EmNew Posted January 30, 2015 Report Share Posted January 30, 2015 Congrats on the IELTS scores for the ICAA.And you have ammunition for any spousal arguments later in life too : "see, proof I DO listen honey - I got full marks on the IELTS listening test" 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig01 Posted January 31, 2015 Report Share Posted January 31, 2015 And the results are in, well sort of...Just checked on the Council's website and according to it I have L-9, R-8, W-7, S-7.5 which means I can at least send my skills assessment in when I get my report form. Not the 8's all round I was hoping for, but at least enough for continue. Will see what the assessment results are. Depending on the results of that I will see if I need to re-write the IELTS.To be continued...wow but their standards have slipped since I did my IELTS ..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SurferMan Posted January 31, 2015 Report Share Posted January 31, 2015 (edited) Mate,welcome to Aus when you land buddy.. Don't worry about the little AW who inhabit the localearia, you will be fine. As for the Saffer AW's who whinge, offer them an EFF sponsored tickect! LOLOL Edited January 31, 2015 by SurferMan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SDTCPT Posted February 3, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 3, 2015 DHA surprised me...So we went and got our Unabridged Certificates on Saturday. Was surprised by DHA's short processing time, but who's complaining Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SDTCPT Posted February 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2015 British Council, African standards...So I phoned the Council today to check why I have not received my report form yet. Turns out they are only sending them today due to problems they had with the photos taken at Cape Town on the 17th of Jan (or maybe just my one, could not understand the English spoken by the guy that helped me...)Hopefully I get it by Friday so that I can submit my skills assessment. I hope to be able to get my EOI in before the final invitation round of Feb, because I see the available slots for accountant are going fast... Has me a bit worried I must tell you.Nothing I can do but wait... @%$^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SDTCPT Posted February 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2015 (edited) Next step taken...I got a nice surprise this morning (after the not so nice one from Eskom), I got my IELTS report form.That meant that I could submit my skills assessment Little problem (or maybe it was big ) , the first mail I sent to ICAA bounced back. The 20mb of attachments were a bit to much for their poor inbox to handle. I had to split the documents over four e-mails. I received an automated response stating they have received my application, but are experiencing high volumes of applications and it might be a while for it to be logged. Just hoping they also got the other 3 mails...This will be the first Notify Me sms that I will be happy to receive.And now we wait... Edited February 5, 2015 by SDTCPT 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmNew Posted February 5, 2015 Report Share Posted February 5, 2015 Awesome news! One step closer.........Hope the ICAA assessment turnaround is quick despite the high volumes of applications, and is positive ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SDTCPT Posted February 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Another step done...So my wife wrote her IELTS on Saturday. One more thing out of the way. Now just waiting for the skills assessment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SDTCPT Posted February 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2015 Assessment in progress...Got confirmation email and login details from ICAA. Assessment is in progress...well almost. This right bloody idiot made a mistake with his credit card details on the PASA, so they had to contact me to get the right details. So a slight delay before they can really start with the assessment. Note to self, double checking does not work! Triple check!! Guess I can never again claim to be detail oriented 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SDTCPT Posted February 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2015 (edited) And they're off...Ok so the typo was sorted and now my money has waved goodbye to find a better home in the ICAA's account. Now the wait really begins Edited February 12, 2015 by SDTCPT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SDTCPT Posted March 6, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2015 (edited) Anyone know a good Cardiologist in Cape Town?Almost had a heart attack this morning. Woke up 5am as usual, checked my phone and see there is an email from ICAA's Assessment Team. Bleary eyed I open the e-mail and see that my assessment is completed. Three attachments came along with the e-mail. Try and open them... nada phone just refuses to open them, but I can see on title is requirements and I think o crap, ICAA says "hey dumbass here are our criteria for positive assessments please try again next time. After snapping at the wife (sorry love) because I really want to snap my phone I get my ass out of bed and into the shower because if I don't get a move on the wife will be stuck in Cape Town rush hour traffic and then I am in even deeper @#$% than I already am for snapping at her. (note to self... flowers and something nice might just save your ass but nothing is guaranteed). Ok so the shower calmed me a bit and seeing as I have a couple of minutes while the wife gets ready, I start up my pc to check the mail and see if my Friday is gona start really bad or not.Well I can tell you that I have never felt such relief before (just goes to show how stressed I really was about this assessment, hence my snappy nature this morning. No excuse, just saying...)