deldesouza4369

The parents/friends letter was difficult; I gave them a few events, once we'd established our timeline, that I wanted them to highlight. Gave them rough notes from both the Statutory declaration form and the DIAC booklet 1 and just said be honest and truthful. Their letters were about 1-1.5 pages of A4. We didn't go down the route of getting them witnessed, just got them to sign and date the letter. We then scanned everything and uploaded to the eVisa system. For proof of living together, it was difficult for us too. We explained our situation; that we had two properties for the majority of the period but stayed at my partners place at the weekends and my place during the week (which was true), but we couldn't prove that other than showing documents (bank statements) from that time. We rented her place in October last year, and said that since then we've been living together at my place; for this we showed change of addresses on bank statements and her driving license. In the end we evidenced as much as we could with this and in our statements we were very open, honest and emotive about the whole relationship. It must have been enough, as we weren't asked a single thing about our relationship by our CO. I was blindsided a bit when the CO asked about work experience evidence as I was convinced I had everything else sewn up tight and though it would be the de-facto relationship stuff that would cause a problem; the CO never asked a thing about our relationship. We might have got lucky, or that might be the way things go on a 189 with de-facto partner; either way I guess I'll never know. In your shoes, I would do the same; provide as much as you can as thoroughly as you can but keep it concise and to the point, for example; don't put loads of photos of the same event in, just one or two with an explanation for each event that you're highlighting. I found it really useful to look at booklet 1; especially where it talks about what you need to prove (below from booklet 1) and then made a plan of how to prove each point. "History of your relationship You and your partner must each provide a statement regarding the history of your relationship, including: • how, when and where you first met; • how your relationship developed; • when you decided to marry or commence a de facto partner relationship; • your domestic arrangements – how you support each other financially, physically and emotionally and when this level of commitment began; • any periods of separation – when and why the separation occurred, for how long and how you maintained your relationship during the period of separation; and • your future plans. The statements written by you and your partner can be on ordinary writing paper or a statutory declaration form may be used. Each statement or statutory declaration must be signed and dated by the author. For details on who can witness statutory declarations, see page 28. Evidence of your relationship There are 4 broad categories of evidence that you need to provide: • financial aspects; • the nature of the household; • social context of the relationship; and • the nature of your commitment to each other. All relationships are different, so you should provide as much evidence as you can that you believe will support your claims." Good luck!

Sorry mis-read the post; if it were a skilled migration visa you wouldn't need the police checks done until you've been invited to apply for the visa. With a de-facto visa I'm not sure exactly when you'll need them. However, yes, just fill it out and send it off; make sure you supply all the documentation that is advised on the form guidance notes. cheers Del

UK police checks are carried out by ACRO (http://www.acro.police.uk/police_certificates.aspx). You'll need the form filled out, some photos done and address proofs (for your UK address); all the details of what's needed is in the form download. It takes about 10 working days to turn around and costs £45. You'll not need this until you've received your invite and placed the Visa application. Oh and you will need a police certificate for each country you have lived in for over 12 months (i think; best check that time period) in the last 10 years.

Yeah good question, I've no idea why the 190 visas aren't in there. DIAC stopped including 190s after the last December intake. Some have suggested in other posts that 190s are being invited outside of the regular 2 invitation rounds per month; as and when state sponsorship is granted, so if that were the case then I can see why they wouldn't be reporting in the bi-monthly reports. But (big caveat) I don't know that for sure, I'm just speculating based on what others have advised.

There are some reports on the skillselect website that will give you an idea of how many people are being invited forward and what the break down of the points are. Link for the last March round here: http://www.immi.gov.au/skills/skillselect/index/reports/report-2013-03-18/ I don't know how many rounds those on 60 points are taking to be invited forward. We had 70 points are were invited forward on the first round after submitting our EOI. EOI submitted 23rd December 2012, 189 Grant was 8th April 2013. We had a relatively straight forward case and also had a 20 days between invite and submitting our visa application which we used to get as much information together as possible.

