contributary parent visa

[Guest june coates]

hi lizq,

i retired before i left uk but you are not allowed to work untill you have your visa.its the same for permanent as it is for temp.visa.i go to bali in october to have my visa granted,stay for 1week and validate it when i re-enter oz.i stayed with my daughter at first,hoping i would be able to buy a house,but with the house prices going up and the exchange rate going down,i couldnt.the solution to that was,i gave them some money for deposit and they baught a second property which i rent from them at a nominal rent.i love it and my son in law does all my little jobs that need doing.the down side of the cpv is that you dont get any concessions untill you have been a permanent resident for 2 years.after that,i will get help with prescriptions,rent and utilities.i find that money is tighter than it was in uk but it is worth it as i am so happy here.if i can help with anything else,just let me know.good luck with yours

[Guest Scardycat]

Hi June, glad you are enjoying life over there, I am hoping to move over in Jan on a 676, my daughter is leaving here on 6th Sept. so I still have a long wait before I can apply for CPV.

 

Would be interested to know about the concessions as I know money is going to be tight for me, I thought if you were on a CPV you couldnt claim anything for 10 years, would be most grateful for any info you can give me on that.

 

regards

 

Cat

[Guest OldiesRUs]

Hi Jean

 

just to let you know' date=' since your timeline is almost identical to mum and dad's, that they got their request for the 2nd VAC yesterday, so hopefully yours should be just around the corner. Mind you, theirs did come in response to a an email they sent to their CO requesting an update on progress, so firing off a quick email to your CO might help move things along a bit.

 

For the record they got their CO allocated 12 June and the AoS bond was posted around the first week of July.

 

good luck

 

rick[/quote']

 

 

Thanks for that Rick. It looks like we should only be a day behind your parents. Emailed CO two weeks ago and they said we should have the request for 2nd VAC within 4 weeks, so there is a big red ring round 4 September on my calendar as the final day before I start to badger again.

 

Sooooo frustrating to be so close and still waiting...............

 

Jean:wubclub:

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Jean

 

just to let you know' date=' since your timeline is almost identical to mum and dad's, that they got their request for the 2nd VAC yesterday, so hopefully yours should be just around the corner. Mind you, theirs did come in response to a an email they sent to their CO requesting an update on progress, so firing off a quick email to your CO might help move things along a bit.

 

For the record they got their CO allocated 12 June and the AoS bond was posted around the first week of July.

 

good luck

 

rick[/quote']

 

Hi Rick

 

Great news!! I nearly PM'd you yesterday evening because I felt it was time that there was some news of further progress with your parents' application. Good job I didn't badger you in the circs.

 

Hopefully your Parents' CO will act swiftly to get the visas granted once the money is received.

 

There is something of a "pecking order" with the final stages of CPV applications, plus quite a bit depends on the discretion of the individual CO:

 

Australian Immigration Fact Sheet 37. Processing Priorities

 

My Mum was 85 and widowed. My sister has been an Australian Citizen for many years. However the balance of family was only 50/50 for my Mum. Mum was level-pegging with my friend Anne H's Mum. Anne's Mum was 80 and also widowed, plus Anne is her only child, Anne also has Australian Citizenship but had only been in Oz for 4 years at the time and I think she had had Citizenship for around a year only. My sister lives in Perth. Anne lives in Bunbury which as you know is only about 2 hours from Perth.

 

Anne's Mum's application was more complete than ours. An Agent had prepared it and it was "decision ready" on the date of lodgement. Plus they had lodged a couple of weeks before us. So it seemed to me that they would hear from a CO first.

 

Scouring all the available info, other people's timelines etc, it seemed to Anne & I that both Mums would hear from COs around mid-September 2006. I was wrong. We suddenly heard from a CO in mid-July, out of the blue. There was more left to do with my Mum's application than with Ane's Mum's. We had not gotten round to obtaining an Australian police check, which my Mum needed, plus a couple of Stat Decs were needed to explain a couple of things, plus we had not done Form 80. I don't know whether the realisation that more was outstanding from us when nothing was still needed from Anne's Mum made a difference.

 

Our CO told my sister that the reason was nothing exotic. My Mum's application had made it into a pile that was earmarked for processing by our particular CO. Anne's Mum's application was earmarked for a different CO. Our CO had applied for and had secured a new job managing the DIAC team at Perth Airport and was due to leave the POPC at the end of September but had booked a week or ten days of annual leave between jobs.

