Guest Gollywobbler Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Hi All At the meeting with David Wilden at Australia House today, we were told as follows: All the applications in hand from people in Categories 1 - 4 as listed in the FAQ of 23rd September 2009 are now under control. DIAC estimate that there are about 3,500 applications in Category 5 - that is, State sponsored but the main applicant's occupation is not on the CSL. Mr Wilden has been told that DIAC are now in a position to make a start on processing the Cat 5 applications. Mr Wilden said as follows: Roughly 3,500 is the number of actual visa applications, not the number of people involved. (I checked this with him specifically and he was definite about it.) They will start to process the Cat 5s according to the dates when the visa applications were lodged and they will deal with the oldest applications first. They will make no distinctions between the different visa subclasses - first come, first served means what it implies in a situation where the occupation is not on the CSL but the applicant does have State sponsorship. There is no foundation to the rumour that tradies may be excluded from Cat 5 processing - the tradies are to be treated identically to people whose occupations are in ASCO Groups 1-3. Mr Wilden said that we have had him up late at night and out of bed before the birds in order to phone his colleagues in Australia to discover exactly what the plans are for the Category 5s because he had seen from Poms in Oz that everyone is particularly worried about this question in particular. Mr WIlden stressed that he cannot say how long it will take to clear the backlog of about 3,500 Cat 5 applications. As & when they receive further applications from people with greater claim to priority, the applications with greater priority will be dealt with first. The Famous Five were all PiO members (DanB1, Floater, Gollywobbler, RonnieRocket and Watneyni to put us in alphabetical order.) We were all sitting round the same table with Mr Wilden and we all heard him say exactly the same things. (Needless to say we repaired to a London hostelry afterwards to compare notes - thanks very much indeed to Watneyni for very kindly buying a round of drinks for us all.) We were joined unexpectedly by a very helpful young man called Andrew. He has worked at the ASPC for a while but he is now in the UK, working with John Adams RMA at Immigration2Oz.com Andrew is not a PiO member [yet] but I am trying to encourage him/twist his arm! Andrew was involved with this part of the discussion so he heard Mr Wilden as well. That they can't say how long it will take to clear the 3,500 or so Cat 5 applications is reasonable enough. Mr Wilden promised to find out how many of the 108,100 skilled PR & Provisional visas for 2009/10 have been granted as at 30th November 2009 and he said he will let us know as soon as he knows. Once we have that figure it will probably be possible to start making reasonably sensible guesses. After the meeting the Famous Five agreed that this information is probably the most significant piece of info from today and that we would get it onto the forum with all possible speed, in its own thread to make it stand out. Cheers Gill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mach Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Thanks again to all of you... Job well done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest proud2beaussie Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Thanks for the update Gill,hopefully this latest news means that at least some of the members affected by the 23/9 debacle will be able to have a happy christmas after all. Thanks to everyone who gave their time to attend the meeting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sc80 Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Hi, I have always been reading the news here, although I did not register. However I am very touched and grateful for what Gill (and the rest of the famous 5) did today and I felt I should at least reveal myself as one of those cat 5 hopeful. Many thanks... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kasper Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 thanks gill your a star x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sforbes Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Hi Gill and the rest of the fab five I just want to say a huge thank you for all your efforts. I think you are all deserving of a massive round of applause from all of us fellow cat 5's. Thanks a million Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sabink Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Thanks alot all, top job Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest33730 Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Gill, I will happily buy you and the others a drink if and when I meet you!! - Well done! As well as the immediate issues it seems that you may have built a pathway for future discussion and raised the profile of PIO so well done on that front as well!! Daniel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TraceyT Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 To the Famous Five, Huge thanks to you all, it is fantastic news that you have brought us, Christmas has come early in my house. Just knowing that they are looking at our category now has made me stop pannicking. It is nice to see DIAC acting in a fair manner, by not excluding tradies & processing in date order. Cheers guys. Tracey xxxxx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calNgary Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Great to see you got some real answers,, well done the Famous Five and thank you Gill for taking time to organise this and fight on behalf of so many PIO members. Cal x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bebac30 Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GillianM Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Hi, and well done xx Can i ask what about the people who already had COs and all docs met? I just wonder how long it will take to get Co again? Gillian x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ozzieandlea Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Great work Gill & famous five gang. We really appreciate all the hard work you guy's have put into setting up the meeting and getting some answers to our questions. Hopefully some more positive news from DIAC will follow and we may get an early christmas present. Once again thank you all sooooo much for all your hard work Ozzie & Lea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest adso1404 Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Dear Famous Five, Thank you so much for your efforts, even if I'm not really affected by the good news. Unfortunately, I'm in group seven (non-sponsored, non-CSL, non-MODL, i.e. just SOL). Anybody's got an idea of what our prospects are? A tiny glimmer of hope would be sooooo welcome... Thanks. Alex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RonnieRocket0 Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Hi Gill, If it helps anyone, I have posted my 'report' of our visit under the Protest Visit thread. I was more concerned with posting some news and unfortunately did not set a new thread Kind regards Ronnie R Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest KatyNick Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Thank you Gill and the Famous 5. I will definately be raising a glass of wine to you all!! THANK YOU. I'm so relieved that Tradies have not been excluded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diz Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 THANK YOU X X :cute: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlos fandango Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Well done to all the guys who gave their own time to represent every one who is knocked back by the 23rd sept changes. I am a cat 5 - tradie and have been reading with much interest the posts of this thread as well as the other related thread. I'm still waiting for W.A.sponsorship and then will make my visa application(looking like new year now) so this information is very relevant and interesting.... Again....Well done to all the guys..... Carlos fandango Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
topturner Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Very big thankyou to the famous five for a job well done!!:notworthy: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McKlaut Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Thank you all!!! :hug: So happy to get a bit of positive news! So, are we back in pre 23/09 time when SS and CSL were processed at the same time and SS was not in limbo? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LisaG Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Hi Gill. Thank you so much for all your efforts this is great news thanks for bringing us mushrooms into the light! I do have one question regarding them processing visa's in cat 5 in the order they were lodged, I originally applied for 175 in May and then changed to 176 in September which lodgement date would they be going from? Thanks again for all your hard work to the famous five horray!!!!! x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GillianM Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Hi, im the same. Lodged 175 2nd Dec 2008 and changed to 176 state sponsor Aug 2009. But i think reading Gills letter from meeting its first lodgement date. Gillian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Louise1971 Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Hi Gill and all Thanks for the fantastic work and effort you have put, I like everyone on here are very grateful for the time you have put in. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LisaG Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Thanks Gillian thats the news I wanted to hear Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McKlaut Posted November 30, 2009 Share Posted November 30, 2009 Hi Gill. Thank you so much for all your efforts this is great news thanks for bringing us mushrooms into the light! I do have one question regarding them processing visa's in cat 5 in the order they were lodged, I originally applied for 175 in May and then changed to 176 in September which lodgement date would they be going from? Thanks again for all your hard work to the famous five horray!!!!! x Hi, I think that lodgement date - is the lodgement date and it is only one - the date of submission of the application. But this should be clarified by DIAC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.