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Great News Kingprawn! I'm happy you all got yours, especially because we both lodged on the same day, yet waited almost 3 months! As for celebrations, well... it's nice to see we got somewhere after chasing all this Immi paperwork. The best is yet to come!

Hi Lily91, Thanks for the number. I called (@12.45 AEST) and a recorded message said "If you haven't had any contact at all by the 1st of August 2015, then email gsm.adelaide@border.gov.au". I waited on line and got a soft spoken lady over the phone. She looked through my application from the TRN and said "Tuh tuh tuh...That's fine. You should receive an email shortly. It has been granted." "Oh, Is that it?" I said. The lady: "Yes, it's all there." Me: "I'm surprised, I thought there were some documents missing. I haven't had any contact since April." Her: "Yeah, you should have received an email saying that it was being processed and that you would have to wait until the 1st of July... But it's all been done now." Me: "That's great. Thank you very much!" Her: "Not a problem. Have a good day." Me: "You too." Basically, you need to phone and let them know that you REALLY want that Permanent Residency Visa. Then you get it. Hahaha. Life couldn't be simpler in Australia. I bl**dy LOVE this country.

Hi all, A friend of mine who applied for ENS 186 had a look at my 189 application and gave me the worst news ever: I HAVEN'T got a CO allocated yet. I applied on 10th April, and it will be 3 months next friday, 10th July, since I did. I have been looking at threads around this forum, and it seems even people form late May have had CO allocated. My immi account shows "Assessment in Progress", and like the naive person that I am, I assumed it was being processed by an officer. There doesn't seem to be any clear meaning for these "status" at all. I've been told that because I'm not a nurse/doctor/It person/TOP priority occupation, my file is likely not to be looked at for another months or so. Also, coupled with the fact that I'm a new arrival to Australia (I've only been here for 18 months), it might take 2 years. Has anyone heard of some similar cases? I'm now thinking of switching my application to ENS 186, as my employer is keen to back me up on this and sort out the whole PR thing ASAP. I'm not too sure about my 189 visa fees though: it would be the most upsetting thing to lose all that money... As I was super busy job-wise the last 3 months, I haven't been able to contact the GSM office (btw, the weblink they provided for the contact form does not work...) by phone. I will do so this week. Please advise of any specific questions I should ask them. Thank you for your help!

Wow! That's great! It's nice to see they are still giving them out to April applicants.

Congratulations! Well done! You are either lucky, or have a solid file + a very much in demand occupation. I believe they delay people that can wait a bit longer. It seems there are priority groups within the 189 applicants, mainly people with families I guess. Congratulations again!

It seems, more likely on July 1st 2015. That is the usual date, I believe...

Oh my... I'm sorry for the rant, but I've been looking at all the people who applied AFTER me in April, and you all seem to have had CO allocated. I haven't heard ANYTHING at all. I don't even know whether my application was received. No delay email, no nothing. It has been 2 weeks since CO started looking at 10th April applicant's files, but I'm getting super frustrated here because it feels my case doesn't exist. Is there any way I can get in touch with the immi people to know WTH is happening to my application? Please help here. Thanks.

Hi Ktandsm I'm in the same situation, with my work rights expiring 17th july, while we are in the holidays. I gave up on waiting for the 189 grant before next week, so I am getting the WHV extension. It does say it is only a matter of weeks, but I have been told that this limit doesn't apply if you are waiting for a decision on 189. Basically, the extension will run as long as they take to give a decision on your visa application... Let me know if I'm wrong!

Yes, it is the money involved and the pressure of time for some of us which makes it a bit worrying. Although I will still have a substantive visa if I am denied the 189 PR, being part of the workforce and having to wait for a stamp to proceed with my normal routine is the stress point, I guess.

This is weird. I applied on 10th April with 60 points, uploading everything upfront. I haven't heard from a CO yet, and my application status shows "processing" on immiaccount. Does the DIAC allocate applications with the most points first, or is it just that I have a CO but haven't heard from him/her? Any thoughts on this, please? Cheers.

Wow, King Prawn! That's excellent news! I applied on the same date as you. I'm hoping to hear from them this week... Otherwise, I still have a back up plan. Thanks for sharing!

Hi Ozmaniac, Thanks for your explanations, once again! It's nice to get a clearer picture of the whole process, beyond my own personal case.

Thanks for the info. I guess they can still allocate a CO, but might not grant visas until July. It doesn't make sense to have a "general" number for visa 189 applications, when clearly, for a lot of Skilled occupations the application figures haven't even reached 10%. I suspect this "shortage" of places is due to DIBP granting visas to certain occupations even when their quotas have almost been reached (ICT/Accounting/Software/Computer network people represent about 13100 invites out of the 25100ish currently received!), while applicants with other occupations are left to scramble for the "leftover" places or wait for the following year. It reads on the Skill select page: "An occupation ceiling will be applied to invitations to apply to migrate under the points based skilled visas of the general skilled migration programme. There will be a limit on how many invitations are issued in these subclasses for a particular occupation to ensure that the migration programme is not dominated by a small number of occupations." But the IT field visibly dominates the migration figures for 189 applications.... Bottomline is: If they don't organise their migration programme a bit more rigorously in the years to come, well, I guess Australia will always be in shortage of Professionals outside the IT field...

