July/August 2007 Applications

[Bic]

Hi, Did anyone else submit their application in July/August and has anyone who did, got a case officer yet or even a visa without getting a case officer ? It is possible that we are in a large pile languishing in some dark corner of DIACs office. What are your experiences so far? We are finding the automatic update from DIAC a bit vague to say the least. Now we don't even bother with it. It would be nice to hear how everyone from this time period is getting on.

 

You start off so excited and end up feeling frustrated and cross when you've heard nothing for 7 months. We have contacted DIAC but they can't/won't tell us anything.

 

Happy Easter everyone.

[Guest caoimhe]

We lodged our application 14th August, it was acknowldged 18th January and got our case officer on 14th Febraury

[kjc79]

hi,

we were august 07 applicants. sent on the 2/08/07 recieved 9/08/07 money taken mid november. File number 3/01/08 medicals done 11/01/08 and sent without request. visa granted 13/02/08 but told on the 18th as we used an agent.Weren't advised that we had a CO.

I know what you mean about feeling sooooo frustrated . it was starting to 'P' me off

 

But there is hope yet, although there is still a long list you can let off steam too on British expats site where there is people wiating for file numbers still and case officers too! It wont be long now x (and a spread sheet for each month of applicants so you can get an idea of timescales)

Hth a little

fingers crossed, the waiting is nearly over

 

kathx

[Bic]

Thanks for your helpful replies, good luck to Caoimhe we've lots of relatives in Belfast and I am checking out British Expats site, kjc79 to compare timescales - good tip! We've been away for week and had hoped for some news on our return but nothing. Hopefully not too long now!

[Guest mOZzy]

nope, nothing

 

see our timeline below!

 

not ... a .... beep!

[Guest alibongo]

we are in the same boat too

 

submitted our application in August. Got our file number in Feb and Meds at the beginning of March and still waiting!!

 

So at least you know you are not alone! Trouble is you are in limbo not knowing whether you are going or staying. and we are trying to sell our house too!!

 

Good luck!!

 

I'm sure we will all hear soon

 

Ali

[Guest mossmac]

Hi,

We sent our online application off on 20th July 2007. Our 'timeline' underneath details all the other things we have done/ things that have happened with regards to our visa.

We got our first case officer way back in October. Then when I had my baby in January, our old case officer (who was brilliant) was replaced with another one who, so far, has been much slower to respond to any communications from us.

I can't undersatand why it is taking so long to process our visa now as the only two things they have had to 'look at' and 'assess' since my baby was born (early January) have been my chest x-ray and Baby's medical. We wrongly thought that within a very short time of them getting these two things we would have our visa as everything else sent by us at the end of last year has been 'finalised' and 'met' for AGES. Really frustrating!

Jan ’07 – Decided we wanted to go and live in Australia!

Feb ’07 – Teaching skills assessment sent off.

Apr ’07 – Teaching skills approved.

May 21st ’07 – Applied for South Australia sponsorship online.

July 12th ’07 – Received sponsorship from South Australia.

July 20th ’07 – Online visa application sent off.

Oct 30th ’07 – Case officer allocated.

Nov 20th ’07 – Medicals done and police checks sent.

Feb 18th ’08 – Medical done for our new baby.

Awaiting our visa ………………………………………………..

Sarah

[Guest Nicky, Alan and Kids]

Hi

We applied on 3 July 2007, we sent our medicals in August 07, did not here anything until Jan 14 when we got our full acknowledgement, our visa was granted on 21 Feb, we did not here from our case officer, just went straight to visa grant.

 

When I write it down it does not seem that stressful, but believe me the waiting and not knowing what is going on is a killer.

 

Good luck anyway.

 

Nicky

[Guest victorybay]

hi,

we were august 07 applicants. sent on the 2/08/07 recieved 9/08/07 money taken mid november. File number 3/01/08 medicals done 11/01/08 and sent without request. visa granted 13/02/08 but told on the 18th as we used an agent.Weren't advised that we had a CO.

I know what you mean about feeling sooooo frustrated . it was starting to 'P' me off

 

But there is hope yet, although there is still a long list you can let off steam too on British expats site where there is people wiating for file numbers still and case officers too! It wont be long now x (and a spread sheet for each month of applicants so you can get an idea of timescales)

Hth a little

fingers crossed, the waiting is nearly over

 

kathx

 

 

we are the same lodged for sir 495 visa 19th august 07, took fee dec, meds and pcc up front and acknowledged early feb, We hope the will just now issue the visa, but wish wish it was very soon !!!!

 

FED UP

[Guest DianeJ]

Hi Bic,

This is my first post but have been on this site for months!

Well today we got our Visa, 136 skilled subclass, which my husband lodged on 15th Aug 2007. We had our medicals on the 10th March 2007, so it has come through quicker than expected. My husband did everything himself only paying £300 for help with his skills assessment.

I don't really understand all that he did only that the paperwork was never ending!!

 

Won't be long now

Diane

[Guest caoimhe]

Hi Bic,

We had our medicals on the 10th March 2007, so it has come through quicker than expected. My husband did everything himself only paying £300 for help with his skills assessment.

