Medical problem with daughter

[Guest degnantitanboy]

Hi sorry I have not been in touch but have been getting together all our paper work ready to hit diac with.

we have been in contact with our agent and have looked at all our options,we also got all our statutory decs done singed in front of lawyer (ex wife and wife in same room wierd):wacko:

our agent has also been in touch with an old lawyer contact of his in Australia and put together a good covering letter along with all the other docs.

only one question he mentioned " health undertaking" or a condition 8502 be put on any application that our daughter may make would protect Australia from any due exspense.

tried to contact him to ask what this was but out of office can any one help with this

 

cheers

 

stuart

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Stuart

 

only one question he mentioned " health undertaking" or a condition 8502 be put on any application that our daughter may make would protect Australia from any due exspense.

 

 

 

What visa is your daughter likely to apply for in the future?

 

The exact wording of Condition 8502 says:

8502: "The holder of the visa must not enter Australia before the entry to Australia of a person specified in the visa."

 

 

http://www.comlaw.gov.au/ComLaw/legislation/legislativeinstrumentcompilation1.nsf/0/0E10E32BD35AAE24CA2576A20007D1CC/$file/MigrationRegs1994Vol6.pdf

 

The provision is on Page 189 of Volume 6 of the current Regulations above, using the page numbering in the actual document, not the Adobe page numbering. Are you sure you heard your agent correctly about C8502?

 

Condition 8501, immediately above it, CANNOT be imposed on a visa that grants Permanent Residency in Australia because all PR visas carry an automatic entitlement to full Medicare in Oz.

 

You will have to ask your agent what he means by "health undertaking" because that idea does not make any sense to me either in the context of your daughter.

 

People get asked to sign Form 815 (the health undertaking form) if there is somehing wrong with their chest x-ray. It means that something shows on the x-ray (eg a bout of pneumonia some years ago.) Form 815 merely agrees that the visa applicant will go to a suitable medical centre in Oz, usually within 4 weeks of arrival in Australia, to have another chest x-ray. Even if the person has TB, all that happens is that the Aussie medics will treat and eradicate the TB. It does not affect the validity of the visa.

 

The Aussie Government medics are very aware that if there is something wrong with somebody's lungs, the long flight to Australia can make the problem flare up or can make it worse. So they want to do another x-ray promptly, to compare it with the first one, because whatever it is, if they clobber it fast it is better for the patient and cheaper for Australia in the long run.

 

In any case, your daughter suffers from dyspraxia, I understand? That is not a lung problem, is it?

 

An Employers' Health Undertaking is possible if the applicant has applied for a temporary employer-sponsored 457 visa. In those, the employer undertakes that the employer will foot all relevant medical bills incurred in Australia. However with a temporary visa, State Benefits are not payable to the visa holder in the first place.

 

The MOC's concern is that if your daughter were to obtain Permanent Residency in Oz at any stage, she would not be able to work according to the MOC doctor. Therefore Australia would give her State Benefits instead, just as in the UK. She is 16 now, after all. If she has not already left school, she soon will, so it seems to me that the MOC can't be worried about anything except State Benefits.

 

Dyspraxia doesn't cost anything for drugs or trips to the GP/Hospital, does it?

 

I'd pin your agent down and Instruct him to send you a coherent letter, explaining exactly what he is on about, because your own account does not make an iota of sense to me.

 

Your daughter is being assessed under Public Interest Criterion 4005, in Schedule 4 of the Regulations, by the way. Volume 6 (above) contains Schedules 3-6 of the Regulations. Schedule 4 is near the beginning of the Volume and you can read PIC 4005 for yourselves - the latest edition of the Regs and all, by the way, because I have downloaded it from ComLaw 20 minutes ago!

 

In PIC 4005, there is reference to "community services." The courts in Oz have accepted that this term "community services" can mean (or can include) "Benefits," - ie money paid by Centrelink (social security) to the person who is unable to work.

