GeoSurfer

I don't need to do anything, no. But if I click the Request Completed button it will mean they look at it now rather than at the end of the 28 days since they requested I undertake the medical. Don't want to come across as spoilt/demanding, just think this scenario must be why they have the Request Complete button available, to prevent waiting when all is ready.

Thanks for the replies. The system has changed very recently, I found a powerpoint that details what changed, I'll post in another thread as it might help others . On my main immiaccount page, there is a table showing documents requested with a status next to it; Recommended, Received or Requested. At the moment my 'Health, Evidence of' row has a status of 'Requested'. Underneath there is a button that says 'Get Health Details' which shows the status of your medicals. It currently says: Health requirement – health clearance provided – no action required All health examinations required for the specified visa subclass have been finalised. Processing of this person's visa application can now continue. This will not occur until a case officer investigates the case in line with published processing times for the visa that has been applied for. Do not contact the department about health examinations in the meantime. There is a third button which is for Request Complete. Pressing this alerts the CO that the requested medical/information has been attached so waiting is kept to a minimum. My query is whether I should alert the CO given that my health clearance is provided but the documentation table is still showing my health evidence as requested and not received. I am not sure whether this will ever change to received whether or not the CO or MO has attached my medical documents to my application. I know they won't give me the medical/xray details or anything to upload myself but not sure whether it will ever show as 'received'.

Health clearance granted this morning. Health details on immiaccount document table still says 'requested' rather than received as they have my medical documents, not me. Do they upload them to your account for you? I want to press Request Complete to alert CO all is finished but not sure if they or MO will need to upload meds to immiaccount first? Help! So close...

Still ongoing here. Had my medical on the 25th, the Dr wanted more information about my hearing loss (every audiogram I ever had in a booklet wasn't enough!), got on to the GP and got more documents the next day, perks of knowing the family Doc - no waiting lists! Sent Special Delivery so it's been with the clinic for a week now, clinic confirmed they had 'attached documents to my application' but no idea if this means my medical has been submitted to DIBP or not?! Still showing as incomplete on eMedical and Immi. I think it only shows as complete once it's submitted to Immi(?) then they might ask for more information... Not sure how close I am, 1 week til my 28 day period of getting my documents together is up, might have to email the CO to let him know I've done it and it's in the system. Been fine all through this process but this bit is making me anxious, no idea where or who is assessing or when. I know I was graded B but she said it'd be fine once I'd just proven everything.

I told my manager 12 months ago that I was planning to leave for Aus this year. Couldn't be more supportive, only too happy to provide references, unscheduled leave etc to help out. Almost as though he wants to be rid of me. :unsure:

Not everybody has to do IELTS, not sure about solicitors being different but I didn't have to as I'm a UK citizen so I'm considered to have at least competent English without having to prove it in a test. But most people do IELTS anyway just to get points towards their visas if they haven't passed the points threshold on their employment history, qualifications or ages alone. You can gain 10 points for scoring 7 or above in all categories or 20 for scoring 8 or above in all categories. So you can't get points for it unless you take the test, but if you have 60+ points without the IELTS you don't need to do it. As a solicitor I'm anticipating all 9.0s if you opt to do it. Good luck. :cute:

Got allocated my CO today . Asked for birth certificate, PCC and medical. Birth certificate and PCC uploaded, booking medical in the morning.

I asked at work today. They said as it would only be a temporary arrangement I would remain on the UK payroll and pay tax in the UK, but I'd have to declare I'd been taxed to the Aus government as well as in my annual Aussie tax return to avoid double taxation which the UK/Aus have legislation to prevent. I'll have to read up on this but I was just hoping someone had done the same/similar.

So... My manager knows that I'm leaving and is very supportive. He has suggested that, should I not get a job immediately, I could continue working for my current company remotely from Aus until I find something. What are the implications of this? Does the tax apply in England or Aus? Would I need to enter some sort of freelance agreement? The wage would be poor by Aussie standards given the higher cost of living but it'd be better than nothing whilst I am trying to find my feet. Also anticipating the SLC will hammer me for living in Aus regardless of how little I'm on.

Just paid and uploaded my: Passport Degree certificate and supplement Work reference and P60 VETASSESS positive result IELTS certificate Am I missing anything? Obviously medical and police will be done in future.

Everyone is having to wait 4 weeks with 60 points, they don't even look at your occupation at this stage unless it is on the pro-rata list (accountants and software engineers). As I understand it, it's a case of inviting all the 65+ points people first, then any remaining spaces are filled with people with 60 points with the ones who applied first getting priority. I applied 3.5 weeks ago and they are running at a 4 week wait time so next round I will be on 5 weeks and should hopefully be in. As for the time, it's midnight Thursday/Friday in Canberra, but bear in mind they have just switched for daylight saving so you might need to do a few sums to work out what time it'll be where you are. It was 1pm England but now it's 3pm as we moved forward and they moved backwards, so we're 2 hours closer. TL:DR 3pm Thursday afternoons.

Cheers, I thought as much. Good luck with the rest of the application!

Just submitted my EOI so hopefully I'll get things going this month. I know they do two invitational rounds per month, but do they only tell you if you're invited on the day of the round, if that makes sense? Or do they let you know at random times?

Well it's a bit fraught with complications I guess, what if the pound crashes? Suddenly everyone else in Oz is fine but you're struggling to pay Ozzie prices. At least if you're earning AUD and it all goes to pot you'll be covered by the fact that everyone would be the same so prices would drop to compensate. I would guess you'd be losing a chunk of cash every week transferring it into AUD too.

