path2aus

On 14/03/2023 at 20:58, FirstWorldProblems said:

Thanks @Quoll I appreciate your candor. That sounds like some pretty challenging circumstances at times!  I thought kids were meant to get easy once they’d grown up

We keep waiting and it never gets easy

The agents who post on this forum regularly are well known and reputed. @paulhand@wrussell and Raul Senise are a few of them. 

22 hours ago, FirstWeMeet said:

What I did many moons ago is I told my boss that I needed those letters for me to be eligible for an IT Certification.

That one is partly true though as that particular certification requires proof that I have been working in the field for a few years before they allow people to take the test. Except they would normally accept just the usual employment certificate with dates and job title and not necessarily  the detailed Roles and responsibilities. I did end up submitting the same documents and took the test anyway.

I tried the same and my company still refused to give such a letter :). I had to go a little creative with the help of my agent.

I tried different things with my employer but they refused to give me the type of reference ACS requires. So this is what I did and it worked for me but not saying it will for everyone.

1. Got the generic reference letter on company letter head with my role and dates of employment/salary. This is something all employers give for mortgage/employment reference etc.

2. Got my manager to write a reference on a plain paper detailing my role as required by ACS with his business card. 

We submitted both the above together and all my 6 years (my experience at that time) was assessed as relevant by ACS. I wasn't asked for any additional documents. When I told my agent  that I was struggling to get the reference from my employer, they suggested this as an option and luckily it worked for me. 

On 14/11/2021 at 19:26, PrSub said:

We are yet to come to that stage. The guidelines have put a 'may' for health checks and police clearance; so I am not sure about that.

On 14/11/2021 at 02:32, AdrianAdrian said:

Did your child also have to have a medical examination? Not sure how we will arrange one with the paper application as we need this HAP ID.

Somebody also mentioned that the parents need to get new police checks, even if they already have PR. Was this also true in your case?

 

We did it 5 years ago and there was a medical test. We did paper based application as well and we received an email with the HAP ID to set up medicals. Yes we had to get police checks done again even even though we had PR. Luckily the entire process took less than 2 months for us but again things are different now. We had applied tourist visa parallelly for our daughter in case PR did not come through but again the PR was approved soon, so we were told to withdraw the tourist visa application.

Agree. I was in the US when I used the services of Go Matilda. Yeah there was a time lag in getting responses but they were very professional and I had no troubles overall. So yes it does not matter where they are located these days. My application was 10 years ago, now it should be simpler. 

Luckily got 2 applications in before that time.

I went to the bank where I held account for 4 years to get it signed. I never went to one GP during my time here, so struggled to get it signed. The person who had helped us to set up bank account when we landed in Australia, signed the document for us. 

I was told by the post office that I will receive my passport in about 3 weeks. So 5 days is too short a time to be expecting a response. Also when you login to the Australian Passport application site where you filled out the form, you can see the status of your application. It will change to lodged once you go to the post office and submit the application and then will change to Under Assessment and then finally to Issued.

We did the same. Same account but two separate applications for me and my wife. I added my daughter to my application. There is a section to add the application reference number of everyone who want to attend ceremony together or something like that.

When you fill out the citizenship form with all the required information, the document checklist at the end of it will let you know what you need. Going by what you have said, I don't think you need overseas police clearance. 

29 minutes ago, rtritudr said:

Before you enter into a contract you should read the details of that contract.  The details should tell you what your rights/obligations are under that contract and the penalties for breaking it.

Well the contract wasn't having too much information but spoke to them and found that I will only be losing my acceptance fee if I pulled out. That is fine with me as it is not too much.

Thanks everyone for the advice. We are citizens and the Public school is right across the road from our house, so we are right in the area for receiving the offer. Not sure about the contract with the private school as the only thing it mentions is that when we return the form we enter into a contract and there will be a $100 acceptance fees which is non-refundable. They don't mention anything else. Probably something to ask them before I drop of my acceptance. The Public school offers will start coming in only in August. 

