bogdan

Ironman, was that a phone interview or a face to face interview?

@MrsPOB Thanks for sharing your experience. May I ask how you managed to find those companies? Was it just Google search or did you use certain websites? And how did you figure what roles they had available? A lot of companies use recruitment agencies and don't even post their openings on their own websites. I have PR but wouldn't move without a job offer as I'm doing quite well here in London and I can still wait for the right opportunity. Seek has been of no help so far so I'd like to try something similar to what you did. I'm a .Net contractor by the way.

I'm a contractor in London, developing under C#/WPF/SQL and using Agile/Scrum and TDD. I've never had problems finding jobs here, I get calls and emails from recruiters a few times per week, which keep adding to the general idea that the market's doing well over here. I'm thinking of moving in Oct/Nov to Sydney or Melbourne, mainly for a new experience and not to regret later in life I haven't given it a go. Having said that, my concerns about the job market over there are holding me up from making any commitments towards moving, such as leaving my job and house here and booking the flight. I have always regarded the job markets in Sydney and Melbourne smaller than London's but at the same I've always had the confidence that, despite that, I will still find jobs. This proved to be true as following a Skype interview I had last week I've already got an offer in my inbox. Unexpectedly easy but I won't accept it as their environment is surely not for me.

The problem I have is that after this interview and also after skimming through the current jobs on seek I started wondering if high standards of work (software craftsmanship), Agile methodologies and a general focus on quality are not regarded as very important in Australia? I'm very picky when it comes to jobs and I'd rather go for a lower paid job where I can work with people that have high standards of professionalism over a high paid job where mediocrity and low quality are the norm.

What are your thoughts on this? What do you feel is the general outlook of software craftsmanship and Agile in Australia?

I might be getting a bit technical but I'm wondering about the following:

The date of entry is determined as one year from medicals or pcc whichever was done first.

SO...

Lets say we did medicals first,is the date of entry determined from the date the medicals was DONE or the date it was FINALISED?:err:

 

A

I was wrong in my reply to this message and I appologise for that. I stated that the initial entry date is one year from the date printed on the health exam forms which is not true.

In my case it is one year from date the medicals were finalised. (21/06/2012)

You can now turn me purple. You know why

Morning all,

 

These are the only ones that are left now who applied before 2011 I don't think I have seen them on here for a while, just wondering if any of these have a CO or Visa yet, does anyone know anything.

 

 

2009shiraz (shirazeram), Siri, NITHESH, pimb,

 

2010 Zeeshu,Olar Ioan Horia

Olar Ioan Horia has a CO, but he's been under routine processing for a few months now. I guess that means external checks.

More to the point, is anyone doing any work today???

 

Too much banter going on in the office so I hardly did any work today

The sun is shining here in London and I can only day dream about being down under and getting that Visa....

The sun keeps going behind the clouds every few minutes. I so much hate the clouds in the UK as it always feels cold when the sun goes behind them. In other countries one could still enjoy the warm weather even when the sky is overcast.

Oh, and it's gonna rain tonight. And tomorrow. And the day after tomorrow

Morning all

 

It's Friday afternoon in oz now so looks like no more CO's for us this week. Best of luck to everyone next week:cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool:

There were a few grants on other forums this week, though not as many as in the last 2 weeks. Since you're a February applicant, you might be interested to know that someone from another forum that applied 2nd February 2011 on 176 (Family Sponsored) just got the grant today. :wink:

Has anyone heard of people not being granted a visa and the reasons why??

http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/migration-issues/91482-new-category-3s-where-you-now-632.html#post1141250

I might be getting a bit technical but I'm wondering about the following:

The date of entry is determined as one year from medicals or pcc whichever was done first.

SO...

Lets say we did medicals first,is the date of entry determined from the date the medicals was DONE or the date it was FINALISED?:err:

 

A

Obviously the date on your health exam forms because that's the date when your health status has been assessed by a medic. The date when the medicals are finalised is not an official date, it only means your CO can further process your application. Besides the status is not always updated. Some people get grants with medicals still shown as required.

