December 2007 Applicants
Jul 24th 2008, 3:25 pm
#1156
Forum Regular
Joined: Jun 2008
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 68
Re: December 2007 Applicants
Hello, I'm a January applicant so I hope you don't mind me crashing the December forum
After reading the "12 Nov...systemically processing..." responses people have been getting on the phone to ASPC as detailed on this thread, I thought you may be interested in yet another case study to add to the theories of what-on-earth-goes-on-at-the-skilled-processing-centre....
So here we go: rang the ASPC a few hours ago with a query about receipt of our medicals.
Background( We had our medicals done way back in Early Feb in Melbourne and HSA told us they would sent them straight to Adelaide for us. I recently noticed (while surfing through this lovely forum) that for many people there online status gets updated with "medicals received". As that didn't happen with us (and mini-paranoia took over me) I thought I'd ring ASPC and enquire if they got our medicals and when they would show on the online status. The call was motivated in part by my paranoia but also hoping just to nudge our application along - I was pretty sure they had received the meds as my other half had to renew a student visa and we just told them to get the meds from our permanent application and get back to us if that wasn't OK and he had to do new meds - student visa was granted so I guessed they had our meds back in March 08)
Anyway....After about 5 minutes of trying to convey our TRN (clearly my accent isn't up to scratch - yes I'm a native English speaker - and Alpha bravo charlie delta isn't under standard use as ASPC...each phone operator seems to make up their own words for various letters??), eventually we went with using my passport number as ID (my accent seemed to work better for numbers :- ) So I enquired....and yes our medicals made it to ASPC, and my lovely telephone assistant offered to "add a note to your case officer to update the online status" (nearly passed out with excitement as this point.... "ouuu" says I "Do we have a case officer assigned?" My lovely telephone assistant then got a little flustered and there was some "oh wait"... "Am.." ..."oh I see what has happened" noises. Then, having collected herself, she goes (clearly well practiced in this little verse) "We are only up to processing applications before the 12 November, so you don't have a case officer, it will be X number of weeks (sorry forgot exactly how many weeks as I zoned out a bit...no point in retaining non-information) before one is likely to be assigned. The online status page probably won't be updated until after a case officer goes through the medicals." So I politely thanked her kindly and hung up. (Sorry, wasn't as brave as other forum users to challenge to 12 Nov bizarre miss-truth.)
So a few minutes later I went back to my computer and re-checked the application online status (it has become a bit of an obsessive compulsive thing, me checking the status). And no changes...
2 hours later, the obsessive compulsion broke out again and now on the status page it says: 25/07/08 Further Processing Commenced
No documents have changed to met yet but still I'm a very happy camper. Now maybe its just because the phone operator opened my file...but then a while ago (june I think) I rang and they also opened my file as we were trying to work out what my other half should do when his student visa expired and if the 176 would get processed before then...and that time there was no change on the status page.
So moral of the story, it probably doesn't hurt to ring ASPC and enquire if meds have been received, or if there are any documents outstanding, or well, any other sort of query you can come up with...
After reading the "12 Nov...systemically processing..." responses people have been getting on the phone to ASPC as detailed on this thread, I thought you may be interested in yet another case study to add to the theories of what-on-earth-goes-on-at-the-skilled-processing-centre....
So here we go: rang the ASPC a few hours ago with a query about receipt of our medicals.
Background( We had our medicals done way back in Early Feb in Melbourne and HSA told us they would sent them straight to Adelaide for us. I recently noticed (while surfing through this lovely forum) that for many people there online status gets updated with "medicals received". As that didn't happen with us (and mini-paranoia took over me) I thought I'd ring ASPC and enquire if they got our medicals and when they would show on the online status. The call was motivated in part by my paranoia but also hoping just to nudge our application along - I was pretty sure they had received the meds as my other half had to renew a student visa and we just told them to get the meds from our permanent application and get back to us if that wasn't OK and he had to do new meds - student visa was granted so I guessed they had our meds back in March 08)
Anyway....After about 5 minutes of trying to convey our TRN (clearly my accent isn't up to scratch - yes I'm a native English speaker - and Alpha bravo charlie delta isn't under standard use as ASPC...each phone operator seems to make up their own words for various letters??), eventually we went with using my passport number as ID (my accent seemed to work better for numbers :- ) So I enquired....and yes our medicals made it to ASPC, and my lovely telephone assistant offered to "add a note to your case officer to update the online status" (nearly passed out with excitement as this point.... "ouuu" says I "Do we have a case officer assigned?" My lovely telephone assistant then got a little flustered and there was some "oh wait"... "Am.." ..."oh I see what has happened" noises. Then, having collected herself, she goes (clearly well practiced in this little verse) "We are only up to processing applications before the 12 November, so you don't have a case officer, it will be X number of weeks (sorry forgot exactly how many weeks as I zoned out a bit...no point in retaining non-information) before one is likely to be assigned. The online status page probably won't be updated until after a case officer goes through the medicals." So I politely thanked her kindly and hung up. (Sorry, wasn't as brave as other forum users to challenge to 12 Nov bizarre miss-truth.)
