jac2011 Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 @hementh most of it is completed just the odd section... We dont want to delay things with a CO so we are tempted to just upload it... I would be driven insane by a CO and a 28 day wait! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mohdrehan82 Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 Hi All, kind of similar condition, I work in abu dhabi and submitted my visa on 28th April, I have a daughter and a son 7.5 & 3 respectively, should I upload my medical & PCC right away or should I be waiting for a month?? any suggestions/recommendations? Rehan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slawka Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 Hi All, kind of similar condition, I work in abu dhabi and submitted my visa on 28th April, I have a daughter and a son 7.5 & 3 respectively, should I upload my medical & PCC right away or should I be waiting for a month?? any suggestions/recommendations? Rehan Hi, If you already have PCC and Medicals I would upload them as you may get direct grant. If you don't have medicals and would like to have longer time to move to AU then I would wait a month or so. Medicals are valid for 12 months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mohdrehan82 Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 Hi, If you already have PCC and Medicals I would upload them as you may get direct grant. If you don't have medicals and would like to have longer time to move to AU then I would wait a month or so. Medicals are valid for 12 months. thanks Slawka, yeah I will not be moving right away after the visa grant, but I definitely dont want to delay the process I have not done my medical & PCC yet planning to get it done but I think I should wait for a month for that thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drn Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 (edited) Hi Guys, Is there anybody who have got case officer assigned ? I have applied on April 14th, and still my application status is showing as "Application received". ACS Skill assessment : 11/04/2014 || PTE exam result : 26/01/2015 || EOI Submitted: 17/02/2015 || Invitation : 27/02/2015 || PCC : 20/02/2015 || Visa lodge : 14/04/2015 || CO : : ???? || Grant : ???? Edited May 14, 2015 by drn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Louise Warwick Posted May 14, 2015 Share Posted May 14, 2015 I'm really starting to think if this is really going to be worth it. Not had the best week. My visa agent was wrong about how my husband gets a provisional licence as an electrician in Australia and it now turns out that he needs to get his skills assessed, (I'm the main visa applicant and we was told that he didn't need to do this) at a cost of £1500. Rung to book our medicals today and was surprised that they are going to cost us £1000 and to top it off had to pay out £800 to hire a car for the next two months as our car died last weekend. On the other hand at least things are starting to move along. I suppose it's natural to wonder if we've done the right thing when your spending such a large amount of money to somewhere we've never been before. I just wondered if anyone else is having any doubts now it's starting to get closer and the money is adding up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slawka Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 Hi Louise, Have you claimed additional 5 points for your husbands skills? If yes you need this assessment. I had similar situation but my agent told me that if I want to claim points for my husbands skills he must be assessed so I drop this idea as I still had enough points. I was living in Perth for two years and believe me it is worth to spend this money to live in amazing country with great outdoor live style :cool: I'm really starting to think if this is really going to be worth it. Not had the best week. My visa agent was wrong about how my husband gets a provisional licence as an electrician in Australia and it now turns out that he needs to get his skills assessed, (I'm the main visa applicant and we was told that he didn't need to do this) at a cost of £1500. Rung to book our medicals today and was surprised that they are going to cost us £1000 and to top it off had to pay out £800 to hire a car for the next two months as our car died last weekend. On the other hand at least things are starting to move along. I suppose it's natural to wonder if we've done the right thing when your spending such a large amount of money to somewhere we've never been before. I just wondered if anyone else is having any doubts now it's starting to get closer and the money is adding up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Louise Warwick Posted May 15, 2015 Share Posted May 15, 2015 No Slawka, the assessment is not for any points but only so that he can can be an electrician in Australia and even then he has to go back to college. It's just that since we started the visa process they have changed how electricians from outside Australia register. It makes me feel a bit better thinking that you actually lived there for two years and loved it. What made you choose Perth? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M005 Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 Medicals booked for 28th May, PCC forms uploaded now and resigned from my job yesterday (3 month notice period) - this just got very real Hoping to leave for Brisbane ~15th September. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jac2011 Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 @M005 we leave on the 16th :-) Well I bloody hope so anyway haha! It is getting scary now, keep having an 'OMG' moment realising that this is no longer a dream. My husband still feels like it is too far away though and wishes time would go faster. I am realising how many of our possessions we need to get rid of yet... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jac2011 Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 30th March applicants have been granted a few visas... This could potentially mean the start of the April grants next week.... Good luck everyone! Do we have any early April applicants around? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingPrawn Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 I am realising how many of our possessions we need to get rid of yet... We spent the summer of 2013 attending car boot sales, advertising on the local Facebook for sale page, donating to charity and allowing my brother to pretty much take the entire contents of our kitchen (except white goods) to get rid of our stuff before we moved over to Hong Kong. It really is so strange but mentally moving to Hong Kong initially has meant that now (potentially - fingers crossed) moving onto Australia hasn't seemed to be a big deal. I think if we'd gone straight from UK to Australia it would have been far more emotional and daunting. My current problem is trying to decide whether to live in either Adelaide, Melbourne or Brisbane. I mean, really...just how to you chose just one place in Australia to live? Unfortunately, I have to wait for a CO to be allocated and receive a request for a HK PCC in order to apply for the PCC and then it's a 4 week wait for them to confirm that I'm a good boy! So I guess you'll receive your grant a long time before I do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jac2011 Posted May 16, 2015 Share Posted May 16, 2015 I'm sure it wont be too far afterwards. I wish you luck! The cities are all so lovely, I was the same for years. However once I set my mind on QLD it really helped me narrow down my search. We chose QLD for the greenery mainly. It appeared the greenest and sunniest state. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M005 Posted May 17, 2015 Share Posted May 17, 2015 @jac2011 - fingers crossed we get the grants soon. What made you decide on Townsville? Know what you mean about getting rid of stuff; we've had several sorting out weekends and my Dad is down to visit this weekend and is going back with a car full of stuff and has already got his name on other stuff like the mower, chainsaw etc before we leave. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jac2011 Posted May 17, 2015 Share Posted May 17, 2015 Townsville to me was not as touristy, it had good priced housing. We could afford a 4 bed house and pool in one of the more sought after areas for $500k. The healthcare is well known for being fantastic. The hospital there have kept in touch with me for 18 months prior to offering me the job to see if I wanted a job there. Good schools, people say the weather is perfect, not as wet as Cairns but still has hot weather through winter (extremely hot though for 3 months a year). 3 good sized out of town retail parks. Some amazing restaurants in the CBD that are known as being the best in Australia. And finally Magnetic Island is only a 20 minute ferry ride away. We would be looking eventually for a holiday home which we would rent out for 6 months a year. To us we can get that at a good price on Magnetic Island and it will provide us with somewhere we can escape to on weekends when it is empty. We love watersports and have the option to kayak or paddleboard 12 months a year. We like the greeness of the gardens and the landscape (which we know is due to the tropical rainfall at times). We like watching storms and therefore this negative will not be an issue. We want to buy a newbuild and we know they are built to withstand most the natural disasters. You can access most of the city within 20 minutes and the traffic is rarely an issue. These were all positives for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingPrawn Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 (edited) Bad news from the March applicants thread: Just been on the phone to Adelaide CO's about my early March application, was told there are no places left so may not get looked at again until July the 1st. Basically had a points issue that has been sorted but our application appears to have gone to the back of the queue. Contacted GSM Adelaide today. I was told about the possibility of my visa application to be put on hold until July as all the places have been filled. I do hope this is just for certain occupations hitting the ceiling! Edited May 18, 2015 by KingPrawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingPrawn Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Ok - it does look like it's bad news: GP here, 70 points currently working in Oz on a 457. I got the feeling it was across the board rather than an occupational limit. It is not about any specific occupation but applies to all GSM applicants. As there is a certain number of places which has been reached. I applied with 75 points as a social worker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithjed Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Hi Guys, just reading about the visas being put on hold until July...does this mean no more invitations? or no visas being granted? Also how do you get informed that you are invited to apply? Kind regards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slawka Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Hi Louise, I was sent on