Does anyone know how long it takes for your profile to update once you have completed your medicals, including if they are referred? This goes for PCC as well?

 

I know this question has been asked a lot recently but just a one liner will do?

 

Good luck all for this coming week?

It takes a few days up to a week to have your medicals status updated to Finalized IF your medicals are perfect. If you have a minor issue of any kind, like needing spectacles, your medicals will get referred and that takes anything between one week and up to 2-3 months depending on the backlog at that time. Mine took 5 weeks to show up as finalized.

Hope this helps.

A quick survey question for all the April/May/June 2011 175 subclass applicants....

 

We've seen the offical DIAC timeline jump pretty dramatically recently to show 9 December 2010 (or thereabouts) as the official date for all applicants to have received COs, and every week we're seeing more and more Jan and Feb applicants getting COs or grants. So at this rate they are going to reach their target of having all 18 March email recipients assigned COs before 30 September. Even if they slow down after this and process at a speed of one calendar month of applications per one calendar month actual, then we should all expect to have COs before Christmas!!

 

So we're seriously thinking about getting the ball rolling on our PCCs and medicals, booking the latter in for mid-October. Anyone else in the same boat thinking about doing the same?? We've front loaded every other possible piece of information, so these should really be the only two things left they need. If we do go ahead, does anyone have any idea how we send the PCCs - i read somewhere about sending them to an e-mail address with your TRN? Also, the medicals are going to be through e-health - do we need any other codes other than TRN to give to the medical centre?

 

I've felt so organised throughout the whole process and suddenly everything seems to be happening at once (work, visa, personal life, etc) and its all becoming a bit bewildering!! Lol Oh and we'll be doing our meds in Edinburgh, so would love to hear from anyone else who has used them and how easy it all was!

 

Thanks! :-)

 

p.s. Tania, you're doing a great job of this thread and I'm really pleased to see your application moving to the next stage - all fingers crossed for you and your family! x

I don't think it's wise to do medicals so soon. You applied 15th of June and only several applicants from January and February have been contacted by a CO or have got their visas. What happens if after they process all the applications before 18th March they decide to clear cat 5 or suspend cat 4 processing for various reasons as it happened in the past? You might have both your PCC and medicals expired or get an entry date which is say one month after the grant.

I have big doubts that they will reach March by 30th September as they estimated. Probably you think it's possible because they just jumped almost 3 months in the last update, but that's because they had already processed most of September, October and November. So they just had to process the leftovers whereas December, January and so on are far from being finished. And not everyone that applied before got that letter.

If I was you I would do my medicals and PCC as soon as I see applicants from April 2011 getting grants. You will still have enough time to undertake your health exam then and the worst that could happen is to get the grant a few days later than if you had got it with a decision-ready application.

OMG OMG OMG

I cant stop shaking we have a CO :jiggy::jiggy::jiggy:and I am at work but really shocked excited and all the rest I haven't been able to tell my husband as he is at work, we have been asigned team 4:biglaugh::wacko::biglaugh:

 

Tania

Great news Tania! I'm really happy for you.

Wow! They have officially allocated CO'S up to 1 December 2010!!!

http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/estimated-allocation-times.htm

Thanks Bogdan,

I'm not sure what's best, to ring or email... a phonecall it's more personal, I can express myself better and with feeling...but an email is more explicit... My brother said also to call DIAC... uff...

Other people have done it, so why not giving it a shot. You raised PLEs a few times so obviously that didn't help at all. Ring them tonight around 9 AM local time and be prepared to wait up to one hour. Skype is probably your best option moneywise. The person you will speak to might also want to know on what grounds your CO is delaying your application while others are getting their grants straight away, so hopefully will try to find that information for you.

