Expression of Interest Results

[wizz]

HAHA LvD,

you should be typing furiously at the keyboard getting your visa application in, not sipping fine french champagne

I have a feeling the 1st and 15th of each month is going to be happy times for many more forum members from now on

[TheFilanders]

Congrats, LvD, stevenfrost and Jacques Voogt

All the best with the rest of the process!

[Jacques Voogt]

Thanks everyone, your turns will be soon. Could not sleep last night....

We almost completed our application, but we are not sure of one thing. Some of you will face the same questions anyway so perhaps we can all learn from this.

We currently do not claim any points for partner skills (my skills), however, in the Visa application we are asked what the highest partner qualification is, dates of study start and end.

The visa application also asks if the partner was employed in the last 10 years and dates of each of these employments.

Then it asks if these count towards the nominated occupation?

Since there is no nominated occupation and no partner skills claimed, I do not understand why we are asked these questions.

Either way, my gut feeling is that if they did not ask the question, we did not need to answer it. But since they did ask, we can not state that the partner has no qualification and has not been working, as that would not be true and could possibly be grounds for refusal. Can anyone confirm this requirement with their agent?

We did not prepare for these questions, so it will take me a few days to get my transcripts and employment history together.

For tracking purposes, our Visa application number on this new system is around 4650 and we submitted our EOI on the first of July.

So if others also post their EOI dates and their visa numbers, the rest of us could estimate when they will be drawn based on the numbers drawn and dates.

[LvD]

Hehehe we are waiting for our agent to send us the forms, so will probably complete them tonight.

[Fish]

It must be very frustrating, especially since Australians aren't considered (by me, haha) to be very good at English. My apologies to the Aussies on here, but it is my honest opinion that the standard of English here is quite poor. The majority of visa applicants would not need anywhere near the English skills being demanded, in everyday life. I think the whole visa system is one big money making, job creating rort. Is rort actually a word? Hmmmm

While the visa scheme may be part rort and the IELTS may be harder than it needs to be , I'm not sure I agree with the comment that the standard of English is quite poor. Being Australian I would say that though wouldn't I We all lead different lives but I find the mix here the same as when I lived in the UK. Linguistic ability would surely be driven by education and intelligence and I don't think the mix of that varies enough between highly educated western countries to significantly alter the outcomes.

Australians often don't open their mouth's fully when speaking, and of course shorten everything, but despite this a good standard of English is often important at work, and sometimes very important. Of course there are all types of jobs but I don't find it in any significant way different to the variety of standards I encountered in the UK...of course you may think they have a quite poor standard of English in the UK as well so I may have just proved your point

Edited October 18, 2012 by Fish

[Bronwyn&Co]

Fish your English is excellent (But other Aussies can't spell at all, haha) ***laughs evilly***

[Sunnyskies]

Bronwyn, I find the standard of English in Australia to be completely inconsistent. I work in a firm in which some people are grammar nazi's and others don't give a damn. My son couldn't spell anything correctly in years 2 and 3 and when I complained to the teacher that I didn't think that the school was placing enough emphasis on correct spelling I was told to "relax". Then we got to year 4 and they complained that he couldn't spell.

Interestingly, when I did my IELTS (in Melbourne) I got a 7 for writing. I almost went through the roof, as my husband whose second language is English got an 8 for the writing section (and no it was not because he has better written English than me).