thegibbos

Hi there, I dont have 1st hand experience of EOI, as we applied before this process, but what i can tell you is that my husband passed his skills assessment through ACS, we are both English and he had to take IELTS. The main reason he took it is that if he got over 8 in each section, it gave us 5 extra points. When you know what category he will apply to the ACS through, it also tells you on the SOL how many IELTS points he will need. You can book this anytime and my advice for this is to revise revise revise!! Just fyi - my husband passed his skills assessment as a Systems Analyst. We just need to sell our house now!!! Best of luck, Liz

Hi Dan & Jo, Congratulations!!! I thought I would reply to you both as we too are emigrating to Melbourne soon..... We have been granted a permanent residency visa and are literally waiting to sell our house! Its been on the market now for 5 months - we sold after 4 weeks, then it fell through 5 weeks into the sale, then we've had Xmas.... Arrghhhh! We hope to be there in the next 3 months, in any case we have to validate our visa by the end of May. We have 3 children and family in Melbourne and will be looking for work when we get there. Mark has already been looking (He works in I.T) and I will wait a couple of months after I get there, however, when we were there last Xmas I did go to a radio station and have a chat with them, so fingers crossed I'll get a job with them! I thought we would get in touch with you as we are in a similar position and can't wait!! Good luck with the next few weeks - we've also been selling lots of things and have a skip on our drive! Mark & Liz

Hi, We had the same problem when my husband had his BP taken at the medical! His was also 170/90 - he had to go to GP for 3 weeks and have readings taken. We borrowed a monitor at home and he was fine - every time he went to GP, it went up. They wrote him a letter and all was ok. I was referred for a known medical condition and we passed - so dont worry! You'll have no probs - good luck! L x

I would imagine you'll be absolutely fine. I've just passed my medical for a PR Visa and I've had surgery 4 times (I have crohns). Not on any medication and am generally fit and well. I had to provide a report from my gastroenterologist and that did the job. Best of luck xx

Hi Pumpkinhead, Our meds changed straight from referred to Applicant Approved and had our grant on the same day - this was 13/08. Weve had a very busy week with estate agents etc! House going on the market tomorrow... Feels weird! Regarding the entry date - ours is May 28 2013 as that's a year from our PCC. all the best everyone x

Hi All, We got our visa approval today ))))) As I mentioned last week, we have been referred for a while now. I have a known medical condition, so took a specialist report to the medical. We had our medicals on 7th June. My children and husband all passed in June. Mine was referred 20th June and at the end of June they asked me a question regarding a drug that they thought I was on (but i'm not). I got this letter from my specialist mid July and have been waiting again since then. We have applied for a 175 and are from the UK. So...... Medicals - 7/6/12 Kids finalised: 14/6/12 Referred : 20/6/12 Additional info sent: 18/7/12 Finalised 13/8/12 I got the shock of my life this morning as it didnt say finalised - we had all changed to approved and had our visa grant too. If this helps at all - I also emailed my CO on Wednesday last week and asked if she had received everything she needs. She emailed me back Thurs to say yes and then we had our grant today. We are all so so pleased as we (mostly me) was worried about not getting the visa due to my medical condition (even though I am ok 90% of the time, it is a life long illness and I have had surgery a few times). I will still sit on the macbook every night reading all the threads.... its part of my life now! Melbourne here we come!!!! The Gibbos xxx

Hi All, i too have been relieved to find this thread! We had our medicals on June 7th. All 3 kids were finalised June 14th. My husband was finalised July 25th (He had to get some blood pressure readings done as they were high at the medical - but were fine over a 3 week period). Mine were first referred June 20th, this was expected as I have a medical condition. I provided a specialist report at my medical, but they came back early July and asked a question regarding medication (which I am no longer on). I got another specialist letter back to them by July 18th. This has not changed since and neither have I heard anything. I've called our panel Dr in England and they've said everything has been sent off from them and that we now need to deal with GH. I've been trying to be patient, as i do feel nervous due to my medical condition. Today though I decided to email my CO to ask if they do have everything that they need as nothing has changed on our application since July 3rd against my name. Its funny isn't it....when you're waiting for a CO, you don't give it much thought and you just get on with life, but as it gets closer, its all you think about! My poor family in Australia are texting/facetime every other day and can't believe its taking so long! Me.... I'm getting more nervous each day and am becoming more negative I've no idea how they cost you up - if its as a family or individual... I keep saying each week "We should know this week..." and another week passes! We got our CO at the beginning of May so its really dragging out now and everything is hanging on me now! Anyway.... Let's hope we all hear some positive news this week. L x