 

That is where the issue lies, I suspect.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest degnantitanboy]

Thanks Gill O MY GOD more food for thought will get in touch with agent asap by the goolies if that will help :arghh:

be in touch

 

cheers

 

stuart

 

ps opening another can of beerrrrrrsssssss

[Guest degnantitanboy]

Just to tell you all we have been refused for our visa pig sick!!!!!!!!!

 

We can apply for Migration Review Tribunal $1400 dont have the energy

 

cheers

 

Stuart

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Stuart

 

I am so, so very sorry to hear your news. Unforunately it has happened to SEVERAL other PiO members as well.

 

So much for the "medical expert" of a migration agent who assured you that the dyspraxia of a non-migrating child would not be a problem. What has he got to say for himself now? If I were him, I would quit the sheer fakery of his claim that he is some sort of "medical expert" when it is obvious that he hasn't got a clue what he is talking about, frankly.

 

There is a piece of good news, though.

 

In Canberra on Wednesday 24 February 2010 the Joint Standing Committee on Migration will hear from the Federal Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) about the administration of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) and its impact on people with a disability seeking to migrate to Australia.

Every year, millions of people apply to visit or migrate to Australia, and grant of a visa is conditional on a person satisfying the health requirement specified in the Migration Regulations. The health requirement is designed to protect Australia from public health risks, contain public expenditure on health and community services, and maintain access of Australian residents to those services. Disability does not in itself mean that a person or a family will be refused a visa. However, as part of the health test, applicants with a ‘disease or condition’ are assessed on the potential cost and impact on Australian health and community services.

 

The inquiry is examining whether visa decision-makers should be able to take into account the social and economic contribution, as well as the anticipated health care costs, of potential migrants with disabilities.

 

DIAC has expressed support for the view that economic benefits provided by some applicants should be given more weight in visa processing. It has proposed that a number of skilled/business visa subclasses should qualify for a ‘health waiver’.

Migration Committee Chair Michael Danby stated: ‘Many migration applicants go through lengthy and costly processes to fulfill the required health assessments, and then are refused a visa. Often those assessments do not take into account what we as nation may gain from skilled migrants, or how a person with a disability may positively contribute to Australian society both economically and socially.

Mr Danby said, ‘The Committee is particularly interested to hear how medical assessments are conducted and how benefits to the Australian community, not just potential costs, are considered when granting health waivers’.

 

Public hearing program:

12.00pm, Wednesday 24 February 2010

Committee Room 1R3 Parliament House

Department of Immigration and Citizenship (Submission 66)

Visitors are welcome to attend or listen to a live webcast at http://webcast.aph.gov.au/livebroadcasting/.

For media comment, please contact the Committee Chair, Michael Danby MP, on (02) 6277 4520, or the Deputy Chair, Hon Danna Vale MP, on (02) 6277 4866.

For more information and the inquiry terms of reference, visit the inquiry website at www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/mig/disability/index.htm or contact the Committee Secretariat on (02) 6277 4560 or jscm@aph.gov.au.

 

Issued by:

Liaison & Projects Office, House of Representatives

Tel: (02) 6277 2063 w

 

 

The above is teh text of an e-mail that both I and another PiO member received yesterday. Like you, the other member's visa application was refused because of the disability of a dependent child. The other member and I both signed up to receive information from the Liaison people about this particular Inquiry, as and when they have anything to report.

 

Unfortunately I was in meetings nearly all of the UK day yesterday so I couldn't spend half of Tuesday/Wednesday night up and about in order to watch DIAC in action in Canberra.

 

I checked the Inquiry website this morning but the proof copy of yesterday's transcript is not on the website as yet:

 

http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/mig/disability/hearings.htm

 

The Aussie Govt is fairly quick about getting the transcripts produced and on-line though, so I recommend that you keep a close eye on the Inquiry website because I think the next step is to find out what DIAC think ought to happen.

 

How old is the main visa applicant in your family, please, and what is his/her occupation? Please don't give up altogether. Let us see what options will be available in a year or two's time.

