Advice regarding having no fixed street address

[Heg]

Hi there
We are NZ citizens , living here in Brisbane. We have just bought our first boat; a Fountaine Pajot Lipari. Our plan is to sail up and down the East Coast of Australia for the first 6 months and then head off into the big blue yonder as permanent Sea Gypsies.

We will be selling our home here, so will have no fixed street address. We will have a PO Box for mail, but I assume there will be times when we will need to provide a street address. How do you folks in the same situation cope with having no address?
What other difficulties are we likely to encounter? For instance, our AU drivers licence is only valid for another 4 years. How do we renew? The same with Passport renewal.
Any advice will be most welcome.
Thanks

[brianlara 3]

G'day Heg.
I've been on the hook 24x7 up and down the NSW coast now for 7 years.
The Australian federal government Dept of Veterans Affairs have never objected to my home address of PO box XXX Balgowlah NSW.
Ditto NSW Water Police.
Westpac ditto.
NSW Maritime ditto.
ALL of the important authorities know I live on the hook.
And if I go back to India in the future for months or years at a time Vet Affairs simply want to be advised of my departure date and eventual return date.
And when I go to Tas in Jan for an extended perion I'll probably get a po box in Hobart and notify the above accordingly.

[brianlara 3]

Should have read more closely......your passports, Kiwi, can be renewed at any NZ mission in any country which has NZ consular Services. Smaller countries may not an Embassy per se but often home government trade missions can do passports....I think??

[Heg]

Originally Posted by brianlara 3

G'day Heg.
I've been on the hook 24x7 up and down the NSW coast now for 7 years.
The Australian federal government Dept of Veterans Affairs have never objected to my home address of PO box XXX Balgowlah NSW.
Ditto NSW Water Police.
Westpac ditto.
NSW Maritime ditto.
ALL of the important authorities know I live on the hook.
And if I go back to India in the future for months or years at a time Vet Affairs simply want to be advised of my departure date and eventual return date.
And when I go to Tas in Jan for an extended perion I'll probably get a po box in Hobart and notify the above accordingly.

Thanks so much. I know banks are cool with it, but what about stuff like car hire? Or drivers licence? Any ideas?

[brianlara 3]

You didn't real it here and I never said it.....your last established residential address.

Not like robbing a bank is it?

[Heg]

Originally Posted by brianlara 3

You didn't real it here and I never said it.....your last established residential address.

Not like robbing a bank is it?

[clownfishsydney]

NSW driver's licence can be renewed remotely, not sure about Queensland (assuming you have that).

[mannix2]

I am in the US and have similar issues. There are services to handle this type of thing here. I use St. Brendan's Isle, a worldwide mail forwarding service. www.sbimailservice.com.

Check to see if there is something similar in NZ.

[boatman61]

Get yourself an International Drivers Licence.. then switch back when your 'sailabout' is over.

[akprb]

I still keep an NZ address which is simply a friends house. If mail comes he lets me know. It's rare. When it does happen he simply snaps a pic and emails it to me.

Times have changed :-)

[CHRIS V CLEMENT]

In the 1970's, my dad ran his boat brokerage business out of our 1926 Alden Ketch. He had a hard wired phone line installed on this fine wooden yacht.She was named MISTRESS.My Dad's had two listings in the phone book in New Orleans...1) Residence.2) Mistress.It is good that my mom was a sailor and had a terrific sense of humor.

[ccannan]

"Lose" your driver's licenses just before you sell your home, then renew. Change your address to friend or family address.

[CarinaPDX]

After 9/11 the US government got a bit touchy about people using PO boxes, and particularly private mailboxes (mailboxes offered by commercial businesses). And oddly enough for many government services like taxes, drivers licenses, voting, auto and boat registrations, they wanted to know the physical residence address. There has been some softening of enforcement, but legally a private mailbox has to be identified as "PMB" as opposed to "PO" for the USPS, and using "Suite" or "Apartment" instead is not allowed - at least by the Post Office. It can be considered postal fraud. In my state (Oregon) my last physical address before becoming a transient (gone sailing) is the correct address to use, which I did for the 16 years I was gone - but only reluctantly and where I could also provide a mailing address. No one would have even remembered me in the marina after a few years, so apparently it was never checked; I never had a problem.

Greg

[StuM]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Get yourself an International Drivers Licence.. then switch back when your 'sailabout' is over.

They're usually only valid for 12 months, are only issued in a country where you hold a current "residential" licence and are not valid in the country of residence/issue.

[Kiwi.]

Hi, NZ adult passports are now for ten years. Your old passports don't have to have expired before you apply for a new one. I'd get new ones. Many countries require your passport to have a minimum of six months validity.