Guest pippa1 Posted December 3, 2009 Share Posted December 3, 2009 Hi Gill With regards to your quote; When there are 3 times as many applications for offshore GSM visas as there are for onshore ones and only about 60.000 GSM visas are likely to be granted in any one year, I think the processing dates make sense. Would you agree? My concern is that they will not start to work on cat 6 onshore applicants until all cat 5 offshore are cleared and as higher priority applications are always being received when will they ever start on lower priorities? Even though there may only be 30 000 on shore applicants, there appears to only be 'one' queue, so I don't understand how they can differentiate between the two! This whole situation is driving me crazy :arghh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gollywobbler Posted December 3, 2009 Share Posted December 3, 2009 Hi Gill With regards to your quote; When there are 3 times as many applications for offshore GSM visas as there are for onshore ones and only about 60.000 GSM visas are likely to be granted in any one year, I think the processing dates make sense. Would you agree? My concern is that they will not start to work on cat 6 onshore applicants until all cat 5 offshore are cleared and as higher priority applications are always being received when will they ever start on lower priorities? Even though there may only be 30 000 on shore applicants, there appears to only be 'one' queue, so I don't understand how they can differentiate between the two! This whole situation is driving me crazy :arghh: Hi Pippa I understand your arguments completely. However the Minister likes his new pecking order and there is nothing that any of the rest of us can do about that. DIAC will start to process Category 6 applications as soon as all the applications in Categories 1-5 have been allocated to COs and are therefore under control. DIAC are unable to say when this will happen. However they can be relied on to make a start on Cat 6 as soon as they possibly can. They are under immense pressure to deliver 108,100 skilled visas by no later than 30th June 2010. At the meeting in London we were told that the Minister and senior DIAC staff will start to consider the size of the migrant intake for 2010/2011 from about early March 2010 and the total for the coming year will be announced in the Federal Budget, which will be released in mid-May 2010. If the Aussie economy is performing well in the first 1/4 to 1/2 of the 2010 calendar year, the Minister might decide to increase the number of skilled visas that he is willing to offer during the 2010/2011 Aussie financial year. It is not in the Australian Government's own interests to have visa applicants kept dangling and it is particularly not in the Government's interests to have skilled applicants for onshore GSM visas hanging about on Bridging Visas, often doing work which unskilled Australians could be doing instead. That is no good for the unskilled Aussies - for whom it will be compulsory to vote in the forthcoming elections. It is no good for the Bridging Visa holders either because they are being denied the chance to practice their recently learned skills. It is no blinking use to the Government to be forced to give the BV holders skilled visas so late in the day that all that the new visa holders will be fit for is a lifetime of unskilled, poorly paid work if they decide to remain in Australia. I understand that you have recently trained as a Cook? I recall that you are family sponsored because the State that you wish to settle in, with your family, does not offer subclass 886 sponsorship to Cooks? Would you be willing to consider moving to one of the States which would consider sponsoring you? You would only have to commit yourself to 24 months in the sponsoring State, which is not a life sentence. If you are willing to elevate yourself to Category 5, you will get a visa sooner than is likely if you choose to remain in Cat 6 so in your shoes I would consider seeking this compromise cure. Cheers Gill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pippa1 Posted December 3, 2009 Share Posted December 3, 2009 Hi Gill No I am not a cook, I am a vocational teacher and work at TAFE!! I can't even cook... I am lucky to have secured a job on a temporary contract as a teacher and have been there about 16months now! No state sponsors vocational teachers ,so moving is not really an option It is so frustrating as I am in employment yet can't get an ENS:arghh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jains005 Posted December 3, 2009 Share Posted December 3, 2009 Hi jains The MIA have been told that in their efforts to clear the backlog of Category 5 applications, DIAC will give priority to the Cat 5 applications where a Case Officer has requested meds and pccs. The statement means what it says. You say that you frontloaded your meds on the advice of your agent, not at the request of your CO? Did your agent supply everything else that your CO wanted, please? If you are not sure, I would suggest that you double check about this. Cheers Gill yes Gill, I frontloaded my meds on the advice of my agent, not at the request of CO. My agent has supplied everything else that CO wanted. that is my specific work experience letter. thank you Jains Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SAC Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 Dear Fellow PIO members,Apologies for the delay in sticking some news on the site, but I have had some snags loggin on. Anyway 5 of us went to Australia House and met with Mr.Wilden. After all of the