 

Meanwhile I would ditch your migration agent without further ado and have absolutely nothing more to do with him or his firm ever again.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

 

[Guest degnantitanboy]

Hi Gill

As always, thanks for your speedy response. Will keep an eye on the website for the transcript. I am the main applicant and and applied for the 176 GSM visa as a carpenter. I will be 44 in April so am worried about the timescales involved. My daughter turns 18 next January so am wondering whether she will still be classed as a dependant child.

Do you have any knowledge of how successful applicants are at getting a decision reversed by a migration review tribunal? Their website states that the tribunal consider a case afresh and that the average time from application to decison is around 37 weeks. Can you suggest who would be the best person to help us?

Really don't want to give up our dream but am completely disheartened and can't believe the decision. My daughter, my ex-wife, myself and my wife all had statutory declarations drawn up stating that my daughter is a non-migrating child who has no intention of coming with us but it looks like the MOC has chosen only to listen to medical evidence.

Am weighing up our options and hoping for a miracle!

Cheers

Stuart

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Stuart

 

If you appeal to the MRT, technically the Sponsoring State has to be the "review applicant." You are the "visa applicant" which is different.

 

Persuading any of the States to front a medical appeal to the MRT would be akin to trying to kick a dead whale uphill and I doubt very much that any of the States would agree to get involved.

 

A British GP who is a PiO member wants to go to South Australia because her family are all in Adelaide. She has a disabled child. I told her to phone Immigration SA, shout "British Doctor," tell the switchboard girl that the matter was medical confidential and to insist on speaking with the boss of Immigration SA.

 

That got her straight through to the boss within seconds. Immigration SA were ready to riip her arms off in order to offer State sponsorship to a British Doctor. She told the boss that Immigration SA only had one purpose in life from the Doctor's point of view - which was to front an Appeal to the MRT if need be. Would Immigration SA be prepared to do that?

 

The boss of Immigration SA said, "No." She said that she was well aware that SA could do this but that as a matter of State Government Policy they won't do it in a medical refusal. They won't appeal against a medical refusal because Immigration SA is not a doctor. They can't judge whether an appeal ($1,400 plus another $600 to involve the Review Medical Officer of the Commonwealth) would do any good. By fronting such an appeal, Immigration SA might simply be prolonging the emotional agony as well as increasing all the costs. SA decided that it would be irresponsible of them to front a medical appeal because if they say that they will front an appeal on medical grounds, it is likely to give the visa applicant some hope - which could well turn out to be false hope, wasted time and wasted money.

 

I completely understand SA's reasoning and I completely agree with it. I don't know what any of the other States think about this one but I think it is a shrewd guess that they have all had the same discussions at State Govt level and that they have all decided not to get involved, for exactly the same reasons as SA have declined to get involved.

 

Without the involvement of your sponsoring State as the "front man," you would not be able to appeal to the MRT against the visa refusal I am afraid. By all means ring up WA, which has provided your sc 176 Sponsorship, INSIST on a word with the Boss and see what the Boss of the State's Immi Dept says, I suggest. You might get lucky. The worst that s/he can do is to say "No." However I think it is very likely that all of the other States would copy Immigration SA about this, for the same reasons.

 

I think that the new Boss of the WA State Migration Centre is Mr Randall and I have heard that he is a very nice man. A phone number that will get him on the phone is below:

 

State Migration Centre » Contact

 

Just phone the main number and tell them why nobody except the Big Boss will do in your situation. Otherwise, ring up Sue Harcus in London:

 

Migration

 

Sue used to be the boss of the WA State Migration Centre till very recently. She is more likely to know what WAGO's attitude to this question is than the new man in Perth, I suspect.

 

If WAGO would agree to help out, then my suggestion would be that you should dump the "medical expert" migration agent and that you should get George Lombard involved with your case instead:

 

Profile | George Lombard Consultancy Pty. Ltd.

 

George is a genuine expert in visa applications that involve someone with a meds problem, he is a genuine expert at handling MRT appeals and all the State Immigration people know and love George, so he can talk to WA about the form that they would have to sign to get an MRT appeal going etc.

