Questions For DIAC

[RonnieRocket0]

Further to our meeting with DIAC at Australia House on Monday, I imagine that after the initial euphoria or disappointment of some of the news we reported back with, we have all now had time to contemplate and reflect on the info and I would imagine that this has raised a number of questions from all of us.

DIAC have a list of questions which were raised during the meeting which they have promised to provide answers for in the coming weeks. When we have answers to these questions I am sure there will be no delay in posting them on this site.

In addition to this, I thought it may be an idea that we open a thread for further questions that we can present to DIAC in the coming weeks. Please feel free to add your concerns/questions as if we can avoid duplication of concerns I am sure we will receive a more prompt response.

It may be an idea from a logistical apsect to review the questions on a fortnightly basis prior to submission to DIAC. At the end of the day, I like most of you have experienced the highs (not so many) and lows (too many to mention) of the perilous path of migration to Australia with hopes of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Since Monday, we have all seen that there are a number of happy endings occuring with visas being issued, so keep the faith and please no matter how down or disheartened you may be, please try and stay positive and put your views/questions across in a constructive manner and I will be more than happy with some help with fellow like minded souls to make our voices heard. I hope I do not appear to sound like a 'shop steward', but I like you feel we have all been treated unfairly and wish to give something back to help others where I have received help and guidance from others on this forum.

We look forward to addressing you questions

Kind regards

 

Ronnie Rocket

[McKlaut]

Thanks Ronnie for the idea of such thread!

 

I have one BIG question:

Is it true that DIAC is going to finalise only those applications form cat 5 (State Sponsored non CSL) where meds were requested by COs?

 

If so what about those whose cases are decision ready but with front loaded meds without CO request? Should we wait until meds expire to be eligible?

[cartertucker]

Thanks Ronnie for the idea of such thread!

 

I have one BIG question:

Is it true that DIAC is going to finalise only those applications form cat 5 (State Sponsored non CSL) where meds were requested by COs?

 

If so what about those whose cases are decision ready but with front loaded meds without CO request? Should we wait until meds expire to be eligible?

 

That would be my question also....:yes:

[littlem]

Hi Ronnie Rocket, firstly many thanks for everything you and the others have done. My question is we have applied for a 475 ss for WA on 27 November. So are we and everyone else on SS visa still likely to be end 2012.

 

Sorry if this question has been explained somewhere else, but i feel excited about the news that came out and really glad for those that are now being processed. But from my point of view i dont want to get my hopes up and keep coming onto PIO everyday to see whats happening if we are still looking at 2012. Mental torture.......

 

Thanks again

Michelle

[RonnieRocket0]

Many thanks with the 'starter for 10!!' Keep them coming in. They maybe someone else on PIO who may already know the answer, but keep them coming in and then well send a batch off in one hit.

Kind regards

 

Ron R

[Guest Justin JIANG]

My questions:

1. What would happen to the onshore 886 SS, NON-CSL applicants holding bridging visa A during their final stage of processing, where Meds and Pccs were mostly frontloaded before a CO requested to do these two items as making arrangements to undergone these two items should be lodged with the initial 886 application?

2. If it's ture that onshore applicants would not be prioritised again, is it fair to seperate the onshore applicants from the exemption list of 3500 applications as both off shore and onshore were affected by the policy on 23 Sep 2009 in regards to state sponsorship NON-CSL while not in terms of onshore and offshore?

[Guest Bill_er_Bong]

"I have one BIG question:

Is it true that DIAC is going to finalise only those applications form cat 5 (State Sponsored non CSL) where meds were requested by COs?

 

If so what about those whose cases are decision ready but with front loaded meds without CO request? Should we wait until meds expire to be eligible?"

 

....That would be my question also....:yes:

 

Mine too!

 

:unsure:

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Ronnie Rocket, firstly many thanks for everything you and the others have done. My question is we have applied for a 475 ss for WA on 27 November. So are we and everyone else on SS visa still likely to be end 2012.

 

Sorry if this question has been explained somewhere else, but i feel excited about the news that came out and really glad for those that are now being processed. But from my point of view i dont want to get my hopes up and keep coming onto PIO everyday to see whats happening if we are still looking at 2012. Mental torture.......

 

Thanks again

Michelle

 

Hi Michelle

 

At the moment nobody can say when your visa application is likely to be processed.

 

Do you mean that you secured State support from WA and then lodged your visa application on 27th November 2009 or did you submit your application for State sponsorship on 27th Nov 2009, please?

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi McKlaut

 

Is it true that DIAC is going to finalise only those applications form cat 5 (State Sponsored non CSL) where meds were requested by COs?

 

 

You made the above statement, not DIAC, with respect! DIAC told the MIA that they will "give priority to" the Cat 5 applications where a Case Officer has requested the meds and pccs and they were done in response to that request.

 

If so what about those whose cases are decision ready but with front loaded meds without CO request? Should we wait until meds expire to be eligible?

 

You have applied for an offshore visa in Category 5. Whether or not your frontloaded meds expire before a CO makes contact with you has absolutely NO bearing on your eligiblity for the visa, my friend.

 

I can understand your anxiety about the cost and the delays. Everyone is livid with the Minister about both. However I think everyone needs to stay calm and avoid allowing emotion to creep into one's perceptions.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest Gollywobbler]

My questions:

1. What would happen to the onshore 886 SS, NON-CSL applicants holding bridging visa A during their final stage of processing, where Meds and Pccs were mostly frontloaded before a CO requested to do these two items as making arrangements to undergone these two items should be lodged with the initial 886 application?

2. If it's ture that onshore applicants would not be prioritised again, is it fair to seperate the onshore applicants from the exemption list of 3500 applications as both off shore and onshore were affected by the policy on 23 Sep 2009 in regards to state sponsorship NON-CSL while not in terms of onshore and offshore?

 

Hi Justin

 

1. What would happen to the onshore 886 SS, NON-CSL applicants holding bridging visa A during their final stage of processing, where Meds and Pccs were mostly frontloaded before a CO requested to do these two items as making arrangements to undergone these two items should be lodged with the initial 886 application?

 

As I understand this, the theory is that applications for onshore GSM visas can be processed quickly, hence DIAC insist that all applicants for onshore GSM visas must frontload their meds & pccs. It has nothing to do with the Bridging Visas but with the application for the sc 886 visa in your own case. What will happen about your meds and pccs depends on when you hear from a CO. When did you receive your offer of State sponsorship, please?

 

2. If it's ture that onshore applicants would not be prioritised again, is it fair to seperate the onshore applicants from the exemption list of 3500 applications as both off shore and onshore were affected by the policy on 23 Sep 2009 in regards to state sponsorship NON-CSL while not in terms of onshore and offshore?

 

What are you talking about, please? DIAC have said that they have about 3,500 Cat 5 applications in hand and that they are now in a position to start processing them. The 3,500 includes applications for onshore and offshore visas alike. DIAC have not said that they will not process the onshore applications. That is merely a fearful supposition of your own, with respect, and it is not helpful to you if you go around leaping to gloomy conclusions when there is no evidence to support your conclusions, my friend, so please cheer up!

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Ronnie Rocket

 

Thanks very much for starting this thread. I agree with you that we should spend a couple of weeks collating everyone's questions and then with the ones that we and the applicants can't find the answers to on our own, we can compile a list of the questions and send them all in one batch.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[RonnieRocket0]

Hi Gill,

 

Many thanks for your input. It's amazing that huge amount of various sets of circumstances there are out there, all with the same aim of a new life in Australia. But hopefully where we have all done our research, I am sure that depth of knowledge in all areas regarding migration will vastly increase.

I must admit that with the reliable sources of information on forums such as this, I look back to 12 months ago and if I knew then what I knew now, I would probably think twice about the process. However with that said, it is a credit to forums like this and the people who contribute their thoughts and ideas that keep us all going and retain our sanity.

Kind regards

 

Ronnie R

[littlem]

Hi Gill

 

Yes we have the SS and actually applied for our visa on 27th November.

 

I wasnt sure if i understood the other threads properly, and if the 3500 ish they are processing are only the ones that were near ready and once they had completed those near ready ones again it would all be on hold until 2012. Thats kind of what i was hoping wasnt the case, if that makes sense?

[McKlaut]

Hi McKlaut

 

You made the above statement, not DIAC, with respect! DIAC told the MIA that they will "give priority to" the Cat 5 applications where a Case Officer has requested the meds and pccs and they were done in response to that request.

 

Hi Gill,

 

This is the exact DIAC answer to MIA:

“The Department is processing applications according to Ministerial Direction No. 42 - Order of consideration - certain Skilled Migration visas. The Department anticipates that a small number of State sponsored non-CSL applications will be finalised this program year. Finalisations will focus on applications where health and character checks have been requested by the case officer.”

 

The worst case scenario is they will finalise only those who were requested meds. Of coures, I hope for wider arrangements from the DIAC side but untill now we have 2 visa grants and they all are with requested meds.

 

I try to stay calm but the whole this year might be named "migrant humiliation year" and of course I'm fed up with it.

[Guest Justin JIANG]

Hi Gill,

 

Many many thanks for your efforts for SS, NON-CSL applicants. I secured a SA state sponsorship in the early of Sep 2009 immediately before the change on 23 Sep 2009. My application has been nearly 19 months in the pipeline now. And about one month ago, i received a phone call from the Manager of a team that processes my application. He told me that my case is very close to the grant however, the change on 23 Sep 2009 has preventing him to finalize my application. It's the only info i received from the senior level of DIAC ASPC processing centre. Hope we all could be treated fairly!