worries/concerns we have all been experiencing I would like to add I feel a lot happier after having a chat with this guy. The first thing I would like to state is the following; Mr.Wilden has confirmed that the 3500 cases they are dealing with are non-CSL CAT5 State sponsored applications, so that is applictions, not applicants. he also hastened to stress that there was no ommission of Trades from the process. His team were also keen to emphasis that they had worked through the CSL's and were now dealing with CAT5 aaplications. In terms of the 2012 statement by the Mr.Evans for off-shore GSM applicants, that ws a forecast date at that time, which they would appear to be suggesting will improve. Whether this has an impact on those who lodged pre-23rd Sept I am not certain. Mr.Wilden stated that as this is now set on the Website, it provides a more accurate timeline for applicants now wishing to lodge for a visa. The issue of Meds & Police checks was raised. I was under the impression that these were not to be carried out until requested by DIAC, but I forgot that once we all lodge our applications, it is stated as a requirement for the visas. Mr.Wilden has stated that he will investigate on our behalf to ensure that future correspondence states that Meds & Police checks should only be carried out when requested by DIAC during the further information process. It was also highlighted that those of us with letters for further evidence of Meds & Police checks have completed this action only for the 12 months to expire, found this to be highly unfair and a request should only be made when DIAC are in a position to potentially issue a visa. Mr.Wilden understood our concern and will look into this issue. Gill also raised the issue regarding dependants and the concerns where a child reaches the age where dependancy could be questioned. In a nutshell the normal or guide for cut off is 18 years of age, however if a child is in full time education, then they could be deemed to be a dependant. He stated that if a child is adult enough to go to full time work then they may not be totally dependant. After leaving the meeting I wondered about this and thought does this include those on apprenticeships? There were other points raised which included family sponsorship and CAT6 applicants. Perhaps one of the others at the meeting could mention about families, but Mr.Wilden and his colleagues did promise to look into CAT6 applications and try and provide a realistic timescale for processing. On the whole I think the meeting went well. Mr Wilden certainly seems a very sincere person and his colleagues were sympathetic to our plight. he is happy to answer any questions any of us have for him. To ensure that this goodwill is not exhausted, it maybe an idea if we have a thread for general questions and if there are any which are case specific then Mr.Wilden said he would be happy to make representation for any applicants requiring his help. He has promised to help, but cannot promise to provide the answers we are hoping for, and there maybe some of us who will be disappointed. However I hasten to add that Mr.Wilden has stated that the powers that be do look at forums such as this one to see how sentiment is running and he is keen to stress that yes they have done some things badly, but they are trying to put this right and he is aware that it is peoples lives they are dealing with and the impact that these recent events has had. Sorry, before I forget the issue of refunds was raised. Mr.Wilden has informed us that the Minister is aware that there maybe some of us who may want to withdraw our applications due to the revised timescales. This is being looked into by the Minister, but these things take time as it will involve dialogue with other government depts. Those of us expecting refunds for Meds & Police checks etc, unfortunately, there is no chance of any refund. Anyway there you have it, there were other issues raised. Hopefully others in the group could fill in the gaps or correct me if I have made an incorrect statement. Good luck everyone RonnieRocket Has there been any update from Mr. Wilden regrading the Cat-6 family sponsored applicants as mentioned above? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
watneyni Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 Hi Cat 6 POI'ers "Has there been any update from Mr. Wilden regrading the Cat-6 family sponsored applicants as mentioned above? " In short, No. However, Mr Wilden. sent me an email last week regarding the meeting we had with him at Australia House and the CAT 6 question we posed.. . ".... we have sent about 40 requests for updates on cases and the long list of actions from the meeting so it may take a few weeks. " So nothing yet, however, when I get updates, this forum will be immediately updated. Thanks Nick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest chrissy990 Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 Hi We're a Cat6 family sponsored and David Wilden has told us 'your application is in Category 6 and currently no applications from this category are likely to be processed this program year (to June 2010).' He then advised us to try to get state sponsorship to move up to category 5. We have decided to enjoy Christmas first and then think about our next move in January. I was very grateful to David Wilden for his prompt reply and felt that he does care about the situation we have all found ourselves in. Here's hoping we will get our visas eventually!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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