rahulshankar

Hi everyone,

10 minutes ago we received the email with the visa grant for my mother in law. 

Thanks to everyone in this forum for your advice and suggestions when we needed them. 

This will likely be the last time i sign on, but have left a detailed timeline as part of my signature for those that may be interested. 

All the best to everyone with their applications, i'm sure it will work out for everyone. 

Take care. 

46 minutes ago, TinaH said:

Is the AFP Certificate for the applicant or sponsor? I didn't recall I submitted one for my parents. 

Applicant. Only required if you have stayed for a cumulative total of 1 year in the last 10 years. 

11 minutes ago, TinaH said:

@rahulshankar ~ how come you had to re-submit all documents already requested at preparation process to another email?  I believe you submitted those before the CO allocated?

We had to submit a translated police clearance plus the AFP police certificate in addition to our documents as these were missing for us. 

We re-submitted all our documents as we received a case officer which said which documents were missing (don't know why, must have gotten lost in the awash of emails sent through to them) - wasn't an issue for us as it was just one PDF with all the files attached to re-send. 

32 minutes ago, Catlady2014 said:

She sent ONE Bank Cheque by Registered Express post (you can use both services together).  She included a copy of the email.  It was sent to the address given in the instructions which  I have copied below, but please check your own email carefully in case this has changed since mine was done.   For instance, it might be that they now want cheques payable to Department of Human Services or some other name, as I know that the Department changed its name recently.  

 

"Payment by Bank Cheque
 
Bank cheques should be made payable to the Department of Immigration and Border Protection and sent by registered post to the following address:
 
Parent Visa Centre
Contributory Parent Section
Locked Bag 7
NORTHBRIDGE WA 6865
AUSTRALIA
 
Please note that we do not accept personal cheques.
 
IMPORTANT 
 
·         The file reference number must be included with the payment
·         Payment by international bank cheque will delay the visa grant for a period of 28 days after payment has been receipted to allow the cheque to clear. 
 
Applicants Who Are in Australia
 
An application cannot be finalised while an applicant is in Australia.
 
All applicants who are in Australia are required to make arrangements to depart Australia within twenty eight (28) days of the date of this email. 
Within seven (7) days applicants are required to provide a scanned copy of their departure arrangements from Australia to the Parent Visa Centre.  Applicants should allow a minimum of three (3) working days for a visa to be granted following departure from Australia." 

Cheers for that.

Department's name hasn't changed in regards to info. We will get the bank cheque and post it on Monday. 

6 minutes ago, Catlady2014 said:

My email requesting the second vac included full instructions on how and where to send the payment.   You should check your email for the details and follow the instructions carefully.  For the record, my daughter in Australia included a photocopy of the email with the cheque and sent registered and express. 

Hi yes, i knoow where and how to post it, it doesn't specifically state however who to address the cheque to and you can only assume from the wording it is to "The Department of Immigration and Border Protection"

How did your daughter send it with both registered and express post?? Did she sent 2 cheques? 

Hi all, 

Question to all those that paid the 2nd VAC...

1. Did you address your bank cheque to "Department of Immigration and Border Protection"? Where did you write the file reference number? 

2. How did you send your bank cheque? This is particularly for those sending in Australia - did you use Registered Post or Express Post? It states send it by registered post - can we still send it be Express post or Platinum Express Post? 

Thanks. 

On 2/8/2018 at 14:30, Alan Collett said:

Great - thanks.

Hopefully the Department's systems will allocate the incoming remittance to the application awaiting grant in the same time it takes to process a bank cheque.

Best regards.

FYI, we received our request for the 2nd VAC. 

No mention of a BPAY option for us. Bank cheque or credit card only. 

1 hour ago, karu1 said:

1 hour ago, rahulshankar said:

March 18, 2015 is our lodgement date.
We got a response from the PVC Team, 2nd VAC payment to be requested shortly apparently. Nearly there i reckon...

Thank u & best of luck Rahul , we applied 5th December 2915. Which part of Australia u r hoping to settle.

Hi, visa is for my mother in law, she will be settling in Brisbane. 

4 hours ago, Alan Collett said:

I'm not so sure.