 

I am pretty sure (but not 100% sure) that you would be able to apply for a Child visa for your daughter until her 25th birthday. If her dyspraxia would make her unable to work - which according to the MOC is the case - then I think she remains dependent on you until her 25th birthday according to Aussie Immi Law but I am not 100% sure about this.

 

If an MRT appeal is not possible, the only alternative is another visa application, made very quickly. You can use the existing Vetassess assessment. I think there is every chance that George Lombard is about the only RMA who would be able to get WA SMC to agree to keep your existing WA SS going, so that you would not have to make another application for WA SS. According to the e-mail below, any new visa application by you with WA SS would go into Cat 5, where it would take at least 3 years according to the e-mail:

 

http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/migration-issues/78598-aspc-adelaide-processing-update-email-9-february.html

 

Good. 3 years gives the Inquiry plenty of time to get the law changed and so forth.

 

Plus George is more likely than any other agent is to be able to refute the MOC's assumptions about your daughter.

 

If it were me, I would talk to WA, then consider your options and then consider talking to George.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest degnantitanboy]

Thank you all At PIO we did not get our visa we did our best I think we are giving up good luck to all many many thanks to Gill and the famous 5 also George Lombard

 

Good night

 

stuart

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Stuart

 

Why are you thinking of giving up?

 

Do you accept the MOC's opinion about your non-migrating daughter's dyspraxia?

 

If you don't accept the MOC's opinion, are you sure that you are not giving up too easily?

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest degnantitanboy]

hi gill been advised not to go for mrt but go for new application next year after daughter turns 18 and dependent what if any other changes by diac dont know if we could cope with that sorry if we sound so negative but the wind has been kicked out of our sails

 

sadly

 

stuart

[Guest degnantitanboy]

Well we give it a go but looks like our reprasentative has made a right mess of it(being polite):Randy-git:He has made a right f**k up of the whole thing(Sorry)

10k down but hae ho, it was only our dream now we realise it was only a dream then we woke up:wacko:

But still 10k DOWN with no visa

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Well we give it a go but looks like our reprasentative has made a right mess of it(being polite):Randy-git:He has made a right f**k up of the whole thing(Sorry)

10k down but hae ho, it was only our dream now we realise it was only a dream then we woke up:wacko:

But still 10k DOWN with no visa

 

Hi Stuart

 

Hun, I know only too well that the situation is absolutely heart-breaking for you and your wife.

 

It is not necessarily "only a dream." If you can find a sympathetic Aussie employer to sponsor you for a visa, your age will be irrelevant for another 10 years.

 

Don't imagine that a sympathetic sponsor cannot be found. Taffordbark found one, in Adelaide. He would not have considered any other part of Oz because his sister lives in Adelaide. Taffordbark used a totally useless unregistered woman of a migration agent in England. He is a Floor Finsher (carpet layer etc) and he had no formal qualifications so he was caught out when TRA suddenly closed Pathway D in September 2007.

 

All that the woman had to do was to contact Tradetrain and get them to do an AQF III qualification for Taff. It would have been perfectly sraightfoward to organise but the woman was and remains so useless that she insisted that nothing could be done - which was rubbish.

 

She had already taken £3,500 off Taff for her own fees alone. The greedy cow held her had out for more money. Taff is no clot. He told her that she had already had more than enough money out of him and to forget about any further demands for money. She subsided about the money.

 

Taff set to work and found a chap in Adelaide who was willing to sponsor him for an RSMS visa, together with Taff's wife and 4 children, two of whom are adopted sisters. The sisters had not been legally adopted at the time.

 

The process took another year after the sponsor was found because there were legal complications about formally adopting the sisters, but eventually that was done. Then the whole family very nearly failed the medicals for migration because Taff's son has Asperger's. By then Taff had given up on the useless woman for anything except processing the visa. His CO was not planning to send a Natural Justice letter, but Taff phoned her up and sweet talked her into providing it.