 

She said she had looked through the pile of files allocated to her and had decided to pull Mum's application out of the pile early. She felt there was time for her to see Mum's application through to the end, she had noted Mum's age, and she felt that if she didn't do Mum's visa herself, delay would be likely whilst it sat in a new CO's pile. Mum's was one of the last CPVs that the lady granted

 

Anne's Mum did not hear from a CO until the end of August, about 6 weeks after us and that was only after a lot of pushing by Anne's husband and their Agent. There was actually more urgency with Anne's Mum because she had had to give a Health Undertaking, which had not been required from my Mum. My Mum did not have to validate till 16th Feb 2007. Anne's Mum needed to do so by 6th August 2006. The POPC extended the validation deadline for Anne's Mum to 6th November 2006 for Anne's Mum but the timing was still becomeing far too tight for comfort in their case since Anne's Mum was on her own in the UK. Chris & Anne needed to come to the UK for 3 weeks to pack up the old lady's flat, deal with the paperwork of closing her utility & bank accounts etc plus fly back to Perth with her. We had no such pressure. Mum was back in the UK but there was no great rush and no "must do by" deadlines.

 

The POPC arranged to speed up the processing with Anne's Mum and did the whole thing at a much faster pace than with my Mum. Centrelink were much faster with them than they had been with us and so on. My Mum's visa was granted on Friday 15th September 2006, after 2 months in the final processing stages. Anne's Mum's CPV was granted on Tuesday 19th Sept after only 2.5 weeks in the final processing stages.

 

Chris (Anne's Hubby) literally drove from Bunbury to Perth on the evening of Monday 18th September in order to take the bank draft for his M-i-L's 2nd Instalment to their Agent's house somewhere in Perth. The next morning, the POPC faxed the Agent with the request for the 2nd Instalment. The Agent leapt into her car and drove to the POPC with the draft. The visa was granted a couple of hours later.

 

I had the distinct impression that our CO had deliberately decided to set a slower, more relaxed, more methodical pace with my Mum, possibly feeling that an old dear of 85 would not welcome an anxiety-provoking pace with a stack of tasks all to be done at the same time. Less was outstanding with Anne's Mum, plus Chris (son-in-law) really did push the pace because of the meds deadline, plus everyone was concerned to try to avoid a situation where Anne's Mum's meds (or at any rate her chest x-rays) might have to be re-done.

 

So my conclusion is that even Factsheet 37 does not tell the whole story. I suspect that they leave a lot of things to the individual CO to decide, such as prioritising his/her workload, whether to ask for everything that is still outstanding in one go or whether to adopt a slower, more structured approach and so on. Plus at the minute they still seem to be finalising some of the cases where the meds etc were done on request either late last year or early this year. Some of the affected Parents will have had to give Health Undertakings but if they contribute to the forums at all they will not necessarily be willing to disclose that bit and so forth. I think that a LOT goes on "behind the scenes" at the POPC that is simply not seen by the various families involved at the time.

 

Best wishes

 

Gill

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi June, glad you are enjoying life over there, I am hoping to move over in Jan on a 676, my daughter is leaving here on 6th Sept. so I still have a long wait before I can apply for CPV.

 

Would be interested to know about the concessions as I know money is going to be tight for me, I thought if you were on a CPV you couldnt claim anything for 10 years, would be most grateful for any info you can give me on that.

 

regards

 

Cat

 

Hi Cat

 

We have been investigating possible concessions for my Mum who, like June, is feeling the pinch a bit from the exchange rate, the fact that Mum's capital is in the UK and is therefore producing a lower yield than it might do in WA and so forth. Mum wouldn't be eligible to apply for any concessions for another couple of months yet, but obviously it is not too soon to start looking into it all for her.

 

From what Centrelink have told my sister, and from my own reading of the Centrelink website, the main and possibly only Federal Government concession for now is the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card:

 

Concession and Health Care Cards

 

Nothing marked "health" is recoverable from the CPV Bond. The 2nd Instalment of the CPV fee is the Contribution to "health" so there would be uproar if the Government then failed to play the white man as far as "health" is subsequently concerned.

