HarveySpecter

From personal experience of having had a reciprocal Medicare card and 457 insurance policy, you will likely still be stung for the MLS. I am also with BUPA and was also told that the only way to avoid this was to purchase additional cover. I decided not to do so and was required to pay the MLS each year. Which turned out to be quite expensive on top of the insurance!

Hi there. Yes I have - recently got my 189 visa grant.

I was lucky enough not to need to try and claim any points for work experience (Took IELTS which gave me the extra points I needed). Might be worth running your experience by a migration agent to see what their thoughts are.

Good luck with the process

I don't know much about Uber, but just wanted to say I'm glad your daughter is okay and hope she is able to recover from the experience soon. It must have been terrifying.

Yes, I qualified in the UK 5 years ago. So far as I'm aware that hasn't made any difference to what I had to study - although if you are very experienced I understand it may be possible to get certain additional exemptions.

I got my academic and PLT assessments done in NSW, so can give you a bit of information about my experience of that process. Timing-wise, personally I'd focus on the training contract for now and then wait to see if you enjoy your training contract before thinking of qualification in Australia. It's quite a process to go through if you later decided that you don't like working as a lawyer.

The academic assessment focused on the content of my degree. I had to take 4 additional academic subjects, which took me about a year studying part time in the evenings (on top of working full time).

How much extra study you would need to do will depend on the content of your degree. When I was taking the extra academic subjects, most of my fellow students with a 3 year UK law degree had to study 4 or 5 academic subjects. But this depended on degree content, so varied from person to person. If you don't have a 3 year law degree e.g. did a conversion course, then I think there may be a requirement to study a greater number of subjects. I remember I found quite a useful booklet on the LPAB website which gave all of the criteria for assessment - would be worth trying to have a look at that.

Visa granted today! So happy - what a relief!

Called DIBP up this morning (had to try about 20 times). Spoke to someone who said that my visa was in the queue and would hopefully be processed shortly. Didn't fill me with hope, but half an hour later I noticed my Immi Account had been changed to "finalised".

Hi guys,

 

anyone from the February gang still waiting?!!!

 

im trying sooooo hard to be patient and calm... But would be nice to know we not alone!!

 

i have such butterflies now it's been nrly 5 months ?

I think most of the Feb lodged guys now have visas, but I'm still waiting as well - you aren't alone!

Hurray ................ Got 3 golden mails of Visa Grant today morning !!!!

 

What a relief !! Still don't believe this... it has been long journey since last August..

 

Thanks all for support and advise.. special thanks to Shelz for advise of calling... I called up 4-5 times today morning.. Heard automated message followed by busy message 4 times before successfully reaching CO post automated message on my 5th attempt..

 

On cloud nine now .... Cheers and all the best to all !!!

Congratulations! Were they annoyed you contacted them?

Looks like I'll need to give it another go. I'm on holiday at the moment and it's the least relaxing holiday I've ever had!

Congratulations! Must be an amazing relief I'll try my luck tomorrow. Do the Adelaide teams have a different phone no?

Tried calling but there is now an automated message saying please refrain from contacting them if you have received an email saying that processing times will be longer due to the planning levels for 2014/2015. They are aiming to work through these applications in the next 4 weeks. Also said if you haven't heard anything by 1 August to email them. So the wait continues

Hi,

 

I was ringing every 10 minutes for 40 minutes - the first 5 attempts it gave me a automated message they were busy and to try again later. Then I rung and it rang! Just had grants land in my email!!! Can't believe it after over 2 years of going through this whole process we finally have the visas!!!!:smile::smile::smile:

 

Big sigh of relief!....

Congratulations! Must be an amazing relief I'll try my luck tomorrow. Do the Adelaide teams have a different phone no?

Finally got through to Brisbane office 10 minutes ago and spoke with a case officier who has reviewed our requested information - he says it is all okay and that he will send me an email today - hopefully with grant!!! Now i definately will be checking email every 10 minutes!!!

That's great! Jut a bit frustrating you have to call and chase to get progress. I'll try the same. Were you on hold for long?

Do you think on the 1st July we will hear?!!! Or from then try might start granting....aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

Fingers crossed lots of grants come through on 1 July, but I have a feeling that it may take a while to clear the backlog. I got an email saying my application has everything required (it sounds like a few people have got these) so I'd hope the actual grant process would be straightforward. But nothing about the process has been very quick, so I'm not holding my breath!

