kevkim

Hi Kim, sorry to hear your daughter is unwell - hope she's better soon. These are the times you really feel the distance, and are unable to help when they're poorly :-(

When you have your Visa do you plan on going asap?

 

So, just by transferring the money to Oz as opposed to paying the VAC in London (which is what we thought we would do) saves over £1000+????? Blimey, we better have a re-think - that is a lorra lorra money to save!

Val x

Hi Val,

Thanks for the message. All will hopefully be ok with my daughter in the next few weeks.

We've just booked our flights this morning for 2nd September - flying with Singapore Airlines and 40kg luggage allowance each. Pre-empting the visa I know, but we needed to get booked to secure the seats and the fare and we have a flexi fare if things don't go quite to plan.

Here's hoping that it is all plain sailing from here :biggrin:

.

Kim

Fantastic news Kim, sooo exciting! Very happy for you - not long now to the end prize!

 

As its on topic at the moment, (and if you don't mind me asking) :confused:what's your intended method of payment?

 

Val x

Hi Val,

Thanks for that, it is such a relief.

Kevin spent yesterday evening dealing with Moneycorp and tracking HIFX etc. We've transferred the 2nd VAC via Moneycorp to our agent who has agreed to deal with the payment on our behalf as a 'one off'. Our other option would have been to transfer it to our daughter to pay by bankers order but she isn't in a good position to do this (not too well unfortunately right now). By paying it this way we've saved approx £1000+ on what it would have cost us to do it through London! That almost pays for the flights for us :biggrin:. Here's hoping that this time next week we will have a visa to shout about.

Good luck with the wait.

Kim

congrats Kim, how long was the wait from the beginning til here? thanks

Hi there,

Our time frame is

acknowledgement 24.05.2011

email asking us to have medicals/police checks/organise AOS 14/05/2012

medicals 21.05.2012

Police checks - Nepal Feb 2012, UK May 2012

AOS (nightmare!:mad:) 04.07.2012

2nd VAC request 17.07.2012:biggrin:

I hope this helps. Good luck

Kim

Absolutely thrilled to be able to say that we received the request for the 2nd VAC at 11:15am today. At last, we might just get across that finishing line! Happy days!

Kim

So do you think those names at the top of the tracker, say the first 8-10 names, do you think they have all either got their Visa or have been allocated a CO, but not updated the tracker?????

 

My acknowledgement date is now past one year and its "excruciatingly" slow going, the anticipation - I'm afraid I wake most mornings at 5a.m. and rush to check email!

 

My 7 year old grandson today said (big sigh) "but Nanny Val WHEN are you coming to live here? How many more sleeps? I miss you......." Oh the agonising reply - I don't know yet, but soon!

 

Come on DIAC - get a move on! PLEEEEEEASE.......

I can't wait to update the tracker Val - our acnowledgement date was 24th May 2011. Every morning I wonder if this will be the one when we hear some news. Our agent emailed us on Friday and said if he doesn't hear something on Monday he intends to escalate things. So I am hoping against hope that we will have news this week. It is quite agonising!

Watch this space!

The tracker is looking a bit empty in places and hasn't moved in ages........ all seems soooo very slow at the moment, wonder what the hold up is. Lordy hope we see somethng moving this week, those that are next must be nail chomping at the moment.... hope it's this week for you.....then i won't be long after as i so want to be in perth for the birth of my grandson 3rd october but they reckon she may go early. Ann ( gilly on tracker):unsure:

Hi Ann,

It is so frustrating for us as we are once again being held up by Centrelink. The bond was paid last Wednesday and yet they still haven't sent confirmation of this to the Parent Visa Centre. And this after messing up the initial process! Our agent called re the allocation of a Case Officer and was told that as soon as they received official confirmation from CL they would contact us for the 2nd VAC and that they had already called CL to chase the receipt. That was on Monday. Bearing in mind we have to leave our military accommodation in August and are waiting to book flights, it is really starting to get to me. And now the offices are closed again so we will have to wait another 24 hours for news. Chin up eh!

Kim

Good morning all,

We are delighted to be able to say that our daughter has at last received the much anticpated letter from Centrelink and has today lodged the AOS bond. CL have assured her that they will scan in the receipt and send it off soon. Just to be safe, our agent is doing likewise. Now we need to sit back and see how long it takes to be allocated our CO. This process should come with a health warning. I can't remember when I last had a good night's sleep!