They don't know their arse from their elbow. However, are you sure that you're working it out in GBP using the thresholds? Which plan are you on? For example, the Plan 1 threshold is £23,675 ($45,000) so someone earning say £29,000 ($55,000) would pay £480 per year or £40 per month On Plan 2 the threshold is higher at £25,200 ($48,000) so someone earning say £29,000 ($55,000) would pay £342 per year or £28.50 per month Of course if you're earning £45,000 ($85,000) a year, you're going to be stung more with £1919 per year/£160 a month but I'd like to think if you're on £45,000 this would be manageable. I'm intending to have a bank account in England (as required by SLC anyway) topped up with a years worth of payments which SLC can take from and then top up the bank account every 6 months/12 months to stop the transfer fees being an issue, is there any reason this is unfeasible?

Thanks. :cry: On the plus side I suppose I won't have to see it smashed up by the famous hail of doom.

Probably not worth taking but.. - Year of manufacture: 2008 - Make, model & variant: Hyundai Coupe SIII - Body type: Coupe - Engine size & fuel type: 2.0 Petrol - Transmission: Manual - Drive type (4WD, front wheel drive, etc): Front wheel drive - Mileage: 56,000 miles - Any special features, options or modification: Cruise control, heated red leather seats (Hugh Heffner) - Does it have aircon: Yes... I think?! I'll check tomorrow. - Realistic current UK market value: £4,000 - Australian RedBook value: $35,000 (this means from new though I think...the carsales.au site nearest matches to age and mileage were about $10-18k) - Which Australian state/city: QLD It's a very good looking car but unless Hyundai are big in Aus I'll struggle for parts if it breaks and the economy is woeful. It might be called the Tiburon over there. Cheers

I have generated a fairly detailed spreadsheet myself using bits and pieces from others who did the same and I know, in theory, what sort of situation I'd be in. But I don't think the figures will show the whole story. Even if you knew exactly the house you were going to, things like utilities could be wildly different from things as trivial as which way the window(s) face so I accept it'll be a little bit of a leap of faith no matter how much I plan. I don't really know how much 'wiggle room' I'd have if costs of things were higher than expected so I'm hoping people who have had low incomes will be able to shed light on how low you can realistically manage with if it comes to it. As for where, it depends on where the work is, but if the opportunity arises, Brisbane is my first choice.

Yet another 'is x amount enough money to live/survive/have a 100m heated pool' thread I'm afraid, but I don't want to give you a figure and ask you to guess how I'll do but share your own experiences of how little was too little. I know there are threads on this already and I have read these with interest, however, most of them related to families or couples making the move which I can't really relate to - my food, utilities, clothes, medical, holiday costs etc will all be lower when living alone than a family or couples. I see threads where people are told that they can eke a living on under $50k a year and then in another thread they are told that they'll just about manage with double that amount. I suspect the truth for most will lie between the two. I know that this varies up and down the country, as it does anywhere in the world (I'm pretty sure $60k might be fine in Brisbane but Sydney is another thing entirely), but I'd just like to hear from people how they found it, especially on their own. Those who came with others are of course encouraged to give their thoughts too!

Are you sure he wasn't talking about IELTS? IELTS is compulsory for most countries but British passport holders don't need to take it (although most do for points towards the visa), so that sounds plausible.

Your first question, I'm not sure. I know for the 189 visa you have to do the medical but there may be other visa types that don't require one. What visa have they said you'd be applying for? You can get your medical history from your GP by ringing up and asking, I don't think it costs anything (well mine didn't but the staff are family friends so it might have been a mate favour!). I would recommend getting your medical history and taking it but only bringing it up if needed. Even if you don't want to take it, I'd still get it because there can be admin errors, my notes said that I had broken my spine when I checked them, some unfortunate lady's notes somehow ended up in my file. Do it early then you can ask for any mistakes to be removed. It's all probably moot anyway, they won't care about toes and ligaments, I think it's more stuff like cancer, TB, HIV, things that can spread or will cost a lot of money to treat. So definitely ask for your notes in case something weird is on there that could cause any problems, but otherwise it'll be fine.

Research flights at work or on a different computer first then any price jumps will disappear when you search to book on your home computer, clearing cookies doesn't always work for me.

I did mine last month and got S: 8.0, W:8.0, L: 9.0 and R: 9.0. Partly messed up the Writing by going off topic and ran out of things to say in the Speaking but still got 8's (not bragging or anything, just pointing out you are allowed to make mistakes, don't panic if something goes wrong). On the one hand I would make sure you are aware of the format and length of the tests, on the other hand, don't read too much into it. People often over-think the Listening and Reading but the answers are all there even if the topic is random. My main Reading topic was about the history of ceramic pottery or something?! A useful thing to do is to write a load of semi-nonsense on paper in your usual writing style and see how many words you average per line, then work out how many lines you need to write so you can quickly work out how much you've done in the real thing. It was the only preparation I did but it was very useful especially when I realised I was writing bollocks and had to rescue it.

Got my results today - Reading 9.0, Listening 9.0, Writing 8.0 and Speaking 8.0. Pretty chuffed, especially considering I thought I had messed up the Writing by going on a semi-rant and not answering the question and buggered up the Speaking by only talking for a minute in the 2 minute section. Think I pulled it back at the end because the Speaking test questions were helpfully related to my degree and job. Sorry to hear that Cherries! Think the Reading one is something you can practice with, though. Biggest tip for Reading and Listening if you're struggling is to relax - all the answers are there even if the topic is something new. Just absorb the whole section before committing to an answer because they tend to back-track and try and trip you up.

If you're only doing it for the visa points, don't do the Academic test. The General one is accepted just the same (and is obviously easier).