simonbrads

Hi all, We are breaking our lease, as we have bought our own home. See here: http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-wa-ardross-402479617 As an incentive to get someone in quickly, we're offering to pay the first weeks' rent for you. The house is really nice, with the master bedroom (with en suite) separated from the other two bedrooms by two large living areas. Ducted A/C will keep you cool this summer. (Although the house tends to stay quite cool, anyway.) The area is lovely and quiet and yet just a few minutes' walk from schools (Ardross Primary and Applecross Senior High), Wireless Hill Park, and Garden City shopping centre. (No wonder we're staying in the area!) Let me know if you're interested or want to come and take a look! Cheers, Simon

Yep, no worries. I'll keep the forum updated with progress. Good luck with your application, too!

Thanks! That's what I thought. My parents are hoping to lodge their application before the end of the month. We all assumed you could do it online.

Hi all, Very quick question: Is is possible to apply for the 143 online? The only statement I can see on the website is: "Lodge your application by post or courier to the Perth office - attention the Parent Visa Centre." Is physical mailing the only way to apply for a parent visa? Thanks, Simon

Hi all, My family of four (kids aged 3 & 8) moved to Perth a month ago. I've just received a job offer. If I accept, I'll be working as a C#/web developer for a small company in the city. They've come up with an initial salary offer of $72,000 + super. I have a few questions, which I'd be grateful for opinions on. (Note: I have my own suspicions, but I'll not list them yet, so as not to bias potential responders. ) 1. Does this sound like a reasonable offer, or are they lowballing me? (I guess this question is aimed at fellow engineers.) 2. Could a family of four survive on this single income (living just south of the river)? (The only concrete cost of living figure I have so far is rent: $550 p/w.) 3. Any idea if Australian companies generally expect potential employees to negotiate over salary, or are salary offers generally fixed? Thanks! ​Simon

Thanks for all the opinions and good luck wishes. It seems the general consensus is to go for a suit, so I've borrowed one from my brother. The legs are a couple centimetres too long for me, but it's the best I'm going to do by 10 a.m. tomorrow! I only hope it stays below 30 tomorrow.

Hi guys, I have my first interview in Perth tomorrow. The question is, what should I wear? This is for a programming job at a mid-sized software house. I'm hoping that smart trousers with a shirt & tie will do? I don't have a suit, although I could possibly borrow one from my brother. Thanks! Simon

Thanks for all the messages of congratulations since our visa grant! I guess nothing is going to happen now until the new year, but I wish the best for everybody still waiting. Merry Christmas!

Finally, I have good news! And at the last possible moment for 2012, it seems. We received a visa grant at 2am this morning. I have to say, though, this only happened because of my persistence. Here's what happened. First, a brief background: FS 176 (which is currently "limited", i.e., not being granted) Medicals referred 24th July Medicals finalized 9th Nov That's 108 days, and it's only not longer because I kept calling GH to see what was happened, which eventually prompted them to discover that they'd "lost" our medicals in the system somewhere Average for the 26 applicants referred within a week of us (on the spreadsheet) was 37 days Which means that our medicals were lost for 10 weeks (!) and would normally have been finalized ~30th August I wrote to my CO (actually, my team 2 temporary CO, who is much more helpful than my real team 4 CO) explaining this. He passed my message on to his manager, but nothing much happened. So, last night, I phoned. I was on hold for ~35 minutes, then I finally got to speak to someone. He said he would put me on hold while he had a little chat with my (temporary) CO. But what he actually did (presumably by mistake) was leave me in someone's voice mailbox (which I didn't even realize until I heard "Message limit reached"). And there was no way back, so he effectively lost my call. I couldn't afford to wait another 30+ minutes on the phone, so I wrote a frustrated email and went to bed. 46 minutes later, I heard my tablet vibrate. Picked it up and saw: "IMMI Grant Notification.pdf". The next message explained that the team manager had reviewed my case and granted my visa despite the current "limitations" on FS cases and apologized for the frustrations I'd experienced. I guess it's possible that the frustrating phone call actually ended up helping my case! So Santa's come a few days early to our family.

Do you mean that you "converted" your 176 FS into 176 SS? Is that possible?

I would have thought so, too, but... I thought I'd posted this already, but perhaps not. Here's what I was told: If you go to that page linked at the end, you'll see that FS 176 is priority group 4. (Note that, at this stage, there appears to be no benefit whatsoever to having been sponsored.) If you then click on the link to "Skilled Migration Visa Processing Times" at the bottom of that page, which leads here: http://www.immi.gov.au/about/charters/client-services-charter/visas/8.0.htm ... You'll see that priority group 4 is currently given a processing time of 18 months. Note that, as I understand it, the fact that our visa type is "subject to priority processing" does not in any way imply that they have a high priority, or that they will definitely be processed within this visa year. The next email I received said: Note that, from my reading between the lines, "limited granting" means "stopped granting". I'm guessing Ibbi sent you the information about getting your sponsor to write to his/her MP? I've already forwarded that on to my brother, and I expect him to take action ASAP (as he wants us there as much as we want to be there ). I would encourage you and your sponsor to do the same! Cheers, Simon

Hi ibbi, Thanks for coming forward as a 176 FS applicant. I know of three of us now. (haseeb85uk is the third.) Yeah, that's what I've been told, too. This is interesting! I have to admit, it seems unlikely to me that "public pressure" could push the DIAC into increasing its visa allocation, but who knows, maybe your agent has experience of this? How would we make such a "joint request"? I must admit, it seems pretty crappy that they get us to pay for medicals (not cheap!), then tell us, "Sorry, there's not actually a place for you." In my case, my medicals were so long ago (3rd July) that, if I get pushed back to next year, they're likely to expire before I get processed. (My CO warned me that I'd likely have to take new medicals next year... Nightmare scenario!) Please keep us (well, me: I think there are pretty few of us going for this particular visa!) updated with any progress! Cheers, Simon

Not today. I'm keeping everything crossed in the hope that my temporary CO's escalation to his manager comes through!

