Jonno1981

That’s great news, congratulations. We submitted 11th July so hopefully not much longer to wait.

This is confusing unless I’m missing something? We submitted 11th July, which 16 weeks takes to 31st October. Yet those whose submitted 7-9th July will be processed early November? Doesn’t add up. Welcome news nonetheless.

My MA also confirmed it is possible to repeat the police/health checks if necessary, although this does add extra cost.

Ah ok I understand. We were planning on a vacation to activate the visa, then returning to Oz permanently once we have sold our house.

I don’t understand, why is it risky?

Having liaised with my MA, I have decided to front load when the time comes.

Where did you see that please? I can can't find it on their website. https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/trav/visa-1/489- I've read somewhere that the 9 months quoted is worse case for 75% of applicants so there is a significant chance you may get processed much faster providing all your documents are present and correct. I'm re-assessing whether it would be beneficial to front load police check/health assessment as the following link seems to suggest doing so will reduce processing time. https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/trav/visa-1/489-/Subclass-489-document-checklist-invited-pathway "Use the following checklist to make sure your application is complete. Lodging a complete application reduces processing times".

There is a silver lining, 489 visa processing times are back down to 9-12 months from 10-15.

It will be 10 weeks tomorrow since we applied for state sponsorship. Looking at the published processing times it could be middle of January before we hear anything ?.

My occupation was one that turned red quickly (the day after I applied!!!). I believe SA simply shut the gate once the quota has been filled and if all those applicants meet the criteria they get sponsored.

Thanks Jon, As advised, I've decided to wait until asked for the documents.

Thanks @Iron Chef, appreciate your feedback.

I think you have to be on at least PR (189/887) to have access to benefits. I believe even a 189 requires you to be resident for a while before you're eligible to claim (2 years is in my head for some reason). Not looked into it properly yet so not sure.

That's correct, 489 is a 4 year provisional, which leads onto PR 887.

189 offers instant permanent residency, much like the 190, but without the moral obligation to live and work within a state. In essence, 489 is already an alternative to 190 as it is also state sponsored and leads to permanent residency (887) providing you meet the requirements (live 2 years and work full time 1 year within the state that sponsored you). I believe in time 489 will completely replace 190 as it is much more difficult for migrants to ignore its obligations if permanent residence/citizenship is their goal.

I can see 190's being scrapped altogether, with 489's preferred. It's already starting to happen in South Australia this year for a lot of occupations (including mine). I think 489's are good as they encourage applicants to reside in the sponsoring state for at least 2 years and work for at least 1 year. Personally, I feel contributing to a state for a couple of years that was good enough to give me a golden ticket in the first place is the least I can do.

Thanks @VERYSTORMY, Do they set a time limit to respond to the request for checks? I.e, would it be an issue if say they ask for them in January, but we cannot submit until March? I appreciate this is unlikely to happen.

Thanks @JetBlast, However, is it not the case there have been many cases where these documents are requested fairly swiftly after initial invite, or if front loaded result in a direct grant within a much shorter time frame?

Hi all, We should hopefully get a decision from South Australia for subclass 489 SS latest 28th November 2018 (20 weeks from date of application). However, my wife, son, and I will be on holiday overseas from 1st December 2018. I will return to UK 5th January 2019, but my wife and son will be staying on until 1st week in March 2019. If we are lucky enough to get sponsored by South Australia, my fear is we get asked to provide police checks and medicals whilst we are away. This could delay the proces by up to 3 months, which I would like to avoid if possible. My question is; should I arrange police checks and medicals for November 2018 so that we are covered for every eventuality without delaying the process, or wait until all of us are back in the UK and get the checks done in March 2019? Conscious doing it before we go away is a somewhat risky approach as we could be forking out for the checks without actually knowing if we will obtain state sponsorship. Also aware that this will give us less time to validate our visa, although not so concerned with this as we would jump on a flight the next day after our visa came through (if necessary).

I think it was 7-9 months previously. Nothing worth having ever comes easy does it!!!

7 weeks 2 days since we applied for SA state sponsorship. Only communication thus far has been a generic email from SA reiterating the processing times and asking people not to enquire for updates unless they have exceeded the quoted timescales.

Will do. Best of luck to everyone.

I hope you're correct. We lodged ours 11th July so it will be 6 weeks next Wednesday. I fear we may well be in the 15-20 week bracket even though the processing times were 9-10 weeks when we lodged as it is after the 1st July cut off. Struggling to think about anything else at this point ?.

Many thanks. I was hoping something could be done online, but it appears unlikely.

I am using George Lombard Consultancy and can highly recommend, although George is based in Sydney. Communication is mainly email (response within 24 hours) with the odd call if necessary.