JohnDoug

This was in 2017 and he came in on a 186

Just give it a go. My cousin got a sponsor from a company in Perth and from the day he had his interview ( over the phone ) to the day they set foot in Oz took 3 months.

Hi J, Vetasses can be pretty tricky and in your case I would strongly recommend you go for a consultation with a MARA registered agent , it will be a small fee to pay but believe me it will be well worth it. There are amazing agents on this forum that can help with that. Now the last thing you should do is get anxious. The immigration process to Oz is not an easy one but that is by design but the good news is that Landscape Architects are non pro rata occupations and it is in fairly high demand so if you can get enough points together then I would suggest going for PR190 ( much more likely to get invited with less points because of your occupation) and not 189 ( a competition between those with the most points ) but during a consultation your agent will tell you your best options. We had Vetassess done in August 2018 and then got all the rest of our docs together ( which took a lot longer than we thought it would ) and submitted our EOI in Jan this year. We got our invite in March and by April had the application approved. Only got contact from a Case Officer mid October requesting medicals and police clearances, submitted these soon after and now just waiting for our grant to come through. Have you been working as a Landscape Architect or assistant architect? Vetassess did not want to recognize 2 years of my employment history as I worked as an assistant architect even though I had a masters degree at the time and was more qualified than the architect I was assigned to assist. Your job title means more it seems. Let me know if you would like to know anything else, will be happy to help where I can. Cheers John

Yes this is spot on. We had our EOI lodged for around 4 months without any invite. Then the second we updated our EOI with 20 points for English we received our invite. Go get those extra points, it will be worth every penny.

You are welcome and I hope your journey to Aus is a speedy one. Don't front load meds and pcc's yet, once you have submitted your VISA application wait 6 months then get them done and front load them. That will potentially save you from a CO contact and get you a direct grant and also give you enough time to sort things out before you make your move to Aus.

The Visa application stage is currently 9 - 10 months but the whole process can take much much longer. Before you submit your EOI you need most of your documents like skills assessment and IELTS/PTE score reports etc and all this can take a fair amount of time. It is currently extremely competitive with applicants with less then 70/75 points stand virtually no chance of being invited but a lot also depends on your ANZSCO code. Occupations such as chefs, mechanics, plumbers, metal fabricators are not really affected by current trends of needing high points to get an invite. I would advise to use a MARA agent, there are a few amazing ones on this forum.

We are 204 days in and have not heard a thing. Our migration agent says on average, now, it is around the 220 -240 days to receive CO contact or your grant. Just hang in there as there is nothing we can do about these delays.

It takes forever. There has been a massive slow down in recent months. After Visa approval people have been waiting more than 6 months just to get contact from a case officer and some have been waiting much much longer than that without any contact at all. Things are definitely not improving.

Hi Sarz, Our points were: Anzsco: 232112 Occupation: Landscape Architect 70 + 5 , 190 NSW 70 for 189 but only received an invite for 190. Best of luck to you and hope all goes well.

Yes it is a costly exercise but we all do it because we have a desire to go live somewhere beautiful so should not look at the money side of things( but do agree, it stings ). We submitted our EOI in Jan and got our invite in middle Feb, NSW 190 for 232112 and visa application approved by mid March. However, it seems since the elections the waiting times to get either contact form a case office or a direct grant has doubled so most can now expect to wait around 6 - 8 months for contact from a CO.

We felt exactly the same at one stage but for skilled migrants applying for SC190 the wait has been so long that you can save up a fair bit by the time everything is sorted and you have your visa, lol. Just do not even think about it, it only makes things worse. Just focus your thoughts on those amazing Australian sunsets, at least that is for FREE.

Best to get as many points as possible before you lodge your EOI. As Verystormy pointed out, no invites in a long time for applicants with less than 75/80 points so do the test and get those points. Good luck

Congratulations !!!

Thanks for the link.

Thank you for the reply, was hoping as it was personal items there would not be import duties.

Hi all, Hoping somebody here can shed a bit of light on the following items I want to take with me. A humidor full of cigars and around 30 bottles of single malt whiskey. I have been collecting over the years and some bottles I have had over 10 years ( all collectible so don't want to drink them ) and some cigars older than 5 years maturing in the humidor. Don't really want to leave them behind so any info would be much appreciated. thx heaps

Hi, Our agent says it takes around 3 months to receive contact from CO and from there it can take another 3 - 6 months before you are issued your visa if all is in order with your documentation. My agent advised us not to front load medicals and pcc and to wait for contact from a CO. Based on other threads on this forum it seems waiting times vary but most are longer than 6 months. You might be lucky and get a direct grant if they are happy with your paperwork.

Thank you for the info, much appreciated lamngoc.

Fantastic, congratulations. Hope you get your visa soon

Hi all, My partner has to do the PTE test and was wondering if we would have to get a high score. My partner is not claiming any points as I am the main applicant and have already submitted our application for a state sponsored 190 NSW visa. As with any test will try for as high a score as possible but just need to know what level is good enough so we don't book another test unnecessarily should we not get all section above 79+ score.

Thank you, we did not receive an invite for 189. We are using a MA and she has advised not to front load our medicals and police checks so will wait for contact from CO and then do the meds and pcc.

We got an invite for 190 NSW. It took 5 months from submitting our EOI before we received an invitation.

We were waiting for around 4 months with 65 points and nothing. Then took PTE again to gain the extra 10 points and got invited 5 weeks later. It is very competitive at the moment and looking at data published on Skillselect it is evident that 70+ pointers only get invited. State sponsored applications are still getting invited with only 65 points but very few.

Thank you Hami, Get the extra points with PTE and you should get your invite too.

For most people ( including native English speakers ) the first time will only get them a proficient score. It is worth going the extra mile and getting the extra 10 points with a superior score. It might just make all the difference