Thank you HarveySpecter :-)

 

I keep thinking should i wait until the 1st July till I try to chase them up...with reports that they are not issuing any more visa's until then - I will try to be patient a little while longer.

 

Sick of keep checking my emails....becoming a little addictive now but not very productive!

 

Must be great already settled over in Oz...can't even try to book a holiday stay until we have the visa - just incase its a no :-/

I know what you mean about checking emails! Its easy to get a bit obsessed. I didn't realise this process would be so frustrating and stressful. I'm sort of resigning myself to the idea that I could be another few weeks still - even if grants kick off 1 July, I'm guessing there must be a bit of a backlog of applications. Hopefully it will all be over soon

PS - I'm sure it won't be a 'no' for you, but I know what you mean about not being able to book anything until you know for sure.

I can relate to the above - so true! You don't even know maybe your CO might be on leave for a few days etc... so many factors

This. I've been waiting more than 2 months since providing my police check and still don't have a grant!

What sort of things do you enjoy doing? There are various groups around Sydney - try having a look at the Meetups website. There are groups for just about everything - from bootcamps to drinks. I've been to a couple, but have personally found that the more activity-based events are a bit less awkward than the standard drinks events! if you are into sport, that could be a good way of meeting people as there seem to be lots of teams/groups around. A few of my friends play netball and have met a lot of people through that.

I must admit that I most of my friends here through work initially (I've had 3 jobs since being here), but have slowly met more people through friends of friends etc.

Congratulations! Thats fatastic news! :-) Where are you heading?

 

We are still waiting ...i feel like sending an email to ask.....but then i think should i wait a little longer till the 1st July...arrrghh....wait is driving me insane....still waiting to hear back from interview too.... and still no requests for viewing for our house which is up for sale....nothing happening :-(

 

rant over - deep breaths.....and breathe...

Hey Shelz it looks like we lodged a couple of days apart and I'm still waiting too. Fingers crossed we get a grant soon I'm already in Australia, but grant can't come soon enough for a couple of reasons! Good luck with interviews and house viewings! HS

I think the waiting after everything has been submitted is the worst part! My agent has told me its now a waiting game but because i am relying on the information second hand its worse. I hope we dont have to wait too much longer.

I know exactly what you mean. The wait is driving me insane! I got a delay email last week, so it is a waiting game now. Its just frustrating to see that some applicants who applied in April recently got grants, when we applied in February...

I feel your pain - I submitted my extra info about 2 months ago and haven't heard anything since. I think it's just a case of waiting and trying to be patient...which is really hard!

Well uploaded final piece of information requested and now join who ever is still waiting for visa to be processed/granted! :-)

Awesome! Welcome to the waiting game Looks like we will all be waiting a bit longer, but fingers crossed we get some news soon. Good luck with it!

I just had little desperate look at my application on the immi account, I case I had somehow missed that long awaited email. I notice where before my status was showing as 'in progress' after getting a case officer, it now says, 'application received.' What's that about? Have I gone backwards?

Try not to worry, I doubt you have gone backwards now that you have a CO Im not sure what each status means/how accurate it is?

Mine still shows as "in progress" but absolutely nothing is happening! My final document was uploaded 6 weeks ago. I know I just need to wait patiently, but just want everything to be sorted out now. The uncertainty is the worst!

That the quota for the number of GSM visas that can be granted this financial year has almost been reached and that once this has been hit, we will need to wait until July for the next years quota!

What I don't understand is I have the same email telling me quotas are almost full and yet click the occupation ceilings tab on http://www.immi.gov.au/Work/Pages/SkillSelect/SkillSelect.aspx and the occupation we are entering under is woefully under filled (GP).

Same for mine - think there must be an overall quota which applies regardless of specific occupation.

I am just off the phone to a CO and have been told that things may need to wait until July as they are very close to filling their quota this financial year. BOOOOOOOOO!

I hadn't even realised there was a quota! Did they say they will notify you if your application is put on hold until

July? This waiting game is painful.

Well it looks like those of us without grants yet could be waiting quite a while longer based on the updates on some of the other threads. Really really hoping this isn't the case!

I feel your pain! Its starting to feel like it will never happen! Its been almost 4 weeks since I sent the additional info now, hopefully someone will pick it up again soon