catalan

Hi there,

I'm a catalan guy from Barcelona who is having his application being assessed. I applied for a Skilled Indep. Visa, and my doubt is about the 12 months of the last 18 having worked in a skilled occupation.

I meet all the basic requirements except this one... for only 4 days! I've been working in IT since 1993, but I stopped in August 2001 in order to study English in London. I lived there for six months, I took the IELTS exam, and I sent my application on February 27th, 2002. Adelaide acknowledged by post months later, telling me that the date of the start of the assesment process was March 4th, 2002. That is exactly 6 months and 4 days after I left my last skilled job (August 31st 2001).

Somebody knows about a similar case, in order to find out how strict are the rules about this point?

tinaj

[QUOTE][SIZE=1]Originally posted by catalan:
Hi there,

I'm a catalan guy from Barcelona who is having his application being assessed. I applied for a Skilled Indep. Visa, and my doubt is about the 12 months of the last 18 having worked in a skilled occupation.

I meet all the basic requirements except this one... for only 4 days! I've been working in IT since 1993, but I stopped in August 2001 in order to study English in London. I lived there for six months, I took the IELTS exam, and I sent my application on February 27th, 2002. Adelaide acknowledged by post months later, telling me that the date of the start of the assesment process was March 4th, 2002. That is exactly 6 months and 4 days after I left my last skilled job (August 31st 2001).



Why didn't you wait another week before you sent the application form off, that way you wouldn't have the dilemma !!!

Best of luck

Tinaj

Jaj

You may well have a problem, if Adelaide are saying your application
was received on March 4th.

Adelaide are a lot stricter than many offshore posts were a few years
ago, and you've a much lower chance of getting away with it in
Adelaide.

There may also be some flexibility if your formal employment continued
into Sept 2001, eg if you took some holiday at the end. You'd need a
migration agent to look at your case in detail to give you pointers
here.

There is a significant risk that your application will be refused, but
if your application was not assessed before the end of IT
fast-tracking in July (you'd almost certainly have heard from them
already if so) you're not likely to find out for sure until some point
in early/mid 2003.

Did you send your application by courier? You may be able to find the
date it was accepted in Adelaide, and if that was still in February
then you could point this out to them.

It's probably a bit late to say it now, but you should not have left
lodging your application to a stage when things became so borderline
(especially as you do not *have* to lodge IELTS results in advance).

If your application if refused you will have to apply again, if you
meet the requirements. That may mean getting a new ACS assessment as
they are only valid for 12 months. The only good news is that if you
do need to apply again, your previous application will not be held
against you.

Jeremy


    >On Sat, 19 Oct 2002 22:23:32 +0000, catalan wrote:
    >Hi there,
    >I'm a catalan guy from Barcelona who is having his application being
    >assessed. I applied for a Skilled Indep. Visa, and my doubt is about the
    >12 months of the last 18 having worked in a skilled occupation.
    >I meet all the basic requirements except this one... for only 4 days!
    >I've been working in IT since 1993, but I stopped in August 2001 in
    >order to study English in London. I lived there for six months, I took
    >the IELTS exam, and I sent my application on February 27th, 2002.
    >Adelaide acknowledged by post months later, telling me that the date of
    >the start of the assesment process was March 4th, 2002. That is exactly
    >6 months and 4 days after I left my last skilled job (August 31st 2001).
    >Somebody knows about a similar case, in order to find out how strict are
    >the rules about this point?
    >--

Jaj

If he'd waited another week before applying he'd have no chance at
all. Or is that what you mean?

Jeremy

    >On Sat, 19 Oct 2002 23:26:08 +0000, tinaj wrote:
    >Originally posted by catalan:
    >> Hi there,
    >> I'm a catalan guy from Barcelona who is having his application being
    >> assessed. I applied for a Skilled Indep. Visa, and my doubt is about
    >> the 12 months of the last 18 having worked in a skilled occupation.
    >> I meet all the basic requirements except this one... for only 4 days!
    >> I've been working in IT since 1993, but I stopped in August 2001 in
    >> order to study English in London. I lived there for six months, I took
    >> the IELTS exam, and I sent my application on February 27th, 2002.
    >> Adelaide acknowledged by post months later, telling me that the date
    >> of the start of the assesment process was March 4th, 2002. That is
    >> exactly 6 months and 4 days after I left my last skilled job (August
    >> 31st 2001).
    >> Why didn't you wait another week before you sent the application form
    >> off, that way you wouldn't have the dilemma !!!
    >> Best of luck
    >> Tinaj
    >--

ptlabs

Actually, Tinaj, the original poster should have applied about a week earlier, not later.

Peter

catalan

Thank you for the information. I know it sounds like "this guy is somewhat absent-minded, he deserves to have his application being refused. Typical spanish: to sleep until the last moment".
The reason for this borderline status is that I left my skiled occupation to go to London to improve my Enlgish and take better results in IELTS. Time went by quickly, and I had problems to get an IELTS exam date. Three months before lodging the application I already realised that things were going to be on the limit. I sent all the papers with maximum urgency the same day I got the IELTS results. At that time I didn't know I could send the application without the IELTS results. I feel so ****ing stupid now...
Nevermind, I will be refused and I will start again: ACS, IELTS, employer references... The good news is that I won't have to pay an official translator for the academic results: it's a pretty painful amount of money!!
By the way, is a ****ing prejudicial thing to ask for refrences to your company telling them that you are planning to leave, isn't it?

Jaj

I didn't say you *would* be refused. But you should *prepare* to be
refused, as that's the most likely scenario. But you never know, you
might be lucky.

You can't re-apply until you have 12 months recent experience, and if
your ACS assessment is going to expire before then you should
certainly consider getting a new one. If you've been in IT since 1993
you should not be affected by the new ACS rules and you can certainly
re-submit any documentation you sent to them last time.

Jeremy

    >On Sun, 20 Oct 2002 17:35:59 +0000, catalan wrote:
    >Thank you for the information. I know it sounds like "this guy is
    >somewhat absent-minded, he deserves to have his application being
    >refused. Typical spanish: to sleep until the last moment".
    >The reason for this borderline status is that I left my skiled
    >occupation to go to London to improve my Enlgish and take better results
    >in IELTS. Time went by quickly, and I had problems to get an IELTS exam
    >date. Three months before lodging the application I already realised
    >that things were going to be on the limit. I sent all the papers with
    >maximum urgency the same day I got the IELTS results. At that time I
    >didn't know I could send the application without the IELTS results. I
    >feel so ****ing stupid now...
    >Nevermind, I will be refused and I will start again: ACS, IELTS,
    >employer references... The good news is that I won't have to pay an
    >official translator for the academic results: it's a pretty painful
    >amount of money!!
    >By the way, is a ****ing prejudicial thing to ask for refrences to your
    >company telling them that you are planning to leave, isn't it?
    >--

ptlabs

Yes, an skilled independent application can be lodged without an IELTS result.

You should also note that if you want to attempt to lodge a fresh application later, the ACS assessment result is valid for 1 year from date of issue (unless you are a recent Australian IT graduate), and your IELTS score should also be not more than 1 year old at the date of your application.

If either or both of these expire when you lodge your fresh application, you'll need to get a new assessment/result before you re-lodge.


Peter

Jaj

    >On Mon, 21 Oct 2002 02:33:20 +0000, ptlabs wrote:
    >Yes, an skilled independent application can be lodged without an
    >IELTS result.
    >You should also note that if you want to attempt to lodge a fresh
    >application later, the ACS assessment result is valid for 1 year from
    >date of issue (unless you are a recent Australian IT graduate), and your
    >IELTS score should also be not more than 1 year old at the date of your
    >application.
    >If either or both of these expire when you lodge your fresh application,
    >you'll need to get a new assessment/result before you re-lodge.


Peter
You seem to be contradicting yourself in the above post:

- he must have a valid ACS assessment to lodge a new application

- he doesn't need to have a recent IELTS result when lodging a new
application

- he can send in his existing IELTS result with a new application and
the Department *might* accept it, particularly if it was well above
borderline (ie above 7.0). It would boil down to the discretion of
the individual case officer. Of course, they could always ask for a
new IELTS test, but if he has a good IELTS score there should be no
worries about doing the test again if necessary.

Jeremy

ptlabs

Jeremy,

It was my bit round-the-bout way of saying that if his IELTS and/or ACS skills assessment is/are more than a year old, he'll need to get a new IETLS and/or ACS assessment for his new DIMIA application.

Peter

dpr21

Re: your bit about asking for references whilst you are still working for the company - Many people I know of have told their employers that they are going to study and require a reference that they can send off to various Unis i.e a ' TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN TYPE'. I am aware of several people who did this and they have used them and received their Oz visas with no problems.

DPR

Jaj

Peter
What I was trying to say is that an IELTS result that's more than 12
months old might be accepted by DIMIA. It depends on just how much
older it is, the level (>7.0 is better) and what the applicant has
been doing since doing the test.

It's a grey area and they are within their rights to ask for another
one, but if someone had a 14 month old good quality IELTS result it
would do no harm to send it in and see what happened.

By contrast, an expired skills assessment is no use at all. There's
no grey area about that.

Jeremy

    >On Mon, 21 Oct 2002 08:07:42 +0000, ptlabs wrote:
    >Jeremy,
    >It was my bit round-the-bout way of saying that if his IELTS and/or ACS
    >skills assessment is/are more than a year old, he'll need to get a new
    >IETLS and/or ACS assessment for his new DIMIA application.
    >Peter
    >--
    >Go to http://www.austimeline.com/ to check
    >Australian visa timelines.