What I should do now!
Oct 13th 2005, 6:18 am
#1
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Joined: Oct 2005
Location: Brisbane, QLD
Posts: 2,046
What I should do now!
Thanks everyone that helped me to decide to apply for VETASSESS sooner rather than later. I'd appreciate some opinions on whether or not the time-line I want to stick to below seems about right (I'm just guessing on processing times!) or is there anything else I should do/sort out soon.
Oct 2005 Receive Academic Transcripts from UK for BSc and MSc
Oct 2005 Apply for UK Police Clearance (Subject Access Form)
Oct 2005 Apply for Australian Federal Police Clearance (Form 1101)
Nov 2005 Send in VETASSESS application
Dec 2005 Receive UK Police Clearance
Jan 2006 Receive Aus Police Clearance
Jan 2006 Receive VETASSESS assessment results
Feb 2006 Complete Medicals (Chest X-Ray and Medical Exam)
Mar 2006 Get photos and documents notarised (birth cert, etc)
Mar 2006 Submit PhD!!!
June 2006 Hear back that I have (hopefully) passed PhD
June 2006 Complete Form 47SK and submit to DIMIA
Assuming that I don't fail my PhD I would expect an 8 week turnaround time.
Questions;
I believe that once I have been assigned a Case Officer they will inform me as to when I need to complete my 'capital investment' and they will send me Form 1134. I assume they tell me how to deposit this money? This should be in July 2006 (assuming the rest of the time-line is accurate)?
I appreciate that there will probably be variations to this time-line as I go along but I just want an idea of what I should be doing in order to be fully prepared.
Also, just on the off chance, does anyone know how long onshore skilled ind. student visas take to be granted assuming there are no problems?
Comments? Advice?
Many thanks.
Oct 2005 Receive Academic Transcripts from UK for BSc and MSc
Oct 2005 Apply for UK Police Clearance (Subject Access Form)
Oct 2005 Apply for Australian Federal Police Clearance (Form 1101)
Nov 2005 Send in VETASSESS application
Dec 2005 Receive UK Police Clearance
Jan 2006 Receive Aus Police Clearance
Jan 2006 Receive VETASSESS assessment results
Feb 2006 Complete Medicals (Chest X-Ray and Medical Exam)
Mar 2006 Get photos and documents notarised (birth cert, etc)
Mar 2006 Submit PhD!!!
June 2006 Hear back that I have (hopefully) passed PhD
June 2006 Complete Form 47SK and submit to DIMIA
Assuming that I don't fail my PhD I would expect an 8 week turnaround time.
Questions;
I believe that once I have been assigned a Case Officer they will inform me as to when I need to complete my 'capital investment' and they will send me Form 1134. I assume they tell me how to deposit this money? This should be in July 2006 (assuming the rest of the time-line is accurate)?
I appreciate that there will probably be variations to this time-line as I go along but I just want an idea of what I should be doing in order to be fully prepared.
Also, just on the off chance, does anyone know how long onshore skilled ind. student visas take to be granted assuming there are no problems?
Comments? Advice?
Many thanks.
Oct 13th 2005, 7:31 am
#2
NorthLakes, Brissy
Joined: Sep 2004
Location: Bridgehaven release - North Lakes!
Posts: 2,423
Re: What I should do now!
Time Line
My Aus police clearances took 6 weeks !!
My UK clearances took 2 weeks.
Capital Investment
They (dimia) write to you with list of email addresses and you write to the relevant treasuries, they write back although i wrote to each state and i only got responses from WA and NT. WA were the quickest and offered the best interest rate at the time, so I went with them.
WA send you an information 'pack' basically a couple of sheets of paper - but spelt out in very plain English, what you have to do at each step.
Good luck !
My Aus police clearances took 6 weeks !!
My UK clearances took 2 weeks.
Capital Investment
They (dimia) write to you with list of email addresses and you write to the relevant treasuries, they write back although i wrote to each state and i only got responses from WA and NT. WA were the quickest and offered the best interest rate at the time, so I went with them.
WA send you an information 'pack' basically a couple of sheets of paper - but spelt out in very plain English, what you have to do at each step.