So a few minutes later I went back to my computer and re-checked the application online status (it has become a bit of an obsessive compulsive thing, me checking the status). And no changes...
2 hours later, the obsessive compulsion broke out again and now on the status page it says: 25/07/08 Further Processing Commenced
No documents have changed to met yet but still I'm a very happy camper. Now maybe its just because the phone operator opened my file...but then a while ago (june I think) I rang and they also opened my file as we were trying to work out what my other half should do when his student visa expired and if the 176 would get processed before then...and that time there was no change on the status page.
So moral of the story, it probably doesn't hurt to ring ASPC and enquire if meds have been received, or if there are any documents outstanding, or well, any other sort of query you can come up with...
Jul 24th 2008, 3:28 pm
#1157
Forum Regular
Joined: Jun 2008
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 68
Re: December 2007 Applicants
Oh christ, I just checked the online status thing again (i know, but I just can't help myself) and all the documents have been changed to met....yes...yes...yes...
Jul 24th 2008, 3:33 pm
#1158
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Feb 2008
Location: Australia
Posts: 2,594
Re: December 2007 Applicants
Hello, I'm a January applicant so I hope you don't mind me crashing the December forum
After reading the "12 Nov...systemically processing..." responses people have been getting on the phone to ASPC as detailed on this thread, I thought you may be interested in yet another case study to add to the theories of what-on-earth-goes-on-at-the-skilled-processing-centre....
So here we go: rang the ASPC a few hours ago with a query about receipt of our medicals.
Background( We had our medicals done way back in Early Feb in Melbourne and HSA told us they would sent them straight to Adelaide for us. I recently noticed (while surfing through this lovely forum) that for many people there online status gets updated with "medicals received". As that didn't happen with us (and mini-paranoia took over me) I thought I'd ring ASPC and enquire if they got our medicals and when they would show on the online status. The call was motivated in part by my paranoia but also hoping just to nudge our application along - I was pretty sure they had received the meds as my other half had to renew a student visa and we just told them to get the meds from our permanent application and get back to us if that wasn't OK and he had to do new meds - student visa was granted so I guessed they had our meds back in March 08)
Anyway....After about 5 minutes of trying to convey our TRN (clearly my accent isn't up to scratch - yes I'm a native English speaker - and Alpha bravo charlie delta isn't under standard use as ASPC...each phone operator seems to make up their own words for various letters??), eventually we went with using my passport number as ID (my accent seemed to work better for numbers :- ) So I enquired....and yes our medicals made it to ASPC, and my lovely telephone assistant offered to "add a note to your case officer to update the online status" (nearly passed out with excitement as this point.... "ouuu" says I "Do we have a case officer assigned?" My lovely telephone assistant then got a little flustered and there was some "oh wait"... "Am.." ..."oh I see what has happened" noises. Then, having collected herself, she goes (clearly well practiced in this little verse) "We are only up to processing applications before the 12 November, so you don't have a case officer, it will be X number of weeks (sorry forgot exactly how many weeks as I zoned out a bit...no point in retaining non-information) before one is likely to be assigned. The online status page probably won't be updated until after a case officer goes through the medicals." So I politely thanked her kindly and hung up. (Sorry, wasn't as brave as other forum users to challenge to 12 Nov bizarre miss-truth.)
So a few minutes later I went back to my computer and re-checked the application online status (it has become a bit of an obsessive compulsive thing, me checking the status). And no changes...
2 hours later, the obsessive compulsion broke out again and now on the status page it says: 25/07/08 Further Processing Commenced
No documents have changed to met yet but still I'm a very happy camper. Now maybe its just because the phone operator opened my file...but then a while ago (june I think) I rang and they also opened my file as we were trying to work out what my other half should do when his student visa expired and if the 176 would get processed before then...and that time there was no change on the status page.
So moral of the story, it probably doesn't hurt to ring ASPC and enquire if meds have been received, or if there are any documents outstanding, or well, any other sort of query you can come up with...
