RMT1980

I would suggest as a starter for ten you have a read of this... https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Visa-1/189-

A Case Officer will not start to look at your application for quite a few weeks after you make your application and pay your VAC. The official processing times don't really state how long it will be till a CO is allocated, as all they really intend to infer is the processing timescales for receiving the visa decision. The timeframe spans at around 3 months for a 189. Notwithstanding the above, in terms of the allocation of a CO... the quickest I have ever seen one get allocated (via posts read on PIO), was 6 weeks. I think the thing to bear in mind is that once you make the application and pay the VAC, then there is a period of at least 4 weeks (probably more) whereby nothing will happen with your application and you can take that time to get all your required documentation uploaded, and Medicals/PCC etc... should you so desire. Ultimately when the CO is allocated and starts to look at it, then if there is any documentation not uploaded that they require, then they will contact you at this stage for it. Good luck.

Hey CaptainC, I think we should start calling you Mystic Meg...! :jiggy:

Each applicant will get a separate VISA attached to their passport. So whilst you are the primary applicant, each applicant's visa will be electronically tagged to their passport that you provided when you made the application. Then when you attempt to check in for a flight that's why they will check each passport separately to see that the required visa is electronically tagged to each passengers passport. In the same way that you have checked your visa on the vevo site, you should be able to do the same for the other applicants. Huge congrats on the visas by the way!

I can't speak specifically about your sub class of visa, but from what I know, then the last date for entry is the date by which you have to enter Australia in order for your visa to be activated. It's all electronic and basically your passport/visa status will change to on-shore when you enter. If that is before the date upon which last entry is granted then my understanding is that is the requirement. No one actually checks anything physically so whether or not your partner is with you or not should make no difference. Just my opinion, so best wait and see what others have to say, especially anyone who has applied for your visa too.

The method for obtaining your Police Cerificate differs from country to country. You should refer to the DIBP website for details specific to your case. I have had a quick look and this is the instructions for Pakistan (taken from - https://www.border.gov.au/Lega/Lega/Help/Location/pakistan); [h=3]Police check[/h][h=4] Pakistan[/h][h=5]Pakistan[/h] [h=6]Additional information[/h]Relevant document: ‘Police Certificate’. Citizens and non-citizens living in Pakistan: Apply in person or by mail to the District Superintendent of Police at your place of residence or former residence. Non-residents: Apply to the nearest Pakistan embassy or consulate in your country of residence. Citizens: provide the application form and your ID card. Resident non-citizens: provide the application form and your residence permit. Non-resident non-citizens: provide the application form and details of your addresses and periods of residence in Pakistan. The application form is available at local police stations. If it is not available, a letter may be accepted. Note: applicants without formal residence permits will be unable to obtain a police certificate.

Once you have applied and paid the visa charge then that will open the application for you to start uploading your documents. Some people front load everything and others do most and wait for Medicals and Police Checks until the CO asks. I got all mine done in a 2-3 week period after applying... So in theory now everything is uploaded for ours and ready for when the CO is allocated and looks at the case. The allocation of a CO is not immediately after you apply and/or pay. They will not allocate a CO until at least 6 weeks but could be longer. The average still seems to be 3 months from point of application until VISA grant, though the quickest I have seen is 6 weeks and 2 days, and that was somebody that front loaded everything and so got a Direct Grant and didn't ever receive any contact from a CO at all. Best of luck with it all... v.exciting times.

Sorry if this is a silly question, but I presume you have received an Invitation to Apply via SkillSelect? Assuming you have, then as you say the SkillSelect account will make an Apply Now button available. When you click this it will take you to IMMI where you can either login with your existing IMMI account details (which is what I did) or you can create a new IMMI account. Then when you get into IMMI account you should see the link to Apply for the 189/190 Skilled Visa. If you had to create a IMMI account then having done this, it might be worth going back to SkillSelect and using the Apply Now link again to follow the formal route, but then that time login with your existing IMMI account which you just created. Once you get to the stage of being able to start the VISA application in IMMI then from memory it was 17 pages (which is what you said). It's not until the end of that process, right at the end.. that you get to pay the visa application fee. Once you have done all that then the status of the application in the IMMI account applications view will change to 'Application Received'. Once this happens then you can click the link on the application to take you into the area for that application where you then upload documents and also if needs be can request your HAP ID and Medical Referral letter etc... I'm not too sure what page you say you are at about Medicals etc... as I don't recall anything along those lines until the application was submitted and I was in the upload area and also able to request medical HAP ID and referral etc. It's a few weeks since I went through all this and it was at midnight on the day of invitation, so my memory is a little hazy, but it was along the gist of above. Good luck.