So this is what having a "normal" CO is like: next-day responses two days in a row! If I'd been assigned to Team 2 in the first place, who knows, I might have a visa grant by now. Here's today's response: As a point of curiosity, all three of us -- me, the Team 4 CO, and the Team 2 CO -- are called Simon.

Hi guys, After no response from my team 4 CO for 23 (!) days, I wrote again last night. I received a response to yesterday's email (completely ignoring the question asked in my original email) -- from a team 2 CO. This wasn't explained to me (has my case been permanently moved to another team? Should I now use the team2 email address? No idea!), but they wrote this: (For the record, I've never asked to be processed "outside of the set order". I assume this is a template response.) Of the eight more recent 176 referrals on the timeline tracker, six of them have already received visa grants -- an average of three days after medicals finalized. For comparison, my wife's medicals were finalized on 9th November -- 24 days ago. (And they were referred 132 days ago!) Now, the tracker does not distinguish between state- and family-sponsored applications. Please could any family-sponsored 176 applicants identify themselves, so I can be sure I'm making a fair comparison? Thanks, Simon P.S. The tracker should be updated with the finalization date of 9th November. Also, the "other information" is now out of date and could be replaced by "Spouse's medicals were not queued for processing and only finalized after telephone call to GH."

What does this mean? Am I unlikely now to get a visa grant this year? Not until 1st July next year? If that's the case, I'm going to be really angry, because this whole process has been nothing but a series of delays for me. Medicals were referred on 24th July, for goodness' sake.

It's now been three whole weeks since my wife's medicals were finalized (our last outstanding hurdle to visa acquisition), and also three whole weeks since I wrote to my CO asking "Now what?" As of now, no response, and no "golden email" or visa grant....

Congratulations! But grrr! Why can't it happen like this for me? My wife's medicals were finalized last Thursday (9 days ago), and we're still waiting for a grant -- or any further contact from our CO. I can't express how frustrating this aspect of the experience has been, since being assigned a CO. The auto-response email promises a reply within 7 days, but that has never happened; they've taken ~19-22 days every time. I don't mind so much the delays at GH. We know they have a backlog, but OK, they're working to get through it. I don't even mind the fact that they dropped my wife's medicals from the queue. Mistakes are made; that's life. When they noticed the error (admittedly with prompting from me), they rectified it very quickly. But, if you're going to promise me a reply within 7 days, you'd better actually fulfil that promise! Or at least remove that sentence from the auto-response. Sorry for the rant, but, as I said, I've found this aspect of the process rather annoying.

No, I haven't used an agent. The process was straightforward enough without. My main annoyance through all of this has been my CO's lack of responsiveness. Even more so than the delays at GH.

Update of no significance: First full week since our medicals all went finalized, and what a surprise: no contact from my CO. Expecting to receive something around the end of the month.

Congratulations, mannu! You and KoalaBea were the only two people I knew of waiting longer than me. You're now done, and KB has (unfortunately) moved back to the end of the queue (I think?). Maybe my CO will come through this week... Although, going by past experience, I won't hold me breath! Happy Diwali!

Grrr, looks like my waiting still isn't over. Although all medicals are now finalized (which perhaps makes this off topic -- I apologize, but this thread has been my source of inspiration and support lately!), our police checks have never moved from the "required" state on the document checklist -- although my CO confirmed them as received and correct in email a long time ago. I suspect that's why we're still waiting, despite having medicals finalized last week!

Finally! I have some news. Medicals showing as finalized for all four family members. (My wife's were stuck, apparently not even on the queue, until I phoned two nights ago.) No email from CO yet, but I'm expecting it soon. Now, my only dilemma is whether we should re-do our police checks in order to extend our entry window by several months. We originally had them done in February this year, so, assuming a visa grant is now imminent, that only gives us a few months to pack up here and get gone.

I just phoned GH and spoke to the same lady as last time. (She has some distinctive voice mannerisms.) Last time, she told me that my wife's medicals had been processed (i.e., they were finalized) but were, for some reason, not visible on eHealth. She also gave me a request ID that my CO should have been able to use to pull down the results. Turns out, that's not at all true. In fact, my wife's medicals, referred 24/07, have not been processed, due to a "technical issue". Great. So she assured me that she would now push them through the system and that, because they've been waiting for so long*, they will be processed in the next couple of days. So there's a possibility we might hear good news from our CO later this week! Unless, of course, we're denied or they request further information. * She said, "We do have a backlog, but it's not that long."

That's five weeks after our referral date. I'm going to try phoning tonight.