After reading the "12 Nov...systemically processing..." responses people have been getting on the phone to ASPC as detailed on this thread, I thought you may be interested in yet another case study to add to the theories of what-on-earth-goes-on-at-the-skilled-processing-centre....
So here we go: rang the ASPC a few hours ago with a query about receipt of our medicals.
Background( We had our medicals done way back in Early Feb in Melbourne and HSA told us they would sent them straight to Adelaide for us. I recently noticed (while surfing through this lovely forum) that for many people there online status gets updated with "medicals received". As that didn't happen with us (and mini-paranoia took over me) I thought I'd ring ASPC and enquire if they got our medicals and when they would show on the online status. The call was motivated in part by my paranoia but also hoping just to nudge our application along - I was pretty sure they had received the meds as my other half had to renew a student visa and we just told them to get the meds from our permanent application and get back to us if that wasn't OK and he had to do new meds - student visa was granted so I guessed they had our meds back in March 08)
Anyway....After about 5 minutes of trying to convey our TRN (clearly my accent isn't up to scratch - yes I'm a native English speaker - and Alpha bravo charlie delta isn't under standard use as ASPC...each phone operator seems to make up their own words for various letters??), eventually we went with using my passport number as ID (my accent seemed to work better for numbers :- ) So I enquired....and yes our medicals made it to ASPC, and my lovely telephone assistant offered to "add a note to your case officer to update the online status" (nearly passed out with excitement as this point.... "ouuu" says I "Do we have a case officer assigned?" My lovely telephone assistant then got a little flustered and there was some "oh wait"... "Am.." ..."oh I see what has happened" noises. Then, having collected herself, she goes (clearly well practiced in this little verse) "We are only up to processing applications before the 12 November, so you don't have a case officer, it will be X number of weeks (sorry forgot exactly how many weeks as I zoned out a bit...no point in retaining non-information) before one is likely to be assigned. The online status page probably won't be updated until after a case officer goes through the medicals." So I politely thanked her kindly and hung up. (Sorry, wasn't as brave as other forum users to challenge to 12 Nov bizarre miss-truth.)
So a few minutes later I went back to my computer and re-checked the application online status (it has become a bit of an obsessive compulsive thing, me checking the status). And no changes...
2 hours later, the obsessive compulsion broke out again and now on the status page it says: 25/07/08 Further Processing Commenced
No documents have changed to met yet but still I'm a very happy camper. Now maybe its just because the phone operator opened my file...but then a while ago (june I think) I rang and they also opened my file as we were trying to work out what my other half should do when his student visa expired and if the 176 would get processed before then...and that time there was no change on the status page.
So moral of the story, it probably doesn't hurt to ring ASPC and enquire if meds have been received, or if there are any documents outstanding, or well, any other sort of query you can come up with...
Jul 24th 2008, 7:13 pm
#1160
Forum Regular
Joined: May 2008
Location: The Netherlands
Posts: 42
Re: December 2007 Applicants
After the call from last night everything still looks the same (required).Chantal
Jul 24th 2008, 9:25 pm
#1161
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Sep 2007
Location: Happily in Adelaide
Posts: 11,994
Re: December 2007 Applicants
OK I give in, I will start my obsessive compulsive ringing the APC and the Embassy and emailing new information on Monday.
Could some kind person PM me the Embassy and the APC numbers.
I really don't want to be this obsessed yet.....
Could some kind person PM me the Embassy and the APC numbers.
I really don't want to be this obsessed yet.....
Jul 24th 2008, 9:30 pm
#1162
Forum Regular
Joined: Jan 2008
Location: Farnborough
Posts: 232
Re: December 2007 Applicants
Too late I think you've already joined the club!
Jul 24th 2008, 10:20 pm
#1163
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Sep 2007
Location: Happily in Adelaide
Posts: 11,994
Jul 25th 2008, 1:29 am
#1164
Crazy Finn
Joined: Nov 2007
Location: Brisbane for now :D
Posts: 438
Re: December 2007 Applicants
I phoned this morning and spoke to someone who said that I didn’t have a CO and that they are up to 12th November……
A PR is indeed electronically linked to a passport so it is not necessary to enter Australia with the sticker in your passport. However in a day to day situation a sticker can be needed as proof that you have a valid visa.
A PR is indeed electronically linked to a passport so it is not necessary to enter Australia with the sticker in your passport. However in a day to day situation a sticker can be needed as proof that you have a valid visa.
Atleast you know you did apply since they found your application ey?
