path2aus

Thanks for that info Maggie. I was not aware we could.

I recently applied for Child Visa for my new born in Delhi, India. The main thing to consider is that you would not be able to apply for Onshore Child Visa as the baby will be on a tourist visa which will have a "No Further Stay" Condition. Bringing the baby on Tourist visa is a hassle. Your child needs to exit the country as soon as the child visa is granted in order to enter on a permanent visa, since it was granted offshore. I am not sure about Pakistan but in India I was able to get the PR approved in just over a month. If you want to go through the Tourist Visa route, You would need to apply for the tourist visa and the Child Visa simultaneously requesting a maximum of 1 year stay for your child. You have a chance of getting a 1 year stay tourist visa since you both have a PR. If the Child Visa is granted offshore prior to that 1 year, your child needs to exit the country and reenter on permanent visa. You may get a continuous 1 year stay or they may give you a visa with just 3 months stay at a time. Your child needs to exit the country if the Child Visa is not granted yet and his/her current stay expires. You might have to exit and enter the country again. But since you said that you have your PR valid till end of next year, I would advise you to submit a child visa application first and see how long the process takes. You might get it approved fast like it happened for me. If it takes longer than expected, apply for a tourist via stating that you have a pending child visa and you would make sure that the child will exit the country on completion of his/her stay or when the child visa is granted. To avoid the hassle of the child visa and the headaches it may cause, if you have enough time go ahead with the child visa first and decide on the tourist visa later. Manika, The child Visa for me from start to end (including Christmas/New Year Break) took just over a month to get approved in India. If all the documents are ready and available to be submitted, it is a very simple process in India. Since you are applying for your visa just now, you will have all the documents ready (Like the police checks for you and your spouse), so you can submit every thing. The only thing which needs to be done for the child is the medicals and it is very simple. You just need the birth certificate, the application forms, DD for the application fee, Passport copies of both the parents, Police checks for both the parents and the medicals for the child. Since yours will be a new visa, I will not recommend Tourist visa.

I haven't been in Australia long enough to form an opinion but for the 2 months I have been here I have had only good experiences. I am in Adelaide and I am an Indian. People have been generally friendly. Yes there may be scenarios where you could face little remarks here and there but again that can happen in any country which is not your own. I lived in the US for 14 years before moving to Australia and even there I had my share of "Not So Happy With immigrants" people once in while. You just brush it off and move on.

Hello All, My wife and I are Australia permanent residents and are planning to move to Adelaide in a month. We have a new born for whom we need to apply for the child visa. The question I have is whether the child needs to go through the health check before lodging of the application? The second question I have is that we are planning to take the child on tourist visa as the Child visa offshore might take around 14 months to be granted. The tourist visa application asks for address in Australia. We are not in Australia yet, so what address should be provide in the application? Can it be a hotel or something? Please let me know as it will be really helpful. Thanks.

Go Matilda...they were absolutely brilliant when we used them couple of years ago.

Go Matilda...I would highly recommend them. They were brilliant for us.

Thanks very much everyone. That was really helpful. I hope something comes out positive out of it.

Hello All, I have been aggressively applying for IT jobs in Adelaide. It has been really tough. Not that easy to get through. I have gotten a Skype meeting setup with a recruitment consultant from a big IT recruitment agency in SA. I am not sure what to expect. I have spoken with lots of them in the US but I am really nervous and confused as to what to expect on this call. If someone has done this already, can you please shed some light on the same? It will be really helpful. Thanks.

Another vote for Go Matilda. They were brilliant when I applied couple of years back.

We used Go Matilda and they were brilliant.

Yup we were in Melbourne for a vacation and did not find the cost too high. I guess it depends on where you shop too.

Go Matilda was excellent for me.

I used Go Matilda and they were brilliant and I had no issues with communication either. I had a toss up between two agents and I chose Go Matilda and I am glad I did. Sorry for your bad experience. I hope you could still apply under the new system.

Thanks. We are planning to move sometime next year. We have to sell our home and then we will be good to go. Have you already moved in there?

Yup, you need to send your Passports along with the grant letter and a letter requesting for visa evidencing. They do it pretty quick, it took me less than a week to receive my passport back.

Thanks Deb. Best of luck on your visa.

I think everyone needs to go to validate the visa. But I may be wrong.

I just got 7 months. We had the house on the market and could not get it sold. So we decided to make this trip to validate. Visa granted on Feb 1 2012 and the date of first entry was September 12th. So not much time. We were hoping to have little more time.

I will be visiting Melbourne for a week.

Hello All, I am going to Australia next week to validate my PR. I have the visa label on my passport but is there anything else I need to be carrying with me (I will be carrying my grant letter too)? How long does the immigration take once I land in Australia? Please let me know. Thanks.

Congrats!!!

Thanks labourvellec. I thought so too but just wanted to confirm with someone.

I was sponsored by SA and received my PR earlier this year. I have an "Enter by date" this September. I currently live in the US and I am still waiting to sell my home and I wouldn't be able to make the permanent move till 2013. We are planning to make a quick visit to validate the visa before September. I got this email from Immigration SA today. Should I do anything about it or should I just ignore this for now and register when I make my move next year. Please advice. Should I inform Immigration SA of my plans?

My Skills Assessment letter says that "You degree in -------- from ----- university awarded in the year ------ has been assessed as comparable to an Australian Masters degree with a major in computing". Since I am using an agent I am not sure exactly what needs to be done to get he ACS to assess your ICT degree.