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Economic News

The Significant Investor Visa (Subclass 188) is not an instant PR program. It is a provisional visa in that you have to invest minimum A$5M for 4 years as above and then be eligible to apply for PR visa (subclass 888).

So during the 4 years investment in start-up, small private companies, emerging companies and listed Investment Companies, you do not enjoy Medicare and other government benefits.

The Premium Investor Visa program requires minimum A$15M investments and are by invitation only through Austrade for talented entrepreneurs.

Ok sorry, may not be an instant PR, but just about the easiest method to get a PR in Australia, without spending much time and effort. Just need to have A$5m.

http://www.themigrationplace.com/20...ng-5m-australia-age-english-conditions-apply/
 
Thanks for info. Definitely not for me. Not that Ozland is not good but to uproot and migrate is totally different.

Anyway my retirement plans does include Sydney but not on migration basis. :)

It might be an easy method to get Oz PR with A$5M, but would you take the risk to invest in start-up, small private and emerging companies for 4 years with no guarantee on the return. After the 4 years, then you can apply for the PR visa if the state and territory government agencies still sponsored you.

For those who like to retire (not migrate) in Australia, perhaps the Investor Retirement (temporary) Visa (Class 405) suits you. You need to meet the following criteria:

You must be 55 years of age or older. Your partner can be any age.
You must be sponsored by an Australian state or territory government agency
You and your partner must not have dependent children or other dependent family members.
You must have assets (or if you have a partner, your combined assets) valued at least AUD750 000.
You (or combined with your partner) must have access to a minimum net income of A$65,000 per year.
You must have made a designated investment of at least AUD750 000 in your name (or in the names of you and your partner), in the state or territory in which you have been sponsored.
You must have evidence that you and your partner hold an adequate health insurance package for the period of your intended stay in Australia.
You must meet certain character requirements.

As you can see, these requirements are much higher than Malaysia’s MM2H program.
 
It might be an easy method to get Oz PR with A$5M, but would you take the risk to invest in start-up, small private and emerging companies for 4 years with no guarantee on the return. After the 4 years, then you can apply for the PR visa if the state and territory government agencies still sponsored you.

For those who like to retire (not migrate) in Australia, perhaps the Investor Retirement (temporary) Visa (Class 405) suits you. You need to meet the following criteria:

You must be 55 years of age or older. Your partner can be any age.
You must be sponsored by an Australian state or territory government agency
You and your partner must not have dependent children or other dependent family members.
You must have assets (or if you have a partner, your combined assets) valued at least AUD750 000.
You (or combined with your partner) must have access to a minimum net income of A$65,000 per year.
You must have made a designated investment of at least AUD750 000 in your name (or in the names of you and your partner), in the state or territory in which you have been sponsored.
You must have evidence that you and your partner hold an adequate health insurance package for the period of your intended stay in Australia.
You must meet certain character requirements.

As you can see, these requirements are much higher than Malaysia’s MM2H program.

With the retirement visa do you get Medicare benefits? Can you buy property without FIRB approval?
 
With the retirement visa do you get Medicare benefits? Can you buy property without FIRB approval?

No to both. Only PR & citizens are entitled to Medicare and other benefits as well as buying (resale) property without FIRB approval..
 
No to both. Only PR & citizens are entitled to Medicare and other benefits as well as buying (resale) property without FIRB approval..

I think a long term stay visa sufficient for most. As for me my daughter is born OZ. So in and out enough for me. May try my luck to apply pr next time again. OZ has tightened immigration very effectively. Kudos to that.
 
I think a long term stay visa sufficient for most. As for me my daughter is born OZ. So in and out enough for me. May try my luck to apply pr next time again. OZ has tightened immigration very effectively. Kudos to that.

If your daughter is PR or citizen of Australia, she can apply PR for you under the ‘Parent’ scheme (provided you don’t have another kid or more outside of Australia).

However, please note that if you do not live in Australia long enough under your PR status, the Australian immigration department can revoke your PR visa by refusing to renew your resident return visa.

So, if you apply for PR status then you better live in Australia for a long time or get Australian citizenship.
 
Australia tourist visa - 3 months each entry
UK tourist visa - 6 months each entry

If you are plan to stay in these countries a every few months yearly, it really do not make much difference in getting a PR unless you want to stay there for a long time. Accommodation is always more expensive than flight tickets. Make sense to buy a small home base. But then again, make sure your medical insurance is up todate for global cover.
 
