CapitalS

Think covid put a huge spanner in the works! When we applied waiting time was less than 6 months.. seems as if grants are finally being approved from 3 years ago so hopefully grants start moving at a better pace from now on

Golden email came through!!! So exciting!!! So scary!!! Shocked beyond belief. Id update my signature but it’s been so long I can’t even remember how

Doha sorry!! Typo! well I’m not sure if I’m honest, looking at immitracker brisbane and Adelaide get a mention several times but I’m well aware that that’s just a small portion and do some people not update their details or fill them out correctly. We just have to keep on waiting and hoping

It’s not my understanding. My understanding is the actual visa process goes through soho and it’s pot luck - there doesn’t seem to be a pattern of date lodged, occupation or which state has nominated you. They seem to jump back and forth from visas lodged in 18,19,20 and ‘21 and same with occupations and states- everything seems really random. the only pattern I can see is they work on onshore priority groups first and then seem to do a cluster of offshore priority groups and then the occasional stray offshore from ages ago...

Yeah I understand that but it was updated on the 18th March 2021 with CO contact so I’m hoping it’s just an unlucky/complex case... although approaching the 14 month mark for us now and I know there’s a lot of people waiting longer than us.

On my immitracker - maybe I’ve got it wrong but my heart sank when I saw this the other day- co contact almost 3 years to the day after lodgement

Who knows I don’t even think they know.....

Waiting since feb 4th 2020 - still saying received. We are frustrated too. We have a now 15 year old son and getting more and more concerned about moving during exam years. It’s just so frustrating that we have all put in so much time, energy and money and then they have no timeline to adhere to and we have no way to track progress. It’s a lot of money to invest into something that you’re completely in the dark and have your future at the mercy of someone else. When I see people have been waiting 3 years I want to cry.

What kind of strings?!

According to immitracker and the foi on the government website grants are still happening but just at a much slower rate. It appears only priority groups are receiving grants in the meantime. We are at 12 almost 13 months of waiting now too. All we can do is wait and watch and hope.

No CO contact. Medical and pc due to expire in feb more expense I read July 1st they will resume flights from London and USA but unless things change they can move goalposts like they did already. it’s deflating. We discussed yesterday that if we don’t have an answer by OCT this year then the dream is over. Makes me both sad and frustrated. we waited to apply for years and finally the time was right and then literally COVID. The stars were not in alignment for us that’s for sure. I suppose all we can do is wait to see what the next few months bring while hoping for the best.I hate uncertainty and all the money we have invested in something that may never happen!

We’ve been waiting since the start of feb 2020. Offshore too. It’s so frustrating having our lives on hold. Eldest is almost 15 and worried about moving him during exam years.... If only we had some sort of timeline and transparency we could make a decision. The 10-13 months is obviously based on some onshore being granted so quickly so not holding my breath for that at all. It’s just such a sad and hopeless feeling waiting and being completely in the dark. is there a way to find out how many visas have been granted? And how many per occupation and whether or not onshore or offshore? let’s hope that vaccines are rolled out quickly and life can resume

Im curious as to why after spending all that time and effort you wouldn’t want to lodge your visa? Obviously everyone has different circumstances but the process is taking so long just now that it probably won’t be into next year before visa is even processed and then you only have to activate the visa you don’t have to move immediately. That probably gives you a couple of years leeway you may never get invited again?

I found the ielts frustrating. The listening section started with listening to a sentence and then answering a question but then after a few questions changed to a passage where you had to answer 5 or 6 questions in a row, without getting to hear it again. A moment’s distraction and miss a question and lose marks. Crazy system! Just a money making scheme in my humble opinion. If you come from an English speaking country and completed both school and university in English then I can’t understand why you then need to prove your ability to speak, read and write English! My only knowledge of the PTE is through my husband so I Cant comment as much although saw the the layout which seemed to have far more components and looked as if it was just a case of learning certain techniques to get you through. I think what was better about it as a test was that the marking was more balanced in the sense that it took more factors into account such a vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure etc. It also seemed as though even if you made some spelling mistakes, for example, in one section it didn’t affect your overall score. So you could still make mistakes and get full marks if you had spelled enough words correctly throughout the whole test. This seems a fairer way to assess a test rather than 1 mistake bring you down 1/2 a point so 3 mistakes in any section and you won’t get superior.

My husband and I both have English as our first language. I passed ielts first time with top marks but he struggled and he just missed top marks three times. He ended up doing the Pte. And passed with superior 2nd time. we forked out hundreds!! i did English at uni so found the ielts test pretty easy. However, it is easy to get distracted, so I lost half a point in the listening just for missing a question. Neither of the tests truly measure your English language ability. My advice would be to do a couple of online tests and see which one suits you better. The ielts is pretty straight forward with reading, writing, listening and reading but if you miss more than 2 questions in any component then you won’t get superior marks. The writing section just needs practise to understand the format that they require. the pte academic is a more complex layout but the marking is fairer. I think once you understand what is required of you then it is marked in a fairer way. I’m sure someone else can explain the pte marking system better than I can. Again, the pte requires you to understand the layout that they want you to answer in. Practise both tests and see how you get on. More studying was required for the pte because there were so many more components within the test compared to ielts.