 

Commonwealth Seniors Health Card

 

http://www.centrelink.gov.au/internet/internet.nsf/site_help/c.htm

 

Mum doesn't need help with rent, utilities etc because she doesn't pay any of those. However she does take a lot of pills every day and the cost of the prescriptions mounts up. I reckon that the $5 a time concessionary charge for pills will be where the benefit of the CSHC lies for my Mum. Another Parent's situation will be more comparable to June's. Probably far less - if anything - going out on prescription charges but payments of rent and the other things mentioned at the foot of the Centrelink page.

 

The CSHC is subject to the two year residence requirement, however, and I don't think there is any way around that.

 

I have not found anything else that looks as if it might be useful to Mum except for the ordinary Seniors Card, which has nothing to do with Centrelink and therefore has no impact at all on the CPV Bond:

 

Welcome to Seniors Card

 

You do NOT necessarily have to have PR in order to be able to get a Seniors Card. Seniors Card consider the facts of your lifestyle and plans, not which visa you hold. I know of a British couple (friends of friends) who are living in Adelaide on Bridging Visas whilst they wait for their Aged Parent visa application to get somewhere near close to the front of the Queue. I am told that they both have Seniors Cards because the Card people recognise that the couple have de facto moved to Australia.

 

The "410 visa" as it is called is the old Retirement Visa. It has been discontinued for new applicants and replaced by the sc 405 Investor Retirement Visa. Both of these visas only give Temporary Residency in Oz. The visas are valid for 4 years at a time and then there are rollover arrangements for renewing them every four years.

 

BERIA 410 is a group that caters mainly for 410 holders. AIR is more general and I think it includes Australian Citizens, CPV holders, Parent visa holders, holders of 410s and 405s and just about anything else visa-wise. Both they and BERIA 410 have been able to arrange for their members to have Seniors Cards because these people do all "live in Australia" regardless of the assortment of visas etc.

 

BERIA 410 - HOME PAGE & NEWS

 

Australian Independent - Website of the Association of Independent Retirees

 

Some of them also have Commonwealth Seniors Health Cards, though that is to do with the Reciprocal Health Care Agreements between Australia and other countries including the UK and is therefore a different issue.

 

I don't think you or June would have to prove that you hold Permanent Residency visas in order to get ordinary Seniors Cards, Cat. I think your ages would be more of a deciding factor, and the facts of your plans would be the other. I think the actual visas would come trailing in a long way behind the first two considerations assuming that neither of you work for more than 20 hours a week. (I've been told that the age threshold for Seniors Cards is 55, not 60, in NSW.) People who have Seniors Cards reckon that they are particularly good for public transport concessions and also for discounts in shops, cinemas, restaurants etc. Well worth investigating, I reckon.

 

After 10 years with PR in Oz, the possible entitlement to the Australian Age Pension kicks in. That would bring the possibility of Pensioner Cards into play, but it is so far in the future that I haven't read any of the bumph about Pensioner Cards.

 

Best wishes

 

Gill

[Guest Where'sTheWind]

Hey Gill

 

Geat news indeed - they've over the moon, plus a kindly relative might be buying their house, so fingers crossed they could be out for Christmas!

 

As for what's going on behind the scenes - yep it's all a bit of a black box, but funnily enough when they emailed their CO on Monday they got an automated response saying he was on extended leave (since the end of June and until Feb next year), so they promptly emailed the generic email address, and got a swift reply giving them the name of their new CO. Without having to email their new CO, they then got the request for the 2nd VAC the next day, so I think it's likely the 'nudge' didn't do any harm.

[Guest Scardycat]

Gill, thanks so much for that, am just trying to gather all info that I can at the moment, it still seems such a long way off, but times has a habit of slipping by without you noticing.

 

Thanks again, luv Cat

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hey Gill

 

Geat news indeed - they've over the moon' date=' plus a kindly relative might be buying their house, so fingers crossed they could be out for Christmas!

 

As for what's going on behind the scenes - yep it's all a bit of a black box, but funnily enough when they emailed their CO on Monday they got an automated response saying he was on extended leave (since the end of June and until Feb next year), so they promptly emailed the generic email address, and got a swift reply giving them the name of their new CO. Without having to email their new CO, they then got the request for the 2nd VAC the next day, so I think it's likely the 'nudge' didn't do any harm.[/quote']

 

Hi Rick

 

I completely agree with you about the nudge! New CO realises that the names are on the list he is now dealing with. Not knowing the answer to the question, New CO has a glance at the file. Realises s/he can give it a jog towards completion in two minutes flat and so does exactly that.

