Nurse moving to Oz

[ambergirl]

Hi, my name is Emma. I'm planning a move over to Oz next year (Melbourne) where I hope to work as a nurse under the 136a independent skilled visa. I am making the move on my own so it obviously appears a bit daunting at the moment!!!

I have a few questions and any advice would be great, also if there is any one else out there planning something similar it would be great to hear from you.

I am hoping to have my skills assessment and the visa application sent by January time, when am I likely to be appointed a case officer? I know this is hard to answer but the reason I ask is I am planning to be in Greece from June-September next year and I don't know whether to:

A: Apply in January and front load my medical and police check before I go to Greece around May time, regardless of if I had been apointed a CO.

or

B: Send the visa application in just before I go in May, then the time I am in Greece would be the time waiting for a CO. My worry with this is that medical and police checks would be requested before I got back.

How long do you have after the medical and police checks are requested to submit them?

If any one could help with any of this I would be very grateful.

[ali]

Hi Emma,

We got a CO 4 1/2 months after acknowledgment of application. We hadn't front loaded anything and got visa 2 months after that. The medicals are processed pretty quickly, the only thing I would do differently is to get the police checks done as they are taking 26 - 40 days to arrive.

Ali x

[motherof2]

Can I just ask a quick question about the police checks? Are these the same as the CRB's we have for work and if so can I use that instead? Sorry to hijack your thread Emma.
Sue

[ali]

No you have to get a police check for the purpose of migration, they are only valid for one year.