chubbytubby

Hi Guys,

I am about to apply for a residency visa. I have my skills assessment from the Australian Computer Society and am ready to go.

However I am concerned about the processing times. The problem is that I do not want to enter Australia for another year. I have just bought a RTW ticket and will not be in a position to enter Australia until after this has finished.

I need to get my residency application in now, however.

I gather that the latest I can leave entering Australia and activating the visa (assuming it is issued) is 6 months. Can anyone confirm that?

Can I ask DIMA to 'slow-track' my application????

Anyone??

Any help appreciated!

JAJ

Most people get 12 months from the earliest date of medical and police checks to make first entry to Australia. Only in some cases is medical validity limited to 6 months.

heading south

We lodged our application (a basic 136) in May 2005 and we're still in the visa process (we're sorting out or our bond [bonus points] at the moment). Not many people want to have their application slowed down, but we are not in a rush either for a few reasons. So, tips to 'slow' down the process are:

Don't front load your meds or PCCs, just wait be be asked (our were asked for eight months after we lodged our application).

Take all the alloted time you have to reply to their requests, i.e. you have 70 days from the request for the meds/PCCs to providing them and we were given 49 days to lodge the bond. So don't rush to provide the information, take you time to organise things correctly, but don't miss their deadlines.

Once you have your visa, and assuming no medical issues, you have 12 months from the earliest date of your meds/PCCs to validate your visa in Australia.

All that said, if you're on your RTW trip, I'm not sure you'd be around to sort out their queries/requests as they come through.

Hope that's of some help

Heading South (sometime next year).