Cissi

Take small steps. This is only a forum but you could pay close attention to grammar and punctuation to make sure that every sentence is grammatically correct. For instance, your first paragraph should be: "Hi fellow members, Can someone please give me some advice on how to get an IELTS score of 7 in all modules, particularly writing as I have gotten 6.5 twice? I have been receiving coaching (lessons?) and practicing a lot using the Cambridge paper series 1 to 9; however, my writing has not met the requirement for band 7 yet." I'm not a native speaker so I understand how challenging it is to learn another language. My advice is to keep practicing but make sure someone native goes through your writing and points out the mistakes to you so that you can learn and improve. GetMeDownUnder is totally right: don't use words you don't understand. Stick to those you do, and when you learn a new word, learn how it is used in a sentence to make sure you understand it. Paradox is defined as a seemingly contradictory statement which when investigated may prove to be true. For example, "The evidence for the obesity paradox has found those who are overweight or obese are more likely to survive renal failure, heart failure, diabetes and coronary heart disease, regardless of their age." Hope that helps.

Hi Shelly, You're right that the CO will request medicals and other evidence by email if they haven't been uploaded, which is why I'm still waiting for them to give me a HAP ID for the meds. I think if we were allocated a CO, they would have got in touch already for that. I'm not sure why your document status hasn't changed - it's all a bit of guesswork, really. Personally, I don't think it's an indication of CO looking at your docs based on the times of day these switches occurred in my case. I literally check the status every 30 mins so I know! Will definitely keep you posted. I've seen a lot of quick turn around for 189 on the forum so fingers crossed you'll receive grant soon and can plan your journey here!

Are you asking me? I don't think I've been allocated a case officer because no one has contacted us yet. My husband went for medicals following the "Organise your health examination" link that automatically appeared after you submitted your application online and paid the fees. I only applied last Friday, however. Have you got a TRN from your agent? It's possible to have HAP ID generated and medicals done and submitted prior to lodging the application so I wouldn't know what to tell you. You can just ask your agent, and get the TRN so that you can monitor the application yourself!

You can log in to eMedical and click "Print Information Sheet". This should be updated with your photograph. Under "Health Case Status" it should say whether the case has been sent to DIBP, and if yes, which date. Chest X-ray and Medical Examination are usually updated to "Completed" on the day, but the HIV blood test takes a bit longer.

My husband's employer and my former employer used agents to do our 457s. When I quit my job and needed to switch over to his 457, I did it myself (but that application was dead easy). Having followed our applications, my sense is that the most complex part is proving that you are being paid in line with the Australian market rate. To prove this, you need to show that you are offered similar terms and conditions (including salary) to an Australian employee performing the same role i.e. your employer needs to provide the employment contract and possibly payslips of an example existing Australian employee. My former employer didn't have any issue proving this. In my husband's case, there is no Australian employee performing the same role as he was a specialist hire, so the agent helped the employer source external market data. I felt that if we were responsible for our 457s, I would have done mine myself but used an agent for his.

Take IELTS before you submit your EOI if you want the point for English language. I think the higher the score, the quicker you receive an invite. My two cents is that given your score of 60 at the moment, depending on the occupation, you may have to wait a while until you get invited anyway. The current visa processing time for 189 is 3 months. I don't know if anyone has to wait longer. However, is your employer able to sponsor you for a 457 in case your 189 doesn't come through in time?

I haven't got children but I know how your wife feels as I was pretty much exactly the same 6 months ago. Having lived in Melbourne for 6 months, I still miss friends in the UK but I wouldn't want to move back. With similar income to what we had in the UK, we can afford a much nicer lifestyle than in London with better housing and weather. I would say that with your income, you can afford a great lifestyle in Melbourne! Unless your wife is very attached to her families and friends in the UK, I am sure that she will change her mind once she spends some time living here. If your employer is able to help you with PR visa, then I would go for it! Sorry for not being able to offer your more specific advice - just good luck!

Not if you qualify for Reciprocal Health Care Agreement on Medicare i.e. residents of NZ, UK, Ireland, Sweden, Finland, or Norway. Residents of some other European countries qualify for limited time so most likely will need PHI. http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/medicare/reciprocal-health-care-agreements/health-care-for-visitors-to-australia

Then I probably should fill that form out as we both have PhDs too but no longer in academia. I've been asked for CV when visiting the US as my research field was in chemicals so maybe they just want to make sure that we're not doing anything that could potentially be chemical weapons

Are you or your partner an academic? Because I thought form 1221 is pretty much the same as form 80, with more details on research activities?

http://www.rent-a-home.com.au/serviced-apartments/vic/melbourne-east/armadale We stayed in Corporate Keys apartment when we first got to Melbourne but their properties are concentrated in CBD and Southbank.

I'm not sure if it's less subtle to have the letter addressed to Engineers Australia, if you're based outside of Australia!

Based on what I've read here, not everyone is asked to complete form 80. I completed it anyway because I'd rather have it completed and ready for my peace of mind. It's up to you, but it is a fairly long form. Took me 2 hours to work out all the international travel in the last 10 years.

The results are sent directly to DIBP, you don't receive anything. In eMedical you should be able to download an information sheet where under "Health Case Status" it should say "This health case was submitted to DIBP on DD MMM YYYY."

Hi rh8463, How do you know you've got a CO if they haven't contacted you? I'm just wondering what the indications are. Thanks!

Shelly - I thought so too, because I also received this automated email saying "Reference No. EGOXXXXXX: Correspondence relating to this transaction has been sent." which some people said means a CO has been allocated. However, some said the switched statuses do not mean anything, rather an automatic acknowledgement that your files have been uploaded. These switches occurred on a Saturday morning, so I doubt that a case officer was working then. Have yours changed? I just wish they let you know formally when a case officer is allocated rather than this guessing game! No one has got in touch with me to request anything directly. The medicals link appeared automatically for my husband, but not for me.

This is such a helpful and informative forum. I wish I had known about it before lodging our application! We lodged ours onshore on 13/06 and my husband is going for medicals this morning (my "organise your health examination" link hasn't appeared yet because I did a chest X-ray 6 months ago as part of our 457 to Oz). About 24 hours after I uploaded the documents, the document status changed from "Recommended/Required" to "Received", but I've read that this doesn't mean a CO is allocated. Has anyone seen the same thing? I've sent off our PCC application to the UK yesterday - does anyone have experience applying for PCC from Australia and know how long it would take? I chose the Premium service and International courier.