Good luck !
Oct 13th 2005, 12:40 pm
#3
Banned
Joined: Dec 2004
Location: Tapping (Perth)
Posts: 2,619
Re: What I should do now!
Hi tking,
I don't know your personal circumstances, so these are just some thoughts I am throwing out:
1. You are expecting to get your 136 visa in eight weeks? Then you'll be disappointed (unless there is a drastic change at DIMIA). At the moment, 136 MODL visas take about 5-6 months from lodgement date to grant date (and that is with the applicant doing everything as fast as possible and there being no problems).
2. There are risks attached with front-loading police checks (PCCs) and medicals as you are planning: Your first entry date into Oz with the visa must be within 12 months from the date of the PCCs or medicals (whichever was done earlier). And people whom DIMIA deem to have health problems only get 6 months instead of 12 months!
So, going to your suggested timeline, if you got back the UK PCCs in Dec 2005, then submitted the visa application in June 2006, got the visa grant in November 2006, you may end up with a maximum of three to four weeks to move to Oz (or go there on a validation trip). This could give you some serious problems!- Alternatively, your UK PCCs may be out of date by the time your file gets looked at, in which case your CO will ask you to get new ones!
With regards to the medicals: you can't do them until you've got a case file reference number from DIMIA. And you won't get that until after you've lodged the visa application. (The case file ref no goes on the front of the forms for the medical; that way DIMIA can marry up the medicals with the rest of your papwerwork).
What a lot of people do (us included), is to keep a close eye on timelines of people who have submitted their application in the previous three months. Then gauge when DIMIA are likely to ask for PCCS and medicals. Then get the medcials and PCCS done just before that date and send them to DIMIA in time for the likley date - in the hope that this speeds things up.
When we applied, DIMIA seemed to be asking for PCCS and medicals at around week 16. So, we made sure that our PCCS and medicals were done and sent off to DIMIA by week 14 (by then we had the case file reference number, so there was no problem doing the medicals before DIMIA requested them).
I hope the above makes sense.
Good luck with the PhD.
Gina
I don't know your personal circumstances, so these are just some thoughts I am throwing out:
1. You are expecting to get your 136 visa in eight weeks? Then you'll be disappointed (unless there is a drastic change at DIMIA). At the moment, 136 MODL visas take about 5-6 months from lodgement date to grant date (and that is with the applicant doing everything as fast as possible and there being no problems).
2. There are risks attached with front-loading police checks (PCCs) and medicals as you are planning: Your first entry date into Oz with the visa must be within 12 months from the date of the PCCs or medicals (whichever was done earlier). And people whom DIMIA deem to have health problems only get 6 months instead of 12 months!
So, going to your suggested timeline, if you got back the UK PCCs in Dec 2005, then submitted the visa application in June 2006, got the visa grant in November 2006, you may end up with a maximum of three to four weeks to move to Oz (or go there on a validation trip). This could give you some serious problems!- Alternatively, your UK PCCs may be out of date by the time your file gets looked at, in which case your CO will ask you to get new ones!
With regards to the medicals: you can't do them until you've got a case file reference number from DIMIA. And you won't get that until after you've lodged the visa application. (The case file ref no goes on the front of the forms for the medical; that way DIMIA can marry up the medicals with the rest of your papwerwork).
What a lot of people do (us included), is to keep a close eye on timelines of people who have submitted their application in the previous three months. Then gauge when DIMIA are likely to ask for PCCS and medicals. Then get the medcials and PCCS done just before that date and send them to DIMIA in time for the likley date - in the hope that this speeds things up.
When we applied, DIMIA seemed to be asking for PCCS and medicals at around week 16. So, we made sure that our PCCS and medicals were done and sent off to DIMIA by week 14 (by then we had the case file reference number, so there was no problem doing the medicals before DIMIA requested them).
I hope the above makes sense.
Good luck with the PhD.
Gina
Oct 13th 2005, 9:48 pm
#4
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Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2005
Location: Brisbane, QLD
Posts: 2,046
Re: What I should do now!
