SOMV

Current processing times in London are about 6 months from date of receipt. They are reluctant to change information on their website because they cannot guarantee processing times, and processing times change depending on how may applications are beign received by them at the time that your one arrives. You should submit as much "official" information as possible, so do submit the bank statements too. Photos are really not that relevant. Anyone can stand in front of a camera to take photos in different locations. They add to the application, but they certainyl do not prove the length of a relationship. So rather than flooding the application with that type of evidence, concetrate on anything "official" that shows that you are both living at the same address for a period of at least 12 months. The medical and police checks can be done towards the end of the process. So if they are requested too early, do feel free to ask your case officer if you can hold off providing those as you want as much time as possible for your initial entry date. The case officers in London are lovely, don't be afraid to ask them questions.

If you want to apply for Victorian Nomination and you have an ICT occupation you have until the 11th to get your application in this year. Click here for more information: http://gemsuseraccount.createsend1.com/t/ViewEmail/r/36C8ADFB953E8D392540EF23F30FEDED/7EFD08FDFDC6BAAE14399806BE9B4083

Hi Jamie, How can you not have any documents in relation to your visa? Surely the Department communicated with you during the processing. Or you were issued a receipt? Any email from the Department, or your receipt, would have had at least your File Number or TRN. Still, if you really have nothing, then try the Europe Service Centre, they are great: http://uk.embassy.gov.au/lhlh/IMMI_contact.html

Late reply I know, but still: Here are the actual rules ($900 limit per person): http://www.iatatravelcentre.com/AU-Australia-customs-currency-airport-tax-regulations-details.htm So yes, there actually is a limit, but I have never heard of anyone being stopped and questioned about the value of their jewellery. I suppose if you were walking in with 20 kg worth of gold chains on you, they will ask you some questions.

Ali if you copy someone else's statement the State will know this straight away. Write your own statement. It will be genuine and so will carry more strength. Sit down and think about why you want to migrate to South Australia. What makes it more attractive than the other States for you and your family? If you don't know the answer to that question, do some research. Find out about the cost of living, what makes SA unique, what kind of a lifestyle will it be able to offer you, what will your employment opportunities be like? If you sit down and think about your own answers to those questions, the statement should not be that difficult.

I'd begin by calling the Europe Service Centre to find out if they have anything on the system: http://uk.embassy.gov.au/lhlh/IMMI_contact.html You obviously had a visa, otherwise you would not have been able to stay in Australia. Your visa should have been the same as your mum's. Can you not find out which visa your mum had? Maybe she has kept her old passport or records? The other option is to request your Movement Details. This may also help. This lists all entry/exits and the visa/passportyou would have had at the time. Here is the correct form and it should come through quite quickly: https://www.border.gov.au/Forms/Documents/1359.pdf (The address to which the form should be emailed is on the first page).

Becky you seem to know what you are talking about and from what you have written you don't seem to have any issues. As you know, the 12 month requirement does not apply since you have registered your relationship, so you are fine on that front. And a statement from a police officer as well as one relative will also be fine. There is no rule at all that you have to provide a statement from each side of the family. The Department doesn't need hundreds of documents, they just want a good selection that confirms that you have been and are in a genuine and continuing relationship. The Department also doesn't care if you have a hundred friends or just a handful. How social or antisocial you are is not relevant to your application. As I said, from what you have written, I can't see any issues. I'd wait with submitting the application until you are quite close to the expiry of your current visa, so that there is as much time as possible up your sleeve for the length of your relationship, but do make sure that you submit before your current visa expires. Don't forget that as soon as you have submitted your application you have to also submit the sponsorship application!!! (This can't be pre-prepared all the way, it will only work fully once you have submitted the main application.) Best of luck!

Pia it is a bit hard to understand your question. If you are completing passport details for your current passport, and the issue date on the current passport is 2013 then that is the issue date. The form also asks about old passports so you do have the chance to also include old passport information. Also, you can explain the passports and any discrepancies with issue date (if there are any) at the end of the form under the additional information section.

sorry, this belongs in another thread but I don't know how to delete or move it: Re. the increase in age, the Treasurer mentioned it here. This is the only place I have so far been able to find "official" confirmation of the age increase: http://sjm.ministers.treasury.gov.au/transcript/139-2016/

Hi Johnny, If you included your partner as a secondary migrating applicant than a request for Form 80 is normal. But you said that your partner is not included in the application, so I agree with you in that I can't see why the Form 80 has been requested. You can simply provide the requested document, just to keep things moving along. Or you can ask why it has been requested when your partner is not included in the application. Having said that, if your partner is, as you said, an NZ citizen, why didn't you include your partner in the application so that s/he can also get a permanent visa? Is that because s/he is eligible for permanent residency without needing to be included? You might want to check this. The Department seems to have hired lots of new workers and not all of them are up to speed with all relevant requirements. The Department has also abandoned the "one case officer works on the same file" model, which is why you have received numerous requests. It may well be that one case officer has overlooked something, or that another case officer isn't that experienced and so is asking for documents that are not relevant.

You should call the European Service Centre to make sure that the details have been updated: http://uk.embassy.gov.au/lhlh/IMMI_contact.html

Carlytip your husband will not be able to get a positive skills assessment unless he has worked as a welder in the last 3 years. Here are just two of the skills assessment criteria: To be eligible for assessment you must have:  a minimum of five years’ paid full time employment in your trade at the required level - so this could be fine from what you have written and  worked in your trade in the last three years - this is your issue!