 

Diane

Hi Diane

first off welcome to the site

just wanted to ask about your meds, you say you had them done 10th March 2007 is that right or did you mean Mar 2008

[Guest DianeJ]

Hi Caoimhe,

sorry meds done March 08,

had my 3 girls running around while typing!!

 

Diane

[Guest caoimhe]

Hi Caoimhe,

sorry meds done March 08,

had my 3 girls running around while typing!!

 

Diane

Thanks Diane

Your lucky we had our meds done 4th March 2008 and the doctor had only just sent them to Oz today :arghh:It took 4 weeks for the blood tests to come back

[Guest DianeJ]

I guess we were lucky with our doc, had blood tests back within 4 days.

Visa isn't for a whole year though, its until 22nd Feb 09! OMG so much to do.

[kjc79]

I guess we were lucky with our doc, had blood tests back within 4 days.

Visa isn't for a whole year though, its until 22nd Feb 09! OMG so much to do.

 

 

 

you are lucky. ours are till july 08 ten weeks and soooooooo much to do LOL x:wacko:

 

our bloods and xrays only took 3 working days too. 4 if you include the rest of the day we had then done.??

[Guest Amelia&Fred]

Yes, we too applied in August... the 28th so we are totally at the bottom of the 45,000 applications submitted in August let alone the ones in July!!!

 

I think there should also have been a special support helpline set up for everyone submitting at this time! It is incredible the amount of thought/energy/time/effort/money that has gone in to this process and how frustrating it is - all you want to do is get there and get on with your life but end up waiting and waiting and waiting.... We've been out in Asia since we submitted the visa thinking that we'd be there by now! We can't stay out here any longer so we're off to Australia minus visa! We'll just have to get out quick on the visa grant day - whenever the visa gods decide this will happen!

 

Much empathy for all July/Aug Applicants!

 

Amelia &Fred

http://www.funkeldink.com

 

ps... Meds done in Malaysia... everything done in half a day, bloods back in 2 hours! Amazing service and all for 29quid!!!

[Guest mossmac]

Hi Amelia and Fred,

 

We are July 20th applicants and are STILL waiting for our visa! We totally sympathise with you. We have sold our house, left our jobs and were wondering too whether to just go to Australia minus visa and wait for it out there, like yourselves. Don't know how this works though when you are out there.

 

Sarah and John

[Guest isandev]

Hi there,

 

Think we must have been one of the lucky ones!! We lodged our application in Aug 2007, acknowledged early feb and was informed 1 week later we had a case officer. We were notified before the end of February that we had been granted permanent residency!!!! When i read the wait others have had I cant believe how quickly ours progressed.

 

Good luck to you all and hope you all hear something very very soon.

[Guest swampo]

Hi, we sent our application off beginning of July 07, acknowledged 3rd week in July, Case Officer (Jill Oldfield) not terribly communicative or helpful - end of August. Meds done 5th October and visa granted 12th December. Cannot understand why you have had such a delay. I know that there had been a backlog during last summer/early autumn but I thought this had been cleared, especially when our visa arrived just 5 weeks exacly after they received our meds in Sydney. I would be inclined to be contacting your case officer and chivving him/her along. Good luck, hope you hear soon.

[Guest mollybailey]

hi there, we applied on 21st july 07 and got our case officer early feb08 meds and everything done just the wait to see if we got it, i dont know how long that takes this bit is the worst!

[Nicky]

We, like so many of you, are in the same boat. Application sent off end of Aug, received and then money taken out end Dec, got a file number beginning of Jan but still no CO. We were going to get our meds done ready to try and to speed things up a bit but we've been advised not to do this until we've got a CO as they might get lost in the system. It's interesting to see that some of you of you have got your visas granted without even having a CO.

 

Also, has anyone got any more info on this spreadsheet comparing timescales like where it can be found?

 

 

Nicky

[Guest Amelia&Fred]

Hi Sarah and John...

 

You or your agent gets a pre-grant email/letter... then you have to get out of the country for when they grant - i.e. go to New Zealand.... it's all pricey but it'll be good to set things up and get to know Adelaide a bit before working.... good luck!

 

Amelia

 

 

http://www.funkeldink.com

[kjc79]

We, like so many of you, are in the same boat. Application sent off end of Aug, received and then money taken out end Dec, got a file number beginning of Jan but still no CO. We were going to get our meds done ready to try and to speed things up a bit but we've been advised not to do this until we've got a CO as they might get lost in the system. It's interesting to see that some of you of you have got your visas granted without even having a CO.

 

Also, has anyone got any more info on this spreadsheet comparing timescales like where it can be found?

 

 

Nicky

 

 

hi nicky try here

BEupdate.co.uk

its another forum site that all august applicants have added themselves. hope it works. all other months are on there too.

 

hth

kath x

[Guest mossmac]

Have just gone onto the site : BEupdate.co.uk that was mentioned in the above message. Having read the timeline, we are feeling really, really worried about when we are going to get our visa. It seems to be a total lottery as to when visas are issued to different applicants. How are you supposed to plan your lives, jobs, etc when you have no idea about when your visa might come through.

 

Sarah

[Nicky]

Thanks for the BEupdate.co.uk site; I don't know if I feel better or worse after looking at that!?!!