Category 5 News

[Guest Gollywobbler]

read somewhere else that it is 1,40,000 offshore applicants and 30,000 onshore applicants

 

Hi Jains

 

In his radio interview with Peter Mares, the Minister said about 30,000 applications for onshore GSM visas and about 105,000 applications for offshore GSM visas, making about 145,000 applications in total.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[McKlaut]

thanks Gill

 

yes medical was requested by case officer on dec 5 2008 and done on dec 14 , i.e will expire this week

 

i corresponded with HOC and DIAC for two month till we could locate medicals

i can send you a copy if you need

 

now diac is saying i am not in priority although i fulfill all criteria , state sponsored 475 and medical requested but they say that they have others in priority who need less assesment

 

my agent is registered but he always suggests that we wait and they will organize themselves and feedus back , the problem lies in the expiry of medical this week

 

thanks again

i really appreciate time taken

if you would like i can email you the whole case may be you can send it to Mr. Wielden as we already lodged a formal complain

 

thank you

Let me ask you what country are you from? High Risk or Britain?

I suspect it might be the reason.

 

BTW. My agent looks similar to yours. Last time he even stoped to respond to my e-mails.

[Guest LucyOlly]

Hi All

 

Well, after all the excitement of last week and the blurb it has all generated, we hope this week to see more cat 5's granted and more dreams realised. I have had a great weekend chilling out with my son in the readiness for opening my emails each morning this week! Hopefully we will see more of a pattern rather than intermittent grants but any grant is good news for us all!

 

I can't wait for my son and I to get out there and finally settle after all the planning and hard work of the last ten years. And I can't wait to cuddle my nephews and meet my 2 year old neice for the first time!

 

Have a good week All!

 

L&O x:wink:

[Guest cat5]

Let me ask you what country are you from? High Risk or Britain?

I suspect it might be the reason.

 

BTW. My agent looks similar to yours. Last time he even stoped to respond to my e-mails.

 

Good day to all,

 

Question: Is it a major factor if you come from a high risk country?

 

Hoping for a great week ahead of us this week? :biggrin:

[Guest cat5]

 

my agent is registered but he always suggests that we wait and they will organize themselves and feed us back.....

 

 

My agent has the same attitude as yours! Anyone else has the same situation? (put up and shut up attitude)

[Guest cat5]

Let me ask you what country are you from? High Risk or Britain?

I suspect it might be the reason.

 

BTW. My agent looks similar to yours. Last time he even stoped to respond to my e-mails.

 

Hi McKlaut/Gill,

 

Is is a major factor if you come from a high risk country? It may be a thing to look into in decision making but I don't think it will be a ground to delay the process.

 

Hoping for a great week ahead!!!! VISA's to PIO's:biggrin:

[merlino]

My agent has the same attitude as yours! Anyone else has the same situation? (put up and shut up attitude)

 

Hi cat5, have you ever made direct contact with your CO though?

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi McKlaut/Gill,

 

Is is a major factor if you come from a high risk country? It may be a thing to look into in decision making but I don't think it will be a ground to delay the process.

 

 

Hi Cat5

 

Last December when the Minister announced the first CSL and his new scheme of letting the States choose the skilled migrants, both the Minister and DIAC insisted that they were going to become so efficient and so quick that there would be no difference in the timescales between processing applications from HR countries and LR countries.

 

For a while, I think they stuck to that and it worked as they said it would.

 

Whether they will continue to stick to it is another matter, I reckon.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Alan Collett]

Hi cat5, have you ever made direct contact with your CO though?

 

If you have an agent with whom you are unhappy:

 

1. Discuss the issue/s verbally in an effort to overcome the differences between each party.

 

2. If differences cannot be resolved, advise the agent that you are terminating the appointment, lodge form 956 with the Department of Immigration, and move on - either alone, or with a new agent.

 

Recognise also that agents are generally not privy to inside information. Agents who have a fairly sizeable caseload can read trends, but it is probably a week or three too early to see a pattern with the processing of Priority 5 applicants.

 

Best regards.

[vandm]

By the way isnt 2012 the end of the world??? Good luck to all of you guys. Hope we can survive all this mess.

 

Big thanks

 

Luciana

 

dont worry luciana, we'll all find the noah's ark off the oz coast and get on it and be saved!!!

[Guest cat5]

Hi cat5, have you ever made direct contact with your CO though?

 

No, all communications to the CO is made thru my agent. Why do you ask if you don't mind?

[RonnieRocket0]

Dear Fellow Ark Members,

 

It has been fours weeks since I contacted the Honourable Minister for Immigration, Mr.Evans to express my 'disappointment' at the lack of care which was exercised in dealing with my enquiry directly with the Minister.

