Aston Ks

thanks everyone for their feedback. Cheers!

Is it possible to get a visitor visa, while waiting for your sponsored spouse visa to be approved? The application was lodged offshore.

Not all wedding ceremonies are recognised as being legal in the country they take place in. In some cases they then have to be formalised in some sort of state approved location/event (eg registry office in the UK). Can the OP elaborate?

This is why I love this forum, I'll just wait to be back from OZ to finally register my marriage officially. and then will apply for her visa.

never mind, I did a bit of research, since not officially married, i'll apply for a de facto visa.

You need to provide a little more information.

 

Have you already validated your visa? When did you get married and when was your visa granted.

 

Sounds like you are going to have more issues than just applying for a visa for your wife - if you have breached the 8515 condition your visa can be cancelled.

Hi guys, I have a problem...I applied for 176 and was a single applicant. Before my grant I was planning to get married and obviously had no plan to include my future wife to my application till I got my grant. And plan was to apply for her visa once I get my visa and I'm in australia.

Anyways so when i was granted my visa there was one visa condition: 8515 - NOT MARRY BEFORE FIRST ENTRY. Well now I'm married and I'll be traveling to australia soon without her. Is there going to be any problem when I try to apply for her visa?

They have cracked down on people from overseas using it. You need to have an Australian IP

OH DAMN! so how are we gonna search for real estate or apartments??

Guys, I'm moving to perth in september and looking for shared apartments, but can't make any post or see the contact number of individuals who posted adds on the site. is it because I haven't entered my mobile number? or there are other reasons?

Checked the site, job market looks very bad...

Have you tried www.applydirect.com.au?

 

It is a website purely for employers, not recruitment agencies, so all the jobs on there are genuine.

 

Can't say what the jobs market is like for a mechanical engineer but it does not seem very good in other areas. I think you will have to be here in order to get a role as with the current employment situation, they will not look at people who are not in the country.

Thanks for the link, I'll check it out. I just got my PR.

Can someone please enlighten me with current job market situation for mechanical engineers in WA?

The only job site that i find useful is seek.com. Most job sites have similar recruiters posting the same vacancy and there are very few companies posting vacancies, making me feel there are very few vacancies i.e. my opinion.

I'll be flying to perth in september and it is frightening, so far i have applied for 20+ position and haven't received single call. Ideally i would prefer to have job before i land but looking at the current trend it looks, it will be tough to even secure interviews even when i'm there.

Hi, recently i was granted SS 176 visa, but unfortunately because of the recent business environment jobs are not as plenty as before, and the type of job i'm looking for, are not many in my sponsored state. I would prefer to land in Australia with few interviews in hand rather than waiting after I land and it would be very difficult to move around different cities looking for jobs if I don't find any in the sponsored state.

So, I just want to know, is it necessary that I spent the first two years living and working in the SS or I can live anywhere and work anywhere, and would it cause any problem when I apply for citizenship after 5 years?

 

Let me know if there is anyone here who would be interested anonymously to provide accounts of their experiences?

I do agree with ThistleandThorns about countries right to issue visa, but what Gatoruk is complaining is about the standard of their service for which we pay a big sum. I have been waiting for more than 14 months for my security check to finish, every time I inquire about the status I get a copy paste reply. I know the security check is going on and Australia has the right to run background check but is it my fault if you are employing some inefficient guy and you don't tell me how much longer I have to wait even after the standard time has passed just because I'm from a HR country (12 months)? And not to mention there are individuals who get their visa without any security check. Is that fair?

There are lots of applicants who are in this limbo and there are no ways to complain about this to DIAC, DIAC will not do anything as long as they think the case is moving.

Really? So pretty much there is no guarantee my visa would ever be processed as they continually receive more Priority 5 than they can handle annually so continually pinch allocation from my visa type.

 

Surely there must be some means to bring this situation to public awareness? Could you imagine the political backlash in UK if they said visa applications went unread for 5 years! Every newspaper would be calling for the immigration minister to resign!

 

I wish my immigration advisor had told me I had the lowest priority visa on the market and would have to wait this long. At the time of applying she said 3 months to get the visa.

 

Do you think I have any options?

 

Thanks

 

Gatoruk

Mate I think you should complain about your immigration adviser for not telling you the truth. This is the case often, they tell you lies before you sign the agreement with them.