 

Not so easy when the CO has not changed, has all the anxious applicant's details in mind, knows where that applicant's file stands in the CO's own list of priorities and so forth.

 

I think that if you are able to tell your CO about the patter of tiny feet etc and say how good it would be if your Parents can be with you in plenty of time for Christmas, the visa could well be along quite promptly after the 2nd Instalment has been paid.

 

Fingers crossed for your Parents, for you and for the rest of your family.

 

Best wishes

 

Gill

[lizg]

Hi June

 

It's at times like these when I read these posts that I actually wish I was a little older and retired!!! I've got a long wait yet for CPV - not likely to come through until December 2009 (if I'm lucky) but time will fly by and I will need until then to get organised.

 

Keep hinting at work for an early retirement package as there is a restructure coming up so you never know - I might be able to follow your example after all!

 

Many thanks

 

Liz

[jewatt]

Thanks for that Rick. It looks like we should only be a day behind your parents. Emailed CO two weeks ago and they said we should have the request for 2nd VAC within 4 weeks, so there is a big red ring round 4 September on my calendar as the final day before I start to badger again.

 

Sooooo frustrating to be so close and still waiting...............

 

Jean:wubclub:

Hi Jean

We also have a big ring round 1st week in Sept it is good to hear some people are being asked for 2nd instalment I think we all just want to know that we have it then we can at least make some kind of plan of action, We got word the other day that we have another new agent this is the 3rd so getting a bit fed up of that,

Whenever we phone to ask obout our CO we always get told to see our agent which does annoy me as we have been told sometimes it helps to badger them,

Anyway we will just have to wait it out.

Stll no interest in the house which is also very depressing don't want to see it all slipping away.

Keep me informed of your progress

Evelyn

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Evelyn

 

Which agency are you with that you keep getting given new agents, please?

 

Are you aware that you could send Form 956 to the POPC requiring them to direct all communications to you instead of to your agents?

 

Application Forms – Numerical List – Forms 1 to 99

 

Something is wrong with the DIAC website tonight. It won't let me into the next page with Form 956 on it, but once the link is fixed you will be there.

 

Best wishes

 

Gill

[Guest june coates]

hi cat,

cant explain any better than gill has.i do know that the aos bond is to cover if you end up desperate and need s/s assisstance.its nothing to do with health care.i just find it hard having to pay so much for prescriptions and i also wear contact lenses which are more expensive over here.i will feel as if i have won the lotto when my 2yrs are up and i can get help with things.the seniors over here just pay $5 for their medications.hope you manage to swing early retirement or reduncy before you come.it would surer help you a bit.

[Guest Scardycat]

hi cat,

cant explain any better than gill has.i do know that the aos bond is to cover if you end up desperate and need s/s assisstance.its nothing to do with health care.i just find it hard having to pay so much for prescriptions and i also wear contact lenses which are more expensive over here.i will feel as if i have won the lotto when my 2yrs are up and i can get help with things.the seniors over here just pay $5 for their medications.hope you manage to swing early retirement or reduncy before you come.it would surer help you a bit.

 

Thanks June, I have already retired and loving it, so no problem there, I just want to get out there asap, haven't a clue what my plans are after that, just go with the flow:biglaugh: but obviously finances play a big part in your choices.

 

All the best

 

Cat

[jewatt]

Hi Evelyn

 

Which agency are you with that you keep getting given new agents, please?

 

Are you aware that you could send Form 956 to the POPC requiring them to direct all communications to you instead of to your agents?

 

Application Forms – Numerical List – Forms 1 to 99

 

Something is wrong with the DIAC website tonight. It won't let me into the next page with Form 956 on it, but once the link is fixed you will be there.

 

Best wishes

 

Gill

 

Hi Gill thanks for this information we are with Visa Connection in Manly Sydney Aus it was a friend if my Daughters Partner he does all the IT for them well she was great until she walked out and they wouldn't let her take our files with her, so we got another agent who was not a very good help, after Rachael paid the bond we kept getting told 2wks 2 wks then it was 4-6wks taking us to Sept and we would be put in a batch and given a number ( no one else has had heard anything like this) we don't know the name of our CO and every time I e-mail DIAC they say to contact our agent

anyway last Monday we got an e-mail to say our agent was moving on and papers to sign for a new one. We have paid the full Immigration Fee up front it is supposed to be in a holding acccount until finalising the visa but to say I am smelling a rat is an understatement.