assignment to Perth so it wasn't my choice but now I really would like to move there. During those two years in Oz we travelled a lot, we have been in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and I still prefer to leave in Perth. I agree with some opinions that this is most remoted city and it is quite small however Perth develop very quickly therefore most of the city is modern and new. It is also very clean and have best beaches I have ever been! In my opinion better then Sydney or Cairns or Port Douglas and eaven Los Angeles. This is also best city for active families They have over 600km bike routes and you can get on bike everywhere. We didn't have car during our two years there we used bikes and when we needed to go further we just rented one. Oh Gosh I miss this city. So fingers crossed that bad news from March thread will not be as bad.... No Slawka, the assessment is not for any points but only so that he can can be an electrician in Australia and even then he has to go back to college. It's just that since we started the visa process they have changed how electricians from outside Australia register. It makes me feel a bit better thinking that you actually lived there for two years and loved it. What made you choose Perth? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Mate S Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Allocation dates for General Skilled Migration applications Allocation dates for General Skilled Migration applications General Skilled Migration (GSM) processing centres allocate applications; in accordance with priority processing arrangements; to meet the Migration Programme planning levels set by the government. The Migration Programme planning level for the Skilled Nominated category now has limited number of places left for the 2014-15 programme year. This means processing times will be longer and that once the remaining places are used, the Department cannot grant further visas in this category during this programme year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slawka Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 Guys, I know that some people wrote about problems however, in report we can see that few grants were issued for applications from end of March. We have to stay positive and be patient ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan ogorman Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 (edited) Hi guys got my visa grant today I applied on March 12th good luck everyone Edited May 18, 2015 by Dan ogorman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingPrawn Posted May 18, 2015 Share Posted May 18, 2015 The tracker is now showing COs allocated today to two April applicants lodged on 2nd and 7th April! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adonjio Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 Hi Kingprawn, I applied on the same day you did: 10th April. I'm on a WHV (417) and currently teaching in a Remote Secondary School. Because of my visa conditions, I'm only allowed to work for 6months for the school, although they are extremely keen to have me staying forever... Issue is that my contract goes up to end of July, and I cannot renew my contract until I get a grant for 189. My bridging visa is absolutely useless in my situation, because it doesn't give me full work rights until February 2016, when my WHV expires. I've heard that you can request an extension of workrights, but you have to submit this to the CO. Well, how on earth can I do that if I don't get assigned a CO until July? This puts me in a terrible situation with regard to the school who are starting to fret, even more than me... Hopefully, I will get a CO some times before the end of this month, otherwise, we both parties are stuffed. I'm trying hard not to think about this scenario though. The tracker is now showing COs allocated today to two April applicants lodged on 2nd and 7th April! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingPrawn Posted May 19, 2015 Share Posted May 19, 2015 (edited) Hi adonjio! I'm hoping that COs will continue to be allocated and work on applications but stop when each reaches the grant stage. It is just a hope though as I'm not an expert or even moderately knowledgable about such matters. I guess we'll see in the next few days if/when the tracker's updated with further COs being allocated. However, given that one has been allocated for an applicant who applied just 3 days before us, I guess we'll be amongst the first to know! Good luck with your situation!! Hi Kingprawn, I applied on the same day you did: 10th April. I'm on a WHV (417) and currently teaching in a Remote Secondary School. Because of my visa conditions, I'm only allowed to work for 6months for the school, although they are extremely keen to have me staying forever... Issue is that my contract goes up to end of July, and I cannot renew my contract until I get a grant for 189. My bridging visa is absolutely useless in my situation, because it doesn't give me full work rights until February 2016, when my WHV expires. I've heard that you can request an extension of workrights, but you have to submit this to the CO. Well, how on earth can I do that if I don't get assigned a CO until July? This puts me in a terrible situation with regard to the school who are starting to fret, even more than me... Hopefully, I will get a CO some times before the end of this month, otherwise, we both parties are stuffed. I'm trying hard not to think about this scenario though. Edited May 19, 2015 by KingPrawn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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