Hi I would ideally like to ship my small fishing boat to Oz. I paid £15K for it and have owned it for the year. Does anyone know how much import tax and GST I am likely to have to pay when it gets to Oz. Need to work out if I can afford to take it or sell before we come over.

 

Hope someone can help on this one. Thanks guys.

sail with it to OZ:biglaugh:

Adding more to above info, I made my first three attempts at British Council Saudi Arabia. Last attempt was from Sri Lanka.

Assessing is different from country to country?

I think you are right, it is different even though they will deny it, specially the speaking part. I believe it is much easier when you take it in the South asian countries than other parts of the world.

If you are someone who loves reading the news or browsing those online news site, then you will love what I do.

I remember few years back when there were no tablets I used to spend hours surfing these news site and even spending reading things which were of no interest.

So, after i got my tablet i downloaded this free app "gReader" and I'm subscribed to all the free news sites and other sites with RSS feeds that I could think of and it downloads the heading and I go through the headings and click on which ever I find interesting, the rest goes to the bin, so no more time waste no more misleading advertises...

Hi,

I have done IELTS for Four times and i got following results.

 

1st attempt,

L 7.5 , R 6 , W 6.5 , S 5.5

 

2nd attempt,

L 7 , R 7, W 6.5 , S 6

 

3rd attempt,

L 8 , R 6.5 , W 7 , S 6

 

4th attempt,

L 8.5 , R 7 , W 6 , S 7

 

 

My target is to get 7 for each components but always fell short. I really disappointed to see my last IELTS results where i got only 6 for writing. I never had any difficulty with my writing and was very confident about last writing test. It is huge surprise for me that i got only 6.

 

Can someone advise me on remarking my last test results? Is there any success stories with 6 band upgraded to 7 after remarking?

 

Thanks

 

Sam.

there is a very high possibility to get your grade for writing and speaking to get upgraded if you ask for remarking because they don't have a particular answer for the question like the listening and reading. You can take the risk. The only drawback is it takes more time than retaking the exam again.

Hi all,

my wife and I are looking at applying for visas to live in OZ, we look pretty good on the points system but not totally straight forward. Would you recommend using an agent? If so any good ones to be recommended and what's the going rate to pay for one?????

steve.

why isn't it totally straight forward?

You don't need a migration agent and he or she has no influence over whether you will be issued with your visa or not.

 

See Booklet 6

Totally agree with Mary, these agents give you the impression that they have a say in issuing visa, but once you pay their fees they show their true face that includes MARA registered agents too.

If your case is straight forward, do it yourself and follow all the steps that were mentioned by Mary. Before you do anything I suggest do IELTS first because some people seem to have a hard time getting 7 in all bands and I think that's the only exam you have to take lodge for oz visa.

Good Luck!

You can speak with the case officer, but doing so may mean that your Agent is removed as the Authorised representative, as DIAC only allows one contact person. Sometimes they will insist on a Form 956 first, to remove them as your representative.

 

Are you sure you have a case officer?

 

If it is a 176 family sponsored, it is unlikely that you would yet have a case officer as these are the lowest priority and not yet allocated.

Yes I do have a CO (because it says CO mailed agent after allocation in the Electronic Application status inquiry site) and I'm not family sponsored.

you can call your CO but if you think your application is outstanding standard processing time and your agent is doing nothing. if u have already lodged an application not more than 3 months then you can initiate a call. its no problem when you call CO but better ask your migration agent to contact her/him.

well i have passed the standard time of 12months for my 176 visa. If I was able to trust my agent I wouldn't have posted this message.

My main concern is will DIAC let me talk to my CO even though I have an agent, or will I have to withdraw him from my case before I can directly talk to CO.

I'm in a big dilemma, I'm thinking of dumping my agent. I have asked him to contact my CO to check my status and he never forwards me the original mail and the last reply from CO was from different individual (not the CO who was assigned initially)

If i call DIAC will they let me talk to my CO, so I can be 100% sure I'm not mistaken.

this form doesn't let you edit it.... they want a hand written form

You should sue your agent, rule says: your experience related to the profession for which you applied will be accepted, and I'm pretty sure if you used a MRA agent, he should have known this.

SO it proves IELTS serves its purpose, even native speakers find it hard to get 7.... If you can prove that english is your native language you can do without it, unless u want those 10 points