I know that Alan did a huge amount behind the scenes, un-paid, un-sung and un-seen, to try to get the Minister to increase the quota of Parent visas. He also wrote to the Australian Governmennt Actuary, "querying" the model used by the Actuary in order to produce pessimistic predictions about the alleged cost of the Parent Visa Program. I've read the Actuary's Report though I didn't understand 3/4 of it - I haven't a clue how to do actuarial calculations. However, the Actuary did make it sound like the Parent Visa program was practically bankrupting Australia. I am not kidding. The thing reads like a dirge and even the Actuary acknowledged that she had been instructed to ignore all the benefits - tangible and intangible - that the Parent program brings with it, so the Report was/is completely lopsided in my view.
Alan got hold of this Report, obviously understood the maths in it, is sceptical about some of the assumptions used in creating the model so he wrote to the Actuary "querying" the thing - which I assume is a euphemism for "demolished it." Being an Accountant as well puts Alan head & shoulders above most of us when it comes to this sort of debate.
The rest of us, whingeing from an emotional viewpoint, could never have had as much effect as Alan had by getting to grips with the financial assumptions and arguments that underpin the whole Scheme, plus demonstrating that if more realistic - and balanced - assumptions were used the picture would look much rosier.
Nobody paid Alan for his work on this front, which makes him a hero in my eyes.
I agree. You can now afford to relax about exactly when you might hear from a CO, as can Jean (OldiesRUs.)
They are now asking June 2007 Parents to get their Assurances of Support organised at the same time as having their meds and police checks done, so the POPC are evidently planning to go full steam ahead with granting CPVs again as soon as they can.
From your Parents' point of view I still think you did the right thing by frontloading because it will save time in the end. The basic idea is still to get one's Parents in to Oz asap, after all.
I know an elderly couple who can't apply for their CPVs yet but it will be a huge wieght off their minds to know that the processing will be reasonably fast track once they can eventually apply.
I'm bursting with pleasure this morning, so I will stop gabbling and shut up!
Just what we wanted to hear. Fab news.
Things should now start to happen for us and everyone else playing the waiting game....Whoopee
Hi Ancient Brits
I've just checked your timeline. It seems that you despatched your CPV application on 4/09/2007 and the acknowledgement is dated 18th September 2007, so I am guessing that 18/09/2007 is your lodgement date, give or take a week?
Brilliant! By my calculations you should not have that much longer to wait before you hear from a CO. Rick's Parents (Where's The Wind) are a bit ahead of you - their application was lodged in August 2007. We can rely on Rick to let us know when he hears from his Parents' CO and then you won't be long after them.
I agree. You can now afford to relax about exactly when you might hear from a CO, as can Jean (OldiesRUs.)
They are now asking June 2007 Parents to get their Assurances of Support organised at the same time as having their meds and police checks done, so the POPC are evidently planning to go full steam ahead with granting CPVs again as soon as they can.
From your Parents' point of view I still think you did the right thing by frontloading because it will save time in the end. The basic idea is still to get one's Parents in to Oz asap, after all.
I know an elderly couple who can't apply for their CPVs yet but it will be a huge wieght off their minds to know that the processing will be reasonably fast track once they can eventually apply.
I'm bursting with pleasure this morning, so I will stop gabbling and shut up!
Best wishes
Gill
Hey Gill
I totally agree that we did the right thing by front-loading - at least it's one more thing out of the way, and it kept the folks busy during that uncertain time - at least they felt they were doing something to help move things along. And with two new Aussie grandchildren on the horizon this year, I don't think the reduced validation time will be an issue - they won't mind a bit heading over for a nice long holiday while waiting for the house to sell.
I'd kind of figured out too that the CO's seem to be concentrating on getting the big payments from earlier applicants, hence the slip in the allocation timescales. Not a problem though - just a relief that they'll have that magic visa sometime this year. I'll certainly let everyone know when they get a CO, although as you say, Jean is a couple of weeks ahead of us.
Great news, Do you think we still have to wait until after july 1st for the visa's?
Hi Son
Yep. It has now been confirmed that they are not going to release any of the extra 3,000 visas until 1st July, and they've already granted or allocated the 3,500 visas available up until 30 June 2008.
However - as Alan Collett has commented elsewhere - hopefully the POPC are having a recruitment drive at the moment because they wiill need additional staff in order to handle the increased number of visas. If they can get the extra stuff reasonably quickly the they should be able to chug along at a respectable pace from 1st July 2008. They are also an extremely efficient unit - they really do not dawdle around wasting their own or their clients' time.
I see on the BE thread today that the POPC have told somebody that the reason they are still "stuck" on June 2007 applications is because they had an unusually high number of applications in June 2007 from people trying to beat the fees-increase on 1st July 2007.
I reckon that you will have two options when your Parents' CO makes contact.
The first option will be to set a leisurely pace with the AOS, paying the second instalment etc to as to delay the grant of the visas until closer to the time when your Parents will want to travel to Oz.
The alternative will be for you to be pro-active, really push the pace along and get the visas granted asap. Hardly any Parents express a wish to try to wait for as long as possible before they really must make the permanent move to Oz in order not to compromise the ease with which they would be able to get Resident Return vVsas later on, so the majority really aren't worried about trying to defer the date of the grant of the visa for as long as possible. (CPV applicants must also be about the only group on the planet who chirrup with jpy & relief when parting with large sums of money!!)
If you decide to set a fast pace, as we did, there is lots you can do. A lot of this waiting around for letters to arrive in the post is nothing but bureaucratic red tape which is easily cut. A fax machine is a sterling alternative to Auspost for a start and there is no point in leaving modern technology lying around gathering dust...... You get the gist!
I see on the BE thread today that the POPC have told somebody that the reason they are still "stuck" on June 2007 applications is because they had an unusually high number of applications in June 2007 from people trying to beat the fees-increase on 1st July 2007.
I reckon that you will have two options when your Parents' CO makes contact.
The first option will be to set a leisurely pace with the AOS, paying the second instalment etc to as to delay the grant of the visas until closer to the time when your Parents will want to travel to Oz.
The alternative will be for you to be pro-active, really push the pace along and get the visas granted asap. Hardly any Parents express a wish to try to wait for as long as possible before they really must make the permanent move to Oz in order not to compromise the ease with which they would be able to get Resident Return vVsas later on, so the majority really aren't worried about trying to defer the date of the grant of the visa for as long as possible. (CPV applicants must also be about the only group on the planet who chirrup with jpy & relief when parting with large sums of money!!)
If you decide to set a fast pace, as we did, there is lots you can do. A lot of this waiting around for letters to arrive in the post is nothing but bureaucratic red tape which is easily cut. A fax machine is a sterling alternative to Auspost for a start and there is no point in leaving modern technology lying around gathering dust...... You get the gist!
Cheers
Gill
Hey Gill
I think it will all depend on how long it takes to get allocated a CO. At the minute it could be anything from a few weeks to a few months - it's hard to tell how long it will take to process all those lost souls who were stuck in limbo!
If the CO thing happens quickly and there's no movement on the house sale, there's probably not much point in pushing it through - in fact it might allow the exchange rate to drag itself back towards something a bit more reasonable when they're paying the big amount. Having said that I'll still probably find myself sticking my nose in and seeing what I can do !
hi everyone, the news about the extra cpv is just great perhaps we wont have to wait as long as we thought we would for visa,many thanks to ALLAN COLLETT. REGARDS ELAINE
