lillypad

That sounds like good news, didn't know that ozlander. Congratulations Moobobs and Jojo!

Hi Dave, Since your wife studied the Bachelor in English did she have to prove that she had competent english by doing a test before enrolling at university? I'd email back the CO and ask what sort of evidence he or she requires from your wife. Normally this is waivered if your wife had sat IELTS or OET or passport from one of the below countries (taken from the immi site). You must be able to demonstrate that you have at least ‘competent’ English language ability at the time you are invited to apply. To do so, you must show that either: you are a citizen of and hold a current passport from Canada, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom or the United States of America, or you have scored at least 6 on each of the four components of speaking, reading, listening and writing in an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) test, or scored B on each of the four components of an Occupational English Test (OET).

Thanks Peach, that's set my mind at ease!

Hello, I live in WA and my UK photocard licence is about to expire. I have looked at the gov.uk website about how to renew the licence but it states I should have a UK address and reside there. I do have a UK address but I reside in WA and hold a WA licence (after proving I have a vaiid UK drivers licence). I also can't apply for the renewal online as I don't have a biometric passport. I'd like to renew it for car hire purposes in the UK and ID in the UK. My questions are: 1. Will I face a £1000 fine for not renewing on time when I return to the UK 2. Will I have to surrender my UK licence on return 3. Will I have to retake my UK driving test to get a UK photocard licence again 4. Can I use my Australian WA licence to drive/hire a car in the UK 5. Will my WA licence ever expire if my UK photocard does? 6. Has anyone had any experience renewing whilst being in Australia or on their return to the UK with an expired photocard Thanks all!

Yep direct grant. Never uploaded Form 80 or Form 1221. Thanks everyone for being so supportive on this forum :hug:

Hi Quill82, I got my 190 without an agent. Main reasons were to save about $4000 and had no time to lose waiting on an agent to do everything for me. I am unemployed and was in a rush to lodge my visa before my previous 457 was going to run out. I was able to dedicate my time to researching and getting all documents together and filled out and sent outside of the usual office hours 9-5 Mon to Fri. I needed to do this to hand in my application before my visa was to expire. However I will tell you it was highly stressful at times worrying if I made any mistakes as I was rushed. If you're in no hurry it won't be stressful, you'll just need to be thorough and very patient waiting on the government who are restricted to office hours. The worst part for me was Vetassess this seemed like forever, several people have waited for months. Depending on your skilled occupation you may not need to use Vetassess to assess your skills. The Immi website should let you know. I had close friends in the same situation as me and they used agents, one lodged their application a week before me and are still waiting, and they've had to wait until their agent was at work to lodge their visa after getting an invite. However I don't believe the visa will be granted sooner or later if lodged with an agent or not as it is all dependent on your case and your Case Officer. This forum has provided me a lot of support and advice for me I also have some links that will help below. In the end it did take up quite a bit of my time when it came to Vetassess and lodging my visa (several days) and only about 2 hours for filling in and triple checking my EOI, after that most time was spent waiting. http://www.bobinoz.com/blog/9810/australian-visas-and-expression-of-interest-eoi-caution/ http://pr4oz.blogspot.com.au/ http://www.immi.gov.au/Visas/Pages/190.aspx http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/booklets/books6.htm Lillypad

Just got the "Golden Email" today with the visa grant! YAY I'm over the moon!:jiggy: It's been 8 weeks since my partner and I lodged our visa. We didn't get any contact from immigration since lodging the visa and no communication (emails or phone calls) from the team or CO until this email. Hope you guys don't have long to wait now!

Hi Harry welcome and how you doing? I'm onshore and in case you were interested I have front loaded all docs except from 80 or form 1221 (1221 is like form 80 but not as long). Form 1221 was strangely in the "recommended" docs list only for my partner to upload but not on the list for me to upload on the immi account/evisa thingy but we didn't put it in as it wasn't in the "required" docs list and a pain to fill in. Also I'm not using an agent. In saying all that my partner pre-filled it in before being asked. It took a while for him to get dates and work out addresses of employment for the past 10 years being in OZ. Anyway we are just seeing if CO asks for it before uploading. How's your visa progressing? Have you been waiting long?

Thanks so much for the info dugles, Just got off the phone from DIBP, I'm in Team 34 Brisbane, no CO yet. The operator said I should get a CO within 3 weeks and to keep checking emails.

