klr81

No he means you have to enter Australia within 12 months of your medical/pcc. So before 1 year is up!

Have you been assigned your CO yet? We just got ours last week so I think it's about a 4 week wait before you get one. We are not to panicked about the grant taking longer than expected as realistically we wouldn't be making the move until Jul 2018 due to work commitments here. However I did want to do the activation trip this year as next year we need to holiday mostly within Malaysia to avoid losing our resident tax status and receiving a massive tax bill upon leaving!

Hello, We are crossing everything that we have our 189 visa granted in the next couple of months. Just waiting to upload pccs when they arrive which should be any day now. If all goes to plan we hope to come and activate the visa in August. We will be coming from Singapore so not so bad of a journey as from the UK. Realistically we can only do 2 weeks and we aren't planning on house hunting etc as we will probably not make the final move for another year. We really just want to make it a lovely experience for our 5 year old daughter. Therefore I am looking for a realistic 2 week itinerary that will include some beach, wildlife parks/centres, maybe some national park and a few days in Brisbane. Is this do-able in 2 weeks? Thanks

Oh wow that's a long wait! From posts I have seen, others seemed to be getting visas granted within 2 to 3 months! I hope this hasn't gone up to 10-14!

I am also randomly panicking about our medicals! We were told everything was fine and the only thing they were waiting on was bloods, I'm still nervous though! We were told results uploaded in 5 days and to ring and chase them if they weren't uploaded in that time. Fingers crossed for us all! I want to plan our visa activation trip for this summer so I'm hoping we have a yes by end of April.....

Hi there, We are in Malaysia so had to get a certificate of good conduct for last 3 years here and then I had to list addresses for the 7 years previous in the UK. Just realised your post is about Australian pcc so actually my above reply is probably useless, sorry!

Hi, Yes you have to wait until you have your immiaccount until you upload evidence. If you are claiming extra points for English language using an IELTS, the certificate has to be dated within the 2 years before you get invited to apply for visa. It may be 3 years for other tests, I've heard of a Pearson one but I don't know what that is. Hope that helps.

We had ours yesterday too. All seemed fine although I had to have my blood pressure rechecked as it was very low, although mine is naturally low anyway. Other than that everything seemed fine. As we were originally from UK my daughter didn't need the expensive TB blood test. After sns has said how much she paid, I won't tell you how much ours came to! 5 days now until results uploaded!

So close sns! I look forward to seeing the exciting news when your visa is granted! It'll no doubt be before ours now that we have to do this character form that we have to have signed at the Australian embassy

Oh my goodness! Sounds like my husband's 'shady' past has nothing on what you guys see

Thank you so much for the reassurance! I thought as much but I guess when you get this close to potentially getting your PR, you're convinced something will mess it up!

Hello all, So I'm not sure if we have been assigned a CO as such, (the e-mail certainly didn't say that) but I did receive an e-mail from gsmbrisbane asking for medicals, pccs and a character declaration for my husband (see separate post!) I'm both excited and terrified!

Hello! So 18 years when my husband was 21, he got done for drink driving and got a 12 month ban. He was told at the time it would be on his driving license for 5 years but not on his record. However we were concerned about this so declared it on our 189 visa app. I have no idea until PCC comes back if it will show up or not. I have uploaded all the evidence documents I had whilst waiting for a case officer and today was contacted by a Brisbane e-mail address asking for our medicals and police clearance forms as well as a character statutory declaration form for my husband. We have to put the circumstances of the offence. My husband can remember the month and year of the incident and court case and that he received a 1 year ban but not much else with it being 18 years ago. The offence code has also gone from his licence as it was so long ago! There was no sentence or suspended sentence or even a fine. I'm really worried that it will mess things up though! Has anybody got any similar circumstances?

With regards to police check for 3 year old, I wonder if all the document titles automatically show up on each profile. The character evidence section is there on my daughters too but I am assuming you just upload the documents that apply.

Yes, the cost of flights etc will probably outweigh what you save ; )

Malaysia!

How funny SNS! We have to be there really early in the morning for my daughter's T Spot test in place of the X-ray : ( It must be an expensive test as the cost of her medical is more than twice that of our adult test. I think we have got it at a good price because of where we are. Ours is about 55 pounds but my daughters 130 pounds!

I guess we'll just have to see how it goes on the job front. I've had a few friends who have spent the first year or so on maternity and sickness cover and then managed to find something long-term. All I can do is try. Thanks again for all the info.

Hi, thanks for the replies. Like I said, it was purely as a worst case scenario for those nights when I lie awake and suddenly fear that we will be jobless and homeless. If anything I will just store it as some sort of security blanket in the back of my mind, ha! We both want to be working and getting involved as soon as we can. Snifter, we aren't applying from the UK, we are in S.E.Asia and both working. My husband has some contacts already due to having suppliers in Australia and he can fly over for interviews etc. I am a teacher who would hope to at least get some supply work until something permanent comes along. We won't make the move unless we have one job lined up and we are giving ourselves a year to try and achieve that. After a year if we have no luck then we will have to take the plunge but that would be another year at least that we will get to save. I had thought it was 2 years to be honest before we would be entitled to anything and by then I would not be expecting to need it, same as when we were in the UK.

Can I just add that I am not going over at all with the intention of wanting to claim benefits! We don't intend to move until at least one of us has a job so hopefully we'll be fine but when I saw it mentioned elsewhere on here, I thought it was worth investigating in case we are ever in dire straits!

Hello, I am learning so much from this forum! Just discovered on one of the other forums that if you have children you may be eligible for family assistance when you arrive, especially if you are not earning straight away or have only one income for a while. Most of my worries are about burning through our money really quickly so to know that we may get a little help is so reassuring. Has anybody done any research on this or have any recommended websites or threads about it?

Added a couple of bank statements now too. Now just waiting on my full birth cert to arrive, PCCs to come through and medicals booked Feb 21st!

Is this on the online application? I can't remember that section sorry! I know I had to fill out details about previous visits to Australia on the form 80 but don't recall it on the 189. Sorry not to be more help! I'll see if I can still go in and review my application.

Thanks Maggie May! That is going to save me a fortune! I guess I'll just get everything on there in colour asap now. I did the Form80 yesterday, wow what a document! I just need to get my husband's finished today. Even though I am the main applicant I am uploading my husband's current employment contract and CV as extra evidence so that they can see that he is employable ha!

When you click on the '?' next to each document on the document list on your immiaccount, the description for pretty much everything is preceded with 'certified' copy : (