We were also told at the start we would have to have Police Checks and Meds done at the beggining due to our ages and would probably need doing again which i now know is not true but DIAC have given us an extension anyway which I didn't know about until we asked.police until Oct and Meds until Jan,

Anyway i am waiting to see how it goes with all the other CPV rs who lodged about the same time as us but think it would be a good idea to fill in the form then we could go direct to our CO.

Would be gratefull for any advice you can give me and thanks again

Evelyn

[jewatt]

Hi Evelyn

 

Which agency are you with that you keep getting given new agents, please?

 

Are you aware that you could send Form 956 to the POPC requiring them to direct all communications to you instead of to your agents?

 

Application Forms – Numerical List – Forms 1 to 99

 

Something is wrong with the DIAC website tonight. It won't let me into the next page with Form 956 on it, but once the link is fixed you will be there.

 

Best wishes

 

Gill

Hi Gill I have just been into the site and that is the form we had to fill in to agree to a new agent would i just fill it in asking for all communication to go to us or would i have to let the agency know, how would it affect us at this late stage.

Evelyn

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Evelyn

 

I have sent you a PM and an e-mail.

 

Best wishes

 

Gill

[Guest missymon]

Hi evry1,

 

On checking the queue calculator yesterday how come there are only 70 applications in front of our CPV 173 visa application when up to now there has been 320 before us? Does it mean they are processing quickly now and we maybe need to get excited? Or is it a mistake do you think?

 

Monica

[Guest june coates]

hi sarah,

as long as she has applied for cpv she can come out on 1yr visitor visa as i did.she will just need to go out of oz to have visa granted.if the visitor visa runs out before she gets her cpv,she can go to bali to renew it.i have been here since last dec.with no problems.i go to bali to validate my visa in october.good luck.i am sure gill will come in on this one as she is the expert and has helped me alot.

[Guest Gollywobbler]

hi sarah,

as long as she has applied for cpv she can come out on 1yr visitor visa as i did.she will just need to go out of oz to have visa granted.if the visitor visa runs out before she gets her cpv,she can go to bali to renew it.i have been here since last dec.with no problems.i go to bali to validate my visa in october.good luck.i am sure gill will come in on this one as she is the expert and has helped me alot.

 

Hi June

 

The 12 month visitor visas are improving and all! Quite a few have been granted in the last 6 months or so and Condition 8503 has not been imposed on them, meaning that onshore applications for new long-stay tourist visas will be possible when the old ones expire.

 

There are rumours that if a CPV application is being processed, DIAC might well look sympathetically at a request for a waiver of Condition 8503 if it has been imposed.

 

I sense a desire on DIAC's part to try to make up for the fact that 18 months or so to process a CPV application really isn't good enough. There is nothing "fast track" about 18 months or longer. I suspect that they are doing everything they can to sweeten the pill. If so, I'm 100% behind them and applaud them for their sense and sensitivity about trying to make the waiting as easy as possible for the families concerned.

 

Best wishes

 

Gill

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi evry1,

 

On checking the queue calculator yesterday how come there are only 70 applications in front of our CPV 173 visa application when up to now there has been 320 before us? Does it mean they are processing quickly now and we maybe need to get excited? Or is it a mistake do you think?

 

Monica

 

Hi Monica

 

Don't get excited. Your visa is likely to take around 18 months to process, I strongly suspect. I don't know what the Queue Calculator is up to. I have started a new thread about it.

 

I'd put money on the idea that Austibeach can crack the code of how the thing works. It could be that it needs more time to settle down until they have cleared the backlog of grants that were held up in 2007/8. But at the minute I do not understand it and I can't do anything much with Excel. Excel is just a few extra fingers and toes as far as I am concerned. I can't work out a mathematical formula.

 

Best wishes

 

Gill

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi evry1,

 

On checking the queue calculator yesterday how come there are only 70 applications in front of our CPV 173 visa application when up to now there has been 320 before us? Does it mean they are processing quickly now and we maybe need to get excited? Or is it a mistake do you think?