Hey @supercow, thank for your reply... Our situation is similar in terms of location. We've got a 6 and 2 year told and are looking to go end of Jan. We have family in the Redcliffe/Newport area, but we love the coast further north all around Mooloolaba, Mountain Creek, Caloundra, Buderim, etc... Can't quite decide on which location yet until we get there and start looking around. We plan to rent for 12 months whilst we decide on where to buy and properly settle. We don't want to have to change our eldest's school, so once we rent and get her enrolled, we would hope to then buy in 1 years time somewhere in that same area.

Hi there... job location isn't a factor. That aside though, I should have been a little more specific... Looking at areas around the Maroochydore area. So to give a range... No further north than Noosa, and not much further south than Caloundra (we think).

So... what are peeps views/opinions on areas to settle on the Sunshine Coast? Would be interested to hear views from all, but especially those with young families (pre-school and early years).

Your IMMI account would appear to be acting slightly differently then... as when I clicked the 'Get Health Details' (the one where I originally got the HAP ID and Letter from) it said the medical was in progress by the clinician. Then as I say, 3 or so days later it changed to 'Finalised'. If you still get taken to the Print Letter section from that button then it sounds like the Spire haven't yet clicked the buttons in their eMedical Portal. You could use the links both I and the Captain pasted above, as that will take you directly to eMedical and reflect whatever Spire have done in their Portal (if anything). Failing all that then as you've said... give them a call and check current status. Best of luck with it all.

Hi there, we are a family of 4 and we did ours last week, and ours were submitted and I checked each day to see when they were marked as finalised. Our 2 daughters ones were done in about 1 day as they are so straightforward. The wife and I took a little longer but it was still only about 4 days. We had already lodged our application on the 6th September when we received our invite from our earlier EOI 4 months before. So because we had already lodged our application it meant that I generated our HAP ID and the Referral Letter to take to Spire Cardiff, through our IMMI account where the application is administered. So in short... I was able to track my medical upload status by checking back in my IMMI account each day and then going into the open VISA application. Then by clicking on 'Get Health Details' it looks up the eMedical status and reports back on the page the result. What's confused me about your question though is that you say you have not lodged your application yet, but then you also mention looking in your IMMI account. I'm confused by that since you won't have anything in your IMMI account until you lodge your application. Or are you meaning that you went into your IMMI account to generate the HAP ID and the Medical Referral letter? Either way, if you don't have an active VISA application ongoing yet in IMMI account, then you should be able to check the status of you medical via this link to eMedical; https://www.emedical.immi.gov.au/eMedUI/eMedicalClient - which is the system that the doctor would have been in on the day of you medical when he ticked the boxes as he was talking to you. They upload and administer everything through their eMedical portal. Apologies if I've misunderstood your question. Someone else might be able to chip in from the point of view of the IMMI account if that is where you created your HAP ID, even though you don't yet have an open VISA application. I can't comment on that as we had the application open beforehand as I said.

It's like an episode of Eastenders, or should I say Neighbours! Did she, didn't she..........? I'm guessing by the lack of posts that she probably did get on the plane and has been travelling/recovering from Jet lag (or realising now that it was a no-brainer and is down the beach already!) Be interesting to hear her outcome and after-thoughts. Either way... I wish her well.

Thanks for your opinion, this is the exact sort of thing I was thinking of.... With that mind what do you reckon Customs would do (if anything) about External HDDs with loads of movie files on them???

There's been quite a lot of posting to this thread since it started... Is anyone else curious (or know), did the OP get on the plane?!?!

Ok, so I get that this is a bit of a weird question, but I'm interested to hear general opinions; We have quite a large DVD and BluRay collection that has built up over the years. I'm not keen on shipping them all to Aus when we emigrate due to the large amount of solid space they'll all use up in the container. I was considering whether they could all be ripped to an External HD and then we could watch them via a HDMI Media Player thereafter. I have tested the theory with a few sample DVDs and it works a treat. Then I can ditch all the DVDs (either sell on or give to family) and not have a lot of valuable cubic feet taken up by hundreds of DVDs in our container. Here's the dilemma... I'm not sure what Aus DIBP/Customs will think if they see a couple of External HDs in our shipment with a load of Movie files on it. Will they question where the movies came from and whether they were pirate copies etc... Am I over thinking this? Do they even check contents of HDs or Computers does anybody know? Not sure if anyone else that has previously emigrated as any experience of what they did with ripped DVDs and/or what Customs did with HD in shipments etc... Welcome any thoughts on this.