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Gill

 

Yes we have the SS and actually applied for our visa on 27th November.

 

I wasnt sure if i understood the other threads properly, and if the 3500 ish they are processing are only the ones that were near ready and once they had completed those near ready ones again it would all be on hold until 2012. Thats kind of what i was hoping wasnt the case, if that makes sense?

 

Hi Littlem

 

The 3,500 (which is not an exact figure but is rounded out) is the total number of applications currently in hand in Category 5. In other words, this approximate total of 3,500 includes your application.

 

Don't expect anything for at least 12 months and DO NOT spend money on medicals and pccs. Give the situation a chance to settle down now and just keep an eye on other Cat 5 people's timelines, I suggest.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi McKlaut

 

The worst case scenario is they will finalise only those who were requested meds. Of coures, I hope for wider arrangements from the DIAC side but untill now we have 2 visa grants and they all are with requested meds.

Two Cat 5 visa grants that we know about is hardly indicative of what will happen with 3,500 applications between now and the end of June 2010, my friend. There is another 7 months still to go before then.

 

David Wilden was told that the pecking order would be the order of lodgement of the visa applications in Category 5. He said he spoke with David Edwards, boss of skilled processing at the ASPC, during the weekend of 28/29 November by e-mail. Evidently an operational decision was then made to deal with the applications where COs had requested meds and pccs first. The later decision was communicated to the MIA it would seem.

 

What we do know for sure is that DIAC have no plans to keep anybody waiting for a moment longer than they absolutely have to.

 

There is NO suggestion that DIAC intend to process the Cat 5s where DIAC have requested the meds and that they then intend to stop processing Cat 5s. However DIAC will not put themselves into a trap with any individual applicant either.

 

Please try to cheer up about the whole thing, hon. The Cat 5 applications are now moving again after a delay of less than 3 months. Surely that is excellent news?

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Gill,

 

Many many thanks for your efforts for SS, NON-CSL applicants. I secured a SA state sponsorship in the early of Sep 2009 immediately before the change on 23 Sep 2009. My application has been nearly 19 months in the pipeline now. And about one month ago, i received a phone call from the Manager of a team that processes my application. He told me that my case is very close to the grant however, the change on 23 Sep 2009 has preventing him to finalize my application. It's the only info i received from the senior level of DIAC ASPC processing centre. Hope we all could be treated fairly!

 

Hi Justin

 

You have received very encouraging news from the Team Manager. Now you need to keep your fingers, toes and eyes crossed that yours will be one of the first Cat 5 applications that the BSPC will finalise.

 

Hugs :hug:

 

Gill

xx

[Guest Mach]

Hi Littlem

 

The 3,500 (which is not an exact figure but is rounded out) is the total number of applications currently in hand in Category 5. In other words, this approximate total of 3,500 includes your application.

 

Don't expect anything for at least 12 months and DO NOT spend money on medicals and pccs. Give the situation a chance to settle down now and just keep an eye on other Cat 5 people's timelines, I suggest.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

 

And congratulations Gill on your 10,000th post!

 

While it's more of a point-of-interest than a proper question, I'd love to hear DIAC's updated processing plan for the Cat 5s with a CO and documents requested. As I understand it, they initially said it would be conducted by visa lodgement date, which proved to be a way off the mark only a day after this information was leaked.

 

Not that I see this as a massive problem, as processing out of order would ordinarily be a good indication that there are enough visas to go around, I'm just curious why they said "A" and then continued doing "B".

 

Great thread BTW!

[McKlaut]

Please try to cheer up about the whole thing, hon. The Cat 5 applications are now moving again after a delay of less than 3 months. Surely that is excellent news?

 

Cheers

 

Gill

Gill,

 

If there was no 23/09 changes then there was no delay of 3 month. So, it's just "good" news, not exellent.

I also see that when DIAC is ready to deal with my case again meds will expire. So, for me 23.09 is not over yet.

[littlem]

Thanks Gill, much appreciated!

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi All

 

This forum is rapidly convincing me about why DIAC are so cagey about releasing any information at all, frankly! No matter what they do, they can only succeed in pleasing a few of the people some of the time - that is now very clear from the several Poms in Oz threads!

 

David Wilden and his colleagues in Australia took time out of their own weekends last weekend in order to prepare for David Wilden's meeting with us on Monday. That speaks VOLUMES for the senior DIAC officials involved, in my book.

 

David Edwards is the boss of skilled processing at the ASPC. He was away from his office all last week and did not attend the meeting which was attended by Jamie Smith and Alan Collett amongst others. Apparently Mr Edwards' deputy - John Somebody - was the person who told the attendees in Adelaide that they were about to start processing the Cat 5 applications.

