Lizzywills

Agent confirmed yes, it is 28 days - but extensions can be applied for. Hopefully we won't need it!!

It's a 189. We have found an alternative specialist who does do private appointments if we need to move things along faster.

Hi all Does anyone know whether you have a timescale once you are asked to go for your medicals by your CO? Our visa was submitted 10 April. Reason being we are now facing a potential wait of 3 months (love the NHS!!) to see an ophthalmologist for my husband's eye condition. We need a report to take with us to the medical. Am I right in thinking you have 28 days to provide all final info once you get a CO? Thanks all!

Hi Paednurseclaire....we are using an agent because of medical issue with my hubby. He has an eye condition which is incurable and progressive, and so we felt that having the back up and support of someone who knows the 'system' was invaluable. Given the £££ to get the visa in the first place, a bit more cash on getting expert help is worth the money to us. We tried to find out how the Medical Officers in Oz would view his condition or assess it, but when we spoke to the panel GP who does the medicals he advised that it's pointless to do any sort of pre medical - they don't do them simply because it's not the panel GPs decision. He advised us to come to our medicals with a report from hubby's eye specialist detailing the condition, prognosis etc. This gets sent with the medical report. Panel GP instructions state that if a cancer diagnosis is within 5 years, then you will be graded B - but as Sira as said above it doesn't mean that you are refused. It just goes to a different department. As others have said, they will want full details of your diagnosis, likelihood of recurrence, etc which you have said you can get from your specialists. FYI we are using an agent in Sydney (George Lombard, specialises in visas when there are medical conditions) and his costs are extremely reasonable, we were originally going with a UK based agent (which was over £1k more in fees it turns out!!) but when we explained hubby's eye problem they immediately said they weren't experts in visas when there are eye problems and told us to use George. He's been great, he has access notes to MOC guidance notes which we can't access re. eye problems and how each are assessed (ours isn't listed however!) so I'd bet that there's similar notes for cancer. The choice is yours but as I say, when visas cost so much we wanted the sureity that we have the best expert behind us - if he can't get us PR then no one can and we will know that we did everything we could even if we are refused. Good luck whatever you decide to do

Ah thanks everyone for your replies, looks like it'll be ok then. Ours is a pale grey/black with a tinge of green too, sounds like yours adonna.

Yes, it was scanned in colour in the first place (never black and white, we know that all scans have to be in colour). It's because it looks like it's black and white (even though it's a colour scan) because the certificate IS black/white/grey. I will just rescan in colour again (!) and also provide a jpeg photo with the certificate against a coloured background so they can see it is an accurate full colour scan. Thanks for your reply

Hi everyone Our IELTS certificate from University of Manchester is primarily grey/black/white - with the tiny printed background of wording on it. None of it is in colour - not even the University of Manchester stamp. Our agent has asked for it to be scanned again - in colour - which is was in the first place when we sent it to them, certified as well!! We know they have to be in colour!!!!- as they are concerned it will be rejected due to the fact that it 'looks' black and white. I cannot make a document colour if it's not in the first place - there isn't a scrap of colour on it except maybe the tiny printed background. Has anyone had any issues with their IELTS certificate not being accepted because of this? I can perhaps take a photo of it as well against something coloured, so they have a jpeg to refer to....I can also scan it again at super high res. Thanks everyone!

We will be applying this month and have got all of our documents certified by a solicitor and colour copied, these have then been scanned in and emailed to our agent in Sydney. I've not heard that they'll accept uncertified docs.

Hi, my hubby has worked at his place for the past 8 years and although we can get a reference from his previous employer, we are only sending this one as it covers the employment we're claiming points for (8 out of the last 10 years bit, 15 points), plus all P60s for those years.

You can add Association of Chartered Certified Accountants to that list too (ACCA)

Hi, we lodged with 65.

Welcome! It took CPA 4 weeks to process our assessment including the delay re. CIMA transcript. Best thing to do is get yourself booked onto your nearest IELTS Academic test, and in the meantime gather all the paperwork for CPA. And although you're highly proficient in English, I do recommend familiarising yourself with the format. There's free draft Academic tests on the IELTS site here (and answer sheets for after!). http://takeielts.britishcouncil.org/prepare-test/free-practice-tests Both hubby and I did these to the set time limits etc for each paper. Sometimes the Qs can be worded to catch you out! But I'm sure you'll do just fine.

