DFW

Thanks for the info, We have friends we can stay with while job hunting in October, So we can use their address to start with. Will follow Boomerang's suggestion, and settle most of these things during our recce trip. For the TFN, are you actually taxable from the moment you take up the TFN, or would we only be taxed on income from October onwards ? Cheers,

Hi, We have our Visa sorted and we are planning to land in Sydney by October this year. :cool: First we'll be visiting Sydney in May for some recce and groundwork. In May the whole Family is going together to activate our visa's, In October I might be going ahead for job hunting, wife n kid joining 2 months later. Should we request for a TFN and medicare registration in May, Or should we only do this in October ? Any other accounts / registrations we could do in May to save us trouble later ? Thanks.

Got a call from our agent today... VISA GRANTED !! Yipiee ! We received our invite early December, Filed around 10th of December. So excited ! Now we can finally plan ahead ! Cheers !

I looked into ACT earlier, They were requesting for proof of vacancies / jobs available in ACT to file for ACT SS. For ACT, most software / tester / engineering jobs seems related to the military (Security Clearance required) or the government, meaning you need Citizenship to apply. But it's worth a try if you can provide the required proof of vacancies. ACT sounds like a nice are to stay. Surely VIC will see a lot of applications for SS, and I expect it depends also on the industry you are in. They will likely favour ICT / PC software experience over embedded systems experience ? Best of luck ! Cheers,

Yeah, I guess we all can relate to how hard the waiting game can be... but as long as you had no reply, you have to be positive. The quota's for this year might be (almost) met for most occupations by now. But I understand by June/ July time frame they will announce the 2013-2014 quota's ? As you have skills in the Software line of work, chances are your category will be on the list for 189 application 2nd half of this year ? Good luck on the Vic SS. Cheers,

Hi, Our Vis SS wasn't successful, we decided not to apply for ACT. Then we managed to go trough on our 189 visa without State Sponsorship. We did our medicals about a week ago, almost there now... Cheers,

Hi, every case might be different, pending if you are from a HR (High Risk) country, etc... I filed and paid the fee around Dec 10 and our CO requested us to do medical and pcc about a week ago.

It might take a few weeks to get a CO Assigned. Then, you won't hear from your CO unless they need extra docs or request to proceed with PCC and Medicals. Hang in there, you should see your application move soon now ! Cheers,

Hi, Same in Singapore, They will only entertain PCC requests if you have a letter from your CO asking for it. They won't even issue a clearance report to foreigners, seems they will mail it directly to Diac instead. Not sure why. I just booked our medicals. Clinic said no need to fast. Can anybody who done medicals recently confirm this ? no need to fast in the morning when going for medicals check ? Thanks.

We received message from our CO to go ahead with Medicals and Police Clearance ! Yippiee ! we can take the last few hurdles in the coming weeks Cheers,

Hi, I also lodged my application early December. Hope to hear from our CO soon. Just wanted to 'up' this thread. Shouldn't be long now... Cheers,

No. Wait for CO to be assigned. Your CO will ask you to do Medicals and PPC. Be patient, Xmas & New year might slow things a bit, but you'll get there soon. Cheers,

I have a similar problem, I get :"This service is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later." Same error comes up for the past few days. Is it only available during certain times of day (night) ? Anyone can confirm if this link is working ? Thanks.

Hi, Congrats on your invite ! I started a December invite thread early December. there is more info from fellow Dec invitees there. Link : http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/migration-issues/169678-december-invites-christmas-could-come-early.html (I hope I linked that up right. ) Now you have your invite, you can lodge your application with Diac, there should be a checklist of the docs you need to submit on Diac website ? I'm not sure as I used an agent to file my application. Should be a matter of months before you get your visa now. Best of luck !

With only 0.5 short in writing, it might be worth to file an appeal and have the writing score re-assessed. If you have enough points to spare, be happy with 7's

Congrats on your invite !

You should be able to find more on that using Google, and it has been discussed on this forum before, But are you really even considering taking the risk ? It is not because someone else didn't face complications that you will not ! There are good reasons why this is advised against. If any complications would arise, you will be left with only yourself to blame for a long time to come. Definitely NOT worth it. forum links : -there's many more, just do a search- http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/migration-issues/168566-pregnant-after-applying-but-before-medicals-few-questions.html http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/health/146887-pregnant-medicals.html

No offense, but the description sounds like another "Looking for people to join the next never-been-done-before unreal reality TV show, only so they can make complete fools of themselves on national Television. Great malicious delight and entertainment for the rest of us ! " Please forgive me if I am wrong. Perhaps you could elaborate a bit further on what you are looking for and what you expect in return ? Cheers,

Hi, Sure, just ask ! The forum is here to get answers PM me if needed. no worries. Cheers !

Congrats Carol ! Our agent just called ... WE GOT OUR INVITE !!! :xmas7: :xmas18::xmas31: EOI Lodged 29 October. Developer programmer (261312). 60 points. Best news I got in a long time. Merry Christmas !

Bumping this up once more, Invites are around the corner, Please post your details here if you received your invite. Thanks.

I believe he has 55 points for 189, not enough. It does not seem likely they will drop the pass mark to 55 points. Is there another state you can try for sponsorship ? Improving your Ielts score might be your best option indeed. T minus one day and counting...

Hi George106, True enough, part of it is luck, yet variance in the difficulty will be there with type of tests. It also depends on what the person taking the test (doesn't) know. certain topics that are easy for one person would be hard for another and vice versa. That is in the nature of the beast, something we need to live with. Blaming it on IELTS isn't going to help. (however therapeutic it might be) Cheers,

Thanks for that ! Sigh, chewing Santa's socks for another 3 days... Meh.

Unpredictable ? Maybe, But it is language we are talking about, not exact science. You actually can't fail Ielts, you receive a result indicating your English proficiency. There is no pass or fail set by Ielts. In fact, most people seem to be getting similar results when they re-take a test. Unpredictable would mean someone scores band 5 the first time and band 8 in the re-take. such major jumps in results hardly happen. I agree that part of it is luck, a bad day, a small miss that really takes out your listening test, or getting a writing topic that's really not your cup of tea, those can make a difference in your test. That's part of life, must live with it Still, I don't understand people re-taking test after test until they get lucky. (without putting some effort in improving first) Ielts scales zero to proficient on a scale from 0 to 9, then, rightfully so, improving from band 7 to band 8 should not be that easy to do. The results people get from re-taking a test actually confirms Ielts to be reasonable predictable. Not that I am a fan of IELTS, one can question the way the system is commercially exploited, but that is a different discussion I don't want to embark on now. Cheers,