Congratulations Dugles!!! Did you get a CO and how do you find out if you get a CO? Was it just granted without communication?

Link was on page 2... I'll put it here, but they're only estimates. First person on this thread got a CO in 60 days from lodgement http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/estimated-allocation-times.htm Also an easy way to work out the date: http://www.timeanddate.com/date/dateadd.html

457 - the insurance is not compulsory if you're British to an extent but as my interpretation I think you will have to take it out if you're Irish, as you must meet the health requirement of adequate cover as quoted here: http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/457-health-insurance-faq-visa-holder.htm - "Visa holders who are enrolled with Medicare under reciprocal health care arrangements will be considered as having met this requirement." British: If you apply for your 457 visa offshore, to be granted the 457 you must prove that you will meet the minimum healthcare requirement before being granted a visa ie. You need to prove you have health insurance OR medicare to meet the minimal amount of cover. Since you cannot enroll into medicare offshore, and you can't get into Australia without a valid visa, you'll probably end up taking out a health insurance policy before landing to get the grant if you're British. Irish: If you're Irish you won't be entitled to enroll into medicare, but that doesn't mean you won't be covered by the public paid health services if you "flash your passport". The statement below from Medicare explains in a statement and visitors which also means Temporary Residents (457 etc), please anyone Irish correct me if I'm wrong? You will not be subsidised for as many health services as other countries' reciprocal programmes, ie. GP visits. Visitors from the Republic of Ireland and New Zealand will not be enrolled in Medicare. Reciprocal Health Care Agreements provide access as a public patient in a public hospital including outpatient services and medicines available on prescription, which are subsidised under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for medically necessary treatment. My experience: I came out here on a Working Holiday visa with my partner and only had backpacker's insurance and enrolled into Medicare within first week of arriving. My partner then got sponsored on a 457 visa and me as de facto spouse, the company who employed my partner paid for our private health insurance premiums as one of their perks of being employed with them and paid for relocation costs such as tax returns and shipping of one container from the UK. Our Medicare card expired as we forgot to inform Medicare we were now on 457 so went into the office and showed our passport and visa and we got a new card to expire from 4 years of 457 visa grant - this time it said Reciprocal rather than Visitor as previous. Unfortunately my partner's position was made redundant, so we applied for PR 190 onshore and since then we have no health insurance but we are still here legally on 457 whilst we wait for 190 grant as we are still enrolled on Medicare's Reciprocal programme. We are both British. Sorry to be long winded I'm not sure I helped, but just wanted to clarify the health insurance requirement for 457. If you are granted a PR visa however you'll be entitled to Medicare no matter your nationality and it is not as limited as the Reciprocal programme. Also having Australian Permanent Residency you can get cheaper insurance quotes than being a temporary resident. This comparison site is really good for comparing insurance policies: http://www.privatehealth.gov.au/

Hey found a great blog about 190 visa migration. http://pr4oz.blogspot.com.au/ It's based on someone's 190 experience in 2012. Even though it's a little dated its been a great aid to me. Told me about loading documents, medicals and status updates.

Hey Sebmoran, don't think you get an official you've passed your medicals. When I did my medicals in Australia at the end of the exam with the doctor she said "everything looks fine" and handed me a paper copy of proof of tests done (didn't have results on it). When you log into the visa online it usually has a link saying to organise your medical, this link disappears when the medical has been received by the dept of immigration, you may or may not have a case officer at this point. Do you have a CO at the mo? The Case Officer tends to get assigned within or after 7 weeks if you applied for a 190 visa, its just been 7 weeks for me but I haven't has a CO just yet I think things may have slowed down slightly over the Christmas period. In some cases if your medicals highlight something of concern it is passed on to the MOC for further consultation of results. You can contact your CO and ask for the status of your medical if you don't have a CO you can contact the DIAC by email. The email address is provided on this webpage where I got all my info from: http://pr4oz.blogspot.com.au/p/to-check-for-medical-status.html Good luck, and hang in there! It's often an agonising wait until being granted.

Yay Moobobs! Shouldn't be too long now. Just logged into my visa application and all docs are received now, even though I attached everything November, some attachments still had required status until yesterday! Ho hum I guess progress is progress, things are looking up :wink: