Category 5 News

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi All

 

At the meeting with David Wilden at Australia House today, we were told as follows:

 

All the applications in hand from people in Categories 1 - 4 as listed in the FAQ of 23rd September 2009 are now under control.

 

DIAC estimate that there are about 3,500 applications in Category 5 - that is, State sponsored but the main applicant's occupation is not on the CSL. Mr Wilden has been told that DIAC are now in a position to make a start on processing the Cat 5 applications.

 

 

 

Mr Wilden said as follows:

 

• Roughly 3,500 is the number of actual visa applications, not the number of people involved. (I checked this with him specifically and he was definite about it.)
  
• They will start to process the Cat 5s according to the dates when the visa applications were lodged and they will deal with the oldest applications first.
  
• They will make no distinctions between the different visa subclasses - first come, first served means what it implies in a situation where the occupation is not on the CSL but the applicant does have State sponsorship.
  
• There is no foundation to the rumour that tradies may be excluded from Cat 5 processing - the tradies are to be treated identically to people whose occupations are in ASCO Groups 1-3.
  

Mr Wilden said that we have had him up late at night and out of bed before the birds in order to phone his colleagues in Australia to discover exactly what the plans are for the Category 5s because he had seen from Poms in Oz that everyone is particularly worried about this question in particular.

 

Mr WIlden stressed that he cannot say how long it will take to clear the backlog of about 3,500 Cat 5 applications. As & when they receive further applications from people with greater claim to priority, the applications with greater priority will be dealt with first.

 

The Famous Five were all PiO members (DanB1, Floater, Gollywobbler, RonnieRocket and Watneyni to put us in alphabetical order.) We were all sitting round the same table with Mr Wilden and we all heard him say exactly the same things. (Needless to say we repaired to a London hostelry afterwards to compare notes - thanks very much indeed to Watneyni for very kindly buying a round of drinks for us all.)

 

We were joined unexpectedly by a very helpful young man called Andrew. He has worked at the ASPC for a while but he is now in the UK, working with John Adams RMA at Immigration2Oz.com Andrew is not a PiO member [yet] but I am trying to encourage him/twist his arm! Andrew was involved with this part of the discussion so he heard Mr Wilden as well.

 

That they can't say how long it will take to clear the 3,500 or so Cat 5 applications is reasonable enough. Mr Wilden promised to find out how many of the 108,100 skilled PR & Provisional visas for 2009/10 have been granted as at 30th November 2009 and he said he will let us know as soon as he knows. Once we have that figure it will probably be possible to start making reasonably sensible guesses.

 

After the meeting the Famous Five agreed that this information is probably the most significant piece of info from today and that we would get it onto the forum with all possible speed, in its own thread to make it stand out.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest Mach]

Thanks again to all of you... Job well done!

[Guest proud2beaussie]

Thanks for the update Gill,hopefully this latest news means that at least some of the members affected by the 23/9 debacle will be able to have a happy christmas after all.

Thanks to everyone who gave their time to attend the meeting.

[Guest sc80]

Hi,

 

I have always been reading the news here, although I did not register. However I am very touched and grateful for what Gill (and the rest of the famous 5) did today and I felt I should at least reveal myself as one of those cat 5 hopeful.

 

Many thanks...

[Guest kasper]

thanks gill your a star x

[Guest sforbes]

Hi Gill and the rest of the fab five

 

I just want to say a huge thank you for all your efforts.

 

I think you are all deserving of a massive round of applause from all of us fellow cat 5's.

 

Thanks a million

[Guest sabink]

Thanks alot all, top job

[Guest guest33730]

Gill,

 

I will happily buy you and the others a drink if and when I meet you!! - Well done!

 

As well as the immediate issues it seems that you may have built a pathway for future discussion and raised the profile of PIO so well done on that front as well!!

 

Daniel

[TraceyT 359]

To the Famous Five,

Huge thanks to you all, it is fantastic news that you have brought us, Christmas has come early in my house. Just knowing that they are looking at our category now has made me stop pannicking. It is nice to see DIAC acting in a fair manner, by not excluding tradies & processing in date order.

Cheers guys.

Tracey xxxxx

[calNgary 9,130]

Great to see you got some real answers,, well done the Famous Five and thank you Gill for taking time to organise this and fight on behalf of so many PIO members.

 

Cal x

[Guest bebac30]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

[Guest GillianM]

Hi, and well done xx Can i ask what about the people who already had COs and all docs met? I just wonder how long it will take to get Co again?

 

Gillian x

[Guest ozzieandlea]

Great work Gill & famous five gang. We really appreciate all the hard work you guy's have put into setting up the meeting and getting some answers to our questions. Hopefully some more positive news from DIAC will follow and we may get an early christmas present.

Once again thank you all sooooo much for all your hard work

Ozzie & Lea

[Guest adso1404]

Dear Famous Five,

 

Thank you so much for your efforts, even if I'm not really affected by the good news. Unfortunately, I'm in group seven (non-sponsored, non-CSL, non-MODL, i.e. just SOL). Anybody's got an idea of what our prospects are? A tiny glimmer of hope would be sooooo welcome...

 

Thanks.

Alex

[RonnieRocket0 488]

Hi Gill,

 

If it helps anyone, I have posted my 'report' of our visit under the Protest Visit thread.

I was more concerned with posting some news and unfortunately did not set a new thread

Kind regards

 

Ronnie R

[Guest KatyNick]

Thank you Gill and the Famous 5. I will definately be raising a glass of wine to you all!! THANK YOU. I'm so relieved that Tradies have not been excluded.

[Diz 294]

THANK YOU X X :cute:

[Carlos fandango 170]

Well done to all the guys who gave their own time to represent every one who is knocked back by the 23rd sept changes. I am a cat 5 - tradie and have been reading with much interest the posts of this thread as well as the other related thread. I'm still waiting for W.A.sponsorship and then will make my visa application(looking like new year now) so this information is very relevant and interesting....

 

Again....Well done to all the guys.....

 

Carlos fandango

[topturner 10]

Very big thankyou to the famous five for a job well done!!:notworthy:

[McKlaut 1,455]

Thank you all!!! :hug:

 

So happy to get a bit of positive news!

 

So, are we back in pre 23/09 time when SS and CSL were processed at the same time and SS was not in limbo?

[Guest LisaG]

Hi Gill.

 

Thank you so much for all your efforts this is great news thanks for bringing us mushrooms into the light!

 

I do have one question regarding them processing visa's in cat 5 in the order they were lodged, I originally applied for 175 in May and then changed to 176 in September which lodgement date would they be going from?

 

Thanks again for all your hard work to the famous five horray!!!!!

 

x

[Guest GillianM]

Hi, im the same. Lodged 175 2nd Dec 2008 and changed to 176 state sponsor Aug 2009. But i think reading Gills letter from meeting its first lodgement date.

 

Gillian

[Guest Louise1971]

Hi Gill and all

 

Thanks for the fantastic work and effort you have put, I like everyone on here are very grateful for the time you have put in.

Cheers

[Guest LisaG]

Thanks Gillian thats the news I wanted to hear

[McKlaut 1,455]

Hi Gill.

 

Thank you so much for all your efforts this is great news thanks for bringing us mushrooms into the light!

 

I do have one question regarding them processing visa's in cat 5 in the order they were lodged, I originally applied for 175 in May and then changed to 176 in September which lodgement date would they be going from?

 

Thanks again for all your hard work to the famous five horray!!!!!

 

x

Hi,

I think that lodgement date - is the lodgement date and it is only one - the date of submission of the application.

 

But this should be clarified by DIAC.