Apart from 1-0, is it a good idea? Are medicals and police checks frontloaded together? Is there a chance the validity of them may expire before they're requested? What are the pro's and con's? I'm thick - help me.

You're going for skilled independentm right? (if it was partner it is a different story)

Well, medicals and pcc's are valid for 1 year. And you have to get into Oz before that one year is up.
If you do your meds etc right in the beginning(frontload), and you're application takes nearly a year, or more than a year, you'll have to do them again(big bucks!!) or you only have a week to get to Oz.

So, you either wait for DIMIA to request them(could take 8 months...) or, you send them unrequested a few months in.
A lot of people do this last thing, but you still have to look out.
See, if you dubmit you application now, 13 May, then send your medical and pcc in August and then not get your visa till May 05, you'll only have till August to get into Australia.
Though, I don't think you've got a house to sell, so that shouldn't really be a problem....

Front-loading just means you have to get the police checks & meds done yourself, rather than waiting for Oz House to organise them for you. It's quicker, and you can shop around to choose who you go to for the meds - you have to use one on their list but there are some fairly big price differences! It's worth having the rest of your stuff ready before you go for the poice/meds, as your visa will run from the date of the earliest of them. This means quite a lot of legwork, organising documents and affadavits and getting everything signed by a solicitor! Not sure from what I hear if it's worth using an agent - they seem to be very expensive and people seem to still be having to do most of the work themselves anyway - but as we didn't use one, you'll have to ask other people. But don't let yourself be intimidated by all the documents - just be organised! It can be stressful, but only if you let it!

Australia House never 'organise' medicals for you - they just ask you to get them done at a point and give you a list of doctors. It's still your choice.

General skilled applicants deal with Adelaide Skilled Processing Centre, not Australia House in any case.

Front-loading is not advisable for general skilled applications, other than in exceptional cases.

Jeremy

I thought if you're applying for a skilled independent, than DIMIA (Adelaide) requests the meds, and you still have to organise them yourself.
Never heard of Oz House organsing them for you....

And you can always 'shop around'(within the list), even if you don't front-load.

Or am I mixing something up?

Cool. I understand now. Thanks.

Ah, thankyou SUPER moderator for clearing that up
That's what I thought too.

Thanks all. Makes much more sense now.

Ta for clearing that up - things have obviously changed quite a bit since I applied for my fiancee visa nearly 20 years ago! Things were a bit more draconian in those days and also considerably slower - it took 15 months to get the visa!