Oppyddrum

I put in my application for the 175 on the 22-nov-2011.

Basically submitted everything except the police report and the medicals, now just playing the waiting game.

according to the allocation dates, they have gone as far as May 23rd, they seem to be moving at the speed of about 3 days every 2 weeks...

anyways, looking forward to hearing from people who applied around the same time and maybe we can wait together, share the experience...

Oppy

Oppyddrum

so..... no one else applied in November 2011! that's interesting. i guess I'm gonna be waiting alone. lol.

Never too late to join me though...

shackybracky

We applied in October 2011 and have been watching the processing times too. They moved 11 days in two weeks this time to June 3rd

Oppyddrum

They did! i was so excited to see them at June 3rd. i have tried to convince myself not to check for 4 weeks but i am weak! lol. I am always there on the monday after, checking! lol.
Anyways, i hope they continue with the big strides. I figure there were a new set of rules in June so that might have thinned out the applicants pool a bit... just guessing. If that is true, then they are going to be moving even faster.
Thanks for coming on board though! *thumbs up*

shackybracky

4 weeks! good luck with that, i'm already looking forward to next friday!

yeah it would be nice to see them moving quicker once the surge of applications in June are allocated but considering how long this whole process i'm not getting my hopes up. Still, if they keep moving at the same rate we might get lucky and get a case officer by the summer.

Where in Aus are you heading to?

Edit..just noticed you're already in Newcastle. How long have you been there?

Oppyddrum

I just moved to Newcastle last year April. Been in Melbourne prior to that for like 2 years. I came in on a 457 visa, still on that now. Tired of the ties to a specific company, eager to be free to work anywhere i want, etc.

What part of Oz u looking to move to?

shackybracky

We're heading to Perth to start with because I have an uncle who has lived there over 20 years and the theory is it might help us settle having some family nearby. Although we don't visit family in the uk very often so it might not be an issue.

We spent a couple of months in oz in 2008 and visited Perth, Alice Springs, and drove from Adelaide along the coast to Cairns so we visited a lot of places in a short time and loved a lot of them so we're not set on living in Perth permanently but just using it as a starting point and seeing what happens. I walk in the Lake District regularly so living near the Blue Mountains is an attraction if Perth isn't for us.

What's Newcastle like? We drove through it on our way north but didn't stop there, spent a night in Gosford and moved on north to Port Macquarie.

Oppyddrum

Wow! that sounds like a heck of a trip. All those places in such a short time!
Newcastle is a very calm city, not as urban as Sydney or anything like that but still has heaps of stuff for you to do in and around the area. There are quite a number of amazing beaches here too. I think that's one of the best things about Newcastle. Short 2hr drive to Sydney if you needed to... not too expensive to live in, mostly nice people, no traffic of the "big cities" (Newcastle is apparently the second largest city in NSW, after sydney)... summary, pretty nice place. i do plan to move to Perth later on, probably 3-5 years from now; in search of mining "greener pastures" lol
I have made a habit of always staying far away from family... makes seeing them that much sweeter. lol.

Oppyddrum

i just saw this on the allocation time tracking page of immi.gov.au (that's what i call it, lol)

"A high volume of Priority Group 4 applications were received in June 2011. Whilst cases continue to be allocated per week, the limited movement of allocation dates reflect the high volume of applications received during this period. The affected visa subclasses are:

Skilled – Independent (Migrant) subclass 175
Skilled – Sponsored (Migrant) subclass 176
Skilled – Regional Sponsored (Provisional) subclass 475"
-http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/estimated-allocation-times.htm

I reckon that is as a result of the anticipation of a rule change starting from July 2011 (change of the point system thing). I hope it thins out starting from July. They are allocated up to June 13th now so shouldn't be too long now before they cross into the (hopefully) lighter traffic of post-july2011 applications.

just thought I'd share that.

Sol2Oz

Here I am! I'm a november 11th applicant :-))

I see that there's not that many of us, so our month will probably be bundled up with either October or December

Oppyddrum

@Sol2Oz: you are welcome to this "exclusive" club of November applicants

i believe that due to that change in July, the number of post-july applicants dropped... therefore, i'm hoping you are right and we get bundled up as u suggest. that will make things so much better, and our wait much shorter.

Sol2Oz

I see that you have applied for your FBI checks. Do you think I should as well? I took the fingerprints but haven't submitted the card yet. I want to be able to push my validation date as far as possible, but at the same time, I want the grant as soon as possible. Do I make sense?

Oppyddrum

i sent mine in because i read somewhere that it could take up to 6-8 weeks to process, so i wanted to get a head-start. It actually took less than a week! the longest part of that process for me was the mailing period and that was as a result of the mailing option i used... took about 2 weeks to get there and its still "on its way" to me.

that being said, it could be because there was not a lot to investigate by the FBI in my case , or the fact that i no longer live in the US. I heard they get really intensive if you are still in the US... not proven.

i would say put it in around April or May and make sure you use a quicker mailing method, express platinum preferably. even if they do it in a week, it is supposed to be valid for a year at least... so you are likely to be alright within that window... that is what i think. Are you still in the US?

Sol2Oz

yes because I'm an American. But I have a clean record, no arrests or anything - never even traveled outta here except within the country. That's why I don't want to submit the card and then have it ready by tomorrow. I want to save as much money as I can so that when I validate the visa, I can visit different States to see where I really want to live. But the sooner we get our PCC's and medicals, the shorter the time between the visa grant and validation date will be.

Oppyddrum

Yea, that makes sense. I suggest you wait till mid-year; at least that way, you know you are closer to being allocated. Judging from the allocation tracking thingy, i predict a july/august allocation... thats my prediction/worst case scenario hope. lol