ozzy81uk Posted August 17, 2008 Share Posted August 17, 2008 Hi everyone, I have started the visa application online for the 176 skilled sponsored visa. I have my 'positive' skills assessment, my Queenlsland sponsorship letter and I have even recieved confirmation for an ARTC, which I'll get when i arrive. Ive read through the forums about online apps and read a mixed bag of experiences. Some of you guys seem to be waiting ages whereas most of you seem to have the visa granted within 4-5 months of submitting it! is this right? Im trying to get an idea of how long it will take as I want to move back to the UK to work before it gets granted, but not too soon. Can I finish the application although I'm waiting on a few more documents? can these be added at a later date (literally just a few weeks) or should I wait until everything is finalised and do it then?? Is it wise to get our police checks and our medicals sent now? before they are requested? to save time. Or will they look at the date of the checks and medicals? I suppose if they are still valid the date they are done doesn't matter does it? Secondly, how many of you have done the IELTS test? If you hold a british passport you are exempt from doing it, but I was 'reccommeded' to do it anyway, will it make a difference? My girlfriend has to do it as she's german but i was hoping to save myself the costs. Some of the questions on the online visa are a bit odd, for instance, detailing the countries you have been in for 12 months or more for the last 10 years, if you are still there you cannot click 'to present' or something, i had to enter yesterdays date for it to be accepted. Any ideas? Also, where was my 'working holiday visa' processed (which I had in 2003-2004), i did online on the immi.gov.au website, what should I enter for that? My girlfriend is coming with me, and as I said she's german. She will obviously need to get her certificates etc translated to work over there but does anyone know if she will also need some kind of skills assessment for when she's over there for her qualifications to be accepted? She did an apprenticeship as an office clerk and also has a certificate as a cosmetician (beauty therapist). Any help or ideas will be greatly appreciated!! OK I think i've babbled enough! Any replies no matter how short would be great! :err: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gollywobbler Posted August 17, 2008 Share Posted August 17, 2008 Hello there Welcome to Poms in Oz. You have quite a shopping list of questions and I am not at all sure I can answer them all, but I'll help where I can. Ive read through the forums about online apps and read a mixed bag of experiences. Some of you guys seem to be waiting ages whereas most of you seem to have the visa granted within 4-5 months of submitting it! is this right? Im trying to get an idea of how long it will take as I want to move back to the UK to work before it gets granted, but not too soon. Mmmmmm. I'm not sure, but I think most of the 176 applicants using Agents are expecting to wait around 6-7 months from start to finish with the actual visa applications. Can I finish the application although I'm waiting on a few more documents? can these be added at a later date (literally just a few weeks) or should I wait until everything is finalised and do it then?? Which documents are you short of? You need to be VERY careful about this, because of something called Schedule 1. Bascially, this Schedule 1 lists the documents that MUST be included at the outset in order for the application to be a valid application. If the application is not valid because one of the vital documents is missing, DIAC will decline to accept the application. They just reject everythng, including the fee, leaving you to start all over again. If the missing document is not a Schedule 1 requirement, it can be added at a later date and its initial absence will not render the application invalid. But I haven't a clue what Schedule 1 actually says. I've never read it myself. I'm not completely convinced by the Checklist for the paper-based 176, but it is a better guide than nothing: http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/pdf/176_checklist.pdf I think the Checklist is a mixture of Schedule 1 necessity and DIAC's wish list for an easy life for themselves, frankly. I'm pretty sure I'm right about that, but I'm not a migration agent so I am not prepared to guess at which is which. If it were me, I would make sure that everything on the Checklist is present and ready for attachment before I - personally - would submit the application. My own instinct would be to wait until I could include everything on the checklist in one go. Otherwise the application could easily become bitty, messy and disjointed, potentially causing a processing delay if nothing else. Bear in mind that somebody who is rushed off their feet is going to have to cope with inputs from you. If yours is the Horror File that nobody wants to touch because it is such a mess, human instinct will be to avoid it like the plague for as long as is humanly possible. I don't think you will do yourself any favours at all if you submit a half-complete application. Is it wise to get our police checks and our medicals sent now? before they are requested? to save time. Or will they look at the date of the checks and medicals? I suppose if they are still valid the date they are done doesn't matter does it? No it is NOT wise, and it is even less wise if you are intent on inflicting a Horror File on DIAC! The meds and police checks only have a shelf-life of a year. A good 5 months at least is likely to elapse before a Case Officer makes contact with you. If s/he then has to try to get a Horror File into shape, that will take further months because the CO will not have time to go back to your file every day, or even as soon as you send in another piece of whatever is needed. Plus we are now into the second half of the year. Between mid-December and about early February, the ASPC creaks along with only about 50% of its normal staff complement in the building on any given day because that period coincides with the long summer school holidays out in Oz. Consequently