Australian Skilled Migration Visa - Megathread

irishmover

Managed to source the problem. Medibank were bloody useless and never forwarded the reports like they said they did (Got a nice big apology from them). They forwarded them to DIAC during the night and now my emedical form is showing everything completed.

I probably wouldn't recommend Medibank to anyone but I'm guessing my case is an isolated one. Stressful as my current visa runs out Jan 31st and I've booked flights to return to Australia on the 30th.

premiergal

I'm waiting about four weeks for a 457 visa with my partner. I was advised at the time it would only take three weeks does anyone have any recent experience of how long it takes? My employer is sorting it all and they think it may take another couple weeks :eek:

Thanks for any help climbing the walls here just waiting around.

irishmover

Panic over. I'm a Permanent Resident of Australia as of 10 mins ago!

JR1210

irishmover wrote: »

Panic over. I'm a Permanent Resident of Australia as of 10 mins ago!

Congratulations, fingers crossed that will be me

I submitted my application on 12 January, how long did it take you to get the person assigned? Looks like yours turned around pretty fast

irishmover

Was just under 2 weeks for case officer to be assigned. Would have got visa a lot quicker only for medical.

189?

JR1210

Im applying for 189 but still need to get medical, Garda cert and my misses will probably need to do IELTS as she is not from Ireland
IELTS is only done in UCD and there is a big queue for it, the Garda wont give me the cert without getting some proof of request first. Medical should not take too long, there is plenty of availability

irishmover

Availability wasn't my issue for medical. They screwed up my results and never sent them to immigration!

I applied from Australia so might be a bit different. I wrote a letter to the superintendent stating what I needed and my mam went into the Gardai with it. They gave her the cert within 2 days so didn't have any issue with that.

I applied on my own aswel so was a lot more straight forward.

linola_c

Hi guys, I lodged an EOI today at last!

I sent the Garda Clearance Applications off a few weeks ago and obtained international coupons in the post office to allow the certs to be sent back.

The police certs have not arrived in Ireland.

Has anyone any experience in sending a family member in with a copy of my passport and a letter with my details, they will be able to get the cert for me? Can I just get them to scan a copy to me seeing as my understanding is the enitre application process is online anyway?

Cheers for the help guys.

I completed the IELTS test and scored an 8.5 overall so if anyone needs help with that, send me a mail

Cheers

irishmover

linola_c wrote: »

Hi guys, I lodged an EOI today at last!

I sent the Garda Clearance Applications off a few weeks ago and obtained international coupons in the post office to allow the certs to be sent back.

The police certs have not arrived in Ireland.

Has anyone any experience in sending a family member in with a copy of my passport and a letter with my details, they will be able to get the cert for me? Can I just get them to scan a copy to me seeing as my understanding is the enitre application process is online anyway?

Cheers for the help guys.

I completed the IELTS test and scored an 8.5 overall so if anyone needs help with that, send me a mail

Cheers

Yup I got my mam to go in. I had to write a letter to the Superintendent.

I posted a link a few pages ago to citizens information website which outlines what you need to write in your letter. Just hand write a letter scan it send it to your family and have them go in to the Garda station.

I'll see if I can find that website.

Found it http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/justice/law_enforcement/police_certificate.html

Pugins

Having a problem with skillselect website and hoped someone could help. Got invited to apply for 190 visa and started inputting info. However, every time I get to page 7/17 it just won't load and I get an error message that the system is unavailable and try again later.

Have tried and tried at different times of the day, on Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer. On two different PCs, on an IPad and phone. Tried clearing cookies etc. no joy. Searched online and it seems to be a common problem but can't find a way to fix it. Has this ever happened anyone else? And if so how did you get around it?

woolymammoth

Pugins wrote: »

Having a problem with skillselect website ... every time I get to page 7/17 it just won't load and I get an error message that the system is unavailable and try again later.

Have tried and tried at different times of the day, on Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer. On two different PCs, on an IPad and phone. Tried clearing cookies etc. no joy. Searched online and it seems to be a common problem but can't find a way to fix it. Has this ever happened anyone else? And if so how did you get around it?

never used it, so i can't say how it's developed. But sounds like a problem with the service, and you'd be better reporting it via their online help & support. Chances are it's something they know about but couldn't be arsed fixing. Could also be an incompatibility with specific versions of IE, or even Java. Have you tried Chrome or Opera at all?

linola_c

Wow! Lodged EOI on Friday night and received invitation today! Very quick turn around.

Just in respect of the garda clearance checks - is the scanned copy ok? Or has anyone been asked for the original? I understand that the clearances can be lodged later, is that correct?

Cheers for the help!

irishmover

linola_c wrote: »

Wow! Lodged EOI on Friday night and received invitation today! Very quick turn around.

Just in respect of the garda clearance checks - is the scanned copy ok? Or has anyone been asked for the original? I understand that the clearances can be lodged later, is that correct?

Cheers for the help!

Yeh it's usually two Mondays in every month so I guess this was the second Monday in February that they offered invitations

Yeh a scanned copy is fine. Can add documents at a later date after you've applied but I wouldn't leave it too late to send stuff. I'd suggest have as much of the application completed before lodging. Even the medical I suggest getting done ASAP. It's mandatory and they'll only ask you to do it anyway so get it done before they ask you IMO.

linola_c

Great thanks Irish Mover - ill get them booked in asap.

Just about certified copies, mostly everything I have our originals such as degree transcripts, skills assessments etc - do I need to get these certified and then scan them or can I just scan them up as they are original documents?

I am a little confused!

Thanks

irishmover

linola_c wrote: »

Great thanks Irish Mover - ill get them booked in asap.

Just about certified copies, mostly everything I have our originals such as degree transcripts, skills assessments etc - do I need to get these certified and then scan them or can I just scan them up as they are original documents?

