KittyB

i went out and bought a cheapie on which to learn to drive... I've been holding off learning and buying my first runaround because i didn't want to have large possessions to deal with and sell in the event of deportation...

i hope my sense of freedom lasts as well. my boss is a "live and let live" type of person who gives me a lot of leeway to make my own decisions so long as the cafe ticks along profitably re the mortgage....yow! ill look carefully then. I've been with my bank for four years and have a lump sum which would amount to about 40% of the deposit on a unit, hopefully that will give me some clout and they'll be nice about the visa. if not, shop around! would be a good marketing slant....migrant friendly mortgage lender.

yep! and in the meantime i can regain some of my old skills, get a phone contract, and buy a house! i have a good working relationship with my employer so its not such a chore

Employer nomination submitted: 23 May 2012 at Perth CoE for COOK. Visa application submitted: 13 June 2012 Acknowledged three weeks later or so Visa granted Saturday 2 Feb 13. Thats 9 months and a couple weeks. And now, after 4 years and 4 months, with two employers working me into the ground in unacceptable conditions in return for sponsorship promises they never meant to keep, i am PERM RES. i feel such a sense of freedom i can hardly believe it. i reckon that i will be cooking far more joyful food from now on. its like that movie "water for chocolate" where everyone feels what the chef feels as she cooks the food. anyone still in the turmoil of the long wait for 857 applications, keep your chins up. this process has challenged my mental health, taught me the meaning of drudgery and how despicable liars are, but i got it in the end, and so can you.

i think that what channel is trying to ask is how often have you contacted the department during your process...before you contacted them about the current requested documents? for instance, you are contacting them now about the documentation, but were you emailing/phoning a lot before that asking for updates on the application? apparently that can aggravate them.

Ah well. worth a shot across her bows, even just for the hell of having my two cents worth.

yes it is rubbish. an agent would know what was needed and if the employer didnt provide he would retain the nomination/application until it was received and then submit drc. these threads where agents are mentioned pulling stunts like this give me the shivers; peoples lives are hanging in the balance. along the same lines, i emailed my ex agent and suggested that perhaps, if adding a drc isnt an option to already submitted nominations, she might like to refund the fee for that part of the process, obviously less the change she paid for express delivery to perth CoE...after all im a reasonable person hahahahaha. i also emailed immigration and asked what the way forward was on a matter such as that. would her drc submitting status be released to me? they replied saying that the question had been passed to a manager. they gave me the usual proforma response regarding timescales. so im not going to hassle further on that score. im interested to see where it will go from here. im quite prepared to make an official complaint to MARA. theres altogether far too much of this going on!

ahahahahahah! that laughter is geniune but slightly bitter... is there any way to find out where my application has actually gone? if its gone to melbourne, i think i might just pack my bags now. also, is there any way at all that i can demand she adds a DRC to an already submitted bunch of documents? if thats the case i might just exercise my mouth a little with her.

hello. im in perth too, my 857 app went in within 2 days of yours, ack letter for 13/6/12. perth is supposed to be a bit faster than parramatta/melbourne but who knows? fingers crossed! my friend (physio) got hers in 2 months after applying end feb 12.

True...I didn't think of that. Other than that BS about me having to give instruction a second time just before lodging, she said she didn't do it because her recent experience was that DRCs were going missing, and she was phoning hunting for a decision on them and not getting one and that her opinion was that they didn't give any particular advantage anymore. Whilst I conceded that these were valid reasons, my issue was that she didn't inform me of them, or inform me of my need to give specific instruction just prior to lodging. Her fees were pretty much the going rate with nothing extra specified for the DRC, so it was "built-in". My feeling is that she hasn't been denied her DRC lodgment rights for the 3 strikes and youre out thing. The moment it emerged (and it only did because I decided to ask some very specific questions and followed up when I didn't get a response) I sacked her and withdrew the next installment of my payment. She also didnt submit when she had all the nomination stuff together because she said she wanted to submit it altogether with my stage of the process after I SPECIFICALLY told her to submit because my stage could be done by me alone, and I wanted the employer nomination in as soon as possible. I got riled up and she did what I asked quick smart when I did, but altogether she ignored instruction. I'm not a vulnerable client with language difficulties, I have a working knowledge of the mechanics of client instruction and action and there was no reason for her to assume she could delay the process to get another 3K out of me given I had told her that I was considering going it alone for my part of the application. Lots of 'miscommunication' there hey?

Hi, thanks. This is what I was worried about. I hear horror stories of "if you phone them your app goes to the bottom of the pile again" which, whilst I would love to believe is untrue, is something I am all too ready to believe. A request if you have a CO could be easily misconstrued as harassment no matter how gentle. It's a ridiculous situation. My boss is well fed up with it.

i didnt. i had an agent for the employer nomination stage for that very reason and made it quite clear that the reason i was engaging her was to submit a decision ready checklist. she didnt do so, after i paid the fee, the reason being that we had a "miscommunication". Meaning I didnt reiterate that desire just before lodgement. She never informed me that I had to repeat the request just before lodgement in order to get what I had paid for. As far as I am concerned, thats not miscommunication. It was a deliberate lack of information in order not to submit the DRC. Its something I will looking to complain to her professional body about once all of this is over. My submission was decision ready but not attached to a DRC checklist.

no CO allocated as yet, or at least no notification of one. thanks for the reply. i think ill bulk up my pre loaded credit and do as you suggest.

485 going up from 300 odd to 1260? bl00dy hell!!!

it looks like a 25% hike in visa fees for these streams. at some point won't people just start to say 'no"? i wonder. this is a pretty massive increase on already high visa charges. and migrants, with no votes, are sitting ducks. ive had it hard during my migration process. if i were applying after the changes come into effect, id be hacked off.