I'll give them a call in the end of next week if nothing happens by then just so that they know we are coming. I did fill in the form, but got just a bulk reply. So thinking of calling just to be sure.
K
Jul 25th 2008, 2:17 am
#1165
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 2,517
Re: December 2007 Applicants
Brilliant news
thought your earlier post was really good, couldn't help but laugh cause it reminded me of when we rang and got told no CO for at least 4 weeks and then the next thing we'd got the visa...............why can't they just be honest? P.s. The day after ours changed to MET we got the visa
Get ringing!!!!!
Jul 25th 2008, 4:04 am
#1167
Forum Regular
Joined: May 2008
Location: The Netherlands
Posts: 42
Re: December 2007 Applicants
What does day to day situation mean? Can we skip the detour to Berlin?
Atleast you know you did apply since they found your application ey?
I'll give them a call in the end of next week if nothing happens by then just so that they know we are coming. I did fill in the form, but got just a bulk reply. So thinking of calling just to be sure.
K
Atleast you know you did apply since they found your application ey?
I'll give them a call in the end of next week if nothing happens by then just so that they know we are coming. I did fill in the form, but got just a bulk reply. So thinking of calling just to be sure.
K
No what I mean is that the actual sticker is needed, because somebody can request to show it.... Don't know when that will happen. However if my visa is granted when I'm on my way to Melbourne (departure 5th, arrival 7 th august), a sticker is not needed, but I need to collect it sometime. Where and how I didn't ask because how big is the change that this will happen???Why do you need to go to Berlin anyway? I thought the British could get their visa in London?
If I get my visa before/on Friday 1th august there is still plenty of time to get it evidenced. When I receive it on the 4th - 6th of august I will stay in Singapore to get the sticker. So plenty of time to get my visa
And indeed my file was there........ Hmm maybe I'll call them next week again
Chantal
Jul 25th 2008, 6:04 am
#1168
Just Joined
Joined: Apr 2008
Location: Durham
Posts: 9
Re: December 2007 Applicants
weve got visa today
Hi all just wanted to share our great news with you all, this morning we received email confirming visa grant, pretty confused as we were not even allocated a CO - went straight to visa grant. What a long and stressful wait! but finally paid off. I wouldnt care last nite was totally fed up with waiting and said to Oh that im ringing ASPC to find out what was going on, but when i woke up @ 3.00am i couldnt be bothered to go downstairs for the file. hows that for coincidence.
keep your hopes up everyone, it will be your turn soon
Nicky (smurfers OH)
Hi all just wanted to share our great news with you all, this morning we received email confirming visa grant, pretty confused as we were not even allocated a CO - went straight to visa grant. What a long and stressful wait! but finally paid off. I wouldnt care last nite was totally fed up with waiting and said to Oh that im ringing ASPC to find out what was going on, but when i woke up @ 3.00am i couldnt be bothered to go downstairs for the file. hows that for coincidence.
keep your hopes up everyone, it will be your turn soon
Nicky (smurfers OH)
Jul 25th 2008, 6:19 am
#1169
Forum Regular
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 106
Re: December 2007 Applicants
Super ewsr those granted and I am totally now going to start hasseling ASPC and will sending loads of stuff this weekend, I might even send them some old family photos to prove that we exist haha.. They may evengrant me a visa to get rid of me (heres hopig)
At least all these different responses and posts keep things interesting
) At least all these different responses and posts keep things interesting
Jul 25th 2008, 6:52 am
#1170
Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 2,517
Re: December 2007 Applicants
weve got visa today
Hi all just wanted to share our great news with you all, this morning we received email confirming visa grant, pretty confused as we were not even allocated a CO - went straight to visa grant. What a long and stressful wait! but finally paid off. I wouldnt care last nite was totally fed up with waiting and said to Oh that im ringing ASPC to find out what was going on, but when i woke up @ 3.00am i couldnt be bothered to go downstairs for the file. hows that for coincidence.
keep your hopes up everyone, it will be your turn soon
Nicky (smurfers OH)
Hi all just wanted to share our great news with you all, this morning we received email confirming visa grant, pretty confused as we were not even allocated a CO - went straight to visa grant. What a long and stressful wait! but finally paid off. I wouldnt care last nite was totally fed up with waiting and said to Oh that im ringing ASPC to find out what was going on, but when i woke up @ 3.00am i couldnt be bothered to go downstairs for the file. hows that for coincidence.
keep your hopes up everyone, it will be your turn soon
Nicky (smurfers OH)