They have offically reached 9th of September and albeit I follow other people's timelines, I have yet to see a similar case. And AFAIK, Romania is a low risk country.

Horia, that's really disappointing. Try ringing DIAC so you can ask someone directly what's going on with your application.

Yes I remember this and if they hadn't of put the 13 occupations back on the SOL they would of most likely have achieved this but they have only got as far as September.

 

Tania

Well they should have achieved that target by the end of June 2011 hence before adding those 13 occupations back on the SOL. I think there were other factors that slowed them down, like an influx of aplications from the categories with a higher priority. On the other hand they might have been too optimistic when they estimated (a lot of people estimate in "ideal days", not taking into account potential risks), so I reckon that was more like a best case scenario.

Anyone seen this before?

 

http://www.immi.gov.au/gateways/agents/pdf/skilled-migration-update.pdf

 

I'm guessing it was made pre-July and the that the page that says about processing all Cat 3 (now Cat 4) by end of January 2011 should read January 2012.

"Applications lodged outside of Australia by the of end June 2011 we expect to have allocated all applications lodged before January 2011."

No, they mean January 2011. This document came out in May or June if I remember correctly. There is an obvious lack of punctutation in this sentence but I'm fairly sure they mean that "by the of end June 2011, we expect to have allocated all applications lodged before January 2011." which is what aimed for at that time (see 18th March letter).

Does anyone know when the new 18th March email deadline is? Just looking at the spreadsheet and there's 46 people waiting for their visa between Dec 10 and Apr 11 of which 16 are 18th March applicants. I understood the new date was end of September but wanted to know exactly, not that I got this email ;o(

30th of September is the exact date, but it's just an estimate, not a deadline.

O, but you are right, my agent is playing safe. He absolutely promises nothing, always advises caution ('don't put your house up for sale until you have your visa') and is always talking in 'probably', 'maybe', 'could' etc. In this case he said it would be 'very unlikely' for us to have a CO in September. :biglaugh:

And then he always continues with a line to show he is doing his best ('as you know we will certainly apply to DIAC if we feel your application takes too long').

 

Still, he's doing a great job, has helped us a lot, so I don't mind the maybe's.

I think the best thing about using agents is that, unlike DIAC, they don't give their clients false hopes. They usually put the worst case scenarios in front which makes people carry on with their lives without being dragged into following other people's timelines or making predictions based on incomplete data sets

Ah, yes, I think you have the answer there: I didn't get the 18 March e-mail, samk6 did.

Ok, maybe things are less unpredictable than I thought :wink:

Oh, I thought you did and your agent was just playing safe Not sure if it makes too much difference though.

exactly. Some visas from December 2010 have been granted, some applicants from October have not heard anything. Anything can happen, with DIAC :laugh:

Samk6: My agent told me September would be unlikely for us. Your agent says you will get a CO before the end of September. We're both Feb2011 applicants.... so I really think it is unpredictable :biggrin:.

I'm pretty sure though we will have our COs (and probably even our visa) before January :yes:.

I think your agent doesn't trust DIAC estimates, which is understandable, while Samk6's agent told him exactly what DIAC had announced: that all 18th March letter receivers will get CO before 30th September.

Day before yesterday i called to my agent. they told me that i will get co before 30th of September. If so DAIC should move more than 14 days in two weeks. :idea:

There are 6 weeks left till the end of September including this week. As they officially reached 26th August, with a processing speed of one month of applications per week they would reach 26th of February by the 30th of September. Without being pesimistic, that sounds soooo unlikely.

Having said that, with a bit of luck, you can still get your visa in September as they don't always process the applications in chronological order and the official timeline is not really accurate. As we've seen lately they assigned COs and granted visas to end of September 2010/beginning of October 2010 applicants. Therefore anything can happen.

Do they work on Saturday? I don't think so? friday noon starts their wee.

Sometimes they do.

Bump!

Morning Tania! I guess they didn't work this Sat. Best of luck for next week!