 

He then found out exactly which experts needed to say what, and got the experts to say it. Firmly and clearly. There was no messing about with hocus pocus, irrelevant documents and stupid claims that have zero foundation in Law. The MOC changed his mind and decided that the child met PIC 4005 after all. So the RSMS visa was finally granted in May 2009:

 

http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/migration-issues/61583-adoption-aspergers-syndrome-rest-never-give-up.html

 

Taffrdbark is right, hun. NEVER give up. It took 13 years before my own mother eventually became eligible for Parent migration, which was not because of the money but because of the way Aussie Law treated Mum's step-daughter, my half sister. But eventually it came right for Mum in 2005 - after 12 years of hearing that permanent migration to Oz would be "impossible" for her. She became a Permanent Resident of Australia in 2008. She had started the ball rolling in 1993.

 

Mum must be the only Parent who has waited for longer than most Parents have to wait for non-contributory Parent visas and then Mum had to pay about £20,000 GBP for a Contributory Parent visa anyway. However, her dearest wish came true in the end. It came true for Taffordbark as well, so don't you DARE give the whole idea up as a bad job, mate!

 

Use your spare time constructively instead, I suggest. Do what Taffordbark did when he was knocked back. Find an Aussie employer. South Australia is a good place to start looking, hun. Never mind if the employer is not in Adelaide but is somewhere else in SA. Anywhere will do because you would not have to live there forever and the child who would be going to Oz with you are young enough to cope, I assure you.

 

You say that the whole thing has cost you £10K GBP so far. How much of that was the RMA's own fees, hun?

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest degnantitanboy]

Hi Guys

 

This is a short reply to let you know we have re-applied with a new agent and all is going well.

 

There is 1 very important detail a lady called Gill (gollywobbler) has kept us going and has given us so much information you would not belive.

 

Also our new agent is George Lombard wow a breath of fresh air.

 

So all you visa hopefulls dont give up we can get there just belive.

 

cheers

 

 

Stuart

[Ozzieland]

Hi Guys

 

This is a short reply to let you know we have re-applied with a new agent and all is going well.

 

There is 1 very important detail a lady called Gill (gollywobbler) has kept us going and has given us so much information you would not belive.

 

Also our new agent is George Lombard wow a breath of fresh air.

 

So all you visa hopefulls dont give up we can get there just belive.

 

cheers

 

 

Stuart

 

Good luck !!

[ridz]

Keep your chin up Stuart and wife. :smile:

 

With the big G :notworthy: (mr Lombard to me...lol :wink: ). Thngs can only get better and my prayers are with you.

 

:hug:

[Guest waqas7]

Hi Stuart

 

Right. There is no point in crying over spilt milk - that merely makes it salty for the cat.

 

 

This is a load of rubbish though a lot of agents claim to be experts in lots of things. It is complete twaddle for the most part, though. George Lombard has some genuine credentials with the meds because his wife is a speech pathologist and George has a part time doctor on his team. She can interpret the doctor-to-doctor stuff that nobody else can make head nor tail of and George is a proper lawyer - which most migration agents are not - so George can understand exactly how PIC 4005 works:

 

Profile | George Lombard Consultancy Pty. Ltd.

 

 

You do not surprise me. Only the agents who are really good lawyers know enough about Australian Immigration Law to understand properly how the State Health Waiver works etc. From the agents' point of view, if you go wandering off to the wilderness searching for an elusive employer, the chances are that the employer in Oz will instruct a local registered migration agent in Oz to act both for him and for you. With a GSM visa the whole thing remains under the control of the original agent and he can start charging you immediately because he doesn't have to hope that you will find a magic employer who also wants to instruct the original agent concerned.

 

 

I'll bet that the DIAC person you spoke with is very young. They don't send anyone senior to the migration roadshows organised by the State Govts.

 

 

What sometimes happens - but not always - is that instead of simply refusing the visa, DIAC use s57 of the Migration Act. Under this they are able to say that the MOC has provided contrary medical evidence and the MOC is not technically employed by DIAC. The MOCs are in the pay of the Health Assessment Service, who happened to win the contract for providing the offshore MOC function to DIAC/the Minister for Immigration.