First, start of by counting your points to make sure that you will be able to score at least 60. You may score enough (at least 60 points) without having to take an English test, but these days that is unlikely. In any case, the more points you are able to claim, the more likely you will be able to apply for a visa. You also need to decide on just one skilled occupation. The skills assessments for electricians and plasterers are really different in terms of costs as well as timescales. Your decision should be based on the qualifications you have and the evidence of proof of your work that you can provide. The best visa to apply for is a Skilled Independent Visa - this gives you rights to permanent residency and it does not have any restrictions as to where in Australia you have to live and what kind of a job you want to do. Those are just some starting points. If you want help with counting your points, or if you want someone to help with an assessment of your visa options, and with getting a bit more details about all the steps, the timescales and the costs, feel free to email me, I don't charge for assessments.

I think you mean that Cathay were able to change the passport details on their own system? Or you mean that Cathay have access to the Department's own system and can actually update individual passport details? I've not heard of that before. That's quite surprising. I am honestly not sure that that is possible. But in any case, I am glad that all is well and the details have been updated, one way or another

Of course Mazumder could also try to call the Department to see if someone in the Department can reply in detail to all of his questions. They are paid public servants after all. :wink:

If you have any concerns about whether the information has or has not been updated the best way to resolve this quickly is to give the Europe Service Centre a call. They can look up the application and they can see if the change has been made online. They might also be able to look into why you personally can't change the details online.

Hi Sam, Normally a marriage certificate is enough evidence, maybe the case officer has overlooked that you have already attached a marriage certificate? Has your wife's name changed from her name at birth (as it is shown on her birth certificate) in any other way aside from her having taken your surname after marriage?

Your husband will have to be able to show 3 recent years of employment in order to be able to receive a positive skills assessment as a welder. So even though your husband may not have to claim work experience points in order to meet the points test (at least 60 points) I do not think that your husband will be able to get over the first hurdle, which is the skills assessment. Quoting directly from the skills assessment criteria for welders (the criteria for different occupations do vary): To be eligible for assessment you must have:  a minimum of five years’ paid full time employment in your trade at the required level  worked in your trade in the last three years.

The permanent visa is valid for 5 years at a time and can be renewed if you have spent at least 2 out of 5 years in Australia. So yes, you should be able to obtain new Resident Return Visas (RRV), which will give you a further 5 years, and again you will have to spend at least 2 years in Australia in order to be able to renew the RRV once the next 5 year period is up. You can apply for the RRVs online (the process is quite simple): https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Visa-1/155- In order to obtain citizenship you need to be able to show that: - You must have 4 years lawful residence in Australia. The 4 year period must include 12 months as a permanent resident immediately before making an application for Australian citizenship - You must not have been absent from Australia for more than one year in total, during the four year period, including no more than 90 days in the 12 months before applying. The fact that your daughter is a citizen has no impact on the citizenship rules except that one of the exceptions to the residence rule is that if you have spent time outside Australia as a permanent resident with your Australian citizen spouse or partner, and have a close and continuing association with Australia, then that period of time may be treated as time spent in Australia. However, this is a really hard test to meet. Read this recent decision and you will see that this exception is hard to have applied: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/AATA/2016/808.html

It depends on the bank you are with. But yes, generally they can go quite far back, though they may charge for any printouts.

Yes it is a frequent request, especially from newer case officers. When this kind of request is made you don't necessarily have to submit every single payslip. Just a selection, say one fro every 3 months, covering the period for which you have claimed work experience points, will do. If you really don't have payslips, you can rely on alternatives such as bank statements (showing pay going in, again a selection is fine), and / or P60's, P45's. A combination of all of those will do. If none of these are available then a declaration explaining why they are not available, together with statements from the following will do: You can HMRC with your National Insurance number, and request a form OCA41. This is a printout which gives summary details of employer, dates of employment, salary, and tax paid. It does come through quite quickly. But it may not go back further than 7 years. If you need to go further back, you can request a printout of your NI history from data protection in Newcastle. I think it can be done through the website or by phone . But this takes a lot longer, I think it can take about 40 days. it takes about 40 days to come through so if you do have to rely on this let the case officer know (give her/him what you have so far and let them know that you are waiting on more evidence to come through).

Assuming that you are talking about a skilled visa, no, not at all. The Department understands that people move from time to time. And if they do ask about it (they may not even notice) then you just explain it the way you did here. But if you are talking about a de facto partner visa and you are having to prove that you and your partner have lived together for at least a year, and there is a discrepancy with addresses, then you may have an issue. But I think you are talking about a skilled visa?

Just as long as you upload evidence that you have booked in for the medicals (email confirmation) and applied for the police checks (email confirmation or post receipt) within 28 days, then you are fine. The medical results will not come back to you at all. You will never see them. So there won't be anything else to be done on that front once you have been to your appointments. Best of luck! You are almost there

Unfortunately neither secretary, PA or office manager are in demand, so none of these really work. As far as Project or Programme Administrator goes, for a successful skills assessment the tasks that you undertake on a daily basis (at least 20 hours a week) have to relate to the administration of specific programs or projects. General clerical/administrative support for a business or organisation is not the same as program or project administration and will not be assessed positively for this occupation. Employment evidence provided must ideally specify the specific projects or programs that have been administered by the applicant.

You definitely do not have to upload all of the listed forms. Most or many of them are probably not relevant, as you have figured out. And either or both jpegs or pdfs are fine (the system will tell you if they are not fine either because they are too large or not in a recognised format). I am not sure that I understand your health question though: it may be that there isn't a HAP id that has been allocated to your file (each visa applicant is allocated a special ID which then allows the panel doctor/surgery to identify you on their system when they are submitting your health results), which is why the letters can't be downloadead just yet, but it may also be that you are on a browser that is not, for whatever reason, letting you print out the letters. Have you tried saving them first? Have you tried an alternative browser? I sometimes have issues with Chrome and when I switch to Safari there is no issue.