Swotsmart

Hi All,

AIM and ACS both received my application for a skills assessment on the 5th of May 2006. ACS acknowledged the application and sent me details enabling me to track progress on their website on the 15th of May - I just logged on and it is still showing as unallocated to a case worker!! It appears ACS will probably take the maximum 10 weeks they advice ...Has anyone got their approval any sooner than 10 weeks?

I received a letter yesterday dated 23rd May from AIM signed by name deleted informing me that my skills have been assessed as suitable for the purpose of skilled migration - Naturally, I am over the moon . BUT...looking at the form 47SK, question 57 requires me to provide date of assessment (which I have) and a reference or receipt number. Problem is, I never received a receipt or reference number for my payment and application. I have droped name deleted an email and will call her first thing on Monday morning...in the meantime, has any body had a similar problem? I would be interested to know how you dealt with it.

BTW...the reason I applied to both organisations was that i have been in IT for a while but my roles over the past 6 to 7 years have been senior management roles and I wanted to have the choice of either going for either pure management roles or roles that are more on the technical management side.

Thanks All...

spalen

Congratulations and welcome to the small club of people who have AIM accreditation you are possibly number 5 or 6 from memory

Just enclose the AIM letter with the 47sk- the letter from AIM is all that they provide.

I did AIM because they'd be quicker (if harder) than ACS and got accredited in about 4 weeks by them after some late night calls with name deleted ;-)

Swotsmart

Cheers mate! I'll send off as suggested...ACS must be inaundated with applications because 3 weeks on, my application is still showing as yet to be allocated to caseworker.

Have you applied and received your visa? if yes, how long did the process take?

spalen

This was 1 year ago but we got our full 136 PR visa about 3 mths after applying. Front loaded medicals + police checks, and was all DIY without an agent.

Swotsmart

Wow!...3 months? that's a fantastic turn-around. That's more like it, I intend going the DIY route all the way...sweat equity always works for me .

What does the medicals entail? is it a trip down your GP or a DIMA registered GP and what is the cost of this?

Sorry for all the questions but I can do with all the help and advice I can get...I am sure you understand

spalen

You have to see one of the dimia appointed panel doctors. The charges are circa 200 quid per person I Think - ours was around 500 quid from memory. If you search this forum or immigration forum you'll find the answers more accurately than my memory can provide.

Medicals are easy ,people get wound up about them but they're a total non event. You also need chest x-rays (check for TB) they are about 100 pounds or something similar. Dimia will send you the meds request forms which are completed by the dr and sent back to Dimia.

You can get your police checks yourself by going into a police station and asking for a personal details check its 10 pounds, takes 4 weeks. You need 1 for each adult. (assuming youve only lived in UK)

You should also start by doing a draft 47sk - I didnt realise how many birth certificates, and 'full ' birth cert's we'd need -they took time to get. But if youve succesfully submitted an AIM thing on your own then 47sk is a doddle.

somewhere there is a list of doctors - maybe on dimia webstie around teh 47sk area somewhere - then ring one / few near you and get quotes they should all be roughly similar.

Swotsmart

Hi Spalen,

Quick question...when you say you front loaded medicals + police checks, are you saying that you sent these in at the same time as your 47sk? or did you get it in readiness for DIMA request?

spalen

sent them in at same time with teh 47sk - not sure you can still do it though.

Swotsmart

What makes you think it might not be possible anymore? Do you know of any applications that have been returned/rejected because of front loading?

I have now got a list of DIMA approved doctors in my area, the form 26 (medical form) and the police check form for my county....first thing Monday, I am booking an appointment with the doctor and taking my subject access forms to the police station.

I am going to front load unless you advice not to...

spalen

Hi

I thought that they changed it so you could no longer get the medical forms in advance - I cant remember how we got ours (its 18mths ago now). If youve got the forms then you can probably front load thats what made me think it'd stopped.

As ever there are risks - the visa when granted will be valid for validation (you must enter hte countrY) 12mths after the date of police check or medicals whichever is earliest - if they dont processs the 136 within 12mths you get asked for new PCCand meds - so if you're in a hurry to get to aus then no sweat but if you arent then it might be better to wait the 3mths for tem to ask you for the meds./pccs.

we were in a mad rush so it was good for us.

All you do is put the x-rays, pcc's, 47sk , and med's all in the same package. If the Dr wont let you have the emds back then just send it all - they'll match it on your name, dob, and passport numbers anyhoo at the other end. There are some stories of meds going missing but pretty few and far between seems more aof an urban myth than anything else. Also - make sure you use a courier, do not trust the post office they're bad in the UK and worse abroad. Use DHL or someone - there isa company that does bundled DHL and offers it at half-price iparcel or something- search on here you'll find it.

Swotsmart

Cheers mate!

I am pretty much in a rush myself...I have got a job offer scheduled to start on 4th September. I don't want to go down the 457 route at this stage if I can help it but its there as a fall back if I need to use it...my employer will sponsor me but I hear there are restrictions on the 457 visa.

I would never use royal mail for important documents, I used UPS as they were at least 50% cheaper than DHL when I sent my application to AIM and ACS so I might use them again but I will shop around as always.

I really appreciate your guidance...thanks a million! Where are you in Oz? I am Perth bound.

spalen

sent you a PM