staff are away on annual leave and so forth. This alone tends to cause visa processing to slow down. The CO will not grant your visa if it would mean insisting that you rush to Australia within 6 weeks of the grant in order to validate your visas within 12 months of the date of the earlier of the police checks or the meds. Instead, the CO will insist that you get the meds and police checks re-done, and there will then be further delay whilst they are done, sent to Sydney, processed there, the results sent to Adelaide and so forth. Continued in a second reply Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gollywobbler Posted August 17, 2008 Share Posted August 17, 2008 Secondly, how many of you have done the IELTS test? If you hold a british passport you are exempt from doing it, but I was 'reccommeded' to do it anyway, will it make a difference? My girlfriend has to do it as she's german but i was hoping to save myself the costs. If you hold a British passport, you are deemed to have "competent" English, which gets you 15 points. If you do the IELTS and you score 7.0 or above in each of the modules, then your English is deemed to be "proficient" which is worth an extra 10 points, taking your total number of points for English to 25. Do you need the extra 10 points? If not, why bother with the IELTS? I have not done it, but I have read the website for it. Here is a description of the day by a migration agent who sat the IELTS in 2007. Scroll down till you find the description: News - Australia Migration Associates Ltd You have a choice about your girlfriend. Either she sits the IELTS and gets at least 4.5 in each of the modules, or you pay the second visa application charge instead. I assume you have decided to try to save the 2nd VAC? If so, how good is her English, please, do you reckon? Have you both studied the IELTS website and some practice material? If not, it might be an idea to do that, I suggest. Some of the questions on the online visa are a bit odd, for instance, detailing the countries you have been in for 12 months or more for the last 10 years, if you are still there you cannot click 'to present' or something, i had to enter yesterdays date for it to be accepted. Any ideas? This question cropped up on here the other day and SOMV (a migration agent, which I'm not) answered it for the person concerned. Very cleverly, I thought. SOMV said to give it a daft date which is wrong. Then complete and send Form 1023 (Notification of Incorrect Answers) confirming the correct date and explaining that the only way to get the on-line form to work was to give it a date that was wrong. http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/1023.pdf Therefore I would suggest that you tell it you left Germany the day after you arrived there. That is obviously wrong because it doesn't amount to 12 months. If the machine won't accept that, tell it the day after the first anniverary of your arrival in Germany, because that looks good & peculiar as well. This sort of nonsense is one of the "features" of the new forms, unfortunately. Also, where was my 'working holiday visa' processed (which I had in 2003-2004), i did online on the immi.gov.au website, what should I enter for that? Tell it "Australia." If it demands that you are more specific, put "Hobart". Hobart Global Processing Centre God knows whether the Hobart Global Processing Centre was dealing with WHM visas back in 2003/4 but apparently it is now, so that will do. If they really want to know the answer to this question that badly, they will just have to work it out for themselves. Stupid questions of this sort are another "feature" of visa application forms, both the paper and the electronic versions, frankly. My girlfriend is coming with me, and as I said she's german. She will obviously need to get her certificates etc translated to work over there but does anyone know if she will also need some kind of skills assessment for when she's over there for her qualifications to be accepted? It will depend on what job she does. She wouldn't need a skills assessment to work in an admin role in an office. I shouldn't think a cosmetician can do much damage to somebody's face simply by applying makeup, but if she is going to be involved in the chemical skin-peeling thing (which looks extremely dangerous to me) or giving Botox injections, I would think she would need a big wedge of safety certificates and if not, then I would want to know why not. Best wishes Gill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozzy81uk Posted August 20, 2008 Author Share Posted August 20, 2008 If you hold a British passport, you are deemed to have "competent" English, which gets you 15 points. If you do the IELTS and you score 7.0 or above in each of the modules, then your English is deemed to be "proficient" which is worth an extra 10 points, taking your total number of points for English to 25. Do you need the extra 10 points? If not, why bother with the IELTS? I have not done it, but I have read the website for it. Here is a description of the day by a migration agent who sat the IELTS in 2007. Scroll down till you find the description: News - Australia Migration Associates Ltd You have a choice about your girlfriend. Either she sits the IELTS and gets at least 4.5 in each of the modules, or you pay the second visa application charge instead. I assume you have decided to try to save the 2nd VAC? If so, how good is her English, please, do you reckon? Have you both studied the IELTS website and some practice material? If not, it might be an idea to do that, I suggest. This question cropped up on here the other day and SOMV (a migration agent, which I'm not) answered it for the person concerned. Very cleverly, I thought. SOMV said to give it a daft date which is wrong. Then complete and send Form 1023 (Notification of Incorrect Answers) confirming the correct date and explaining that the only way to get the on-line form to work was to give it a date that was wrong. http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/1023.pdf Therefore I would suggest that you tell it you left Germany the day after you arrived there. That is obviously wrong because it doesn't