Zet01

Hello, here is our final timeline: Citizenship application: October 13, 2017 Test Invite: April 13, 2018 Citizenship Test: May 29, 2018 Approval: May 31, 2018 (me) / June 20, 2018 (husband) Citizenship Ceremony: August 9, 2018 Passport Application/Receipt: August 10, 2018 (in less than 5 hours) State: VICTORIA Thank you so much everyone for all your help and assistance! I will still be around to check on you guys, and help those new members who might need my assistance. Good luck on those who are still waiting.. Wishing you all the best ?

Congrats @AnneOz. We are pushing through with our ceremony tonight. ? We were able to book for Passport appointment tomorrow directly to Australia Passport Office as we need it in less than 4 days Our trip overseas is late next week.

I would do what MaggieMay24 suggested. Once lodged, you can email them to request for the Penal letters so you can proceed to process yor overseas police check. All the best.

What specifically is requiring an evidence? Is it for a Local Police check or overseas police check? I did not encounter this when we lodged our 186, though it's been more than 2 years since we did it. Not sure if there were changes made in the application process since then.

It will not prompt you to provide the documents. You can either wait for your case officer to ask for the overseas police checks, or you proactively ask for the Penal letter to be provided to you in advance. We did the latter.

I am guessing that is the reason why you have not received your test invite yet. I am not sure if there is a clause for cancellation if you are away after lodgement, the only one I know is - after approval, you have to do the ceremony within a year.

Hi, you can request it from the Immigration when you lodge your visa application. When we lodged our 186 visa, we emailed them to provide us Penal letters that is required to get our Singapore Police checks. They emailed back with the letter after a few days.

When we lodged our 186 visa last time we did not provide an update of the trips we did after lodgement.

Ours took 10 months in total, we got test invite after 6 months since lodgement and we are from Victoria. I believe they are looking at November and December applicants now. You should hear something back soon. Are you in Victoria? I noticed that invites in VIC are lesser compared to other states, or maybe because most of the people that are active here in the forum are from those states. As far as I know, you should be here in Australia to get a test invite. We went for a month holiday in March and got our test invite a week after we arrived here. Did you indicate your travel in your application? If you do, they will consider that before they send you a test invite and wait for your return.

Yours is a quick one, considering you just applied last February. Did you check your council when is the next ceremony?

That is so disappointing. It seems those who applied during the "new rule decision" time was put on hold and applications were put at the bottom of the pile. I hope you, Oziee and Boomerang8678 hear something back from DIBP soon.

Hi @Boomerang8678, have you tried checking your junk mail inbox? Some of my friends test invite was found in their junk mail. As your application is more than 12 months since lodgement, I suggest you call the DIBP and for a status. Current timeline is showing 14 months up to 17 months but I believe that is for the whole process - lodgement to ceremony; and since yours is still received after a year, you better ring them up for update.

@bennyluk congrats buddy! I knew you will get it sooner. Ceremony next! ?

13 months in total, from lodgement to passport. You can chill now Sheila! ?

I find the invites and approval for VIC a bit slow compared to other states. Don't worry, you will get your invite soon.

If your council has a ceremony after August 22, I bet she will be invited for that ceremony soon. ?

Congrats @rammygirl ?

Congrats on your wife's approval, so they are doing December applicants too! Looks like DIBP is now catching up with the applications, though some applicants from last year are still waiting for approvals.

Looks like November applicants are getting test invites. Congratulations guys! ?

I stand corrected. But I believe, you still need an Employer to apply for this visa. This is what was stated in the website: Direct Entry (DE) stream If you do not meet the requirements under the TRT stream (for example, because you have never, or only briefly worked in Australia), this stream may then be available if your employer still wishes to sponsor you for permanent residence.

When did you receive your approval? Did your council tell you that the invite will come from them? Our Council mentioned in their website that the ceremony invite will come from DHA and that is exactly what happened. We got our ceremony invite less than a month after my husband's approval.

The 186 visa is applicable for those who came from the old 457 work visa. There are 3 classifications of 186 visa - Temporary Residency Transition stream, Direct Entry and Labour Agreement. You cannot apply visa 186 if you do not hold work visa.

Hi @Mustung, did you go to Medicare office or Centrelink? Did you show your bridging visa acknowledgment letter? We used to hold 457 also and when we applied sponsored visa 186, we went to Medicare office and apply it there and got our interim card after a few days.

What you can do is create an online application thru IMMI and then once you are on the first few pages, it will give you a TRN number. That is what you will use in the form 1195. You do not need to finish the online application to get the TRN number, so just start doing it online and you can get the TRN number there.

What you can do is create an online application thru IMMI and then once you are on the first few pages, it will give you a TRN number. That is what you will use in the form 1195. You do not need to finish the online application to get the TRN number, so just start doing it online and you can get the TRN number there.