Jamie S

Thanks for the insight northshorepom - appreciate it. Sounds like inner west could be the answer in the near-term....

Hi all, touchdown in Sydney next week and keen to get rental accom sorted ASAP.we've done loads of research online to try and make the exercise less daunting when we arrive. Wife has a job arranged in Blacktown and I expect to work in CBD. We like the sound of both Balmain (some friends have recommended) and also Chatswood (seems a little bigger & busier?) and are prepared for one of us to have a decent commute. Balmain seems a little closer to Blacktown and Chatswood seems to have good public transport network which could be a factor as ideally we want to manage with one car. Any experiences or insight on living in both suburbs welcome! cheers jamie

Thanks for the great post kitty. My wife has been using an agent and we have always been under the impression that as my skill is on the SOL list (I was lead applicant on our PR visa) that provided I get a job that would trigger my wife's exemption for Medicare provider. I know, for instance, that accountants don't generally get state sponsorship in NSW due to sufficient supply. I guess the clarification is whether the fact I'm on the SOL list will prove sufficient. The plot thickens!! We have asked our agents to clarify further but don't expect a response til the new year now, hence me trying my luck on this forum Any further insight most welcome kitty :xmas12: Jamie.

Hi All, My wife and I secured PR visas a few months back, and since then my wife has been offered a GP job in sydney. I'm hoping to secure work once I'm out there (Accountant). However, it appears that there are some conditions associated with securing medic jobs in sydney (perhaps most major cities), and my wifes offer is subject to being granted a spousal exemption. We take this to mean that I need to be working in Sydney? Does anyone have any details on what the criteria is for securing this spousal exemption? We figure I can probably just look to try and secure a temp job in the short-term to "activate" my wifes job, and look for a permanent role once I'm earning. Is it that straightforward? Thanks and Merry Xmas! Jamie. :xmas9: Any

Hi All, Just looking for a bit of guidance on the initial activation of PR visa. On our Form 80 we indicated Sydney, but we have been invited to a friends wedding in Perth which we will likely attend before we head out properly. Does anyone know if landing in Perth rather than Sydney (as we indicated on Form 80) will likely cause any issues with immigration officials? Thanks. Jamie.

Hey Dredg97...good to see you on the other side of the Migration Issues forums. Got visa grant yesterday so very pleased and now planning our move down under. I don't have an immediate answer, but have a friend in Perth who's girlfriend works in HSE in the mines. I can try and find out if she could recommend any agencies if that would be useful? Jamie.

Hi All, My wife and I had our medicals finalised on Friday - so hopefully not too long to wait now for Visa grant! (175 Visa) For those of you lucky enough to have a visa granted, just wondering what the typical time was from meds finalised to visa grant? I'm sure I've seen people get it literally a day after having meds finalised. Assuming this is the exception rather than the rule though... Trying to be patient and not bug our migration agent just yet - but being so close is requiring quite a bit of discipline!! Thanks! Jamie.

Hi everyone. Myself and OH had medicals last week. I've been keeping an eye on the DIAC website to see how things are progressing and xrays have changed from "required to recieved" which I guess is good news. Anyway, my question is, does anyone know if this system is updated by the clinic undertaking the medicals (i.e. via eHealth) or is this part updated by Global Health (I'm presuming it's not the Case Officer updating - they just wait for the "Finalised" confirmation right?). Thanks, Jamie.

Congrats Murta & Dredg97. I'm sure the waiting for a CO now seems like a very distant memory! All the best.

No problem James. I actually submitted my application pre-July 1st, so not through skillsselect. My initial application, however, was from date of Graduation to PRESENT. I think if you are confident that you could get adequate paperwork from University to demonstrate that you were effectively a part-qual accountant from the moment you graduated, then you have a fighting chance. However, I have read on previous threads that there is sometimes a risk with EOI requests if you "over value" your submission from a points perspective. We are using a great migration agent. If you could like info - feel free to private message me and I can provide their details. They can provide a free assessment of your situation. Cheers, Jamie.

Hi all, Hope the following may help. I'm a CIMA qualified accountant and had my skills assessed by ICAA. I've been in full time employment since graduating from university. ICAA "started the clock" from when I became CIMA qualified and therefore didn't acknowledge any of my 3 years experience prior to then. I did explore this with them as it made the difference between 5 years and 8 years being assessed. I was advised that in order to have the 1st three years assessed I would need to provide extensive material from my university (course handouts for every course). Having spoken to the course administrator this was just not something they could provide. So I decided to sit an IELTS test to get more points through this route (getting a good score on IELTS - avg of 8) gets you more points than the work experience. So far so good. We were assigned a case officer 2 weeks ago and they haven't challenged any of the skills assessment so far. Hope this helps.

Hi All, Migration agent called this afternoon to say CO assigned! Very please / relieved / excited / nervous that everything now seems to be moving so quickly...pretty much every emotion under the sun. So for those of you still outstanding, it should really be any day now! One twist in the tail which I would be grateful to get everyone's opinion on. We provisionally booked our medicals on Friday for the 28th September when we saw the DIAC website update to 1st June progress. The date that the CO has quoted at the today is the 24th...so 4 days earlier. I'll be calling the clinic tomorrow to see if there is are earlier dates in September, but where do we stand if we can't get anything before the 28th. I'm sure I read on other threads that the key is to keep the CO updated on progress - provided they see you are actively looking to get things organised they will be fine. Is that other peoples understanding or is the date the CO quotes the "MUST HAVE" date? Cheers. Jamie.

Congratulations renji - you must be really pleased...and relieved! Jamie.

I'm still here Renji :jimlad: Tomorrow is the fortnightly update from DIAC on processing progress, so lets see what they update to. Would be great if the progress jumped like it did two weeks ago. If it's upated to May, then safe in the knowledge that there are plenty of people from June already allocated, I may proceed with Medicals & PCC. For those already assigned COs - is there any harm in front loading Medicals & PCC? I'm assuming that the financial risk lies with us (in terms of it only being valid for 12 months). There's no way a CO would come back and say we have jumped the gun by getting meds & PCC done prior to them requesting?? Thanks, Jamie.

Sorry to hear that dredg97. I'm sure from reading threads, provided you keep CO updated on progress then it's ok - but those lucky individuals further on in the process than me are best placed to advise! One quick question for you - once you got confirmation of CO assigned, did you check to see if your status update on DIAC website had changed? If so, I'd be interested to know what it has changed to say...does it actually say CO assigned or something to that effect. Ours jsut says "processing", but has done since lodgement date. Cheers. Jamie.