 

Evidently David Wilden felt that he could justify bothering the equally senior David Edwards at a weekend but my guess is that both of them felt obliged to leave the less senior deputy to enjoy his own weekend in peace. What was probably nothing more than a rough guess by David Edwards about what order they might tackle the Cat 5 applications in has been turned into something resembling World War III on these boards ever since Tuesday morning!

 

DIAC have much more experience than I have of the way that every word they utter gets dissected, picked over, criticised etc etc.

 

Those of us who met David Wilden agreed unanimously afterwards that he is on the level. He told us what he had been told. If a different operational decision was made after David Edwards reached the ASPC on Monday, that is nobody's fault. It is just one of those things. I don't know what David Wilden's commitments were prior to meeting with us at noon last Monday but he was obviously busy with something or he would not have had to devote a large part of his own weekend to preparing for the meeting with us. No doubt the statement released to the MIA was also copied to David Wilden but he had plainly not seen it by the time of his meeting with us. I simply DON'T believe that this is the big deal that is being made out of it on this forum.

 

If Uncle Tom Cobley and all pile into David Wilden and start demanding information directly from him about every single query that crops up - whilst several of the would-be inquisitors make no effort whatsoever to go through the information that is already contained in several threads on these boards, to try to work things out for themselves before pestering Mr Wilden instead - Mr Wilden will put the shutters up in exactly the same way as Peter Speldewinde has done after he was bombarded in Oz. DW will simply prepare a standard reply - which will reveal little or nothing - and that will be sent by DW's most junior gofer to everybody who tries to ask DW anything.

 

For this reason, we resolved during the meeting and afterwards that those of us who have now met Mr Wilden would try to keep the pressure off him as much as we can. Hence Ronnie Rocket0 had the common sense to start this thread, so that we can give the situation a couple of weeks to settle down and compile one single questionnaire containing all the questions that we can't deal with on our own. Which means doing our own research FIRST, not simply pestering Mr Wilden instead.

 

There are stacks of statistics & facts in Jamie Smith's thread, which is here:

 

http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/migration-issues/70325-what-would-you-say-minister-immigration-really.html

 

Sure, it is laborious to wade through the whole thread to pick out the nuggets of gold which are in it but if I can be bothered to do that, so can everyone else. I am not the forum's secretary or its blinking gofer and every single GSM visa applicant is required to be capable of reading and understanding plain English. Most of the facts and figures are in posts made by Jamie Smith and George Lombard in the thread above.

 

Right. Having read the Riot Act once and for all, there will be t-r-o-u-b-l-e if I have to read it again. :policeman:

 

The five of us have said, repeatedly, that Mr Wilden is obtaining more facts and numbers for us. Once we have those we will be able to work far more out on our own than is possible at present. He has to get the information from Australia. He will ask his opposite numbers - DIAC officers of equal seniority to himself. They will delegate the job of compiling the figures etc to junior colleagues in their respective sections. The juniors will give the information to their own bosses who will vet it and send it to David Wilden. The British civil service works in exactly the same way.

 

I am expecting it to be at least a fortnight before DW is able to get all the information listed in the action table which his secretary undoubtedly prepared at the same time as doing the Minutes from the meeting. Now we need to be patient and wait for the Aussies to be able to provide the information that they have promised to provide.

 

I ask for patience and for calm for the next 2-3 weeks, please, to give the Cat 5 situation time to bed in and settle down. As there is progress with the Cat 5s, so one or more patterns will begin to emerge. Let us just wait and see, now, instead of picking over this like a scab on a cut.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest Freaks]

Thanks Gill,

I hope people will stop second guessing and try to wait and see, god knows we should be good at waiting by now. I do acknowledge everyone's personal situation is different, but please try to understand DIAC are only working under ministerial direction, and yes most of the time it does not seem fair.

But lets try to look at this latest announcement as a positive.

Cheers Mr Freak

[chowy]

Well said Gill, similar to what I said this morning, all we can do is wait and see what pattern emerges over the next month or two.

 

Everybody is anxious to find out about their situation and it's understandable that people want answers but ATM we just have to wait in line and see what transpires

 

(back to waiting again :err:)

 

Thanks again.

[McKlaut]

I ask for patience and for calm for the next 2-3 weeks, please, to give the Cat 5 situation time to bed in and settle down. As there is progress with the Cat 5s, so one or more patterns will begin to emerge. Let us just wait and see, now, instead of picking over this like a scab on a cut.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

Gill, we already have one clear pattern right now and I'm convinced that we won't get anything new at least untill the new migration policy arrangements (MODL, CSL) will be released.

I don't have any illusions for this.