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In any process, feedback is as important as the final outcome. For when the process goes off track and unnoticed, it will result in the wrong outcome. The feedback is there to stabilize the process and keep it on track until completion with desired outcome.

When you copy a file, you don't just copy and wait for undetermined amount of time until it is done. You want to see it progressing and if there are any issues, file already exist, or is a system file or is read only, or in use, you want to know about it so that you can take the necessary action when needed. This can of course be extended to any process in life.

I find myself in a situation where we've hit the button but I'm not sure if the system or processor has detected the button.

We applied for our 189 visa on 26th November 2012 and have a confirmation letter from the 27th November.2012

On DIAC website it says that all applications before mid Feb 2013 have been allocated to case officers and general experience on this forum is case officer allocation within a couple of weeks after application. They even advise to do penal clearance and medicals if you you approach C/O allocation.

It has now been 5 months or 21 weeks or 150 days since we have applied and we have not hear anything with regards to a case officer nor any other correspondence since the confirmation letter.

We have since provided all our documents online save for the medicals which were uploaded by Hatmed and form 80.

The documents we uploaded states received on the system. Received by the automated system or a human like case officer I have no idea.

Health requirements still indicates a recommended status.

We have no feedback in terms of:

1. When will we be allocated a C/O?

2. Did they recieve our medicals? Are the medicals finalised or referred?

3. Do they need form 80? For both of us? When can we provide that?

4. Does someone know about our application or is it stuck somewhere in the buggy system with no one even knowing about it.

5. Are they waiting for us for something while we are waiting for them? Surely we will wait forever.

We have tried the online web forms to contact DIAC only to get standardized automatic responses indicating we have submitted an application.

We have tried a few times to phone DIAC only to be on hold for 30 minutes and then the call drops.

We don't want preferential treatment here. We just want any form of feedback indicating that something is at least starting to happen on the other side.

I do believe a proper feedback system, even on the smallest of steps will indicate to the applicants that things are happening and less applicants would feel the need to log into their system every day to see if a miracle has happened or not reducing strain on the already problematic system. DIAC would also have to field less calls and deal with less email, increasing productivity.

Any halve backed bug or issue tracking system would have the basic functionality of changing the status on an issue to indicate to the other party, either progress or some form of action or details needed. Why not use any of the free ones available?

Any advice? Should we just keep on trying to phone them? Should we perhaps fly to Aus and go knock on DIAC's door?

(I've got it in the back of my head that this is exactly where having an agent comes in real handy.)

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This definitely doesn't sound right....although I do not work for DIAC so can't say for sure.

There are lots of people who submitted after you and have a case officer so it is unusual that you do not have one yet. But if it's a 189 then it's not highest priority so it's difficult to say. You are very patient!!

I know that nothing will change with your medicals/health status until you have a case officer and you will not have any acknowledgement of any other documents submitted without a case officer who has asked for it. I have heard people say that sometimes you only hear from your case officer when your visa is granted if they had everything they needed, but I do not think this is the case for you unless your medicals have been referred, but generally the CO should introduce themselves to you.

I would recommend you phone again and just keep at it. It's very possible that something went wrong on their system and they're not even aware it's there. So many technical issues happen with this new system. Although you got confirmation, you could wait months more only to find out something went wrong.

Tough one, but keep nagging I think.

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I was about to comment on your poll and say that sometimes nothing happens for months, you don't even have a case officer and then wham, your visa is granted.....so I guess I just said it here.

We have had a visa application where nothing changed, no evidence of a CO and then we just received a grant letter out of the blue, so I don't know that CO's go out of their way to introduce themselves to you.

Why not just upload form 80 and see if it gets you some much needed feedback?

If I could phone for you I would, but they will not give out information due to privacy laws.

Feedback is not something you get much of in the immigration process, apart from that magical email.

Try and upload something, even if it is just a repeat of something entered before just to see what happens.

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CO's will contact you only to request the submissions of the PCC and medicals and/or any other missing documentation. Then its nothing until BAM... you get the visa grant.

But at least the CO should have contacted to ask for the documents to proceed.