 

Where DIAC decide to use S57, instead of simply refusing the visa they send a "natural justice" letter instead. In the letter the CO explains that the MOC has found that one of the persons involved in the application does not meet the medical criteria for migration. The CO explains that s/he is bound by law to accept whatever the MOC says. However the CO goes on to explain that if you would like to provide a "natural justice" letter - arguing with the MOC in effect - the CO will pass it on to the MOC via the Health Operations Centre because this does sometimes result in the MOC changing his/her mind, which happened with Taffordbark's son.

 

From what you have said in the thread, you were definitely given a natural justice letter, were you? Have you seen that letter or was the agent merely trying to stave off a blanket refusal which had already happened? This is important because it is very difficult to get DIAC to re-open a file which they have closed. If you do not have the original of the CO's natural justice letter, insist on its immediate production, I would suggest.

 

 

Are the meds for migration to NZ any less stringent than for Oz? I don't know. In any case it is not a path that you want to go down so I agree with melbournegirlinny - ignore that idea.

 

 

Nonsense. The original refusal will remain on your file so DIAC will know why the first application failed and a child of up to 25 can be the subject of a Child Visa if she is unable to work and has therefore remained dependent on her parents for the most part:

 

Child Visa (Offshore) (Subclass 101)

 

http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/booklets/books2.htm

 

Dependence does not mean destitution without the ongoing support of the parents and State Help is not the answer to everything either because the Institute of Fiscal Studies in the UK is listened to by the Aussie Govt. The IFS claims that since May 2009 the Sick has been paying a rate which is below the Poverty Line in the UK, which is plainly not acceptable for the Sick.

 

According to the MOC, your child will become dependent on State Benefits at some stage and these will last for the rest of her life. This is the clause in PIC 4005 which causes so many problems for people like you:

 

0807398 [2008] MRTA 1051 (25 November 2008)

 

Above is Dr Moeller's case at the MRT. From your point of view the important thing is that it contains a verbatim description of PIC 4005. A "community service" is accepted as being the lifelong Sick from Centrelink one way or another:

 

A - Z index - D

 

Disability Support Pension is not payable for the person's first 10 years in Australia but that doesn't make a huge difference because Special Benefit is payable in the meantime instead after the 2 year new migrant's exclusion period:

 

Special Benefit

 

Someone in Oz may be eligible for a Carers Allowance as well:

 

http://www.centrelink.gov.au/internet/internet.nsf/site_help/c.htm

 

The MOC's conclusions are often drawn only on the assumption that all the Benefits will be payable even though the person does not need specific medication or whatever. When you add up the costs of all the Benefits for the whole of the period your daughter is expected to live for, the total can be an absolutely massive amount. With a Child Visa the MOC - for waiver purposes - must come up with a ball park figure for what the Benefits are likely to cost but this does not have to be gone into with a skilled visa because no waiver is avilable with these. "Significant costs" are defined by the Aussie Govt as being a total cost of $21,000 during the person's (hyopthetical) first 3-5 years in Australia. If you include all possible payments from Centrelink it is easy to exceed the threshold very quickly.

 

 

Assuming that the CO requested this in the first place, I am surprised that any other options were even considered but if you do not have the CO's Natural Justice letter I would suggest that you demand it, to ensure that such a letter was actually sent.

 

 

This is supposed to be the "medical expert" leaving the whole thing to the client without explaining any of what is in this thread, is it? (Some "expert" agent if so.)

 

 

Is your Agent registered with the OMARA?

 

https://www.mara.gov.au/agent/ARSearch.aspx?FolderID=394

 

OMARA is run by two senior DIAC Officers these days. I doubt that they would say that an Agent deciding what is or is not appropriate from a Panel Doctor will cut the mustard. If the Agent's decision that the Panel Doctor was too scathing about the MOC's report turns out to be the wrong judgement call, you will have a right to complain to the OMARA about the agent's claim to particular medical expertise and his refusal to send the Panel Doctor's letter to DIAC:

 

https://www.mara.gov.au/Consumer-Information/Making-a-complaint-about-a-RMA/default.aspx

 

Your agent likes playing with fire, it seems to me!

