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.

I’m sure someone will give you exact prices but you have to factor in ielts or equivalent exam - sometimes more than once £200-£300 police check £60-£100 medical check £350-£500 skills assessment £1200 -£1700 visa lodgement £1500 we are a family of five so the costs fairly mount up and both had to do ielts and skills assessment. i/d say, roughly, and probably conservatively, for 1 person, around £3500-£4000 plus hours Of preparing documents and getting them certified (which I managed to get for free so that was something.)Also the hours just learning what you have to do for the process is really daunting at the beginning. We did it all ourselves maybe, with hindsight, I Would just get an agent.... I suppose it depends how straightforward your case is. We thought ours was but it turned into one hurdle after another but we are finally at the final hurdle and waiting patiently to hear some grant news.... if it’s just you and you’ve done plenty research then absolutely go for it on your own but if you think you’re going to need guidance then enlist a good Mara agent to help you with the process. I’d imagine it to be quicker, less stressful and once you’ve lodge your should feel confident you haven’t missed anything important!! good luck!

We lodged the day before you. I don’t expect to hear anything as we are offshore. The only 190s I can see being processed are onshore and are key workers such as nurses. I think processing of offshore and onshore other than nurses will be on hold for quite some time unfortunately.

We are actually getting married this year though! In July!!

Good advice! we were hoping that our 3 children 14,8,8 were enough proof of our relationship? Our names are both on birth certificates which we have attached.... ? Thoughts? We are not married but have been together for 20 years

Hello all, so we have lodged our visa and attached all of the required documents that were asked for. When trawling through immitracker, as you do, I noticed many people attach bank statements, payslips etc... is this necessary? They don’t specifically ask for financial evidence. For employment evidence we have put references for all jobs and the skill assessment from EA. TIA

HI all, We finally got an invite to Apply from Victoria and are gathering our documents for the Visa application. My partner is the primary applicant but we are claiming points for My skills and English language. My partner says that there is nowhere to attach documents for my IELTS and skills assessment and references etc. Are we missing something? Surely if we are claiming points for me then we need to provide evidence? Can we just attach these documents anywhere on the application? - as in under character reference or in with the kids who don't have many documents to attach? Also medical checks - where do we find a doctor who is registered to do the official Australia medical checks? I am sure i found a list a while back but now the only ones i can find are in Glasgow and Edinburgh and they are 2-2.5 hours awat from where we live. So exciting but scary at the same time! Got to make sure we get everything done properly! Thanks in advance for shedding any light!

Amazing news!! Congratulations!!!

Victoria picked up our EOI around 8 weeks after submitting it. We submitted requested docs and now waiting to hear if VIC will be our sponsor. The waiting is torture. There is no queue, no system - you have to just wait it out until they cherry pick who they want and then you wait longer for them to decided if they actually still want you once they’ve looked over your profile and then if they decide they want you, you can lodge a visa. And then more waiting!!! Some people can go through the whole process in a couple of months but for some closer to a year and even longer for others. i wish they had some sort of tracker to know how you are getting on along the way...

Just thought I’d come on and see how other people are coping with radio silence from Victoria! My partner submitted his EOI for 312311 electrical draftsperson on the 13th sept 2019 and received an email with a link to download documents to apply for state nomination- let’s call it the pre-invite!- on the 21st November. It’s so frustrating not knowing whether or not he will even get the ITA or just a rejection I’m driving myself crazy reading to see if anyone has been invited but it seems like really slow going just now compared with NSW which seems to be throwing out invites! Has anyone received an approval from Victoria in the last few months? Are they just focussing on the 491? Finishing up with the 489 backlog? I wish I knew someone that could tell me how they process and decide so I could figure out how and why some people get invited in a few days while others take months!!!!

That was quick!!! I figured it wouldn’t stay open long but I thought more than 1 day!!!