Can also consider migrating to New Zealand.
Seems like the criteria is easier.
 
If your daughter is PR or citizen of Australia, she can apply PR for you under the ‘Parent’ scheme (provided you don’t have another kid or more outside of Australia).

However, please note that if you do not live in Australia long enough under your PR status, the Australian immigration department can revoke your PR visa by refusing to renew your resident return visa.

So, if you apply for PR status then you better live in Australia for a long time or get Australian citizenship.

Yep, thanks for confirming with me in the facts, my original PR status already lapsed. This round I may try to engage a migration agent. Or if all else fails just stay there on long term basis.
 
Australia tourist visa - 3 months each entry
UK tourist visa - 6 months each entry

If you are plan to stay in these countries a every few months yearly, it really do not make much difference in getting a PR unless you want to stay there for a long time. Accommodation is always more expensive than flight tickets. Make sense to buy a small home base. But then again, make sure your medical insurance is up todate for global cover.

Aust is not like MY. You cant suka suka stay there for 3 months per entry. By the 3rd or 4th entry, you may be refused entry liao, unless if you have family members working there. Even then, it is not a given that the Aussie authorities will grant your entry in.
 
重型车辆明年起只能使用第二通道

(新山30日讯)为了疏通柔佛长堤交通拥堵情况,柔州政府探討规定所有重型车辆从明年开始,只能使用马新第二通道通关。

柔佛州公共工程、乡区与城市发展委员会主席拿督哈斯尼今日披露,州政府目前正在进行全面性交通规划计划,预料报告可在明年初出炉,其中研究工作包括將限制重型车辆必须使用第二通道通关,以舒缓长堤交通。

哈斯尼是于今日在柔州议会,回答行动党士乃州议员黄书琪的提问时,这么指出。

无意扩路增车道

他续说,受限于长堤目前的结构,政府目前无意在长堤进行扩路工程,以增加车道。

「同时,由于长堤事务涉及马新两国,因此在柔佛长堤上的任何工程必须获得马新政府同意,这有赖双边会谈。因此在长堤中增设人行道的建议目前並不可行。」

尽管如此,黄书琪在附加提问上提醒州政府,將重型车辆疏散至第二通道未必能解决长堤交通阻塞情况,实际上更重要的是两国关卡增加通关柜台。

否决建人行道

士姑来州议员巫程豪则呼吁政府,在研討报告中增设重型车辆集中地,以便让重型车辆在通关之前有可停靠的地方。

另一方面,哈斯尼在稍后进行部门总结时指出,目前长堤路肩只有1公尺左右的空位,这不符合至少需要2.5公尺以兴建人行道的標准,因此再次否定长堤兴建人行道的建议。

同时,哈斯尼进一步披露,柔州政府不排除在新山建设如日本名古屋运作的磁浮列车(magnetivelevitationtrain)系统,其覆盖网络主要为地不佬走廊及士姑来走廊。

「在东北与西北两个主要走廊之间,也有可能建设分线连接百万镇,及努沙再也,即高铁终站地点。」

他表示,马新地铁终站及马新高铁计划的马新技术委员会预料在今年尾完成商討,为两项计划制定落实时间表。
 
It might be an easy method to get Oz PR with A$5M, but would you take the risk to invest in start-up, small private and emerging companies for 4 years with no guarantee on the return. After the 4 years, then you can apply for the PR visa if the state and territory government agencies still sponsored you.

For those who like to retire (not migrate) in Australia, perhaps the Investor Retirement (temporary) Visa (Class 405) suits you. You need to meet the following criteria:

You must be 55 years of age or older. Your partner can be any age.
You must be sponsored by an Australian state or territory government agency
You and your partner must not have dependent children or other dependent family members.
You must have assets (or if you have a partner, your combined assets) valued at least AUD750 000.
You (or combined with your partner) must have access to a minimum net income of A$65,000 per year.
You must have made a designated investment of at least AUD750 000 in your name (or in the names of you and your partner), in the state or territory in which you have been sponsored.
You must have evidence that you and your partner hold an adequate health insurance package for the period of your intended stay in Australia.
You must meet certain character requirements.

As you can see, these requirements are much higher than Malaysia’s MM2H program.

And what does it take to get sponsored by an Australian state or territory govt agency?