Originally Posted by GinaUK
Hi tking,
I don't know your personal circumstances, so these are just some thoughts I am throwing out:
1. You are expecting to get your 136 visa in eight weeks? Then you'll be disappointed (unless there is a drastic change at DIMIA). At the moment, 136 MODL visas take about 5-6 months from lodgement date to grant date (and that is with the applicant doing everything as fast as possible and there being no problems).
2. There are risks attached with front-loading police checks (PCCs) and medicals as you are planning: Your first entry date into Oz with the visa must be within 12 months from the date of the PCCs or medicals (whichever was done earlier). And people whom DIMIA deem to have health problems only get 6 months instead of 12 months!
So, going to your suggested timeline, if you got back the UK PCCs in Dec 2005, then submitted the visa application in June 2006, got the visa grant in November 2006, you may end up with a maximum of three to four weeks to move to Oz (or go there on a validation trip). This could give you some serious problems!- Alternatively, your UK PCCs may be out of date by the time your file gets looked at, in which case your CO will ask you to get new ones!
With regards to the medicals: you can't do them until you've got a case file reference number from DIMIA. And you won't get that until after you've lodged the visa application. (The case file ref no goes on the front of the forms for the medical; that way DIMIA can marry up the medicals with the rest of your papwerwork).
What a lot of people do (us included), is to keep a close eye on timelines of people who have submitted their application in the previous three months. Then gauge when DIMIA are likely to ask for PCCS and medicals. Then get the medcials and PCCS done just before that date and send them to DIMIA in time for the likley date - in the hope that this speeds things up.
When we applied, DIMIA seemed to be asking for PCCS and medicals at around week 16. So, we made sure that our PCCS and medicals were done and sent off to DIMIA by week 14 (by then we had the case file reference number, so there was no problem doing the medicals before DIMIA requested them).
I hope the above makes sense.
Good luck with the PhD.
Gina
I don't know your personal circumstances, so these are just some thoughts I am throwing out:
1. You are expecting to get your 136 visa in eight weeks? Then you'll be disappointed (unless there is a drastic change at DIMIA). At the moment, 136 MODL visas take about 5-6 months from lodgement date to grant date (and that is with the applicant doing everything as fast as possible and there being no problems).
2. There are risks attached with front-loading police checks (PCCs) and medicals as you are planning: Your first entry date into Oz with the visa must be within 12 months from the date of the PCCs or medicals (whichever was done earlier). And people whom DIMIA deem to have health problems only get 6 months instead of 12 months!
So, going to your suggested timeline, if you got back the UK PCCs in Dec 2005, then submitted the visa application in June 2006, got the visa grant in November 2006, you may end up with a maximum of three to four weeks to move to Oz (or go there on a validation trip). This could give you some serious problems!- Alternatively, your UK PCCs may be out of date by the time your file gets looked at, in which case your CO will ask you to get new ones!
With regards to the medicals: you can't do them until you've got a case file reference number from DIMIA. And you won't get that until after you've lodged the visa application. (The case file ref no goes on the front of the forms for the medical; that way DIMIA can marry up the medicals with the rest of your papwerwork).
What a lot of people do (us included), is to keep a close eye on timelines of people who have submitted their application in the previous three months. Then gauge when DIMIA are likely to ask for PCCS and medicals. Then get the medcials and PCCS done just before that date and send them to DIMIA in time for the likley date - in the hope that this speeds things up.
When we applied, DIMIA seemed to be asking for PCCS and medicals at around week 16. So, we made sure that our PCCS and medicals were done and sent off to DIMIA by week 14 (by then we had the case file reference number, so there was no problem doing the medicals before DIMIA requested them).
I hope the above makes sense.
Good luck with the PhD.
Gina
Gina - thanks for your reply, your info is clear and should be helpful to lots of people. I should have been clearer with my info - I'll make a sig line now!
I am actually applying for the Onshore Skilled Independent Student visa (880) - so my processing times are a bit shorter (according to ten or so timelines I've read on the timeline website). There's no problem with me front-loading because I'm already in Australia!!
I appreciate you taking the time to reply though. Good luck with yours!