... ICAA says all the time I have spent studying was not for nothing and they are willing to give me a positive assessment They think my ND and BTech together are equal to an Aussie BA and best of all they approved all of my work experience from the first day of my articles up to now which gives me about 9 years which means I should be able to claim points as follows:Age - 30 (I only turn 33 in October)English - 10 (I got at least 7's across the board for IELTS)Quals - 15 (for degree at Aus BA standard)Experience - 15 (9 years from 01/01/2006 to date)That gives me a total of 70Now if some one is actually still reading this journal of mine would you agree with this EOI claim or would you suggest I down grade some of these, because if there is one thing I do not want to do now is stuff up my EOI. Any help would be much appreciated. Maybe I should post the question under the application section and see what replies I get... Edited March 6, 2015 by SDTCPT 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SDTCPT Posted March 6, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2015 EOI in the pool...Just submitted my EOI with SkillSelect giving me 70 using the info as I received it on both my assessments from ICAA.Now the wait begins. Next invitation round is next week Friday 13th March... hopefully it will be a lucky Friday the 13th Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmNew Posted March 6, 2015 Report Share Posted March 6, 2015 Lots achieved today for you It is such a relief to have ICAA confirm as you say "all the time I have spent studying was not for nothing" .I remember feeling completely helpless and so stressed out about this step. We made the decision to apply as a couple, but as the main applicant, I felt that so much responsibility rested on my shoulders. I felt overwhelmed with fear about 1) getting a negative assessment, which would in my mind have invalidated my entire working career, and 2) letting my husband down.....I would think that with 70 points you have a good chance of an invite next Friday. The prior stats on invite rounds indicate low percentage of people with 70 points, which means increased odds of being selected.Holding thumbs.......Good luck with the stress to come, and the resultant increasing apology flower budget Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mara Posted March 7, 2015 Report Share Posted March 7, 2015 Congratulations, I hope your "we got it" will soon be knocking on your door! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SDTCPT Posted March 7, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2015 EmNew,That is basically the same way I felt. Just glad that part is over. The rest is basically out of my hands now as there is not much I can do from this point forward I think that will influence the decisions of the immigration officials...The best news is all is smoothed over with the wife... took her out to her favourite restaurant yesterday 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SDTCPT Posted March 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2015 If you work on Perth time you get a nice surprise on a Thursday afternoon...I just got a nice surprise to brighten my Thursday afternoon (I needed it because I was feeling a bit run down...) I just got my invitation to apply for a 189 VISA. I am so used to convert SA time to Perth time (we have family there) that I thought if I was lucky I would get an e-mail about the invitation only on Friday but it seems DIBP works on Canberra time and that means it is about 00:28 there as I write this post and I got the e-mail at about 15:15 Now just to get the final ducks in a row and lodge the VISA application. Then the real wait begins.Em, if you are reading this, I hope you had some good news too. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmNew Posted March 12, 2015 Report Share Posted March 12, 2015 Awesome news!!2 happy number crunchers :-)I have JUST read that I had a VPO assigned today, before seeing the update on your journal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SDTCPT Posted April 1, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2015 And now the REAL wait begins,Finally got the last little bugger of a duck to join his mates in the row and finished submitting our application. I have never heard a credit card squeal so loud, but it will just have to get over it... Also finished uploading all the documents that I have at the moment. Now I just need to figure out when to go for the medicals and PCC's. I wonder, seeing as the wait for a VPO (or what ever they are calling themselves this week...) is about 8 weeks and counting, should I go at the beginning of May (giving me a month longer to activate the visa should we get it) or should I just go asap?Will sleep on it and decide in a couple of days...Just want to give a huge thanks to everyone that has given me encouragement and help along the way so far... Hopefully the next post I make here is "WE GOT IT!!!!!" 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cole Posted April 1, 2015 Report Share Posted April 1, 2015 SDTCPT, we're at a similar stage to you for the 189 visa. We waited a month after paying for the visa, to do the PCC application (I couriered it this morning). Our medicals are booked for the end of the month, which means the PCCs and medical results should be completed at about the same time, and hopefully just before a VPO gets assigned. I can't tell you whether this strategy has worked yet, but it's the way we're doing it based on timeframes we've seen for others. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmNew Posted April 1, 2015 Report Share Posted April 1, 2015 Well done on the submission of the application and surviving the money fleeing from your credit card account!Mmm, the "REAL" wait, and the stress that comes with it...... Well, actually the 2 waits - one for a VPO person/thingy and then the grant itself . If you think you sweated bullets whilst waiting for your ICAA assessment, you ain't seen nothing yet!My 2 cents worth - if a month or so difference on the activation date won't upset the apple cart too much, rather get the PCC's and medicals sooner rather than later. You cannot underestimate the peace of mind knowing that more on the checklist can be ticked off as done and dusted, especially since the PCC stage relies on good old government department employees!An idea - if the current PCC turnaround time is 2-3 weeks, perhaps book your medical for 2-3 weeks after the date you start the PCC fingerprint taking process etc? That way you can get both dates close together and can plan 12 months ahead from that.A friend has a theory that the visa grant itself is linked to the date of the medicals so the later you leave the medicals, the later your grant will be. I can't refute her theory, as I can't get enough data off the forum to see if there is a link between those 2 items. ( typical accountant - I have a trusty spread sheet ( idea stolen from the pomzinoz google docs register ), with submission dates, VPO assignment dates, and grant dates, to try and establish a pattern - sadly I can't find one........ I am trying to establish why 99% of the other January applicants have their visa while I don't yet ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SDTCPT Posted April 1, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2015 Hi Em,I can only imagine what this must be doing to your stress levels at the moment... I hope you can relax during the mini break you guys are taking over the next week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qwerty Posted April 2, 2015 Report Share Posted April 2, 2015 (edited) Em. I far as I am aware it is linked to the date of the PCC. BUT they can extend your activation date...our PPCs were dated 12 June and our activation date was extended to 7 September. Asked if we should redo the PCCs and they said no, they'll just extend them. Edited April 2, 2015 by qwerty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SDTCPT Posted April 15, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 15, 2015 Just one more step to go...So I contacted Intercare just before Easter to inquire as to when they would have a spot available for my wife and I to go do our medicals thinking that they would probably be booked up for a couple of weeks and would you believe they called me on Good Friday of all days... Well there must be a dip in the application at the moment because they had space open on the 9th of April... I know we only applied on the 1st and that the medicals are normally only valid for 12 months but I thought what the hell lets go do them and get them over with. So medicals are done and dusted and they were submitted by Intercare and are no longer showing as outstanding on our application.Now we just have to go do our PCC's (now I have checked with Paarl and with Kraaifontein and both of them only do them between 8am and 4 pm, so you would assume that this should be a standard timeframe for all police stations. So after we did our medicals and seeing as it was only 15:30 I decided that maybe we should see if we could get the PCC's done on the same day as our medicals so we don't have to knock of work again. So hop on Google and check to see which station is closest as we would not make it to Kraaifontein's one in time and Bellville came out as the winner. So down Durban road we go and we get to the station with some time to spare, but I should just have saved myself the petrol and the instant spike in blood pressure as when I ask the guy behind the counter where I should go for the PCC (as I have not been to Bellville station before) he points me to the right building but says in a matter-of-fact way "but don't bother going there now as they have go for the day already..." Seems the good people at Bellville station is even more lazy than your normal gov employee (before anyone gets on their high horse about this statement, I was a gov employee as well) and they think 3pm is a good time to knock off.)So PCC's will have to wait till the beginning of May as my wife and I are off to Namibia for the last week of April and I have a load of work to get done before then. Hopefully we will get the PCC's back before we get a VPO so I can load it on to our application so that everything is in place for the VPO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soon2BOz Posted April 15, 2015 Report Share Posted April 15, 2015 HiRegarding police clearances, it might be a good idea for your wife to put her maiden name as well as married name onto the application form and ask for both to be on the police clearance certificate. Just take a certified copy of your marriage certificate to attach to the application. When my police clearance came back with only my married name, Our migration agent advised us to make sure that my maiden name was also on the police clearance certificate as some of his clients had been asked for this. I have been married for 17 years. So applied for another certificate.Our visa was granted with my police clearance certificate with only my married name on it, while we were waiting for the maiden and married name certificate to be sent back to us. Better to get it initially than to have to reapply.Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1978 Posted April 15, 2015 Report Share Posted April 15, 2015 (edited) Attach your unabridged marriage certificate to the police clearance certificate application. I wrote a letter attached to my application initially to request they add my wife's maiden name. Certificates came back, no maiden name. Phoned the criminal records centre and they requested the unabridged marriage certificate be faxed together with the incorrect pcc's for the maiden name to appear. Second time pcc's came back with correct details. Edited April 15, 2015 by 1978 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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