In that case try and put dates for the long periods you lived on the continent so 1990-1994 lived in xxx, and then explain that during this period you had frequent trips home and day/weekend trips to other places within the EU Without stamps or actual travel logs what do they expect?!! LOL I share your pain on this one. x

No way round it. You have to do IELTS Academic and achieve level 7 in every module for a successful skills assessment by CPA. We've just done it with them. You have to send them proof of your IELTS result when you apply for your migration skills assessment. You also need to send CPA proof of your accountancy qualifications - this means full exam transcripts for all the papers you sat, plus membership certificates for any accountancy bodies. All must be certified and copied. You also need to make sure that if you were exempt from any papers relating to your accountancy qualifications that you get transcripts for those too (we had a last minute delay as we needed transcripts from CIMA for some papers he sat many years ago which made him exempt from those papers for his ACCA when he did the exams - CPA wanted proof he'd done them) In the event re. IELTS hubby achieved above 7 when he did the test so we secured the extra 20 points and applied for a 189 with 65 points. See my timeline. Any Qs happy to help

We have the same issue!! As we have to complete a Form 80 each (one per applicant over a certain age, which is me and hubby) we both sat down and worked out all the trips we'd taken in our lives, both together and separate. I've listed all of them on the form (and in Part T as not enough space) - our agent advised if we don't remember an exact date not to panic, just put for eg 1/8/1999 if you think it was sometime in Aug that year. We have also explained in Part T before the list continues that "We have recalled our travel dates as best we can, all dates for EU travel are approx as no passport stamps given for travel within the EU for us to refer to. Where we can be more specific (travel outside the EU) dates are included" The list is part T is also not listed by exact day of the month, I have just put for eg: "August 1999, holiday to Greece, 2 weeks" The EU is effectively borderless. The only stamps we have are for Bali, Egypt and the USA (3 trips) for us to go off. So this is all we can do. This is all for security reasons, and my guess is they're looking for unusual travel patterns. We'll be submitting our visa in a couple of weeks.

I will be cross but will chuckle if we don't get asked after all this....

I've just put in on the extra sheet at the back the month/year for all EU travel that I can recall (not enough space within the main form!!), with a note at the start that says: "EU travel dates are approximate as there are no passport stamps within the EU" For our travel to Bali, New York and Egypt we can be more accurate..... It's going to have to do. Employment since birth. Ha! Explain why you were unemployed from 1976 to 1994...erm...I was a kid?!! LOL. I feel for everyone doing this right now. I've been drafting this form since 9am this morning. It's now nearly 2pm and I have a headache. They'd better ask for this after all my research grrr!

To be honest I can't see how they can examine in any detail a travel history with no passport stamps or record within the EU as such. I assume - perhaps wrongly! - that what they will do is glance through your list of travel and look for any unusual activity. So ours - a great big list of city breaks and trips to Greece/Spain/etc for holidays isn't exactly going to raise the red flag. Ditto with the employment record since birth - I think they're looking for any periods where you were unemployed for a long time. Interesting that they want you to specify how you supported yourself during these periods - I guess they want to see that you are self sufficient and capable of working. I think in the UK employers don't have to keep records dating back beyond a certain number of years so good luck if they want to check with Kendals in Manchester to check that I really did work there as a Saturday job when I was 16...!! This is so much fun already....!!!

Thanks Rupert, Yep, that's what we're going to have to do! There are only 3 places we've been outside of the EU and we know pretty much spot on when they were. It's also quite amusing that they want to know employment history from BIRTH and that Form 80 now states that 'unemployment' includes from the date you were born until your very first job (in my case at age 16)....you have to say how you were supported during any 'unemployment'!! So birth to 1992 will say 'child - supported by parents'....

This is going to cause us serious issues...living in the UK both of us have travelled throughout Europe frequently...we have no date stamps in our passports! How on earth can we recall every trip we've taken since we were 7 and 12?? It's going to be impossible!! I'm going to speak to our agent to get advice as we may inadvertently miss a few things off....

FYI my hubby is an accountant Dommie...and he doesn't have a degree at all, he went straight into accountancy. His ACCA qualification is considered equivalent to a bachelors degree as confirmed by his positive skills assessment. Rupert is correct - if you have accountancy qualifications then these may be considered the same. Depends what you have.

Are you planning to emigrate under Accountant (General)? If so you'll need a skills assessment with either CPA or ICAA. They will look at your work experience, and any professional accountancy qualifications you have. Good luck!

Hi everyone Just looking forward in prep for the medicals, and I'm just looking at Form 26....it says: "Have you ever been admitted to hospital and/or received medical treatment for an extended period for any reason (including for a major operation or treatment of a psychiatric illness)?" How long ago are they wanting to know about?? I had an elective minor op 27 years ago! But nothing since? Guess they'll want to know about it. Thanks all!

Sorry I should have added that although these are not 'reference material' as you've asked, what they do do is give you a very good indication of the types of topics etc they'll ask you about. It could be anything....but they like it when you put in personal reasons for your opinion and explain yourself succinctly and clearly.

I can recommend that you go on the British Council website, they have free practice papers for all sections of the test, both general and academic. You just download the PDF files: http://takeielts.britishcouncil.org/prepare-test/free-practice-tests (general link with info on and all links to the papers on the left hand bar) http://takeielts.britishcouncil.org/prepare-your-test/free-practice-tests/writing-practice-test-1-ielts-academic (Writing Practice Academic, both task 1 and task 2) http://takeielts.britishcouncil.org/prepare-test/practice-tests/writing-practice-test-1-general-training (Writing Practice General; both task 1 and task 2) Good luck!