Ren Posted April 18, 2019 Report Share Posted April 18, 2019 So through this very painful and torturous process of waiting for our visa to be approved, we have had the mindset of "when" it gets approved and the frustrating/scary part is not knowing when it will come through, however at no point have we stopped to think "what if it gets denied".... until right now. Has anyone ever heard of it being denied at this point? I mean, we are working through a reputable agent, we submitted all of the documents required, everything was checked by our agent (who have apparently got a 100% success rate), we passed our medicals because none of us have any issues, we got our police clearance certificates which are fine.We received our positive skills assessments which means those supporting docs should be fine.. so would there ever be a reason to worry about it being denied? Then the next thing my paranoid brain jumped to... could an application just get lost in transmission somehow? Or could they just miss it? I have access to my ImmiAccount and it just says the status is "received" but it never changes. I check it every day, sometimes twice...and it N.E.V.E.R changes I hold my breath while the webpage loads, my heart stops...and then it drops as I see the very same "received" staring back at me. As more and more time goes by, the more negativity I find seeping into my mind and more disheartened I feel. This really is torture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RYLC Posted April 18, 2019 Report Share Posted April 18, 2019 Just to reassure you that it works out in the end. At this time of year visa processing always slows down to a crawl because we are close to 30 June now when the new quotas tick over and we also mere weeks away from a federal election which causes a slow down of processing. So there are two reasons for a slow down and it's not personal. The waiting is hard but I believe that it primes us for the actual move which can sometimes be far more mentally challenging than the waiting ever was. This is the easy part in the grand scheme of things and your turn will come. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisH Posted April 22, 2019 Report Share Posted April 22, 2019 I have heard of applications being denied, but it would always be related to applicants lying on their applications about experience, undisclosed medical conditions, etc. If you didn't lie or withhold information on your application you will be fine. After the invitation, the rest of the visa process is them checking that the information you provided matches the supporting documentation. On 4/18/2019 at 8:41 PM, Ren said: I check it every day, sometimes twice Remember there is an 8 hour difference if your application is at the Brisbane processing centre. If they work until 5pm there is no point in checking your immi account after 9am in South Africa. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ren Posted April 23, 2019 Author Report Share Posted April 23, 2019 Thanks for the responses. I must say that this whole process is extremely disheartening :-( We are super grateful that we managed to get an invite considering most people that we know haven't gotten one after months and months of waiting, but this last stretch is just crazy. I just wish that someone could give me a definitive reason for the almost complete lack of grants happening... like, it's because of the elections coming up and they will pick up again in May.. or it's because of Easter and you will see loads of grants happening this week...just anything concrete instead of assumptions and speculation and to give me some sort of hope for when things will pick up again... if that makes sense. It's also scary that it seems like the only Accountants getting invites for 189 or 190 visas are ones with 90 points now, someone told me that there hasn't been a single invite issued for someone with less than 90 points this year! I mean, imagine if you go through an agent who assures you that your 85 points is sufficient, you pay them a fortune to lodge your EOI and then BAM the rules change and you have no chance of getting an invite! Although this doesn't affect me since we have already lodged for the actual visa - but what if the rules affecting me somehow change now too and we have already spent R180k on this process... what then? Then we lose our house because we just accepted an offer that we couldn't refuse, we have spent our life's savings on the process, and we don't get a visa. It really is just a massive rollercoaster ride! In my opinion I also don't think it's fair that there are loads and loads of people lodging for their visas every single day - paying the fees which get deducted immediately and then its just radio silence! Surely they should get through their backlog before they issue more invites and take more people's money? This wait seems to get harder every day. I have decided to stop checking my ImmiAccount daily and to just wait for my agent to contact me when there is some news...otherwise I'm just going to drive myself mad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisH Posted April 23, 2019 Report Share Posted April 23, 2019 11 hours ago, Ren said: you pay them a fortune to lodge your EOI Wait what? Lodging an EOI doesn't cost much, it is only the cost of doing the points assessments and a small EOI fee charged by the agent. I used an agent that that only charged for the stage of the process that we were in, so a third of her total fee for lodging the EOI. I think in general South Africans feel like nothing is happening or that something has gone wrong because we're so used to the stuff ups in our own Government. We've all dealt with home affairs or the traffic department. This feeling of incompetent government is ingrained in us. I can assure you that they will get to your application, they will not lose it. We've just had a bunch of public holidays and school holidays so they were probably running on skeleton staff for a couple of weeks and tomorrow is ANZAC day so productivity won't be a priority until next week. They can't just stop the production line of invitations going out, there are different teams dealing with the invites vs the applications so what do they do with the invitations people? The 190 visa timelines can be found on this