Hi Louise, Thanks for letting us know. How did you find out about your CO allocation? Are you applying from overseas or from inshore? Please let us know! Cheers.

Hi Ozmaniac, Thanks for the explanation. The form does say to direct it to the office dealing with my application, but who is it? I am planning to submit it to the email address provided at the beginning of June if I haven't heard from a CO by then. They will have to transfer it themselves to the relevant service/department I guess. Thank you again, it is reassuring at this stage to know that not all is "doomed"!

Hi Kingprawn, I applied on the same day you did: 10th April. I'm on a WHV (417) and currently teaching in a Remote Secondary School. Because of my visa conditions, I'm only allowed to work for 6months for the school, although they are extremely keen to have me staying forever... Issue is that my contract goes up to end of July, and I cannot renew my contract until I get a grant for 189. My bridging visa is absolutely useless in my situation, because it doesn't give me full work rights until February 2016, when my WHV expires. I've heard that you can request an extension of workrights, but you have to submit this to the CO. Well, how on earth can I do that if I don't get assigned a CO until July? This puts me in a terrible situation with regard to the school who are starting to fret, even more than me... Hopefully, I will get a CO some times before the end of this month, otherwise, we both parties are stuffed. I'm trying hard not to think about this scenario though.

Hi, There shouldn't be much changes to SOL. Australia is still after the same skills. The 1st of July is merely a date for setting the timer back to D -12months. Only people at risk of being withdrawn for the SOL CSOL lists might be the IT crews and accountants...

Hi, When you apply for a visa, your EOI is cancelled and disappears from the system of DIBP/DIAC. If you decide not to proceed with your visa (like, not paying the fees, or withdrawing), you have nothing left in their system. That means you need to put up another EOI and go through the whole wait for an invitation again. I hope this helps!

A few of these primary teachers are switching to junior/secondary schools to help with the transition. They are much valued at the moment as your average Secondary teachers are clueless and stunned by the "baby-ishness" of year 7s! Primary teachers I have talked to don't like the whole formal/marking business in secondary schools and want to revert back, but jobs are rare.... It's a major dilemma.

I know Grabri, I had to sit the IELTS twice so as to forward my AITSL application. Even worse was that I kept being short of .5 to get the required all 7s. I am still not convinced IELTS showcases your ability to deal with everyday English in a classroom with students and colleagues. As a language teacher, I feel IELTs tests your academic/debating skills, more than your effective communication skills. But hey, the interviews and CV decide it all when it comes to getting a job, so just shell out the money for these tests, and you will reap the rewards for your efforts later on. Don't worry, BIG Happy!

Yes, NP registration is for teachers from Overseas with no experience in WA. After that, you can put an application for Full registration after teaching 2 terms in school or teaching 100 DAYS (not hours; ).

Sounds good all this! I personally am not expecting to hear anything until week 6 to 8 after I have lodged my visa. Clearly, they are still looking at applications from 10th March, and that was 2 months ago! Let's just get busy with other stuffs...

Yes, AITSL takes about 8 weeks to be processed. But from overseas, it wil take another 3 weeks to get your posted results. The language tests are all varied. IELTS is the most commonly taken, as it is available virtually everywhere (I sat mine in regional WA) around the world. But being in the UK, you have the choice of others tests, which are most of the time more common sense than the IELTS money grabbing machine. CO = Case Officer, i.e the person who looks at your visa application documents and decides to grant it, delay it or reject it. If you have all your transcripts, I reckon that from the moment you apply to AITSL, you can hope to get your visa within 6-7 months at most. You seem to have enough points, both of you to fast track your Visa Invitation letter. All the best for where you end up in Australia (East Coast, I presume?). It is the best move I could have possibly done for my career, finances and personal interests.

I really don't get these assessing authorities. As long as you got the qualification for a PGCE with the transcript and the end of the course showing all your units and credits, your name, the academic year, what is the problem? Really, TRBWA last year registered people from overseas within a month's time. Are they getting pickier? Are you going for non-practising registration or provisional? I went for non practising as it was my gap year travelling, and none of all these details were specifically required. I find AITSL is usually more stringent than the Registration boards. They had me translating every single certificate/transcript from my French Baccalaureat onwards (more than 10 pages!) for the sake of checking that I ACTUALLY completed a proper MA degree. Money well invested, I hope... CO will tell soon!

Hi Speedo, I'm also a 2ndary teacher and I applied recently for 189 with 60points. I did Ielts twice (English is not my 1st language) so I could claim 10 points. Although I have 5+ years teaching experience, I could only claim 3+years. I got my EOI invite after 1 month instead of 1 weeks if you have more than 60points. The key is NOT to claim more points if you haven't got SOLID proofs to support your claim. I could have played around with the number of months for my work experience, but I played it safe. All that matters is to get the 60points and the invite on time for whatever your plans are. As for subjects, it doesn't matter as flexibility is the rule. I'm a Language teacher but I also teach Drama here (without being trained in it). Just because I can, really...