TacoTruck

My final timeline: 10 August 2012: applied, with medicals/police certificates/etc but without an MA 17 October 2012: received acknowledgement letter 6 March 2013: received email from my case officer requesting form 80 and certified copies (I had scanned all the original documents as discussed above) March 12 2013: sumitted the requested documents March 13 2013: received visa grant With regard to the originals/certified copies issue, this is clearly a bit of anachronistic silliness which I imagine will disappear as the case officers get used to processing electronic applications. In any case, I didn't bother going to a JP but simply asked a colleague at the university where I work to certify my copies, since a full-time teacher is one of the occupations authorised to certify copies. Also, how annoying is the question on form 80 that asks for the dates of every international trip in the past 10 years? For me it was over 40 trips, many with multiple countries.

I had colour scanned all the hard copy documents. A few documents were electronic so I just attached the pdf's that I had received. I asked my CO about this on the phone and she replied that it doesn't matter if they are black and white or colour but they need to be certified copies.

OK, but then what am I supposed to for electronic documents? Am I supposed to print out 2 copies and get once "certified" as a "true copy" of the other one?

That still doesn't make any sense to me at all. All the JP would be certifying is that the photocopy is an accurate photocopy of the original. But how is an accurate photocopy better than the original for scanning and uploading? Also, some of the documents are electronic documents, such as pdf files generated by websites. How am I suppoosed to get those "certified" as being accurate copies when there is no original hard copy?

I finally got a case officer yesterday after nearly 7 months of waiting (applied through SkillSelect August 10, with all documents from the checklist). My case officer asked me to provide scans of "certified copies" of all my documents. I had supplied scans of the original documents. So if I understand this correctly, I am supposed to photocopy all my original documents, ask someone to "certify" that they are "true copies of the originals", and then scan and upload those? How on earth is that supposed to be better than scanning and uploading the original documents? Does this make any sense to anyone?

So the consensus here seems to be that Decision Ready applications can only be lodged by a registered migration agent. However, this was certainly not the case before the July 1 changes. In fact, In June as I was beginning to prepare my application, my employer sent me a DIAC handout "How to lodge a decision ready application" and a DRC checklist for clients ("This checklist is designed to assist you in submitting a Decision Ready visa application under the Employer Nomination Scheme); the handout or checklist did not say anything about requiring certification by a migration agent. In fact, the checklist had one form that it asked for "if you have a migration agent", clearly implying that the checklist could be used to lodge a DR application even if one does not hire a migration agent. So if that is no longer the case then this must be a recent change. However I can't find any discussion of this on the DIAC website. This is unfair and misleading to applicants like myself who wasted a lot of time trying to prepare a Decision Ready application which is now not being treated as such. What was the point of spending months doing police background checks in advance if my application is just going to sit in a queue waiting for a case officer for 6 months? It would have been better to submit it months earlier and do the background checks while waiting. This confusing and conflicting information about processing does a great disservice to applicants. On an unrelated note, I also did my medical exams (including the blood test and chest X-ray) in June before applying but DIAC does not seem to have any record of that, so now I have to try to figure out what happened to the results. (My permanent visa is still not being processed so I decided to apply for a temporary visa in the meantime, for which I got a case officer within a few days and I should get that visa soon at least if I can figure out what happened to my medicals.)

Hi all, Does anyone know how DIAC treats applications that are submitted complete with a checklist but not certified as Decision Ready by a Migration Agent? It seems that prior to July 1st there were 2 different DRC checklists, one for use by Migration Agents and one for use by applicants. However, now the website only seems to have an agent checklist. My employer advised me that I could apply Decision Ready by compiling all the documents in advance of lodgement and attaching a checklist, which I did. But now I am wondering whether that is correct. In the auto-replys from DIAC, which have been posted earlier on this thread, the DIAC only mentions priority for agent certified DRC applications, not for general DRC applications. There does not seem to be any information as to how long a general DRC application should take, and I fear that I have wasted months doing my police checks, etc, in advance if my application is not even getting any priority for that. In general, while I have nothing against Migration Agents, who provide a valuable service, I find it extremely unfair that DIAC seems to discriminate against applications filed by an individual, who are relegated to the back of a long queue even if they do everything correctly. At the very least, the DIAC should provide clear information about the processing times for various types of applications, so applicants know in advance whether they need to hire a Migration Agent in order to get their applications processed in a timely manner. Overall, this has been a hugely frustrating experience. Like some other recent posters, I finally got my acknowledgement email after 9 weeks (though the website has said it would come within 10 working days). The letter said they prefer to be contacted with enquiries by email, but of course did not include an e-mail address. The DIAC website also has a Contact Us page which doesnt include an e-mail address, and a contact form which doesnt allow you to write a question, but only to select a pre-written question to which they e-mail you a pre-written answer (which makes no sense whatsoever - how is this pre-written question / pre-written answwer e-mail charade any better than a FAQ?). When I finally found an e-mail address for what appeared to be the right office, all I got in response were auto-replys, as others have posted here. Where does the exorbitant $3000 that one pays for a simple visa application go if they dont even hire enough people to process the applications or have any customer service? Meanwhile Ive been waiting over 3 months with no end in sight or any idea of when I will get a case officer. I am supposed to start my new job in a couple of months but of course cant make any moving plans until the visa is sorted out. This sucks.