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I know it's painful and you are probably like me in that you hate waiting for things but patients it has to be. You are going to drive yourself nuts, I know I did. Hopefully everything is there and all you need is a grant notification, now would that not be fantastic? Will be crossing fingers that it happens soon for you and everyone else who is still waiting so patiently. :hug:

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Thanks guys.

According to this page

http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/estimated-allocation-times.htm

"When your application is allocated to a case officer, you will be notified and provided with an email address for all future correspondence."

This leads me to believe we do not have a CO yet and no one is working in the background without us knowing it.

So you can see the frustration of not having a CO by now when they claim that we will be notified.

Short of flying there and knocking on doors we are stuck with only trying to phone the general inquiries number.

We also need to specify dates on form 80 for employment and place of residence.... if we upload that now and we get a CO in 6 months time. surely they will want to know where we have been staying since and how do we currently support ourselves. Then if we tell them, different dates, they can ask, why we gave them wrong info in the first place. I know I'm pulling the pond from under the duck but you never know when someone has a bad day and you end up on their desk.

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If I had patients, I'd be a doctor.

:blush-anim-cl:

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Thanks guys.

According to this page

http://www.immi.gov.au/skilled/general-skilled-migration/estimated-allocation-times.htm

"When your application is allocated to a case officer, you will be notified and provided with an email address for all future correspondence."

This leads me to believe we do not have a CO yet and no one is working in the background without us knowing it.

So you can see the frustration of not having a CO by now when they claim that we will be notified.

In that case try to do what you can to get some sort of indication as to whether something has gone wrong or not.

Phone over and over because even for the 189 the time frame has passed for getting a CO, they must explain themselves I reckon.

I'm very pushy though, especially considering the amount of money I have paid to DIAC, so that's just what I would do.

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Hi All

After numerous attempts of holding on the phone for at least half an hour to an hour, we(wife) finally managed to get through to general inquiries at DIAC without the call dropping.

Apparently we do have a Case Officer assigned to our application. Not sure when this happened but it has been assigned.

They could not provide us with contact details of the case officer and said the Case Officer will only contact us if he/she needs any further information from us.

They also estimate processing times to be around 12 months.

Now based on the fact that we did our medicals in March, I can only assume that it has been referred and that the Case Officer is waiting for a result on that before continuing.

So we are still in the dark, but at least we know there is another end to this tunnel.

I hope to see the feint glimpse of the light at the end of this tunnel sometime soon.

More wait...

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Glad to hear you finally have your CO. Best of luck with the next steps. I hope you get feedback soon and all runs smoothly for you.

Please keep us posted

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hi Jacques - I know exactly how you feel, it was driving me nuts to wait and be kept in the dark and not knowing exactly what was going on.

i remember the midnight call to DIAC...very weird feeling to phone someone at 1am.

but congrats on the CO - I really think your visa is not far away

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Do yourselves a favour and start completing that painful form 80. You'll have to do one for both of you (all over 18's). Were it asks the address detail in Oz etc, I just completed " not known yet / subject to Visa approval"

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Hi All

Thanks for the encouragement.

Its like taking the train from Sydney Town Hall to the Blue Mountains. You know where it is going, and you know there will be some stops along the way. But you don't know how long until the next stop.

We have filled Form 80 and uploaded it... Simply stating Sydney as destination. Not sure if it will be outdated when someone finally looks at it.

Everything is on hold until we have the visa.

We cannot sell any possessions without it.

We cannot open an account and transfer some money without it. And the exchange rate does look "good-ish" at the moment.

We cannot look for jobs without it.

We cannot buy plane tickets and plan our move in any way without it.

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Know exactly what you mean... we also had to hold off on a lot until we got our visas :)

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Now that you know you have a CO, everything is out of your hands and your application is "being worked on" so time to just take a step back...very hard, I know. Don't know why they are now saying 12 months??? When our visa was granted, they had on the site that it was 5 weeks...hang in there, your confirmation email will arrive! in the meantime, spend as much time with your family as you can, enjoy shopping at woolies and washing your dishes with sunlight dishliquid! - amongst other things!!!

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