 

Monica

 

Hi Again, Monica

 

Please have a look at this recent document which I've just found on the DIAC website:

 

Australian Immigration Fact Sheet 39. Family Stream Migration - Contributory parent category visas

 

It appears to be saying that the Queue Date, Queue Calculator etc won't be used for CPVs unless they run out of visas for CPVs and CAPVs during the current 2008/9 Program Year.

 

Taking the CP 173 visa and a notional "queue date" of 15th March 2008, the figure produced is 70. I think what it means is that there may well have been 320 people in that Queue on 15th March 2008. However all but 70 of the people who were Queued on or before 15th March 2008 have now received their visas (ie 250 Grants of CPV 173s since 1st July 2008.)

 

June Coates will be one of the remainder of 70 people because she is waiting for a CPV 173, she sailed through her meds & pccs in January, so she should have been in the Queue by 15th March.

 

However June's case is an anomaly in a way because her Co has been ready to grant June's CPV 173 for some time, but June herself has chosen to delay the grant slightly so as to make her visit to Bali in September or October 2008 rather than dropping everything and rushing to Bali as soon as the CO gave the green light. If you like, June's Grant has been delayed but June herself controls the delay.

 

It could easily be that there are another 69 cases like June's. June's tourist visa permits her to stay in Oz until sometime in December 2008 anyway, so June might as well pick & choose about when would be a convenient date for her trip to Bali.

 

The Calculator seems to have been updated until and including 31st July 2008. It says that as at 31st July 2008 there were some 150 Queued CPV173 people. That would make sense. 70 left over since March or earlier and another 80 added to the Queue between 16 March and 31st July tallies with the figures in the Capping statement made in April 2008:

 

Media Release: Capping of Contributory Parent category visas

 

In order to work out where you might stand in the total pecking order, however, you need to do as follows:

 

1. Find out whether you have been added to the Queue yet, and if so when, which depends on whether they are still going to insist on meds & pccs for CPs before adding any of you to the Queue:

 

Agents Gateway - Health and Character requirements for parent visa applicants outside Australia

 

It is not clear whether the new arrangements are confined to non-contributory Parent visa applicants or whether it includes CPV and CAPV applicants as well.

 

2. If you have not yet been Queued but your application joins the Queue on 31st August, you need to bear in mind that by 31/07/2008 there were already a total of 930 CP143 and CP173 applicants ahead of you in the Queue. Additionally there are bound to be some CAPV 864 and 884 applicants as well but so far the Calculator is giving nil returns for both CAPV groups. I suspect that the relevant files are still on their way to the POPC from the various Departmental offices around Oz and that the CAPV figures have not yet been collated and added to the information on the Calculator.

 

I think that if you make a rough estimate that 1,200 CPV and CAPV applicants have already been Queued ahead of you for visa grants during the 2008/9 Program Year, and that they were either already in the Queue by 1st July 2008 or were added to it between 1st & 31st July 2008, you probably won't go too far wrong.

 

However, the majority of these parents submitted applications on or before 31st July 2007. Therefore it could easily be March or April 2009 before the POPC get around to adding yu and OH to the Queue anyway, and we will just need to watch the Queue and see how it develops during the next few months.

 

I think this is how the thing is supposed to work. (But I am open to alternative suggestions about how it works because I am really not sure.) Even if CPV and CAPV applicants are included in the new arrangements of adding people to the Queue without waiting for meds and pccs for them first, I shouldn't think anyone is being added to the Queue until a CO has at least scrutinised the file closely and I don't think that happens until many months after the application has been delivered to the POPC.

 

This is a complete guess, but based on DIAC's various and garbled descriptions about what is supposed to be happening, I suspect that the drill will become as follows:

 

File reaches the POPC and about 6 weeks later a junior member of staff checks to see that the documents in the file comply with Schedule 1, making it a valid application. If it gets through that hurdle, the AO (Admin Officer) sends the acknowledgement letter and confirms the date of lodgement.

 

If the AO spots that the application does not comply with Schedule 1 (eg somebody forgot to include payment of the 1st VAC) the AO rejects the application on the ground that it is not a valid application and returns the whole file to the soon-to-be-dejected applicant.

 

Recent acknowledgement letters have given recent (1st July 2008 onwards) applicants to understand that they probably won't hear anything more from the POPC for another year.

