aurelio

Hello,

My wife, my daughter and I have 136 Permanent Resident visa granted on FEB 2009 and went to Australia for a week to meet the first entry requirement. We arrived in Australia on 20 May 2009 and left on 27 May 2009 (7 days there). Now we're planning to go definitively now to effectivelly settle there.

The concern I have is that my wife may no longer be eligible to attend english classes at AMEP. Since she didn't met IELTS requirements we had to pay 2nd instalment for her english course. At AMEP web site, the eligibility criteria says:

Can I join AMEP English classes?
You may be able to learn English with the AMEP if you are:

•an adult (18 or older), and
•a migrant or refugee who is new in Australia, and
•you have been granted a permanent visa, and
•you speak little or no English.
You can study English with the AMEP for up to 510 hours or until you reach functional English, whichever comes first.

You need to join classes within three months of coming to Australia and start classes within one year.



Since we arrived Australia more than 1 year ago and never registered to that as we stayed there for 1 week only, I'm not sure if we lost the entitlement of claiming the course. Any thoughts? Can we still claim that?

Thanks

Aurelio

aurelio

Having the stamp of entry and departure isn't enough to demonstrate we didn't settle so we can keep eligible?

Pollyana

Your best bet would be to check with AMEP as I doubt many people on here would know he answer to soemthing like this. Is there not a contact address on their website?

moneypenny20

131 881 No international number. May as well wait until you get here as presumably it will have no bearing on whether you move or not.

aurelio

Hi all,

Thanks for your posts. Yes, they don't have an international number but I found an email contact for AMEP Perth/WA and sent them the question. Here's the answer:

Thank you for your enquiry about eligibility for your wife to attend AMEP English classes. If your wife is eligible for this Program and has not registered within 3 months or attended a course in 12 months she will need to sign a deferral form and give a reason why this occurred and we will forward the information to the Department of Immigration. This is a Immigration Deparment requirement and unless their policies alter in the meantime, it is unlikely to disqualify her from attending classes.

Please feel free to contact this office upon your arrival in order to establish eligibility.


We're not going to WA. Instead we'll be going to Victoria/Melbourne but at any rate I can guess this might apply there as well... Any further toughts?

Thanks

Aurelio