Visa/Passport Advice (Aussie Living in London)

There is no such a thing as an ancsetry visa in Germany. It is totally a British concept vis-a-vis certain Commonwealth citizens.

This a very, very long shot but, if your gandfather was indeed a German citizen (children of immigrants eventhough born in Germany were not German citizens at birth, unless they were naturalized) and had to emigrate from Germany under duress due to Nazi persecution (almost exclusively Jews), he can regain his Germany nationality under Section 116 (2) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany and pass it to you with out the need to give up his or your present citizenship (naturalization under the citizenship law stipultates residency requirement, language requirements and the requirement that you give up your present nationality unless it is a nationality of a member state of the EU). The process could take well over a year!!

If he just emigrated from Germany and took out Australian citizenship, the buck stops there!
Trust me that the Germans will ascertain whether he was in deed a German national and whether he took out the citizenship of another country before even dealing with his case.

# 1 gives you very good advice.
If your family was forced to move because of the Nazis, you may have a chance. However,if your father decided to become an Australian citizen, giving up his stateless position,before you were born, it becomes more difficult. He must have been an adult then, if he was 9 during WWII, and he would have had the chance of moving back to Germany. I'm not sure if you could then get the citizenship from him.
It's a very complicated process and will take some time.Good luck.

Probably cheaper just to find a British girl and marry her and stay over that way

Is one also implying that a British girl may also be in the position of wanting to marry an Aussie for similar reasons?? How cynical, to think that people would put personal gain before love!! ;o)

Of course, only one REAL way to find out if any chance re query - German embassy in London. You may just get a very nice surprise, just maybe, but the heritage/blood thing with them is key.

Otherwise you are indeed looking at last resort. Or love. (See under the movie Green Card also).

That is quite naive if you don't think that it doesn't happen plenty already. Indeed, the going price for a marriage these days can be as little as $10,000 in the US and £10,000 in the UK for people who want to live in these countries but can't do so through other routes.

I'm not suggesting the OP pay for it, but if they were to find themselves in a relationship (they may already be one) then getting married is a good way to ensure they can stay together and doesn't harm either party.

I have found a way to stay that way through a particular method, but that would involve still paying myself a salary which would be taxed at the appropriate rate and then receiving the funds in another matter. Last resort.

This sentence leads me to question your desired tax situation. Basically unless you live and work in a country that does not have an income tax, you have to pay income tax to someone, usually the government of the country in which you live. It sounds like from your above statement that though you currently live in Britain you are not paying income tax to the tax authorities there. It doesn't matter if you are employed or if you are a contractor, you still need to pay income tax. Since the UK does levy an income tax, you could be committing tax evasion which is a crime.

There are rules which determine to which country you need to pay your tax. This is usually the country in which you spend the most time in a given calendar year. You need to check the UK rules on that. Most countries have a minimum cutoff below which you do not need to pay income tax. You need to find out what the rules are regarding that in the UK.

For independent contractors, chances may be slight that you will be caught. But if you do there could be serious consequences. I urge you to look into your tax situation.

Btw, I am a former tax professional, from the US, so I do know generally what I am talking about.