He had forwarded my initial correspondence to a 'Peter Spedlewinde' who duly supplied an box standard response which as a I gather we have all received. Anyway I was not going to give up that easily, so I sent another e-mail to the Minister's office with a list of these questions, as well as explaining that I can appreiciate how busy he and his colleagues are.

I almost felt inclined to ask if his department would suffer from liquidated damages for late delivery of service to his customers, as I would with my customers for service of a similar standard, however common sense that that stage nipped me in the bud.

Last week the Fab 5 met with DIAC in London and a whole host of questions were presented which we hope to answers to this side of Xmas. However, as I had sent this e-mail 4 weeks ago, I felt it was somewhat poor that I had not recieved an answer from the Minister's office.

10 minutes ago, I contacted the office by phone to enquire about my enquiry, a pleasant fella by the name of 'Bernard' took my call and informed me that they had my e-mail, but have given themselves a '28 day' level of service to respond. This is due to expire this Wednesday. Being British and perhaps being a pureveyor of 'fair play' I explained to 'Bernard' that I would give them an additional week and a half to respond. He then came out with the good old Royal Mail classic about the 'Christmas Holiday season'.

Had it not been for the exercise of last weeks efforts of PIO at Aussie House last week, I would not be as calm as I am now. I wonder when DIAC or the Minister is going to publish the now famous 'No42' directive on the website as I have not seen this 'gem'.

I am just thankful of the members on this forum, who contribute valuable information to this site and more importantly the many words of thanks and support that is very much in evidence here.

If I hear from the Ministry this side of Xmas, then I'll certainly share my answers with you. Also this may tie in nicey with the questions that DIAC now have from PIO.

Once again good luck and kind regards

 

Ronnie R:twitcy:

[Guest cat5]

If you have an agent with whom you are unhappy:

 

1. Discuss the issue/s verbally in an effort to overcome the differences between each party.

 

2. If differences cannot be resolved, advise the agent that you are terminating the appointment, lodge form 956 with the Department of Immigration, and move on - either alone, or with a new agent.

 

Recognise also that agents are generally not privy to inside information. Agents who have a fairly sizeable caseload can read trends, but it is probably a week or three too early to see a pattern with the processing of Priority 5 applicants.

 

Best regards.

 

Good day Allan,

 

1. Our communication lines are open and we have conversation once in a while. He relays the message of the CO very efficiently.

 

What I don't like is that he makes no initiative of (let say) asking the CO the status of my application, does my CO received my meds, sending a PLE, etc. I don't think I have to ask him to do that that's why I hired an agent in the first place to do that for me.

 

Or maybe, I'm too demanding!!!???

 

2. Terminating him is not an option. Why? he is fully paid:sad: Terminating him would mean another $$$$$$ to get another agent. I might as well stick with him.

 

3. I guess you're right, it might be too early to say the pattern. Maybe I'll have to wait a week or two. Maybe I'm too excited:smile:

 

Thanks for the advise and for your time.

 

cat5

[Alan Collett]

Unless an application is clearly falling outside experiences with other similar applications lodged at the same time, or there is a time imperative of some kind, I would concur with your agent's view that one ought not be enquiring of a case officer with regular status update requests.

 

This said, there is no harm done sending an enquiry via the RMA only email address to confirm medicals are cleared.

 

Best regards.

[Guest renette]

No, all communications to the CO is made thru my agent. Why do you ask if you don't mind?

 

 

Hi there,

 

just like to inform you that we have no agents, and we correspond with our case officer directly. she usually responds within a day.

[merlino]

No, all communications to the CO is made thru my agent. Why do you ask if you don't mind?

 

I was asking if you had made contact with your CO directly instead, because you mentioned that you were not happy with your agent. Maybe by doing so you could get a clearer picture of your application status and have your questions answered from the horse's mouth.

 

That being said, I am not sure about going this route for applications which are represented by agents. I do not know if the CO will communicate directly with the applicant when an agent is involved. I don't know their policies on this one, maybe someone else might be able to comment?

[Alan Collett]

Hi there,

 

just like to inform you that we have no agents, and we correspond with our case officer directly. she usually responds within a day.

 

I'm sure one or two Managers at the ASPC would be interested to hear this, as case officers responding to emails is not conducive to good time management and the efficient processing of visa applications. The Post Lodgment Enquiry system was put in place to overcome this sort of issue.

 

Best regards.

[McKlaut]

Agents who have a fairly sizeable caseload can read trends, but it is probably a week or three too early to see a pattern with the processing of Priority 5 applicants.

