175 Visa application question

[Guest Greg & Dani]

Hi Everyone

We have a question about our 175 visa application. We are applying for a 175 permanent visa, we submitted the application at the begining of last November, we then sent in our medicals & police checks at the start of April ( this was done on the advise received from the emigration agency that is helping us ). It is now the start of Oct and we haven't heard anything, the agency just says it should be soon ( but they have said that for a while ).

Has anyone had any experience of how long a 175 visa application can take because we are starting to pull our hair out .

 

From Greg & Dani

[Guest vikkiann]

Hi Everyone

We have a question about our 175 visa application. We are applying for a 175 permanent visa, we submitted the application at the begining of last November, we then sent in our medicals & police checks at the start of April ( this was done on the advise received from the emigration agency that is helping us ). It is now the start of Oct and we haven't heard anything, the agency just says it should be soon ( but they have said that for a while ).

Has anyone had any experience of how long a 175 visa application can take because we are starting to pull our hair out .

 

From Greg & Dani

 

Hi Greg & dani

 

Did you do an online application? If so, you can check the status. 11 months is a long time. I'd be calling the Aspc to find out what the hold up is if i was you.

You can see in our signature how long it took us, my husband is a plumber. What is your skill?

 

Vikki

[Guest Greg & Dani]

Hi Vikki

Its my girlfriend who is the visa applicant - she is a pastry chef - we were told that she was at the top of the wanted skills list.

We didnt e log the application - unfortunatley we were stupid enough to use an emigration agency - we logged the application in Nov and we were told we got a case no. about a month later.

I dont know if it would be because I am English & my girlfriend is German and we have both lived in various countries over the last few years so it takes more checking ????

Who is the Aspc that you suggested contacting ????

 

Greg

[Guest vikkiann]

Hi Vikki

Its my girlfriend who is the visa applicant - she is a pastry chef - we were told that she was at the top of the wanted skills list.

We didnt e log the application - unfortunatley we were stupid enough to use an emigration agency - we logged the application in Nov and we were told we got a case no. about a month later.

I dont know if it would be because I am English & my girlfriend is German and we have both lived in various countries over the last few years so it takes more checking ????

Who is the Aspc that you suggested contacting ????

 

Greg

 

Greg

 

We used an agent and they were fab.

The number for the Aspc is 0061 1300 364 613, you'd need to call them at about 12.30 / 1.00 am to get through though but they should be able to tell you what's going on. At least you'll know if you have a case officer or what stage you are at. You need your Trn number with you when you call. When we called Adelaide they hadn't received my husbands police check, our agent resent it the next day and the visa was granted the following day.

Personally i would be having a right moan at your agent, you have paid them to get your visa so they are still under their contract to help you.

Good luck.

 

Vikki

[Guest nichola]

Sorry I can't help with your query but can I ask which agent you are using?

[Guest Greg & Dani]

The agency we used is 4 corners. Dont get me started on them - I have a friend who used them to go to NZ, he had a few problems with but he got there.

We spoke with our agent this afternoon but he said there is little they can do except sit and wait.

They have also told us that if they do enquire about our application that it can put us back to the bottom of the pile again. Has anybody else heard of this - or is our agent talking S*$!

Vikki - we have our case number ( apparently thats what it is ). Is that what we need when we contact the Aspc. Who are the Aspc ??

Thanks for you help

 

Greg

[Guest Hansonhouse]

Hi

You will see from our timeline below that it took us a similar time to you to get our 175 visa processed. We also used Four Corners and unfortunately you won't be able to check the status of your visa as you have authorised them to act as your correspondance contacts. It is extremely frustrating and I totally sympathise with you, I got very close to pulling my hair out and became very emotional at times when speaking with Four Corners every month to see if there was any news. In the end I asked Andrea to email an enquiry and copy me into the reply just so that I knew it had been done. It was about a month after that was done that we got our notification of a case officer. Because our application had been sent before 16th October we hadn't sent the form where you agree with the Australian Values. We printed this off, signed it, sent it back to Four Corners and had the visa the week after.

Four Corners processed the passports and we had them back with visas in, within 7 days.

Be patient, it will come. Hopefully if they required further information they would have asked for it by now.

Roz

[Guest billm]

Hi Greg & Dani,

We are in a similar position to yourselves but try this website <aspc.processing@immi.gov.au> ,this tells you which visas are being processed and when they were lodged. All you do is send them a blank email titled 'processing times' or similar and you get an automated reply with the processing info in it. Unfortunately there is nothing you or your agent can do to speed up the process, your application is in a pile sitting on someones desk waiting for them to get to it. The agent I am using , The Emmigration Group, also tells me that they tend to do blocks of visa types so that the processing times will speed up and slow down depending on which visas they are concentrating on that month.

Hope this helps.

 

Bill, general electrician, skills assessment aug07, visa lodged Feb08, acknowledged feb08, still waiting for a case officer.

 

If they are crying out for skilled people, why does it take so long to get there?