Kim

Hi Angela,

Welcome to the club. I can really understand how you feel right now but I can honestly see so many positives in your situation. If you can afford not to work, perhaps you should look at the option of sitting the wait out in Australia as has been suggested on here. Then again, if there is any chance of getting a job here to help build up funds, the wait is bearable. You don't start to really bite your nails for some months yet. It also helps seeing everyone on here making progress. We're all missing our grandchildren so much but Skype is amazing and my oldest grandson (2 yrs old) knows and recognises us easily and today demonstrated his new found counting ability.

To summarise, yes this is tough but you CAN do it and you are amongst friends here.

Kim

You are not alone with Centerlink problems, my lot submitted the AOS forms in early May, after three weeks had not heard anything, chased up and found that forms had been misdirected to the wrong department and would have to resubmit. Having done that they got the interview done but had two week wait for the forms to arrive in order to place the bond. It was at last lodged yesterday, how long before they inform Immigration is anybodys guess.

Hi again,

My agent has suggested that once my daughter has a copy of the confirmation of deposit from the Commonwealth Bank, it can be scanned and emailed to Immigration to speed up the process. Perhaps this is worth a try for you too. It might circumvent the wait with CL.

Kim

Hi all,

 

I too am having problems with Centrelink. I have had to email DIAC and ask for some extra time as my daughter's promised appointment letter has not materialised. She is in the Brisbane area. She also works full time and hasn't much opportunity to keep waiting for the phone to be answered. I think I will ask her to write a letter and post it through the door herself.

We should compile a list of the worst Centrelink offices and send it to the CPV Centre in Perth to see if they can intervene.

I can't wait for this whole process to be over - never done anything as stressful and costly in my life!

Roll on wine o' clock!

Regards, Val x

Hey Val,

Great idea but perhaps the Centrelink list would be a long one! I don't want to breath in the wrong way just in case it delays the process any further. I too get out of bed every day to check whether there is any news or if the tracker has been updated. This can't be healthy! In addition my OH retires from the Army in August and our entitlement to live in this house ceases. We are hoping that everything ties up so we can pack up and fly to Australia without having to 'squat' as illegal occupants!

Good luck and stay strong. I'd join you with the wine but am trying to get as fit as possible just in case for any unpredictable reason we have our meds referred. No news is good news o that one!

Kim :biggrin:

You are not alone with Centerlink problems, my lot submitted the AOS forms in early May, after three weeks had not heard anything, chased up and found that forms had been misdirected to the wrong department and would have to resubmit. Having done that they got the interview done but had two week wait for the forms to arrive in order to place the bond. It was at last lodged yesterday, how long before they inform Immigration is anybodys guess.

Thanks for posting, in some strange way it makes me feel better that we are not alone with this. Although to be fair, sorry to hear how much messing around you have had too. :mad:

Good morning,

Just wanted to let you all know that we are having delays with the AOS. This has been the most frustrating part of the process so far. Our daughter went into Centrelink initially with all the correct documents etc and dutifully signed the forms. She was then given a date (2 weeks later) for a telephone interview. Two weeks later the phone call came to say that the person who'd carried out the initial checks had not done it correctly and the process had to be started again! That has been done and my daughter was told to expect a letter the following week. That was almost 3 weeks ago. After many days of trying to ring CL to check on this letter and the line being engaged, the call was answered today. Apparently we should never have been told that the letter would arrive in short time as there are lengthy delays and it will be at least 29th June before it is actioned. It's all so frustrating but at least we can see the finish line.

If you can get this process started, perhaps it is worth getting it underway. Still no CO, I'll post as soon as we get one although I see 2 below us on the tracker have theirs. Good luck everyone.

Kim

Hi everyone,

Does anyone have any idea how long it takes to get a Case Officer after the email advising you to have medicals, police checks and arrange the AOS? The email said we'd be allocated a CO shortly. That was approx 4 weeks ago. I'll be chewing down to my elbows soon! I wake up every morning desperate to get online to check And the nerves are starting to get to me! I know it will happen soon, but forgive my impatience. This is a long old road to travel!

Good luck on your own journeys.