site: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/skilled-nominated-190 Applying these timelines to your application, these are the dates by when you could start worrying - before these dates you are well within the expected processing times: Date Lodged Work Days Waited 75% processing time 90% processing time 2018/12/11 91 2019/09/11 2019/11/11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ren Posted April 24, 2019 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2019 6 hours ago, ChrisH said: Wait what? Lodging an EOI doesn't cost much, it is only the cost of doing the points assessments and a small EOI fee charged by the agent. I used an agent that that only charged for the stage of the process that we were in, so a third of her total fee for lodging the EOI. I think in general South Africans feel like nothing is happening or that something has gone wrong because we're so used to the stuff ups in our own Government. We've all dealt with home affairs or the traffic department. This feeling of incompetent government is ingrained in us. I can assure you that they will get to your application, they will not lose it. We've just had a bunch of public holidays and school holidays so they were probably running on skeleton staff for a couple of weeks and tomorrow is ANZAC day so productivity won't be a priority until next week. They can't just stop the production line of invitations going out, there are different teams dealing with the invites vs the applications so what do they do with the invitations people? The 190 visa timelines can be found on this site: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/skilled-nominated-190 Applying these timelines to your application, these are the dates by when you could start worrying - before these dates you are well within the expected processing times: Date Lodged Work Days Waited 75% processing time 90% processing time 2018/12/11 91 2019/09/11 2019/11/11 Yes you are right that the agent staggers their fee throughout the process but even a third is a small fortune (approx. R20k) Don't get me wrong, using an agent was the best decision that we made and I wouldn't have done it any other way, but what I am trying to say is that you pay all of this money - the bulk when you lodge your visa and then the rules change and you have no recourse? My friend paid their agent R30k to put in an EOI for a 189 and a 190 as an accountant with 85 points and now it seems only people with 90 points are getting invited...at the time of putting in their EOI 85 points was enough, now its not.. so it's just scary. In my particular case, it's not the fear that the government department in Oz is incompetent like they are here, if that is what I thought then I wouldn't have bothered with this process to begin with... it is more me trying to understand the logic of issuing all of these invitations but then on the other hand there is apparently this massive backlog.... I would think that it would make sense to get through a certain portion of the backlog and then opening up the platform for people to lodge again... so issue the invite, but don't let them lodge until you have cleared some historic cases... I don't know... that would just make more sense to me. I have seen the processing times on the website, but everything has happened so much faster for us than the average timeline so I stupidly thought that this would be the same... I have also seen that although the website says 9-11 months, that most people get their 190s within 4-5 months and again I was stupidly banking on this. Our plan is to leave in Sep/Oct so that we have time to find schools for our kids before the holidays. Our PCC expires on 23 Nov and our medicals expire on 9 Jan... so if it only comes through by 11 Nov then we will have a problem... I guess it is just the unknown that is so so so unsettling and scary. Not knowing where you are on their pile. Not knowing why someone who lodged a month before you for the exact same visa, with the exact same credentials, got their visa as a direct grant less than 3 months after lodging...why were they so lucky? I just wish I had a crystal ball. I know I am blessed to have gotten to this point....but there is a lot riding on us leaving this year - not to mention that we accepted an offer on our home because we were too scared to wait until after the elections here :-( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riekie Posted April 25, 2019 Report Share Posted April 25, 2019 Any reputable agent shouldn't take your application if they know it will be denied and if they do take it with some risk that it could potentially be denied for some reason (health issues, criminal record etc.) they should make you aware of that before you sign on the dotted line and cough up the cash. These things take time so hang in there - it's a long, scary, frustrating wait but when you get that approval email, you fly through the sky! It will all work out. 😊 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeeTMI Posted April 26, 2019 Report Share Posted April 26, 2019 On 4/18/2019 at 8:41 PM, Ren said: I check it every day, sometimes twice...and it N.E.V.E.R changes I hold my breath while the webpage loads, my heart stops...and then it drops as I see the very same "received" staring back at me. As more and more time goes by, the more negativity I find seeping into my mind and more disheartened I feel. This really is torture. Quite often the status will not change until after the visa is granted. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Given you are using an agent then they should have discussed any potential risks with you at the different stages along the way. You might also contact them now express your concerns and obtain some feedback. As an agent I am quite used to the people I work with having concerns about one thing or another along the way, including the delays (I had them myself when I was migrating and waiting for the visa). The whole process was/ is / and will likely continue to be in the future: fraught with delays and unpredictability. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel-B Posted April 28, 2019 Report Share Posted April 28, 2019 We waited 5 years for our visa. Sometimes these things take time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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