Remaining relatives visa or General Migration

[vijay2002]

I am from India and am considering migrating to Australia with my family - my parents, wife and kids. My parents are dependent on me and I have to take them along. I have already done a cursory self-assessment and I scored about 140 points (120 points is the cut-off for my profession type).

I have my only brother living in Australia and he is an Australian citizen now. I was wondering if I can apply for migration under "Remaining relatives" category for my entire family? I checked the eligibility criteria and the catch seems to be:
"Applicant and his/her spouse should not have parents outside of Australia".

Since I would be taking my parents along, I meet the criteria. But my wife would still have her parents living in India. But after marriage, according to Indian tradition, wife leaves her family and lives with the husband's family. So I am wondering if this condition applies to my wife also, given this context.

If not, I know I can also migrate to Australia under general category. But this would only cover my wife and kids and I will have to apply for parents' migration separately. I have heard that it is taking 12 years to process parents' visas. Is it true? Then this becomes a no-option.

Experts, please advise.

[CD]

Parent visa has a very long waiting list, could take anything up to 15 years, as the numbers applying for a parent visa is very high.
There is a contibutory parent visa, which is much quicker, around 2 years but it cost about £25K per couple (equal to 10 years worth of Medicare) plus a £6K bond which the person who is going to be your 'assurance of support' will need to pay................

So, it take time and/or money.
I applied under this class of visa in September 2006 and hopefully it will be granted later this year.

Good luck to you and your family.

CD

[JAJ]

I am from India and am considering migrating to Australia with my family - my parents, wife and kids. My parents are dependent on me and I have to take them along. I have already done a cursory self-assessment and I scored about 140 points (120 points is the cut-off for my profession type).

Parents are not "family" as far as Australia is concerned, sorry. If you are going to be an Australian, you need to forget "Indian tradition" and start thinking the "Australian way."

They may qualify for a contributory parent visa as soon as they meet the "balance of family" test.

As for you, it's unusual to have 140 points so you may have been over-optimistic. And have you obtained your skill assessment?

[vijay2002]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I am very soon going to start migration process under GSMP. Though with the current global financial crisis, I don't know what impact it will have on my application. I'll try anyway and, wish me luck!