Hi Guys.... Just wanted to add a glimmer of hope to all waiting this bank holiday weekend. As you know we have ABPF yesterday and apart from the obvious excitement yesterday, thought nothing of it when I got up with my children at 6.30am this morning! However... when my OH surfaced at 9am and checked his emails - we had an email from our CO which was sent at 3.13am today - Team 2. They have requested Meds and PCC and have requested we respond within 28 days. I have a question.... we are having the week off at the beg of June for half term and this is outside of 28 days. Does this mean we will have to bring our meds forward and does anyone know if they are open weekends? Thanks all and have a great bank holiday weekend. Liz :biggrin:

Morning guys! ABPF for us today....... Eeeeeeek! Thought I'd check quick before work and I nearly missed it as I was reading the top line which still says commenced. Then I saw today's date and ABPF! Wow, I thought I'd be really nervous when we got it but I'm so so excited!! Must be all this rain...... We've got half term off beg of June so am going to book meds for then. I'll let you know when we get an email re CO. Happy Friday, and May the 4th be with you!! Ha ha Liz :wink:

Right here goes..... been following since the original thread last year and due to my little shock I thought you had disappeared last night I thought now is a good time to add ourselves to the timeline. Applied early Dec, husband main applicant as I work in the media and this is nowhere to be seen! So, this morning I have swapped the ipad for the laptop so I can add our details! Have to say and I am sure this is pretty common, but we are starting to feel a little nervous now.... didn't anticipate it till later this year, but hey... one step closer to our dream of living near family in Melbourne Name: thegibbos Destination: Melbourne Date of Visa application: 06/12/11 Nationality: British High / Low Risk: LR Trade / Profession: Systems Analyst Visa Type: 175 Onshore / Offshore: Offshore Processing Priority Group (Category): 4 Date Medicals submitted: Date Police check submitted: Date CO assigned: Date of employment verification (If applicable): Date visa granted:

Our application was for Systems Analyst for my husband. It only took just shy of 3 weeks to get back a positive response. However.... We were rejected for a VIC SS - so get your app in now for that in case you do too! We were gutted at first, however, we would have had our visa by now and actually it's a bit soon for us. We applied for a 175 in December and the way they are tracking, we should have a CO by Aug. Best of luck. the Gibsons

Hi all, We are currently filling out our 175 application online and there is a question regarding previous visas. I have tried searching on here to no avail. We have been to Oz 3 times in the past 7 years and have been issued ETA visas. (tourist visa). I see that I can put that and you don't have to give a number, but my question is - I have no idea when they were issued as our travel agents did them each time for us. What has anyone else done for this? Do I put the date we travelled? Is there a way I can find out? Also, do I have to fill it out for all 3 times for all of us? Thanks guys, The gibbos x

Hi, Yes we got ours in the post yesterday. We looked online the day before and the date is in there, but when we called out test centre (Rugby) they dont post on the IELTS website, so you may have to wait for them in the post. Im sure you'll get them tomorrow though as they post them out 13 days after the test. Try the results page again - you do need your candidate number too. Good luck anyway, I hope you get what you need. Thegibbos

Well done Jars. My OH also got positive results yesterday as we also need the 10 extra points. We were rejected by VIC for SS so now have to go for a 175 so we needed the extra points. Our application is going in this week.... Good luck, Thegibbos

Hi, we use Mick Breen at Destination Oz to assist us - very knowledgable and always at the end of the phone as he works alone. He is based near London. Good rate too!