 

Best regards.

Hope you are right and we will see positive news for more cat 5 applicants in the near future but right now it seems that DIAC has approached with wise policy "divide and manage". In other words, letting the steam go out from cat 5 applicants by finalising those with requested meds and leaving all others wait for better times.

 

BTW. Today I received one of those standard replys that my case will not be finalised untill there are higher priority applications in the queue. In other words - this migration year.

[Guest Justin JIANG]

Hope you are right and we will see positive news for more cat 5 applicants in the near future but right now it seems that DIAC has approached with wise policy "divide and manage". In other words, letting the steam go out from cat 5 applicants by finalising those with requested meds and leaving all others wait for better times.

 

BTW. Today I received one of those standard replys that my case will not be finalised untill there are higher priority applications in the queue. In other words - this migration year.

 

Do you mind if you post it, without your personal info? Thanks!

[Guest Gollywobbler]

I'm sure one or two Managers at the ASPC would be interested to hear this, as case officers responding to emails is not conducive to good time management and the efficient processing of visa applications. The Post Lodgment Enquiry system was put in place to overcome this sort of issue.

 

Best regards.

 

Hi Alan

 

Young Andrew Butler, who came with us last week, was most informative about this since he worked in the skilled processing section of the ASPC for around 12 to 18 months.

 

He told us that every CO has a support officer and that the support officers do most of the communicating with the visa applicant or his/her agent. Andrew remarked that letters etc alwys reveal the name of the CO and most people can work out that all DIAC staff e-mail addresses are in the format of noah.ofark@immi.gov.au

 

Andrew said that the COs have a completely free hand to decide for themselves whether to reply to e-mails addressed directly to them or whether to ignore them. He said that no pressure is put on them either way because they need to have discretion about which queries are best dealt with by the CO - a person of fairly senior rank - and which can be left to other people to deal with.

 

He said that some COs are more responsive than others but that it varies.

 

Jane Sansom, the PMO for the UK and Ireland, chipped in. She said that the ASPC is organised in the way that it is because of the huge workload that the staff have to get through. She remarked that in her view this "conveyor belt" system is not the best way to deal with a client of the Department but said that apart from this comment she would keep her views to herself. How the ASPC is organised was not really relevant at that point in the meeting so we dropped that piece of the conversation.

 

It is evident, though, that not all DIAC staff approve of the way that the "interface" with the applicants is handled and they are often senior staff members, such as the PMO, who have more recent experience of face to face dealings with the public than those who devise the policies and tell the IT team to provide the unwieldy PLE system.

 

There is no reason in the world why DIAC cannot be much more communicative with their clients than they actually are. Junior staff tend to imagine that they will be shot unless they try to shield their CO from all enquirers but that notion often results in an inadequate reply by someone who does not understand the complexity of the given application fully. That simply frustrates and upsets the applicant for no useful reason.

 

They could undoubtedly be much better at Client Care than they are at the ASPC. Bit by bit I will educate them and bring that about. As of tomorrow DIAC will have dithered around for a week about what to say on their website about the Cat 5 applications and then to get a statement that they can all agree on placed on the website. That is not good Client Care either. Their attitude to openness and the provision of relevant information still has a long way to go.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[merlino]

I'm sure one or two Managers at the ASPC would be interested to hear this, as case officers responding to emails is not conducive to good time management and the efficient processing of visa applications. The Post Lodgment Enquiry system was put in place to overcome this sort of issue.

 

Best regards.

 

I'm sure the department has a service standard that guides its response times with email queries. I think it's exceptional that COs take time to answer email queries, given that they're already occupied processing and granting visas, or are they?

 

Rather than give them flak for not making use of their time to process visas, maybe they should be commended for managing the PR mess that is now, especially with emotionally-charged cases.

 

As with helpdesk support, there are multi-tiered levels of escalation processes in place. I believe the DIAC's answer to that is the PLE system. But responses are canned and robotic, that making meaningful communication becomes few and far between, dumping disgruntled applicants in the dark.

 

In renette's case, maybe the time difference could make it seem like it took a day for the CO to reply but in actual fact it took longer than it seemed?

[Alan Collett]

I absolutely hear what you say Gill.

 

This issue came up when I went to the ASPC some 18 months ago, when I was kindly allowed to spend some time with the then Director, Assistant Director, and Manager of the Region at the ASPC that handled the bulk of applicants that affected our caseload (ie the UK).

 

It was the early days of the e-lodgment of offshore GSM applications, and I recall a new hierarchy/processing strategy was being rolled out in which support officers were fulfilling what I would call a gatekeeper role in which case officers were (and still are) kept away from the relatively mundane issues so that their knowledge (and valuable time) was/is directed at higher level issues.

