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Emmys Gran

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  1. I think part of the problem with the 804 visas is that people are happy to live on the bridging visa & think they’ll die before getting to the head of the queue. Unfortunately they don’t consider illness, old age & frailty before then
  2. We travelled to Aus on a 600 visa with a one way ticket. No questions were asked. We also took a one week holiday to Vanuatu from Sydney to extend our visa without issue (allowed 12 month stay on each entry without the 12 month in 18 restriction) If you intend spending several months in a country I think it’s perfectly reasonable to book your return flight closer to your date of departure. No one is going to know or ask about return tickets anyway unless you get hauled before border control officers for other suspicious behaviour.
  3. Of note, although we have been in Aus for nearly a year and have just popped over to New Zealand for four days to be given the visa, the grant notice states that our initial entry to Australia must be before 16 November 2019. That’s 6 months & 2 days after the visa was confirmed and, more interestingly, 18 months and 1 week from the date of our medicals and U.K. police checks
  4. Visa Grant received today! We arrived in Auckland yesterday evening, visa grant letter received from Immi this afternoon. It’s taken nearly 47 months. What a relief! We’ll be back in Aus on Friday and will be signing a contract on a house next week. Exciting times!
  5. We’re in country at the moment, on a 12 month visitors 600 visa. We’ve been given a month to leave for a minimum of 3 working days and a week to inform immi of our plans. We’ve just booked to go to New Zealand for 4 days from 13 May
  6. As I posted earlier Centrelink screwed things up. My son had the telephone interview about the 20 Dec 2018 and about the same time was emailed for some further id. He provided this the same day but Centrelink didn’t link it to the Aos application and the file just sat there with no action being taken. By the beginning of March we were at our wits end We didn’t know why the delay and couldn’t get any information from Centrelink. It took a request to the local federal MP to get things moving. That added nearly 3 months to the process. I was panicking as the anniversary of our medicals is 9 May and we also didn’t want to get caught up in the June visa grant hiatus. Fortunately IMMI have the option to extend the medicals & police check validity to 18 months & we’ve just snuck in before June. Total processing time for us will be about 47 months
  7. Woohoo! At last! Email from IMMI today not only asking for 2nd VAC but also giving instructions for going offshore in order to get the visa. I’ve paid the 2nd vac online by debit card this evening. Rather disgusted that that involves a hefty surcharge, the same as paying by credit card. You also have the option of paying by Paypal which I found quite surprising. We have a month from today to go offshore and a week to inform IMMI of our travel plans. We need to spend 3 days minimum out of country. We’re off to the travel agent tomorrow to book a short trip to New Zealand, hopefully the week after next. As an added bonus we’ve found a house we love and our offer on it was accepted today with the vendors happy to wait until our visas come through....and that was before we had the email from IMMI. It’s been a rather good good day!
  8. We’ve just had our acceptance letter. The whole AOS process has taken us 10 1/2 months! I wonder if Centrelink delays have contributed to the lengthening wait and failure to grant the number of permitted parent visas each year. I appreciate that increased numbers are the main reason for the longer processing time One little snippet of information that I have gleaned recently is regards the length of validity of the medicals. I’ve been panicking as we’re less than a month away from the anniversary of ours. According to our migration agent IMMI have the discretion to extend the valid period from 12 to 18 months.
  9. If there are no issues with the medical you will hear nothing from Immigration. My husband has ischaemic heart disease, well controlled on medication. We had a very stressful day prior to the medical and on the day his blood pressure was well up although normally it is fine. The doctor commented that he might get an immediate visa refusal which panicked us. Our agent reassured us that doesn’t happen. We would be asked to get a second opinion from a cardiologist and even after that there is an appeals process. We have heard absolutely nothing from immi about the medicals. We’ve now paid the bond and are waiting to pay the 2nd VAC so it obviously wasn’t an issue. We were on tenterhooks for months though, waiting in case a second opinion was needed. So, no news is good news!
  10. Hi. I though people might be interest in our AOS saga. Our son submitted the Aos on 1 June 2018. About 20 December he had the phone call when he was told the AOS had been accepted and that he’d be getting the letter to pay the bond, shortly. About the same time he had an email from Centrelink requesting further ID to be provided within 5 days. He called in at the local office, the same day, with the requested document (which he’d submitted previously but they’d obviously lost it). After that....nothing. By the end of February we were getting more than a bit anxious particularly as we were within 2 months of the anniversary of our medicals. Our son is a busy dentist with full appointment books so has little spare time in working hours. He spent several lunchtimes on the phone to Centrelink being passed around automated menus or people who couldn’t help. We checked the Centrelink complaints webpage which says you can email a complaint linked to your My Gov account but again the links took us around in circles. Our son did email a complaint/query but this wasn’t even acknowledged let alone answered. As a last resort we emailed the local MP’s office. We had a rely from one of her officers the same day. He needed to speak to our son, Huw, being the person submitting the Aos. That took a couple of days but then a few days later Huw had a phone call from someone in what’s essentially a complaints department who sorted it and importantly gave us her direct number. Apparently the extra ID submitted hadn’t been linked to Huws account so the whole process had been left pending! Who knows how long we would have been kept in limbo without the intervention of the MPs office! There was another hiccup when the Huw found his account wouldn’t let him access the bond letter which had been sent by mail but the nice lady in complaints sorted that too & he was able to pick up a paper copy from the local Centrelink office. Unfortunately he can’t get an appointment with the bank for a week but at last things are moving & our new friend will ensure we get the acceptance letter promptly. Phew!
  11. We did this using Sendmybag.com. Yes it is about £130 for a large suitcase but it’s cheaper than an airlines excess baggage. They were very efficient. Some one collected our case a few days before we travelled and it arrived in Aus a couple of days after us. I think it took about a week.
  12. Peter2’s visa is going to be granted very close to 12 months after his medical and police check. With the increasing delays at all stages of visa processing it can’t be long until the 12 month window is exceeded. As well as the obvious difficulties, already discussed, of activating the visa in a short space of time, particularly if you’re not already in Aus, what happens re medical and police checks?
  13. Have just posted this on other thread. On 6 Jan this year they were assessing applications made up to 12 March 2015
  14. The automated email on 6 Jan stated they were assessing applications made up until 12 March 2015. Currently they’re assessing applications made up to 5 May 2015. Do the maths! Having applied end of June 2015 I think I’ll be lucky to get my visa by the end of the year!
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