The PVC tends to grant visas within a business day or two of receiving a bank cheque by post (we send them by Express Post for our clients).

I'm not yet persuaded the Department's systems will pick up incoming BPay remittances that quickly.   Happy to hear otherwise!

Best regards.

We will test the BPay option if it exists as an option for us to pay and will let you know how it goes.

BPAY normally takes 1 business day to process, or in some cases less than that. 

On 2/7/2018 at 11:43, karu1 said:

On 2/6/2018 at 12:28, rahulshankar said:

Nearly 2 weeks since we submitted our final documents...still no word about the 2nd vac payment...
 

Rahul when did u submitted your application orginaly,

March 18, 2015 is our lodgement date.

We got a response from the PVC Team, 2nd VAC payment to be requested shortly apparently. Nearly there i reckon...

Nearly 2 weeks since we submitted our final documents...still no word about the 2nd vac payment...

Submitted the AFP certificate 4 days ago...here's hoping the 2nd VAC email is this week...

We had to submit AFP checks as the mother in law may have resided in oz cumulatively for a year in the last 10 years. 

Check completed and should be in the mail...last stage before hopefully 2nd vac request....next week one hopes.

Just received a case officer. Had to re-submit documents to another email address from the one that had the request for documentations preparation in October...not long now i hope till the 2nd vac required email....

Just received the AOS letter in the mail yesterday. 

It took nearly 3 months from submitting the application to receiving the letter if that helps anyone timeline wise. 

Submitted form 80, police cert and the AOS letter yesterday evening. 

Our lodgement date was 18/03/2015, so hopefully a case officer isn't too far away...

11 minutes ago, Lolly T said:

Hi rahulshanker,

please can you tell me what your mother in laws CPV 143 lodgement date is? 

18/03/2015

11 hours ago, Ray and Geri said:

Rahulshanker.... where are you based mate, you say you got a phone call from Centrelink.... I was under the impression that they spoke to and interviewed the Sponsor, not the applicant.... are you in Oz or UK?

Hi Ray and Geri, 

Based in oz, sponsoring my mother in law. 

2 hours ago, Catlady2014 said:

The following wording is copied from the email asking me to make the payment.  (My daughter got a bank cheque from her own bank in Australia.  If you get an international bank cheque, they say it takes 28 days to clear! ) I have no idea what a BCC file or an OSF file is but I did not receive a tax invoice, so the options were just bank cheque or credit card.  A bank cheque appears to mean the same as a banker's draft. Personal cheques are not accepted. 

 

PAYMENT OPTIONS - If your file is a BCC file you will receive a Tax Invoice.  If your file is an OSF file you will not receive a Tax Invoice.

TAX Invoice

If a tax invoice is attached the payment options are listed in the invoice. Payment may also be made directly to the Department of Immigration and Border Protection by credit card or bank cheque.

If we have not provide you with a TAX Invoice  

Payment must be made directly to the Department of Immigration and Border Protection by bank cheque or credit card:

Payment by Credit Card

If paying by credit card to the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, send the completed credit card form to the Parent Visa Centre.  Please contact your bank to arrange the release of the amount of the 2nd visa application charge and credit card surcharge, otherwise the payment may be declined. 

 

For details regarding surcharge fees please go to: https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Visa/Fees

 

Payment by Bank Cheque

 

Bank cheques should be made payable to the Department of Immigration and Border Protection and sent by registered post to the following address:

 

Parent Visa Centre

Contributory Parent Section

Locked Bag 7

NORTHBRIDGE WA 6865

AUSTRALIA

 

Please note that we do not accept personal cheques.

 

IMPORTANT 

 

·         The file reference number must be included with the payment

·         Payment by international bank cheque will delay the visa grant for a period of 28 days afterpayment has been receipted to allow the cheque to clear. 

Thanks for that info, very helpful 

2 hours ago, Pertenhall said:

It is good news for you rahulshankar but it is very frustrating for us as we lodged  a week before you and we haven't had a word yet.  It does seem to be a very weird way IMMI are working at the moment.  We'll definitely not be hearing before Christmas I suspect - even doubt if we will hear anything this year!  Still nothing we can do about it so we'll just enjoy Christmas with the family and hope it isn't too far into January that we hear something..