 

 

As the others have said, demand copies of everything immediately and ask the agent whether the FOIA was used in order to get the original medical file out of DIAC. It is not difficult, from that, to find out which MOC doctor is involved. Doctors are as easy to trace in Oz as they are in the UK and from the doctor's identity it is possible to work out whether s/he really knows anything about dyspraxia or not. If the agent is a "medical specialist" he should know this without being told the bleedin' obvious by you and I. If the FOIA was used, insist on a copy of that file as well and please PM me with the doctor's name. Between thee & me we can soon find out what sort of relevant training (if any) the relevant MOC doctor has had.

 

 

Nonsense. You should have seen the draft before it was sent off (or immediately afterwards if the agent genuinely didn't have time to e-mail the draft to you beforehand.) Insist on it now because you MUST know exactly what has been said. You may want to add the Panel Doctor's letter or you may want to change things in the draft. You are the client and the visa applicant, not the agent. Your say so is what counts, not the agent's.

 

 

Nonsense. The DIAC Case Officers and the HOC become as sympathetic as any other human being does when the applicant has reached the very end of a long, rocky road and then right at the very end it turns out that the meds might go wrong. I suspect that what has really happened is that the Minister's Direction of 23rd September 2009 means that no CO is looking at your file for the time being:

 

http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/pdf/faq-priority-processing.pdf

 

This may be a good thing or it may not. The CO is really only a post box once things get to this stage - a post box between the visa applicant and the MOC because the CO is bound by whatever the MOC eventually decides. It does not mean that the HOC and the MOC have not completed their parts and that nobody has gotten round to telling your agent the outcome, unfortunately.

 

 

Are you sure that a new CO was appointed so fast? Your occupation is not on the CSL and DIAC did not get the green light to start processing the delayed applications until the end of November 2009. That said, in view of the near refusal DIAC may well have decided to get a CO back on to your case straightaway. For one thing it is inhumane to leave the applicant hanging on in your situation and for another if they can mark you down as a Medical Refusal, that creates a nice, tidy situation which gets rid of DIAC's internal auditors and handily it also gets rid of you at the same time.

 

The COs are under orders not to speak with anybody who phones the ASPC unless the CO alone decides to get involved with the call or e-mail. It isn't something which you can control and nor can your agent.

 

One option is to phone the ASPC but the clerks on the desks in the call centre have instructions not to discuss matters medical with the visa applicants:

 

Contact Us - Department of Immigration and Citizenship

 

If you have the CO's name then you could try e-mailing the CO instead, explaining that your agent said 6-8 weeks and so you are wondering why the delay has gone on for so long? Most of the COs are nice people who would respond to you directly very quickly - given the situation - with a copy to your agents. The CO might stand on ceremony because an agent is involved but on the whole their sense of humanity overrides Form 956 in your situation.

 

It is not uncommon for the documents to take forever to reach the HOC in Sydney from the CO in Adelaide because they go by ordinary post and AusPost was on strike for several weeks before Christmas. It is not impossible that the documents either haven't reached the HOC or arrived at the HOC very recently only. Additionally the HOC are completely chaotic and they have been known to lose documents (including all of Taffordbark's stuff) after the additional documents etc have reached the HOC. The COs are under instructions not to chase the HOC (for reasons which elude me completely but these are the COs' instructions.)

 

Health Operations Centre

 

The HOC's phone number, from the UK, is 0061 28 666 5777. They seem to specialise in having their dimmest person answering the public phones but if you perservere you can usually find out what is happening. I think Sydney is about 10 hours ahead of the UK at present but Google will tell you the exact time difference.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

 

Dear Gill

 

I was very impressed by your comprehensive replies. Kindly help me too. I received letter of Natural Justice few days back my 2 year daughter has failed medical on the grounds she has mild developmental delay but MOC is saying its severe. I applied thru a registered MARA Agent and it never crossed my mind that she could ever fail the test and therefore never on agenda with the agent. What options do i have? what should i do?

 

Please help

 

Waqas