A4Ron

OH.......MY..........GOD!!!!!!!!!!! 175 Visa Granted today!!!!!!

I have added my Line. I first applied as 176 FS on 18 March 2009. I then changed this to 175 on 12/12/2012. Allocated a CO one year later. I have documented my application date as my original 176 date. 175ers list!! (Version-4.0).xls 175ers list!! (Version-4.0).xls

Hi, I am from Low Risk Country - UK. I uploaded my police and meds in March and still waiting! Some people seem to get a grant a few days after, but I havent heard anything even though no documents remain outstanding.

Whats your timeline?

I was on a 176 FS Cat 5, I tried applying for sponsorship (NSW, QLD, NT) and they all rejected me because the 176 was depreciated and they would only sponsor 190 skillselect applications. Very frustrating as DIAC say you should try to get SS. No way I was cancelling application and paying another $7k for skillselect. Anyway after this I decided to do IELTS for extra points and transfer to 175 independent. I now have a CO 5 years after applying! If you can change you should.

I received an email on 16th December asking for medicals and police clearance. In that email I have the name and position number of a GSM case officer, the email address to use is adelaide team 4. I am making the assumption that I now have a case officer and that this is him.

What is this two week deadline everyone is talking about?

WOW!!! That was really quick, 5 days after PCC and meds uploaded. Pleased for you!

That is good news, I changed my 176 family sponsored to 175. Glad I did now...

28 days! It takes 6 weeks to get police clearance, and for meds I had to wait 3 weeks before I could get an appointment then they say it takes up to a week for DIAC to get the info.

I received an email on 16th December asking for police clearance and medicals. I submitted my police clearance by the end of February an dthe CO came back to me and said that these were past the due date! Haha! I wait 5 years for a CO then they want the documents quick sharp! unbelievable. Anyway, did medicals yesterday. So they should have all everything within the week. We will see how long they take now.....

Hi there, does anyone have up to date costs for the medicals? I am Scotland so the nearest place is in Edinburgh. I am willing to travel if it saves costs, I am planning a trip to London anyway so if there is a big difference I would do it there. It is for myself, my wife and 2 kids aged 9 and 7. Thanks!

I got a CO this morning!

It is truly a shambles. I know of no other service in the world were you are expected to pay such a large amount of money for absolutely nothing in return, just put in queue that everyone else can skip. Another slap in the face is that you cannot even get a refund. You can cancel your application, but a refund is only applicable on death. I would happily take a refund and never bother DIAC again!

My time line in my signature below.

Hi all, As you can see from my signature I applied back in early 2009 for a fam sponsored 176 (ASCO Systems Manager - SOL2), after all the changes I have been stuck in Cat5 with no idea of when I am being processed. I went ahead and got myself reassessed as my job has changed since 2009 and I now have been assessed as ICT Business Analyst (Sol1) and I also recently got IELTS 9.0. I applied for an EOI with 70 points and got myself an invite. Now I have a difficult decision to make and would like PIO members opinions. I also recently applied for NSW state sponsorship of my 176 application, a long shot but still worth it I think. If that fails I reckon I have the following options:- Sit an wait in Cat5 queue, DIAC have confirmed I can transfer my 176 fam sponsored to 175 independent and probably get processed quicker. But still an unknown. Could be mid to end of 2013 to get a CO at best. Withdraw my 176 application and pay again for 189, with no idea when I would get processed as I believe the processing times for 189 haven't been released (please correct me if I'm wrong). Paying twice would be a bitter pill but still manageable, but I may not actually get processed quicker that's the thing! Any advice welcomed!

Hi, anyone got any news on this yet? I went ahead with an EOI with 70pts and got an invite today. Not sure if a new 189 will be assigned quicker than my existing cat5 application. Any suggestions!!!

Well done with your results! I got the same as well and found the exam pretty easy even though I was slightly nervous. A decent grasp of English is rather important in an English speaking country I would have thought! Some of the poor use of English on this site by people complaining about the delay in getting a visa annoys me a bit........sorry!

Excellent, thank you!

C2H5OH, when did you apply? what is your occupation?

Looks positive for Sept EOI! Good Luck! http://skillselect.govspace.gov.au/category/system-update/

I think the 40k applicant includes family members. So they couldn't do 4k per month as applicant may be a family of 4. And I reckon 65ers are going to be very lucky to get a invite, if at all it will be end of year to fill spaces and only early applicants will be offered. I reckon 60ers and 65ers will be the new Cat5ers from the old GSM categories.

Wow great news. When did you apply for SS ? Also did you have to get your skills assessed again?

Hi all, One for the Cat5 crew here. The DIAC have said that anyone stuck in Cat5 (and applied before the legislative changes made on 1 July 2010) have an option to seek state or territory nomination (this was sent in an email July this year). However I have seen on another thread that SA have refused this option to someone. I asked NT about it and they don't seem to have a clue about this option and keep refering me back to the DIAC and the new skillselect option. Does anyone out there have any knowledge on states nominating old visa classes? Cheers,

What is annoying me is that DIAC have stated that us old Cat5'ers can change visa class and priority by applying for state sponsorship, but no state is going to sponsor an old visa class anyway!!