Police checks - urgent!!!

[dive monkey]

Just had my medicals and police checks requested and realised that I may need an australian police check as well. I didn't realise that the total length of time spent in any one country was cumulative and have entered this information incorrectly on my visa application. Thought I would get away without one as I spent just under a year there on a working holiday but then I also went over for a month last year to visit family taking me over the 12 month limit for a police check in any one country :roll:

Should I come clean to my CO and bite the bullet of waiting for my aus checks to come through or just hold out and hope it doesn't get noticed? Really don't know what to do. My oz police check would be pretty useless anyway as apart from my visit for a month, for the rest of the time I don't know any of the addresses I stayed at as I was backpacking. Please help, I have got to get all this back to them by 5th March.

Thanks for reading, stressed DM x

[Gollywobbler]

Hi Dive Monkey

First of all, don't worry about your CO. They understand only too well that all of us tend to make the odd error with the forms.

Does the CO know about your previous times in Australia? Did you put it on the application form, including the visit last year? The reason I ask is that from your post, it sounda as if the CO has asked for UK Police checks only. Is this right?

If it is, and you have provided evidence on the form which would lead the CO to work out that you have spent an aggregate of more than 12 months in Oz, then it could be that s/he has decided that it is so little over the 12 month mark that it is de minimis and not worth worrying about.

Don't worry about the 5 March deadline either. That can be extended if necessary.

Please see here:

http://www.afp.gov.au/services/opera...history_checks

Getting an AFP check is pretty straightforward if it turns out that you need one. Any Bank in the UK can issue a Draft in Australian dollars, and it might be that the Post Office can issue International Postal Oders too (though I'm not sure about the latter, but the Banks can definitely issue foreign currency drafts.)

I think that in your shoes I would ring your CO, explain that you think you misunderstood whichever question it is, and ask whether s/he wants an AFP check from you. Adelaide is currently 10.5 hours ahead of the UK/

If you really can't get through on the phone then I suggest faxing the CO using the setting that makes the machine produce a print out confirming that the fax went OK, the number it went to and the time that it went. The on-line form is such a waste of space that I suspect everyone is probably now faxing DIAC instead, frankly.

But DO NOT stress. This is NOT, repeat NOT, a serious issue.

Please let me know how you get on.

Cheers

Gill

[dive monkey]

Thanks so much for your reply Gill. I haven't got my knickers in quite so much of a knot today following your reply plus a good night's sleep (and a large glass of wine!). It turns out I did complete the form correctly as it didn't ask for cumulative but continuous residence of a year. What confused me is that this is the opposite for the aussie police check which is needed for cumulative residence. It would be so much easier if they told you this beforehand so you could get it frontloaded! :x Anyway, then I started panicking thinking how on earth am I going to get this done by the deadline?! So I'm sorry for wasting your time :oops: You did help me stop and think a bit more straightly though. Now I need to find out how to extend my deadline but plenty of time for that yet.

Thanks again. If it wasn't for people like you, life would be much more difficult.

DM x