We were just granted a 189 and my partner and I are in a defacto relationship. Okay for your fist question: on the EOI it will only ask about the relationship status; as you've seen. This is all it asks, it won't even ask for your name at this point. Once you've got your invite and start filling out the visa application (online) it will ask you to fill out all of the details for both the main applicant and the defacto partner. So for now don't worry about that. My partner and I were both living in separate houses for much of the period we were claiming (only 15months). It's difficult to explain what you need to provide exactly; the way it was put to me is to paint a general picture of your relationship together and back it up with as much evidence as possible. We provided the following: - Relationship statements from both me and my partner, explaining how we met, how the relationship developed (timeline), activities we've undertaken together (and dates), financial responsibilities (we did'nt have a joint account), sharing of domestic duties and our plans for the future. - Statements from our family and friends (one each from both our parents, my sister and my girlfriends best friend) highlighting how they see our relationship and social interation. - 8 photos of shared experiences; holidays, family events, social events, gigs, festivals etc. - Tickets (of any kind); travel, gigs. - Bank/credit card statements; we have separate accounts (until we move) so we highlighted transfers from her to me ans vice versa throughout the period we claim we were together and also expenses such as the holidays/gigs/etc. - Christmas cards, letters to you both, even the bank statements sent to one of your addresses with both your names on it. - Evidence of joint memberships: we had the gym. One thing to remember is to try and tie the whole relationship together; evidence the whole time frame that you are claiming, showing significant dates/events each year and tie that together in your statements. My statement was typed and covered almost 3 pages of A4. Here's a link to a document which helped us get our head around what we were trying to prove. It's more relevant for specific relationship/partner visas than skilled migration visas, but there's some really good info there. http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/booklets/books1.htm Sorry for the long reply, just trying to give you as much info as possible. Hope it helps you out and good luck! Cheers Del

Yeah, form 80. 18 pages of joy. I would leave it until the CO asks for it.

No probs! Good luck, I hope it's quick and painless :smile:

Aaaah! Sorry my bad; they used to put the stats for the 190 by state in the report, but they've stopped doing that for some reason after December. This was the last one I could find with 190 numbers on them it's at the bottom of the report. http://www.immi.gov.au/skills/skillselect/index/reports/report-2012-12-17/ I think on the 190 they are still subject to the ranking (by points/occupation) system as per the 189. So the higher the points the quicker you'll get invited forward. The difference is that after invite and submission of the application the 190 is ranked above 189 in the visa processing groups. So in theory it should be a shorter wait for your CO.

Cheers! Major was in Mechanical Design Engineering. Engineers Australia assigned my ANZCO occupation as a Mechanical Engineer which meant I wouldn't need state sponsorship as it's on the SOL; I thought they might stick me down as an engineering technologist, or engieeering NEC which would have meant I needed sponsorship as they're on the CSOL. Got lucky :smile:

Yeah, the 190 invitations are run on the same day, it's all automated as far as I can ascertain. I think if you root around in the stat reports you can see the 190 invitations by state for each round, somewhere near the bottom of the 189 breakdown reports.

Yeah, I believe so; there are two invitation rounds per month. You'll get picked up soon with 65 points I'm sure. This is the hardest part, waiting.

You'll get an email, although as far as I can remember I think it only tells you that you have a message, so you need to go check the application online anyway; doesn't hurt to check the system once in a while.

Yeah it really was quick; we had a relatively straight forward case I think! I maxed out the points to try and get a quick invite; it worked, we were invited on the first intake after submitting EOI. Good luck! I hope it works out for you!

Yup, you got it in one. I've been speaking to a recruitment guy who I'm working with to try and get some gainful employment before I leave. His opinion is: that there are a lot of people (esp. from the UK) looking for sponsorship, assistance, relocation etc; and there are not many employers (outside mining/oil & gas) willing to take that risk. If you pursue a 189 yourself it'll put you in a good position employment wise (unless your company are setting up over there) as it shows you've got some drive to make things happen. According to this guy (although it might be him trying to butter me up) it was quite refreshing to see someone who had undertaken the process themselves. The other thing I would give as a bit of advice, even though you don't need it, book and pass IELTS at 7s or better. The points will really help.

Don't panic! :cool: I had this on my eVisa page as well. It seems the system is far from perfect yet, they've a few bugs to work out. I had to submit a couple of documents again; I did this directly with my CO, sending the docs as PDFs via email. In your case asking the agent to resubmit the docs shouldn't prove to be a problem. As for form 80, the joyous form 80. It's for part of the character assessment (in addition to the Police checks), you should fill this out to the best of your ability. You might not have all the details or some questions won't appear relevant, don't worry though just leave them blank if you can't answer. Just do your best to be as complete as possible. You'll be fine :smile:

I guess it comes down to two things: 1. What's on the skilled occupation list? Or are both your profession streams there? If it's only one of them then you've got only one option to pursue. 2. If you have the option, which is easier to prove? Or what would help you claim the most points? (make sure you can evidence it though)

Oh massively, we had a straightforward case that's went through pretty quick and by the looks of it we dodged a bullet by not having meds referred. I can only imagine that would have been horrible!!