 

At the same time the RMA only email address was introduced alongside the web based Post Lodgment Enquiry. I'm sure you recall this coming into existence.

 

Prior to this change case officers were dealing with many emails from agents and unrepresented applicants. Experienced case officers at the ASPC were spending many hours each day simply responding to what in reality were enquiries which could be handled at a lower level - eg "have you received my medicals?"

 

While I have some issues with ASPC related communications I can see why the ASPC (or - more probably - their lords and masters) made the decision to structure the ASPC in this way. The sheer volume of applications demanded it.

 

I would though agree that the dissemination of information that is of concern to the ASPC's clients could be handled a whole lot better. 'tis better that applicants receive news through the ASPC's website (even if it isn't liked) so they can plan, rather than give inconsistent messages or leave affected individuals in a vacuum.

 

For example, I simply don't understand why information that was given verbally to those of us who attended a seminar in Adelaide 12 days ago is still not affirmed on the DIAC website - it should have been there within 24 hours.

 

Best regards.

[merlino]

Hi Alan

 

Young Andrew Butler, who came with us last week, was most informative about this since he worked in the skilled processing section of the ASPC for around 12 to 18 months.

 

He told us that every CO has a support officer and that the support officers do most of the communicating with the visa applicant or his/her agent. Andrew remarked that letters etc alwys reveal the name of the CO and most people can work out that all DIAC staff e-mail addresses are in the format of noah.ofark@immi.gov.au

 

Andrew said that the COs have a completely free hand to decide for themselves whether to reply to e-mails addressed directly to them or whether to ignore them. He said that no pressure is put on them either way because they need to have discretion about which queries are best dealt with by the CO - a person of fairly senior rank - and which can be left to other people to deal with.

 

He said that some COs are more responsive than others but that it varies.

 

Jane Sansom, the PMO for the UK and Ireland, chipped in. She said that the ASPC is organised in the way that it is because of the huge workload that the staff have to get through. She remarked that in her view this "conveyor belt" system is not the best way to deal with a client of the Department but said that apart from this comment she would keep her views to herself. How the ASPC is organised was not really relevant at that point in the meeting so we dropped that piece of the conversation.

 

It is evident, though, that not all DIAC staff approve of the way that the "interface" with the applicants is handled and they are often senior staff members, such as the PMO, who have more recent experience of face to face dealings with the public than those who devise the policies and tell the IT team to provide the unwieldy PLE system.

 

There is no reason in the world why DIAC cannot be much more communicative with their clients than they actually are. Junior staff tend to imagine that they will be shot unless they try to shield their CO from all enquirers but that notion often results in an inadequate reply by someone who does not understand the complexity of the given application fully. That simply frustrates and upsets the applicant for no useful reason.

 

They could undoubtedly be much better at Client Care than they are at the ASPC. Bit by bit I will educate them and bring that about. As of tomorrow DIAC will have dithered around for a week about what to say on their website about the Cat 5 applications and then to get a statement that they can all agree on placed on the website. That is not good Client Care either. Their attitude to openness and the provision of relevant information still has a long way to go.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

 

I agree on the Client Care bit. I hope they're mindful on this one.

 

It's 7pm on Monday, 7th of Dec 2009, Australian EST as I write. It should have been a week since the 30th of Nov 2009.

[Alan Collett]

I'm sure the department has a service standard that guides its response times with email queries. I think it's exceptional that COs take time to answer email queries, given that they're already occupied processing and granting visas, or are they?

 

Rather than give them flak for not making use of their time to process visas, maybe they should be commended for managing the PR mess that is now, especially with emotionally-charged cases.

 

As with helpdesk support, there are multi-tiered levels of escalation processes in place. I believe the DIAC's answer to that is the PLE system. But responses are canned and robotic, that making meaningful communication becomes few and far between, dumping disgruntled applicants in the dark.

 

In renette's case, maybe the time difference could make it seem like it took a day for the CO to reply but in actual fact it took longer than it seemed?

 

No, I disagree. It should not be case officers who have to pick up the consequences of decisions made at a higher level. Therein lies the path to anarchy and chaos within the ASPC, particularly if thousands of applicants start emailing case officers who consider it is their duty to respond.

 

In my view there should be clear guidelines to case officers and their support team, and transparent communication with applicants through the DIAC website.

 

And as for "emotionally charged cases" - in my experience all cases are emotionally charged.

 

Best regards.

[mlsdq]

*sigh* why do i feel sad everytime i read most of your posts in this thread?