As for health insurance, I was told that the CPF medishield life integrated shield policy may reimburse for medical in certain Malaysian hospitals, is this true? Does it extend to any other country?
 
重型车辆明年起只能使用第二通道

(新山30日讯)为了疏通柔佛长堤交通拥堵情况,柔州政府探討规定所有重型车辆从明年开始,只能使用马新第二通道通关。

柔佛州公共工程、乡区与城市发展委员会主席拿督哈斯尼今日披露,州政府目前正在进行全面性交通规划计划,预料报告可在明年初出炉,其中研究工作包括將限制重型车辆必须使用第二通道通关,以舒缓长堤交通。

哈斯尼是于今日在柔州议会,回答行动党士乃州议员黄书琪的提问时,这么指出。

无意扩路增车道

他续说,受限于长堤目前的结构,政府目前无意在长堤进行扩路工程,以增加车道。

「同时,由于长堤事务涉及马新两国,因此在柔佛长堤上的任何工程必须获得马新政府同意,这有赖双边会谈。因此在长堤中增设人行道的建议目前並不可行。」

尽管如此,黄书琪在附加提问上提醒州政府,將重型车辆疏散至第二通道未必能解决长堤交通阻塞情况,实际上更重要的是两国关卡增加通关柜台。

否决建人行道

士姑来州议员巫程豪则呼吁政府,在研討报告中增设重型车辆集中地,以便让重型车辆在通关之前有可停靠的地方。

另一方面,哈斯尼在稍后进行部门总结时指出,目前长堤路肩只有1公尺左右的空位,这不符合至少需要2.5公尺以兴建人行道的標准,因此再次否定长堤兴建人行道的建议。

同时,哈斯尼进一步披露,柔州政府不排除在新山建设如日本名古屋运作的磁浮列车(magnetivelevitationtrain)系统,其覆盖网络主要为地不佬走廊及士姑来走廊。

「在东北与西北两个主要走廊之间,也有可能建设分线连接百万镇,及努沙再也,即高铁终站地点。」

他表示,马新地铁终站及马新高铁计划的马新技术委员会预料在今年尾完成商討,为两项计划制定落实时间表。

Got singlish translation? :D
 
If your daughter is PR or citizen of Australia, she can apply PR for you under the ‘Parent’ scheme (provided you don’t have another kid or more outside of Australia).

However, please note that if you do not live in Australia long enough under your PR status, the Australian immigration department can revoke your PR visa by refusing to renew your resident return visa.

So, if you apply for PR status then you better live in Australia for a long time or get Australian citizenship.

Just checked, I would probably apply for Resident Return Visa (Sub class 155) to regain my PR status.
 
FED RAISES RATES BY 25 BASIS POINTS, FIRST SINCE 2006
Jeff Cox | @JeffCoxCNBCcom
3 Hours Ago

At long last, a rate hike for the history books.

After seven years of the most accommodative monetary policy in U.S. history, the Fed on Wednesday, as widely expected, approved a quarter-point increase in its target funds rate. The new target will go from 0 percent to 0.25 percent to 0.25 percent to 0.5 percent. Most members expect the new rate to coalesce around 0.375 percent before the next hike, according to a chart showing individual member expectations.

The decision, given the official stamp of approval from the Federal Open Market Committee, marks the first increase since the panel pushed the key rate to 5.25 percent on June 29, 2006. In a succession of moves necessitated by the financial crisis and the Great Recession that officially ended in mid-2009, the FOMC took the rate to zero exactly seven years ago, on Dec. 16, 2008.

"Given the economic outlook, and recognizing the time it takes for policy actions to affect future economic conditions, the committee decided to raise the target range for the federal funds rate to ¼ to ½ percent," the FOMC's post-meeting statement said. "The stance of monetary policy remains accommodative after this increase, thereby supporting further improvements in labor market conditions and a return to 2 percent inflation."

There were no dissents, even though multiple FOMC members publicly over the past few months have expressed reservations about rate hikes. The committee also voted to raise the discount rate a quarter-point to 1 percent.

In addition to the usual documents released with the post-meeting statement, the Fed put out a statement outlining the mechanics of how the new rate will come to pass. The program will be ambitious, involving $2 trillion of securities that will be used in overnight trading to push the rate into the desired range. However, the FOMC statement said it will be some time before the Fed starts unwinding its mammoth $4.5 trillion balance sheet.