Hello All,

We had applied for two primary schools for my daughter who will be starting in 2022. One is a Public school close to our home and other is a private one. We got our offer from the private school already but are still waiting on the offer from the Public school. The private school want us to accept the offer by 4th of June and I don't think we will hear back from the pubic school by then. So can we just accept the offer and then later decide not to go there? There isn't much difference between the two schools but we just wanted an option. We are new to Australia and this is our first child, so not sure about how things are.

Any information will be helpful.

Thanks.

On 12/05/2021 at 17:24, Melbournian said:

Could someone share the PROCESS and LISTof documents required for OVERSEAS CITIZEN of INDIA OCI for AUSTRALIAN Citizenship ( of Indian origin by BIRTH).

Do we need PCC from any country for this.

Also share details of Passport surrender and renunciation of Indian citizenship

 

Please go and look in the VFS Australia website. It provides all the necessary information. Just some basic googling would have helped.

8 minutes ago, LeJJ4 said:

When was your application approved?

What suburb did you attend the ceremony?

Application approved for me in February 2021 and in December 2020 for my wife. West Torrens is the council and Thebarton Community Center was the location.

So finished my Ceremony yesterday in Adelaide. Pretty low key gathering. Just got our certificates handed over at the registration table and then a speech by the Mayor, followed by Pledge and the National Anthem. Was over in like 30 minutes. Just got to take pictures with the Mayor. Anyways it is over now finally. Best of luck to everyone who are waiting. 

17 hours ago, Melbournian said:

1. CURRENT PASSPORT 
2. FULL BIRTH CERTIFICATE 
3. National ID Card of your present country
4. Overseas Penal Clearance Certificate  -- IMMI Acc will ask for it - if you gave correct dates  IN/OUT of Australia. 
5. Form 1195 Identity declaration -- from doctor or occupations mentioned on it. Must be a citizen , check on form 1195 - Identity declaration (homeaffairs.gov.au)
6. Photogragh as in 1195 form.
7. Residential address proof  -- Bills
8. Proof of FIRST ENTRY in Australia  -- Passport stamps
9. NO AFP PCC required by you.

One major thing about Form 1195 is that apart from being a citizen and working in the jobs mentioned, they need to know the applicant at least for a year. People at least I spoke with here were very scared signing it unless they actually knew me for that period of time. The identity declaration was the reason my application dragged on for a bit. 

4 minutes ago, LeJJ4 said:

Got approved on the same day of the test, but still not ceremony invitation.

I am not in a rush at all but just curious, yours was approved almost 2 months after mine and you managed receiving the ceremony invitation even though we are from the same city.

 Did you receive it by post letter or an email?

It was an email from immi site for both of us on the same day. Probably the council is the difference. You might get yours soon as well. 

1 hour ago, LeJJ4 said:

Passed mine on the 4th of December, 

Haven't heard anything back.

Adelaide City Council. Strange

Strange. I got approved in 2 weeks after the test and my wife got hers approved in 3 days after the test. 

4 minutes ago, LeJJ4 said:

What council in Adelaide?

City of West Torrens

I passed my test on 27th of January 2021 and my wife did on December 12th 2020 in Adelaide. Both of us received our Ceremony invites this morning for the 18th of March. It is a physical ceremony and not an online one. We began the process in July of 2020, so it has been fairly quick so no complaints here. Wish others receive their approvals and invites soon.

My application is approved today (Myself and my daughter). Below is the timeline

Application Date: 30th September 2020

Test Invite: January 12th 2021

Test Passed: 27th January

Approval on Immi Account: February 15th

Location - Adelaide

17 hours ago, Beckb said:

Hi Jadee,

I'm just applying for my citizenship now. Bit confused about the overseas police check - when it says granted does it mean activated? E.g my visa was granted in July 2016 but didn't arrive in Australia until Jan 2017. Do you think I need a police check for that time?

 Thanks

Yes. If you had stayed overseas after you were granted PR for over 3 months, you will need Police Clearance from that country.

16 hours ago, fary said:

Congratulations . Approval will be soon  

I applied in mid October 2020 and still waiting for the test invite. I am not sure if things are slow in SA now. 

I applied on September 30 and I got it in January. You should probably get it in February.