Hey mate, i wouldn't despair too much. We received a call on Saturday morning and the Centrelink lady told us they are working overtime to play catch up. 

 Reckon you won't be too far down the track. 

Question for those that have paid or are paying for their 2nd VAC (we are no where close to this stage): 

What are acceptable payment methods: Credit card and bank draft? 

With the bank draft must it be from Commonwealth bank? Or can an international bank draft suffice that is in AUD? Does immi provide such information when they ask for this payment? 

Thanks, 

5 hours ago, elnak said:

Hi All 

I agree with the PVC having different teams. When we received our request for medicals etc. at the bottom of the e-mail it did state that the e-mail came from PVC Team1.

Anyone else with perhaps any other team number?

Our lodgement date was 25 Feb 2015 and received our request for medicals on 22 November 2017.

I have to mention that a whole lot of people who applied a couple of months after us, received their requests long before we did. There was a big difference though. They were 'invited to start preparing' whilst our letter clearly stated "Request for documents" and gave us 28 days within which to submit. 

Perhaps there is a new process allowing folks more time to get all their documents ready and a few of us perhaps are too close to being processed to be afforded that luxury and have to run off to the panel clinics etc. 

I hope that we could get clarity about this theory somehow because I have to admit, I honestly thought they must have forgotten about us or we did something wrong when so many people with application dates later than us got their requests and I did feel very jealous and neglected. 

Hope this somehow helps a bit.

Have you had contact from your case officer yet? 

5 minutes ago, Catlady2014 said:

Is it really the 10th May?! or March? 

It's March

3 hours ago, rahulshankar said:

G'day all, 

Seeking some advice that i'm hoping someone on here could provide or has had a similar situation with. 

We do not have a migration agent, but may be changing where we live in the coming months. Seeing how slow this AOS process is, we are concerned that we won't be living in our current domicile by the time the AOS letters are posted to us. 

What form would we use to update the department of this? This is not updating the department about the main applicant's address, but updating them about the authorised representative address. 

Would there be something similar that has to occur for Centrelink? Is there a particular form we would need to fill out? I know i can update addresses on mygov, but given how slow (inefficient and incompetent) the AOS staff have been with us thus far, i want to make sure that our updated address has been entered correctly. 

Thanks. 

EDIT: Just received the call from Centrelink approx. 1 hour ago. Phone interview completed and approved. Letter for AOS to Commonwealth Bank on the way. 

Also FYI, the lady on the phone said that once approved an electronic approval letter gets sent to the Department of Immigration every Monday. This is followed by a system generated letter to your mailing address as well. 

Progress  for us, that's the last thing we have been waiting for..hopefully not much longer in the queue for us as we are 18/03/2015 lodgement date. 

G'day all, 

Seeking some advice that i'm hoping someone on here could provide or has had a similar situation with. 

We do not have a migration agent, but may be changing where we live in the coming months. Seeing how slow this AOS process is, we are concerned that we won't be living in our current domicile by the time the AOS letters are posted to us. 

What form would we use to update the department of this? This is not updating the department about the main applicant's address, but updating them about the authorised representative address. 

Would there be something similar that has to occur for Centrelink? Is there a particular form we would need to fill out? I know i can update addresses on mygov, but given how slow (inefficient and incompetent) the AOS staff have been with us thus far, i want to make sure that our updated address has been entered correctly. 

Thanks. 

On 12/12/2017 at 16:09, elnak said:

@toOZ2012

Apparently 6 to 8 weeks before contact from Centrelink. Good luck all Roomies. Hoping for Christmas Pressies for some Roomies at least.

We have been waiting for 9 weeks now for the so called 'interview call'. 

We have physically spoken to Centrelink 3 times, the last time was last week.  Rang them 3 times as well. 

FYI, it may pay for some to actually go to Centrelink physically. 2 weeks after we initially submitted our AOS application we visited centrelink to see where we were upto, and were told that whoever was putting in the information on the system made a stuff up which required us to go back to a Centrelink office to get our documents re-validated and the information re-entered. Had we not initiated this contact who knows how long it may have taken beyond this current timeframe...

Very slow process. We don't expect to hear anything till the new year now.