Hi Michael, Excellent, congrats to you guys as well! We're in Glasgow (well Paisley, but don't tell anyone) right now and it's just me and my OH going over; we hope to get out to Melbourne by July (quite quick I know!). We've not planned massively yet (that's this weeks task), but in general we're looking at two ideas for where we're going to stay when we get there. 1. Is look for a holiday let for maybe 2-4weeks (could be expensive) and then try to get a rented property within that period. 2. Is try to have a rented property sorted out from this end before we leave (less likely but probably less upheaval in the long run). I've heard Perth can be difficult to get rental property initially due to the distorted economy over there. We don't have kids yet, which removes some of the complexity from our equation. However, my dads friend and family went to Brisbane 2 years ago on a 457 (now going for PR visa), he picked the school for his kids first (not quite sure how he did this, possibly using some local knowledge from his employers), that led him to the area he would stay in. He stays maybe an hour outside the city, so he's got quite a commute, but it's really suited the kids. Sorry I haven't got more to offer there! As for everything else, my girlfriend and I both had separate properties here, so we've rented her flat already and I'm now setting the wheels in motion to rent mine out; it means if it all goes wrong I have something to back to, or if it all goes right I've got an investment. Selling will take too long for us and we're happy to start from scratch in Oz. So we'll be shipping the minimum of our possessions (zero furniture, just clothing, work tools, sports equipment, laptops, etc) and building from there. It'll be basic to begin with, but we're willing to work at it. Keep in touch, as we plough through it all, I'm sure we'll learn a lot! Cheers Derek

Thanks! First place to go is to the DIAC website (http://www.immi.gov.au) there is lots of information there to inform you about what's available (or not) to you. Whilst there check out the SOL (Skilled Occupation List) (http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/sol/) If your occupation is on this list; then you can apply for a few different types of visa. You will need to meet 60 points in the points test, which is explained in the booklet you can get from here (http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/booklets/books6.htm) Have a look around, get lots of information, everything is out there if you look for it, going through the process yourself is tough but this forum can help if you come across specific problems, just search, there are always people who've had the same problem as you're having. If you're daunted by the thought of getting lots of documentation and evidence together or you don't have a straight forward case, consult an agent; they can tell you what you need to do and lead you through the process; that comes at a cost of course. If you do consult an agent make sure they're MARA registered. Good luck!

We awoke this morning to the amazing news that our 189 Skilled Independent Visa has been granted!!! We're absolutely delighted! Just wanted to post to thank every single member here; you've all contributed massively whether in answer to my questions directly or in response to others in the past. It's a great resource which holds so much data on the process. We decided to go it alone without an agent; as we went along it was the information that has been posted here that's made it far easier to decipher the whole visa application process, it's been invaluable. So thanks to every single one of you who have ever answered a question/query to me or to anyone else; it's really great. We're ready to get ourselves packed up and shipped out. It feels so good to have our destiny back in our own hands again :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin: Thanks again For any who are interested here is our timeline: IELTS: 27th Oct 2012 (Overall band 9, R:9, L:9, W8.5:, S:9) Skills assessment: Engineers Australia - 10th Dec 2012 EOI submitted: 23rd Dec 2012 Invitation Received: 3rd Jan 2013 Submitted application: 23rd Jan 2013 CO assigned: 13th Mar 2013 PCC: 26th Mar 2013 Meds: 1st Apr 2013 Granted: 8th Apr 2013

I believe the TRF for IELTS is on the results form. I had to check this too, it will be shown as the Test Report Form Number somewhere near the bottom of the results form. As for the occupational ceiling; I think DIAC will announce when the ceiling has been hit, in which case you would then need to wait until July when they announce the next quotas for the SOL. If I were in your position, I would get the EOI in as soon as possible and hope for the best.

It's recommended that you have your IELTS and Skills Assessment prior to submitting the EOI. Personally, I tried to source the majority of the evidence documentation prior to submitting the EOI. If you're invited to apply quickly, then you only have a limited amount of time (60days?? I think; anyone confirm this?) to submit a valid visa application. The more work you can do up front the easier it will be for you in the long run. How quickly you're invited forward is a tough one to answer, if you've a high points total, you'll likely be invited forward quickly. If you've got 60 points (threshold) then you may have to wait a few rounds (2 rounds per month). This is all speculation though; it depends on your nominated occupation and your points total. For example I had 70 points and my nominated occupation is Mechanical Engineer; I was invited to apply in the first round after submitting my EOI.

Yup, I lodged on the 23rd Jan and was allocated on 10th March. They asked for some more work experience information; but I've got that in hand. Just awaiting PCC and meds.

Not sure about the second invite on Skillselect.... Is it possible for you to submit an application yourself through Skillselect and drop the agent? I would point out that this is not for the fainthearted though, even if the application is straightforward. You need to know what documentation you need; although the people here are really helpful and the information to help you build an application is out there if you look for it. If you've got a complicated case stick with the agent, just maybe push the agency for another one?