centrelink contributions for my family (shall find out about this soon).
We will have to make our next decisions about Citizenship only two years after being granted residence status when you can then swear on the Kangaroo and become Stralians. So that will be in January 2009. At least our RSA passports can take us through till then anyway.
We will still ( in the meantime) PROMISE TO:
Support the South African Cricket and Rugby teams (even if we lose to Stralia...)
Be South Africans at heart.
Keep sending Dollars home for Ryan..
.JPG)
No comments:
Post a Comment