 

So sometime in July 2009, these people can expect to hear from a CO. I suspect that the first contact from the CO will say, "I have added you to the Queue on dd/mm/yyyy and I now need you to get your meds and pccs done, please" or it will say, "I note that you have done your meds and pccs and you have been added to the Queue on dd/mm/yyyy. Please now await further instructions from me."

 

Purely a guess, but that is how I would tackle the business, I think.

 

Best wishes

 

Gill

[Guest missymon]

Hi Gill,

 

Thank you so much for your very detailed reply. I will check whether we are in the queue yet .At least if you are right ( which I have no doubt you are)we don't have to worry too much about the house not selling yet. We have to sell the house as we need the money. So we cannot go over on a tourist or student visa while waiting for our CPV as we had hoped. You may remember I am concerned about my stepson's and brother in law's ill health, (who both live in Oz) was our reason for going before our CPV came through but non sale of house is stopping us going just yet.

 

Regards

 

Monica x

[Lanky Lad]

Hi,

 

Currently situation - daughter paid AOS 4/5 weeks ago, CO on hols till 28th Aug.....

 

Last time I looked at the calculator - it seemed alien !

 

Any advise on checking it?

 

( Hi Jill...still plodding on..... its seems only hours since we decided that Aus was the place to be -after we first landed in Sydney 6am 31/12/2003 ! )

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi All

 

After several false starts with the thing, I think I have finally worked out what the Queue Calculator is actually doing. Whether I can explain it coherently to someone else is another matter, however.

 

Please bear in mind that the backlog of Queued applications was at its height on 30th June 2008. On that date, they knew that they had placed some 1,960 CPV 143 applicants in the Queue but could not start granting their visas until the following day.

 

720 of the applicants who were in the CPV 143 Queue on 30th June 2008 were still awaiting their visas on 31st July 2008, plus another 60 were added to the Queue during July, so that by 31st July a total of 780 Queued CPV 143 applicants were still awaiting their Grants.

 

At the beginning of July, the POPC reckoned that it would take them a couple of months to work their way through the backlog of delayed Grants, and they said they hoped to clear the backlog by the end of August 2008.

 

It does look like they are meeting this target. They were able to grant over 1,000 CPV 143s during July 2008, so when they publish the next set of figures, due out on around 20-25th September 2008, they should show a much smaller figure for 30th June 2008 than the 720 currently shown as still being outstanding from 30th June or earlier.

 

Out of that 720 people, some 30 were added to the Queue on or before 31st October 2007. The Table is here:

 

 

 

DATE CPV143

31/10/2007 30 30/11/2007 70

 

31/12/2007 130

31/01/2008 210 29/02/2008 270

31/03/2008 340

30/04/2008 470

31/05/2008 640

30/06/2008 720

31/07/2008 780

 

However, in every case the lodgement date of the CPV application was some 10-12 months before the date on which the Parent was added to the Queue.

 

 

At the moment the POPC estimate that if a CPV 143 application was lodged on 1st July 2008, the applicants can expect to hear from a CO on or around 1st July 2009. The POPC estimate that, on average, it will then be around a further 6 months before all the formalities are completed and the visa is eventually granted.

 

Obviously the POPC will err on the side of caution, so as to avoid raising false hope and so as not to alarm anybody unnecessarily.

 

Nonetheless, please do not muddle the date of lodgement with the date on which your application may have been added to the Queue. Applicants hitherto have not been added to the Queue until after their CO is happy that all the legal requirements for the visa are met including that their meds and pccs have been sent in, processed and cleared. Once all that is done it leaves only completion of the AOS (if required) and payment of the 2nd Instalment before the visa can be granted.

 

 

However until they start telling applicants, "You were added to the Queue on dd/mm/yyyy," figuring out the date on which one was added to the Queue is going to remain no more than very approximate.

 

 

I hope this makes some semblance of sense, and I would put money on the idea that the Table, which looks OK on my screen at the minute, will turn into a formatting disaster as soon as I hit "submit."

 

 

The best way to keep a running tally is going to be to use Excel, I reckon.

 

 

Best wishes

 

 

Gill

[Guest Gollywobbler]

There is no way to format the ruddy thing adequately on here.

 

If anyone wants a copy of the Excel spreadsheet, please send me an e-mail via Poms in Oz. It will not be possible to attach the spreadsheet to a Private Message, I suspect.

 

Gill

xx