chrispy

Hi,
Excitement has just hit new levels ... just had our first communication with the DIMA office in Perth. I have a couple of questions related to this. Both myself and my wife are going under separate 121 ENS visas with each named on the others application as a dependant. The immigration officer has emailed asking if we would rather just put in one application with the other person just on as a named dependant. Are there any advantages to having your own independant ENS application or will it make no difference as we will both get permanant residency when we validate which ever route we take? Putting in just one application will save us $1340, is this the only benifit?
The other question is does this email mean we now have a case officer looking at our case or is it just a routine response to two applications arriving in the same envelope?

Just out interest, has anyone else noticed how the numbers of people online has rocketed in the last week or so? (130 odd up to 200+ at this time in the morning)

Cheers

Chris

wmoore

I'm pretty sure you can save yourself a few $$$ by only putting in the one app. At the end of the day (sorry, that's the football pundit in me) you'll both end up with the same rights, etc. Putting in 2 apps if you're confident that either one will meet the criteria just seems a bit pointless to me.

Wendy

Yes, just proceed with one.

I'm quite intrigued as to why you both sent in seperate applications

chrispy

I think you are right, i just wanted someone else to say it so that i belived it... we really don't want anything to go wrong at this point. Our applications are almost identical so have equal chance of getting through. The main difference is that i am 10 years older but still under the 45 year level so that shouldn't effect it. Must admit, think it is very generous of DIMA to email us and ask if we only wanted to continue with one, they could have just accepted our ignorance and taken the extra money! If i ever meet the guy i will buy him a beer: D Problem is he is called X... must be loads of them

Cheers

wmoore

I agree - pretty decent of them.

And what a shame you can't buy the guy a beer, you'll just have to have one yourself in his honour

chrispy

We both have jobs that are being sponsored independantly, that do not require assement, the institution put in two sponsorship applications, one for each of us and it just seemed the correct thing to do... In retrospect it does seem a bit dumb but no one queried it or seemed to think it was unnessesary... Of course the next question is which one of us goes as the primary applicant.. feel a game of paper scissors stone coming up tonight

So does this mean we now have a case officer or do we have to wait for official notification of that?

Cheers

wmoore

It could just mean that a CO's assistant has opened the mail and took the first look at your app(s). But it's still progress!

Wendy

Depends when you sent it. They usually check applications to make sure they are valid and then they go into a pile waiting for a CO to be assigned. If it's only just arrived then it's probably the former.

chrispy

I know... have only been in work a couple of hours and want to go home hug the wife and celebrate... If it like this after one query email whats it going to be like when we get the visa

chrispy

It was delivered to DIMA office in Perth on January 10th... guess i am being wildly over optimistic to think that Mr X is actually sorting it out rather than it just being put into the 'pending' pile... oh well .. do they actually tell you that they are working on it or do they just sort it out quietly and notify you when they have finished?

wmoore

Oh you'll love that feeling, trust me

The day we got ours I had woken up early needing to visit the little boys room. And for some reason, I decided to check my email. I never used to check mail like that, even though I knew it was due any day now. So here I was at 630am on a Saturday (after a few the Friday night) with this email in front of me saying the visa had been granted. I woke Mrs M and we just couldn't wipe the smile off our faces that morning. We were knocking on the travel agent's door when they opened to book our flights and we landed here 29 days later

Wendy

I'm not sure, have you done meds and police checks?

chrispy

Yup... meds went off to Sydney on 2nd Jan and police clearence was in the application, sponsors forms went in before Christmas... i have heard that some applications have been reviewed within a few weeks.... i guess even if it is just being set aside to assign a case officer then at least things are happening and they have read the form.. hopefully just a short step to saying those magic words..."Welcome to Aus Mate"