457 or 475 proc.times? anyone use agent?

[Guest The McT's]

hi ali, my OH has been offered job & sponsorship by a local authority in Oz. His job is on the MODL shortage list. Have been assured by an agent that this is a straightforward visa app. that is started off by the employer. Anyone have experience of filling out forms etc & timescale for meds/police. Employer wants him to start January. (He'll have to go 1st as house is not even up for sale here yet!). Is this realistic. It'd be good to hear your thoughts. I don't understand the immi dept processing times from their website.

[Guest The McT's]

meant hi all sorry!!!!

[Guest Sheerluck]

Just to give you an idea of a timeline for us so far:

 

457 Nomination completed by new Employer 20/6/07

Nomination approved by DIMA 10/7/07

Visa app started 19/7/07, completed 6/8/07 (found I was missing birth certificates)

Acknowledged and further info (including meds) requested 28/8/07.

Meds received in Sydney 20/9/07.

 

Awaiting outcome now, though human resources lady at my new employer seems to think that it will be approved within two weeks now.:err:

 

So three months so far and counting!:arghh: Was originally requested to start work in early Sept, now it'll be early to mid Oct

 

The medicals were a real problem for us, the local panel doctors (Stoke, Shrewsbury & Manchester) were quoting mid October before we could get an appointment. You may want to factor this into the equation - at least make your appointment early!

[Guest UK2Perth]

My OH is in Perth at the moment and I thought it would be fine but the distance is really hard and we are finding it really hard emotionally to cope with the distance. He went in July, I visited in August and am due to go out again next month. My house is on the market but the market has slowed down. I was hoping to go out and join him in January once my house has sold. I'm not trying to put a dampner on things and every relationship is different but emotionally we are both finding it really tough! Is there any chance you could rent your house out in the UK and move out together? Jo x

[Guest adey]

We went via the route of a 457 and did all the paperwork ourselves. OH was offered job in May and his employer had to do their bit first which seemed to us to take a very long time but was only about 6 weeks. We then submitted our application after our holidays at the end of June and we had approval/visa on 10 September. The timescale from submission of our 457 was exactly 8 weeks so about 14/15 weeks altogeher. We didn't even know that we had a Case Officer as we thought we had to wait for one of those first and then an email popped up from OH employer's copying us in on an email from their Business Case Officer giving us the visa, we were starting to panic that it would never arrive.

 

Our house sale completes this Friday (we put the house on the market as soon as OH had the job offer) and we fly out to Perth on 3 October.

 

All excited, feeling sick and hoping that its everthing we've dreamed of....reality begins this Friday

 

Good luck with your visa, its a very stressful time but its worth every minute of it when you set out for you new life

[Guest The McT's]

thanks for the info, very helpful, be good to know the outcome when you get settled in.

[Guest Merlin and Storm]

we went down the 457 route. the company OH is going to work for used an agent over there called Entity Solutions in Melbourne. They were excellent. process start to finish was about 6 weeks.

 

we fly out 8th Oct....yikes starting to get excited but scared too!