Kim

Hi Danny and Emma,

I'm no expert at this and would seriously suggest you ring a registered agent for the best advice (many will give you a free short telephone consult - mine did) but I'll give it a go. On the age front, my OH and I are 52 and 50 respectively and are in the process for a CPV. We have visited on the tourist visa many times during this process but only stay short periods due to work commitments more than anything. I believe you can stay easily for 3 - 6 months and up to 12 months. The tourist visa is not meant to be a pre cursor to a PR visa and so you would need to be very careful about trying to renew onshore, not sure that it is even possible - Quote - 'Generally, as a holder of a Visitor visa or Working Holiday visa you can only extend your stay in Australia so that the total duration of your stay is 12 months or less, unless there are exceptional circumstances'. Have a trawl through this - http://www.immi.gov.au/visitors/tourist/

I'm not aware of any financial benefit of applying post 65. We have looked at this from all perspectives and although this process is costing us HUGELY financially, we feel we will benefit from applying and moving now rather than waiting. For one, we would be constantly flying to and from Australia to see our grandsons. We plan to work when we get there (fingers etc crossed). When we come to the point of drawing our pension, we will have been there long enough so we can claim the Aus equivalent which is presently higher than in UK but we are very aware that the buying power of it might not go as far as it seems.

I'm not sure if any of this helps. Try phoning/skyping an agent. We are using Ivan Chait. I'm sure we could have done the 143 without an agent but as we started out like you not having a clue which visa and options to go for, we got some clarity and decided to stick with it.

Regards

Kim

Good morning all,

Just wanted to share that we have just received an email from the PVC advising us to undergo our medicals, arrange AOS and have our police certificates completed. We are DELIGHTED. Our acknowledgement date is May24th 2011. The email says that this will speed up the process for when a Case Officer is appointed and specifically states NOT to send any documents until we are asked to do so by the CO.

What a great day!

Kim

So how do you front load your medical check before you get CO with said letter and HAP ID? Like others on the tracker, we want to organise meds etc before we get CO. ?

Hi,

We tried to front load the medical but it was not possible without the HAP ID. Our agent contacted the relevant department and was told that as the centre we wanted to use only used online contact with Aus, we could not front load until our medicals were 'requested'. Very annoying but we are poised to leap when the request comes through.

Kim

Hi Cath,

I recently had a wobble with a similar query and my agent sent this in response.

16 Assessing ‘settled’

16.1 Australian permanent residents and eligible New Zealand citizens

Regulation 1.03 defines settled to mean ‘lawfully resident in Australia for a reasonable period’.

‘Lawfully resident’ includes periods of lawful temporary residence.

Under policy, two years (as at time of visa application) is generally considered to be a ‘reasonable period’. However, when assessing whether or not a person is ‘settled’, each case is to be considered on an individual basis with regard given to the facts of the case, such as extended periods of temporary residence.

I hope this helps.

Kim

Hi John,

I was referring to the electronic queue date calculator on the Australian Immigration site. Seems it isn't a great deal of use though! Back to the crystal ball I guess!

Kim

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the quick reply. What you say makes total sense. It all seemed a bit strange from the advice we'd been given (to check the visa queue calculator) and what we had read on here as it appeared to conflict. I'd tried to search the various threads and came up with nothing specific. So I guess it's time to just sit back and wait and wonder and save!

Kim

Hi all,

I'm new to this posting thing but wanted to say how brilliantly helpful this forum has been to us as we try to negotiate our intended move to Aus. My other half is retiring from the Army next year and our dream is to move North of Sydney to be near our daughter and her growing family. We're trying to do all of this while living in Nepal, so it has been quite a challenge even with an agent! One question, we have been keeping an eye on the 143 visa queue, our lodgement date is in May and we seem to have jumped 290 places in 1 month to number 80. I know lots have sadly had to drop out of the process (with the escalating costs this has crossed our minds too, but what the heck, we were never meant to be rich!) but at this rate we might get a CO very soon. Is that possible? We were expecting a wait of at least 9 months + which would have tied loosely with our posting back to UK. Best laid plans etc, etc.....We are just about ready to react if we hear sooner but surely the wait can't have plummeted so quickly. On the upside, it shortens the time in limbo. Any thoughts anyone?

Kim:err: