Brisbound

Hi everyone

DIAC did not make any official announcement as regards to the outcome of their meeting with the treasuries. The amount of applications which are affected by the investment issue is staggering (5500 applications). I am still hopeful that DIAC will find a way out for these applications.

No news is good news.

Best regards
Brisbound

Gazzap

I make that $550 million of our money they don't want?????
Just because 227 people did the wrong thing? There seems much more to this than meets the eye.

pomerz

Gazzap,

I agree there is possibly something bigger going on here......

And the reason ... well the time its taking to get any sense out of the people who made this seemingly knee Jerk reaction.

How many application fees are growing the interest pot and potentially lining the pockets of the authorities if never returned?

This suggests incompetence, the planning is non existent you can see that from the latest round of inactivity, the money that's been collected is as much a fraud as the original alleged incidents in the States!

Its all extremely nieve and an absolute farce or a clever way of gathering interest over the months......

I'm totally cheesed off with the lot of them

paul and janine

hi im really confused. Our investment was accepted for our 495 visa. I emailed our case officer and she replied that we had been allocated a new case manager with an email aspc.region.2 Is this normal or does this mean there is something wrong with the application? We thought the wait was nearly over.....please help the suspense is a nightmare!

ex_exile

Or possibly that the 227 are only the tip of the iceberg and that the fraud is much more widespread than presently acknowledged. I find the onshore / offshore split quite surprising. If you are already in Australia presumably working in an ocupation on the SOL, why do so many need the extra 5 points to go PR? Most logical reason is moving from student to PR which alledgedly is where the 227 were drawn from.

Remember that the Investment points were flagged to be withdrawn in June, way before the fraud became public. You have to ask if it was such a source of easy money then why was it withdrawn...

Gazzap

Best part of £3000 in my case, sitting in Australia for nothing!
Times that by 5500

I note that these 227 students are mostly currently still living in Australia too

I might have to avoid this forum for a while as the more I discuss or think about this, the more it makes my blood boil!
Gaz

Gazzap

Possibly, but what is fairly certain, is that many more people will be innocent, yet highly effected by a much fewer minority of wrong-doers.

I too wondered how come 4000 are 'on-shore'- how does that work, I'd like to be one of them!


Why indeed??????

Brisbound

Hi ALL

Here is the feedback of one agent regarding the status quo of the bond issue.

The State Treasuries decided to maintain their decision not to accept the $100,000 bonds.

DIAC are still looking at other possible solutions but the word is this may not be a quick process. Agents in Australia have been advised this week to keep waiting for further news.

There are some possible solutions. But we have not explored yet how successful they will be so would rather not publish them publicly yet.

Best regards
Brisbound

George Lombard

Dear BB,

Yes this I what I reported yesterday.

The solutions available have all been mentioned here. If anyone has an alternative option I strongly advise them to pursue it. Those with no other options should be writing to the new Minister, Migration Institute of Australia, anyone who will listen.

Cheers,

George Lombard

marwood

The only option available to us is to withdraw our current application and re-apply under 175, at considerable expense. As it stands I think we're going to hold out for the moment in anticipation of a favourable solution to the Cap Investment issue. If towards the end of January we're still in limbo I'll consider taking the IELTS so we can fall back on the 175 option (am I correct in thinking only the main applicant need take the IELTS in order to get the 25 point max?).

geelong

Yes only the main applicant need take the IELTS test. It is split into reading, writing and speaking tasks which take a whole day, with the results given after a fortnight. Practice papers can be bought on e-bay and amazon. I have booked myself in for the 12th Jan in Eastbourne just in case the bond situation doesn't resolve itself.

Gazzap

I would hope anyone caught up in this (with other options or not) would write to the following at least.
It wouldn't do any harm if ANYONE else did likewise, please.

Senator Chris Evans, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship- http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/senators/homepages/contact.asp?id=AX5

Laurie Ferguson MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs and Settlement Services- http://www.laurieferguson.com.au/lf/general_pages/contactus.asp?contact=1

Gaz

marwood

Good luck with the IELTS - let us know how you get on. From what I've read it is achievable but not to be taken for granted either. As with most things, preparation seems to be the key. Hopefully it won't come down to that anyway.

SteveandGina

Steve's also booked in for the IELTS on 12th at Eastbourne (so may see you there geelong) and 19th at Colchester so he can have two attempts.
He's 35 in mid February so if he does not pass with enough points on the IELTS and we do not get any good news on our current application then we will not be able to go on a permanent visa.
Hopefully we'll all have good news in January, else we need Steve to get some good results so we can re-apply before his birthday.
With regards to sitting the IELTS twice, we don't expect the results to change much but we're desperate for our new life in Australia so we'll try anything.
Hopefully everyone has a good Christmas and new year, under the circumstances.
Best Regards
Steve & Gina

geelong

Hopefully we will see you there, have sent you an email.

Fingers crossed for some good New Years news.

Tim and Karen