'Kin ell is this for real!!

[stiffsimon]

Submitted my application for a 136 skilled independent visa on 29/09/07.
Checked my bank account yesterday and saw that the Australian immigration people had taken thei fee off of my credit card on 10/12/07. All well and good I thought although have still not heard nothing yet from my emigration agent. So I called them today !!!*%$!.

The timescale that I had been given previously by my agent was 6-9 months after submitting our visa application we should expect to get our visa, all things being equal.
The process being application submitted then appprox. 3 months later receive confirmation of receipt of application then get medical and police checks, wait for them to clear and then receive visa, as I say in a 6-9 month timescale. This would mean we should expect our visa around about Feb/March 2008.
After speaking to my agent seems things are now a little different.

Seems the new process is that my agent will receive from the Australian immigration people a receipt of processing funds taken from my account then twelve weeks later my agent should receive a confirmation of receipt of my visa application!! After that I'm told that I will need to wait a further 6-9 months before being asked to go for police and medical checks!! Then wait for the checks to be cleared before we get our visa.

So from expecting to get our visa in Feb/March 2008 we're looking at potentially getting our visa about twelve months from now.
If this is accuraye I'm not a very happy bunny and I think I'll have a large drink!

Has anybody else come across this type of information recently?
If vthis is true it's unacceptable in my book and could well put some people off emigrating. I hope my agent is wrong on this one.

Anybody got any comments. Rant over

Simon

[Martin and Val]

Hi Simon,
Our Visa 475 e-lodged by agent on 19th Nov, Money was taken from account one day later 20th Nov!
We have had application acknowledged and are told by agent to expect a case officer around 3 months from application date and then medicals and police checks to be sent followed by a Visa around 8 weeks after they have been sent and received in Sydney. Therefore we have booked our medicals for mid Jan, so we hope your agent is wrong!

Can anyone else give their experience?

Cheers

Martin and Val

[ianb]

Submitted my application for a 136 skilled independent visa on 29/09/07.
Checked my bank account yesterday and saw that the Australian immigration people had taken thei fee off of my credit card on 10/12/07. All well and good I thought although have still not heard nothing yet from my emigration agent. So I called them today !!!*%$!.

The timescale that I had been given previously by my agent was 6-9 months after submitting our visa application we should expect to get our visa, all things being equal.
The process being application submitted then appprox. 3 months later receive confirmation of receipt of application then get medical and police checks, wait for them to clear and then receive visa, as I say in a 6-9 month timescale. This would mean we should expect our visa around about Feb/March 2008.
After speaking to my agent seems things are now a little different.

Seems the new process is that my agent will receive from the Australian immigration people a receipt of processing funds taken from my account then twelve weeks later my agent should receive a confirmation of receipt of my visa application!! After that I'm told that I will need to wait a further 6-9 months before being asked to go for police and medical checks!! Then wait for the checks to be cleared before we get our visa.

So from expecting to get our visa in Feb/March 2008 we're looking at potentially getting our visa about twelve months from now.
If this is accuraye I'm not a very happy bunny and I think I'll have a large drink!

Has anybody else come across this type of information recently?
If vthis is true it's unacceptable in my book and could well put some people off emigrating. I hope my agent is wrong on this one.

Anybody got any comments. Rant over

Simon

Simon,
not sure which agent you are with but seems to be a bit different to what is happening to us and many others. Take a look at our time line below.
We submitted our visa from memory 25th July, it took about 12 weeks or so to get reciept of application. Since then we have had case number, case officer and been requested to get meds etc. We had already booked and had our meds etc as soon as we got the case number. From what others have gone through if times are anything to go by, from meds to visas seems to be around 2 months. So fingers crossed we should get ours end of Jan or in Feb.

Well fingers crossed

Im sure your times will be less if ours is anything to go by

Ian

[dglamoore]

You may find this is a tactic from your agent so you are not hassling them after a few months waiting - also they look really good if the visa comes through quicker

Take a look at www.austimeline.com and see what other applicants of the same visa are waiting.

Lisa:v_SPIN:

[Libby1971]

Hi

We came over on this visa. Our money was taken in May more or less as soon as the application went in. We had the request for med and checks in Nov, yes 6 months later. They were sent off in Dec, 3 weeks later. We had the bond request at end of Jan and got our visa in Feb. We left the UK in April so almost a year is about right.

We came on 136 visa. I think some of the other visas are quicker.

Libby

[lastboyscout]

We are just waiting for the final nod

I think it all depends on what visa you are going on , we are on a 119 RSMS so i didn`t expect it to be given as quickly as others, but all good things come to those who wait ;)

[Selah]

I think you still may need your drink. Someone said (and this may be inaccurate) that there was something in the influx of 30,000 applications in July/August to meet that 1st Sept. deadline. If you figure there's generally roughly 120,000 visas issued per year that's an incredible backlog. Therefore for all of us July/August applications, we can't rely on anyone's timeline as there has never been a situation in DIAC like it. Yes the post 1st Sept applications are sailing through it seems in 3 months or so but I think we may all find ourselves in a pile for quite some time. I think you confused people as you said the 136 went off in Sept but it was actually August. Ours was received on the 21st of August and we had our money taken on the 21st of November so it took roughly 3 weeks just to take the money for 8 days worth of applications. Imagine the acknowledgements, validity checking and then case officer.... Not good news for Christmas but I'm thinking pessimistically so I may be surprised rather than the other way around! At least I know we couldn't have waited for the 175 as we wouldn't have had the points so I'm not beating myself up - just wishing I submitted in May/June and not August!!!

Liz

[stiffsimon]

Seleh-- Oops you're right I did put in my post 29/9/07 for submitting the visa and it was actually 29/8/07 that it was submitted, August not September. Your assessment makes sense and I was told to expect a bit of a backlog due to the amount of applications submitted prior to 1/9/07. It's just a bit of a shock the extent of the backlog and having to recalibrate our thinking and making adjustments to our planning. However nothing is set in stone and who knows this may be a worst case scenario and the process may be quicker than is anticipated at this point in time.Let's hope so!

Simon

[cormcvcr]

Hi there,

I would have to agree with Lisa on this one, we were told similar timelines to yourself Simon, but things are moving a bit quicker than that.

I definatley think the agents need to play it safe, otherwise they would have a whole lot more phone calls to deal with from irrate clients!

We got our receipt on the 19th October and were also told it would take 12 weeks till acknowledgement, in actual fact this came through on 5th December just under 7 weeks.

So try not to panic too much, things are moving, but they are just being cautious with the time lines!

Good Luck x

[jayneyamyam]

Could I ask which agent you are using please. We are in the very early 'thinking' stages and any advice or help would be great.