I'm confused by this thread... can someone please clarify what exactly has been cancelled here? I've read the news report but I can't decipher exactly what it is referring too. Thanks.

So... the clues in the title. What are people's opinions of whether to purchase a front or a top loader washing machine when setting up the new home in Aus? Looking for any pros/cons for either, if indeed there are any, or any reasons why someone should/would sway either way.

What is this 'spreadsheet' that I keep seeing referred to? Cheers

The process is far from guaranteed. Weirdly as it sounds anyone can potentially get an Invite if they falsely claim points on their EOI - which clearly is an extremely bad idea, but highlights the point here. The EOI invitation rounds are automated based on the claims you make in your EOI. It is not until you actually get invited to apply and lodge your application and make your payment that you then formally progress with the application. A Case Officer will normally ultimately be assigned and start to look at your application. They will then review this in light of the claims you made in your EOI to ensure you do indeed have the points you claimed you did. There are many factors and checklist items to consider as part of the application and they will all be reviewed following the invite and application. So I hope that gives a flavour of the process, albeit at a very high level. Another important point is that you need to check your position with regards to the invitation prospects for your nominated occupation on 60 points. There is already one nominated occupation on the SOL which has reached its ceiling for this tax year and will not be taking more invites until July 2016. There are also a few other nominated occupation groups which have been put under pro-rata arrangement by DIBP due to the high demand and EOI in them. Furthermore occupations like Accountants are also only get cut-offs at 65+ in the invitation rounds, making it very hard indeed for anyone with only 60 points to get an invite. I suggest you do a little more research based on your specific occupation and see what the cut-offs were last invitation round and/or check the specific stats for the pro-rata arrangements if your occupation is one of those. If you look at this page; http://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Work/Skil, then it will detail the Invitation Round stats and Occupation Ceiling stats (for SOL). There is a separate tab for each. Under the Invitation Rounds you can drill in to the Last Invitation Round (7th Sep) to see the latest stats. You will notice that Accountants cut-off this time was 70 points - which clarifies the point I was making above. Best of luck.

It's a little bit further north but have you looked at the Redcliffe/Scarborough/Newport areas on the peninsula - some nice areas around there. Little further commute back to Brisbane, but also gives you a good stepping stone to go up the Sunny Coast on down time.

These guys seem pretty good, and are worth having a no-obligation account with so you can at least get comparable quotes before you transfer and then can compare to some of the other big names; http://www.pickfordsfx.com/

Hi Lorraine, what exciting times. There are a number of options for parents to emigrate to Aus if they have children there that are Permanent Residents (don't have to be citizens, but just have a Permanent Residency visa). The trouble is there are a few varying visas available to people in your position, and some are more attractive than others but they cost a lot more. There are also a number of criteria that you would need to satisfy before you could consider applying for any of them. There are far too many criteria to list all here for parent based visas, but a few of them are things like; - Do you satisfy the balance of family test. - Do you satisfy the visa health requirements. - Do you have funds to cover the costs of the visa application charge, and in the case of some visas the much larger 2nd visa application charge (circa $40,000 AUD in the case of some visa). - Do you you have a sponsor who has been a permanent resident and considered 'settled' in Aus for 2 years or more, that can sponsor your application and put up the Assurance of Support (circa $7,000 AUD). Usually your sponsor would be your child, but strictly speaking that doesn't have to be the case - It's just the norm. I would think that you may want to enlist the advice/help of a migration agent, but that's your choice. There are plenty of agents that regularly contribute on POI and also lots of posters who will be able to make recommendations for agents they've used. I would suggest that as a research piece or a starter for ten, that you take a look at the DIBP website for visa applicable to parents wishing to migrate. It will detail the visa options available and the associated requirements and checklists. You should be able to get at it here; http://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Brin/Pare I think it might be worth your while posting in the dedicated thread that has been running for many years for parents in your position. It has a wealth of knowledgeable people that are going through, or have gone though what you are thinking about. You can get to that thread here; http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/migration-issues/77756-brand-new-pio-parents-visa-thread-877.html This really doesn't even scratch the surface, but hopefully gives you some direction. All the very best of luck.

What link are you using to request your HAPID? Are you doing this before or after you have made a formal VISA application (presume you are talking about a 189)? If you are doing this after submitting your application then you can access your application in your IMMI account and under each applicants name it will have a button to 'Request Medical Details'. You answer a few questions via this button and then you will get given your HAPID and also a formal referral letter, both of which you will need before you can book and/or attend your medicals.