amount to 12 months. If the machine won't accept that, tell it the day after the first anniverary of your arrival in Germany, because that looks good & peculiar as well. This sort of nonsense is one of the "features" of the new forms, unfortunately. Tell it "Australia." If it demands that you are more specific, put "Hobart". Hobart Global Processing Centre God knows whether the Hobart Global Processing Centre was dealing with WHM visas back in 2003/4 but apparently it is now, so that will do. If they really want to know the answer to this question that badly, they will just have to work it out for themselves. Stupid questions of this sort are another "feature" of visa application forms, both the paper and the electronic versions, frankly. It will depend on what job she does. She wouldn't need a skills assessment to work in an admin role in an office. I shouldn't think a cosmetician can do much damage to somebody's face simply by applying makeup, but if she is going to be involved in the chemical skin-peeling thing (which looks extremely dangerous to me) or giving Botox injections, I would think she would need a big wedge of safety certificates and if not, then I would want to know why not. Best wishes Gill Wow, I wasn't expecting all my questions to get answered, let alone from one person! A lot of helpful info in there. Many many thanks! :spinny: I came across a few more questions that I'm still unsure about. One of them is the question about the countries I have resided in for 12 months or more in the last 10 years. Basically quite simple but i spent exactly 12 months in Australia on a working holiday visa. So technically it was just a holiday, I only had a fixed address for 3 months, the rest of the time was spent at hostels or campsites. Do i need to include this in that section? The question about the 3 years experience in the last 4 years (for the 175/176 visa). I don't need the points as im going for the 176 sponsored visa, I have Queensland sponsorship and want to move there anyway, so applying for the extra points for english and work experience is not neccessary. The question is should i put down all the infomation about my three years experience anyway if i dont need the experience points, or will that just slow things down? However the visa im going for does require recent work experience and to evidence it, work references. For my skills assessment for migration i used a statutory declaration instead of a reference as i was/am reluctant to approach my employer about a reference. Im doing the same for the visa along with plenty of third party evidence, I hope this is sufficient for a visa application? look forward to any answers Danny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gollywobbler Posted August 21, 2008 Share Posted August 21, 2008 Hi Danny One of them is the question about the countries I have resided in for 12 months or more in the last 10 years. Basically quite simple but i spent exactly 12 months in Australia on a working holiday visa. So technically it was just a holiday, I only had a fixed address for 3 months, the rest of the time was spent at hostels or campsites. Do i need to include this in that section? The only relevant thing about this is that DIAC will probably want you to produce a Police check from the Australian Federal Police: Character Requirement - Applications & Forms National Police Checks - AFP Form 80 makes the requirement a bit clearer. The AFP can be very slow, therefore I would be inclined to get a police check from them in plenty of time. DIAC can ignore it if they decide they don't need it. The question about the 3 years experience in the last 4 years (for the 175/176 visa).I don't need the points as im going for the 176 sponsored visa, I have Queensland sponsorship and want to move there anyway, so applying for the extra points for english and work experience is not neccessary. The question is should i put down all the infomation about my three years experience anyway if i dont need the experience points, or will that just slow things down? I doubt that it would make any difference either way. Since you are not using an Agent, I think I would be inclined to claim the work-experience points anyway and prove the experience, just in case you have under-estimated your points elsewhere. Also, if claiming the extra points would take your total to 120 without the 10 points for State Nomination, DIAC will consider your application against the criteria for the 175 visa as well as for the 176 visa. If you turn out to have the necessary points, DIAC would grant you a 175 vsa instead of a 176. Therefore personally I would use overkill on this bit but not for the IELTS as well unless you decide to have a bash at the IELTS as well and you reach the required score of 7.0 or above in each of the 4 Modules. However the visa im going for does require recent work experience and to evidence it, work references. For my skills assessment for migration i used a statutory declaration instead of a reference as i was/am reluctant to approach my employer about a reference. Im doing the same for the visa along with plenty of third party evidence, I hope this is sufficient for a visa application? Mmmmm. Dunno. I'm not a migration agent so I have no hands-on experience with this question and I am not prepared to hazard a guess about it. Sorry, but I think it is too risky for me to do nothing more than guess about this query. Best wishes Gill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozzy81uk Posted September 18, 2008 Author Share Posted September 18, 2008 Hi Gill, Regarding the 'wrong answer' form on the visa. You said I should put in a silly date and then fill out the form with the correct dates and an explanation of why its wrong etc. Is there no online form for this or do i have to print out the form, fill it out and then scan and attach with my other documents? p.s. ive finally scanned in all my docs! all as pdf apart from 4 pics that are jpg's and they are all under 1000kb. With this wrong answer form i have a total of 53 files! from a possible 60! close one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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