I am a little confused!

Thanks

Yeh mate you need them all certified including any identification documents (passport etc). Can get this done at any justice of the peace for free. Google your closest one.

Print a copy of degree, go get it certified and scan it back in and that's what you send. Once it's been certified by a JP immigration will accept it as good as the real thing.

There's a checklist on the 189 page on immigration website of what you need certified etc.

Your skills assessment doesn't need to be certified. Just scan the original and email the PDF. It's a letter by your industries governing body so no need to worry about certification.

linola_c

Ok great.

Do you know if the defacto material also needs to be certified? Like copies of leases etc?

linola_c

Also my degree certificate is in latin. Has anyone any experience of using certain translation companies etc in this regard?

irishmover

Haven't done defacto but I'm sure it would. Best just do it to be sure.

Haven't needed my degree translated. Maybe someone else can help you there.

john.co

linola_c wrote: »

Great thanks Irish Mover - ill get them booked in asap.

Just about certified copies, mostly everything I have our originals such as degree transcripts, skills assessments etc - do I need to get these certified and then scan them or can I just scan them up as they are original documents?

I am a little confused!

Thanks

There's lots of discussion about certified documents/scanned documents online - and from my personal experience (and reading lots of forums) - we uploaded colour scanned copies of all of our documents and there was no problem. As long as the documents were originals and scanned in colour (uploaded as pdf) then there was no need to get them certified. [The only exception to this was one of the documents - Garda cert I think - we got certified as it was in black and white).
For my university qualifications, I ordered a new set of transcripts and requested that the university stamp each page with their official stamp - then I just uploaded colour scans of each page. Uploaded my official degree parchment, in Latin, without translation and there was no problem with that.

Some of the regulations regarding visa applications are written for hardcopy applications, but for the online application on SkillSelect, colour scans are enough. Read through 'How to Apply' on the 'Visa Applicants' tab here: https://www.immi.gov.au/Visas/Pages/189.aspx and you'll see they accept scanned colour copies of original documents for most of the regular requirements.
Keeping track of all the documents can be a hassle so I'd recommend keeping everything organised, name all scanned copies clearly as this will help keep track of them and email them to yourself as well!

Didn't get any of our de facto stuff certified either - just uploaded scanned colour copies of everything (bank statements, lease, etc) and there was no problem.

I applied in March '13 for the 189 Visa and was granted visa in May '13.

Best of luck.

linola_c

Thanks John.co.

That is music to my ears!!

irishmover

john.co wrote: »

There's lots of discussion about certified documents/scanned documents online - and from my personal experience (and reading lots of forums) - we uploaded colour scanned copies of all of our documents and there was no problem. As long as the documents were originals and scanned in colour (uploaded as pdf) then there was no need to get them certified. [The only exception to this was one of the documents - Garda cert I think - we got certified as it was in black and white).
For my university qualifications, I ordered a new set of transcripts and requested that the university stamp each page with their official stamp - then I just uploaded colour scans of each page. Uploaded my official degree parchment, in Latin, without translation and there was no problem with that.

Some of the regulations regarding visa applications are written for hardcopy applications, but for the online application on SkillSelect, colour scans are enough. Read through 'How to Apply' on the 'Visa Applicants' tab here: https://www.immi.gov.au/Visas/Pages/189.aspx and you'll see they accept scanned colour copies of original documents for most of the regular requirements.
Keeping track of all the documents can be a hassle so I'd recommend keeping everything organised, name all scanned copies clearly as this will help keep track of them and email them to yourself as well!

Didn't get any of our de facto stuff certified either - just uploaded scanned colour copies of everything (bank statements, lease, etc) and there was no problem.

I applied in March '13 for the 189 Visa and was granted visa in May '13.

Best of luck.

The immigration officer I had just before Christmas informed that all the certified documents I sent were required to be certified and that I had missed one so had to get that certified too.

I guess it depends on the case officer.

irishmover

http://www.immi.gov.au/skills/skillselect/index/checklists/189-applicant-checklist.pdf

You need certified identification anyway so while you're getting your passport certified and marriage certificate certified might aswell do everything else. If you didn't need anything else certified so what? If you do then it saves a second trip.

linola_c

Right you are Irish Mover, I actually had them all certified anyway just to be safe.

I will leave the translation of the degree cert for now though.

Can I organise the medical without actually being requested to complete it? I'd like to get it all done. Medibank are looking for a HAPs number which I don't have?

linola_c

Ignore re medical - I have the HAPs.

Thank you for your help guys!

irishmover

linola_c wrote: »

Right you are Irish Mover, I actually had them all certified anyway just to be safe.

I will leave the translation of the degree cert for now though.

Can I organise the medical without actually being requested to complete it? I'd like to get it all done. Medibank are looking for a HAPs number which I don't have?

Good stuff. Best of luck with it. Keep us posted

linola_c

Will do.

We are hoping to get it through ASAP. My other half is eagerly awaiting the green light to be able to quit his job - sponsored 457 and despises his employer!!

Fingers crossed!

Thanks for help :-)

irishmover

linola_c wrote: »

Will do.

We are hoping to get it through ASAP. My other half is eagerly awaiting the green light to be able to quit his job - sponsored 457 and despises his employer!!

Fingers crossed!

Thanks for help :-)

Sounds all too familiar!

JR1210

When the CO was assigned she advised that we need to get a IELTS for the misses, there is no availability in Ireland until May and we only have 28 days to get it back :eek:

Do you have to get the FORM 80 certified? Its an original document so not a copy?

irishmover

Don't need to get Form 80 certified no.

Bit ridiculous about IELTS. Explain the situation.

Theresalwaysone

Can anyone tell me or direct me to where I can find out what documents you need to apply for a 457 Visa?

Thanks