"The premise behind today's rate hike to me feels a little stagflationary. They didn't raise rates today because real growth got a lot strong. In fact, if anything it got weaker, but they raised them anyway," said Jim Paulsen, chief market strategist at Wells Capital Management. "If we go through 2016 where real growth doesn't pick up but wage and price pressures do because we're in full employment, that's stagflationary."

Despite the history-making move, the road back to normalcy will be a long one. FOMC officials made it excessively clear in post-meeting documents that the pace of increases will be gradual and dependent on the quality of economic data. The projections and statement following the meeting reflected an effort to deliver the "dovish hike" many on Wall Street had been forecasting.

"The committee expects that economic conditions will evolve in a manner that will warrant only gradual increases in the federal funds rate; the funds rate is likely to remain, for some time, below levels that are expected to prevail in the longer run," the post-meeting statement said. "However, the actual path of the federal funds rate will depend on the economic outlook as informed by incoming data."

The statement also added this sentence to ensure markets that the pace will be slow: "The committee currently expects that, with gradual adjustments in the stance of monetary policy, economic activity will continue to expand at a moderate pace and labor market indicators will continue to strengthen."

The statement said the economy has expanded "at a moderate pace," just as previous statements have said. However, the statement was a bit more optimistic about labor conditions, saying slack "had diminished appreciably since early this year," with "appreciably" added from the October statement.

The closely watched "dot plot" that summarizes members' expectations for interest rates, showed only modest appetite for future hikes, with all but three members projecting the rate to be 1.5 percent or lower by the end of 2016. FOMC members now expect the funds rate to be just 2.4 percent in 2017, against a 2.6 percent projection in September. The expectation also declined for 2018, from 3.4 percent in September to 3.3 percent at this month's meeting.

"This statement is more dovish than I would've expected," said Scott Minerd, Guggenheim Partners global CIO and chairman of investments. "They've committed to keeping the balance sheet at the same size for a period of time well into tightening; I think this is a very dovish statement."

In addition to raising the funds rate, the committee pushed the interest paid on excess reserves to 0.5 percent and put the rate on overnight reverse repo operations to 0.25 percent, both in conjunction with the sale of securities that will be needed to push the rate higher.

"Not a big surprise here. So our expectation is still a flatter yield curve, firmer dollar, weaker commodity prices, a very slow and low pace of interest ... rate increases across the short end of the curve. It was definitely a dovish hike," said Kathy Jones, chief fixed income strategist at Charles Schwab.

The Fed had been holding the funds rate near zero despite a steady but unspectacular pattern of growth once the recession ended.

Both Fed chairs during the era, Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen, the current leader, insisted the zero rate was necessary to keep the recovery going. However, the low rates, coupled with $3.7 trillion in money printing known as quantitative easing, did more to boost financial markets than the economy, which has never eclipsed a 2.7 percent annualized gain throughout the period, the worst recovery since the Great Depression.

Despite feeling it was time to hike rates, the quarterly summary of economic projections showed Fed officials had not grown substantially more optimistic about economic growth. Forecasts for gross domestic product growth were essentially unchanged since the September meeting, with a modest improvement expected in 2016 from an initially projected 2.3 percent to 2.4 percent. Expectations for inflation actually edged lower, with the core personal consumption expenditures index projected to 1.6 percent growth in 2016, down one-tenth from the September forecast.

The stock market has boomed during the period of zero rates, rising 207 percent since the March 2009 low point.

Unemployment, which is one part of the Fed's dual mandate, has fallen to 5 percent. Inflation, the other part, has been less robust, registering just 1.3 percent growth most recently.

In raising rates, the FOMC signaled the first steps to policy normalization. The target is tied to a raft of key interest rates consumers pay. Wells Fargo almost immediately announced it would increase its prime rate to 3.5 percent effective Thursday. U.S. Bancorp and JPMorgan Chase quickly followed with their own hikes.

The Fed increase came as equity markets have hit something of a wall, commodity prices have declined sharply, and market participants have begun to worry about troubles in the junk bond market. Cheap interest rates have allowed companies with lower credit quality to borrow in record numbers at low cost. However, at least three junk funds have collapsed recently, and exchange-traded funds that track the high-yield sector have suffered sharp losses.

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/12/16/fed-raises-rates-for-first-time-since-2006.html
 
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