186 ENS Visa Submitted -The Start of Our "Groot Trek"!

[SmellyN]

So....Please forgive ...this is 2wks overdue! (If not longer!)

5th July 2013:

We find ourselves in the same boat as the rest of the forumnites that are currently in the process of emigrating & at I think a similar point as those who have gone before us & are already in Australia.

Times -they are getting tougher for sure.... each person relating to their own "hell" of experiences & I think for only a few a happier experience.

So here goes our attempt at penning down a few points, in what is unchartered water, which hopefully can help someone else one day!

Rewind:

22nd June 2013: We hit the submit key!!

It was a morning of sheer terror as we parted with our pennies (dreading the exchange rate, which by the looks of it was just in time!).

Weirdly though it felt all to easy to do... perhaps the fact that we have spent the last 3-4yrs preparing ourselves to get to this point!!

We have a lot to be thankful for & through continued effort & yes thanks to this forum!:- have slogged it out to get more or less where we want to be.

Then the big guilt-trip back-lashes & whips you in the face!!!:....

ARE WE DOING THE RIGHT THING?!? The million-dollar question that everyone seems to ask & has to work through...people are right: you DO need "balls" of steel to push this thing through!!

Forward to present day again: (5th July 2013)

Reviewing that weekend again & the one just past....weird thing was, we had quite a number of family visitors, who specially came to visit us.... ....WHY NOW??!???

We've not had so much effort since holding a funeral or a special rare-occurence family get-together....

Makes you think....makes you pack away those "demons" and CARRY ON with what you are doing!!

We have just this last week also completed (well as far as possible) our medicals BUT:

WHOLE OTHER STORY!! OMIWORD!!

When I get chance again I shall relate the "Tale of The Medicals" to yee all!

[Lyn]

The upheaval, the guilt, the emotions, everything relating to the move down under will be hard work, but one day you will look back and realize you had the biggest balls of steel, you took a huge leap of faith and for that you will be rewarded with an amazing new lifestyle for yourself and your family.

All the best, and don't forget to post The Tales of the Medicals

[Stell]

Good luck - hope it's all smooth sailing from here on ! Soon you'll be in Aus

[SmellyN]

9th July 2013: The Flippin' PCC's!!!! OH THE JOYS!- LOL!...a verbous version! -be warned!)

So we applied for our PCC's quite a while back....(probably a lot shorter process than some of you have experienced- but I've been like a Blood-Hound on the scent, because as usual it started off badly)...

Because of company involvement etc. we decided to send doc's through the company "courier" (AGAINST my final gut-feeling) anyway....Admin balled it up by POSTING through SAPO registered mail!!

HONESTLY!!! It seems to boil down everyday to people sitting in employment-positions, who are NOT qualified, because frankly they CANNOT even understand basic ENGLISH, nor written instructions!!!! ( I shall refrain from using any emoticons here....there AREN't any that can describe!)

So long story short (admin EVEN so KINDLY posted to the PHYSICAL SAPS address for Courier Doc's!! which naturally made it all worse & I had to jump in & track 2 registered documents-which had now been sent INDIVIDUALLY, instead of together as one- from SAPO/SAPS departments all around Pretoria, of doc's that strictly speaking CANNOT be tracked, because it is courier & because of some silly tart, I had NO clue where it would land because of address...)

So...a lot of begging & pleading later, revealed the inbound-mail processes to SAPS Clearance etc. It was confirmed EVENTUALLY received on the 04/06/2013!! YAY!! This would mean we might just have certs. issued on time to lodge all the visa support docs the day we started visa.... Or so we thought!! ....

This was about the time that SAPS PCC Dept. was "offline" for about a week & "couldn't" register doc's even though they had been received officially by an SAPS (ranked) official BY reg. mail!!....2 wks later I blew...then it was told to me that they were registered on the 12/06 already. PHWAHA!! What a lie!! I queried this as (thks again to the forum!!:...) was INFORMED & AWARE that if it was truly so then we would've received our system SMS's with ref. numbers....NO SUCH LUCK!! Eventually get sms's on the 19/06...(Now clearly delayed even further -as this is the ACTUAL date they "work" on for processing time)....We now sit back & ignore the wait....it's not worth the worry or even effort/ phonecalls/ emails- just confirmed with everyone that it would be about a 3wk wait from that date. Received SMS's on this last Friday morning the 5/07/2013 to say everything ready for collection. Let's just hope that everything is stamped etc. as it should be & in order - I did after all even SPECIALLY attach individual hand-written notes to request that maiden-name etc. & stamps be checked...haven't got them in hand yet, so we'll see...

Now for the COURIER drama.... So, jump on the phone,request courier to collect on Friday if possible still, pay in time before 12pm -but don't expect any miracles...it was a Friday after all...if it happens then bonus! Follow up later only to hear the expected that it wasn't going to happen (this is 3pm) ok. But it is PROMISED that it would happen for first thing Monday morning....

So...here I sit....WAITING!! No Surprise...fruitless promises by countless supervisors, managers etc & it takes ME to call again to follow up...(as of 8.00am this morning I still had NO PROOF- i.e. waybill/tracking number- for my money-paid for a "collection") So my heart is kinda racing at above average pace right now...& now 3/4 of an hour later I am calming down, because I resorted to being rude again & using the most profound & scathing remarks (at the rate an AK-47 would fire!!) at the first,second & third person/s that I got hold of this morning. As of 8.15am I am now in receipt of a tracking number & said doc's are here in CT already & due at collection point by 12pm. It hurts me now that I have to feel guilty about my reactions with this process. Now everyone starts phoning when the job is almost done. So many other things have gone this exact same way...I do not believe my "attitude" is wrong...it's a principle proveable process of what it is right & what is wrong....It guts me when I have to use the "ogre" in me...feeling rotten & like a Jenkyl & Hyde monster at the moment... I owe the "Tale of The Medicals" to this "saga" (for this is what it seems at the moment- a bloody soap-opera DRAMA!) I shall relate this only later on as it is still not entirely complete & we are awaiting (minor- but yet a significant part) response from DIAC still over a wk on....I at least console myself with the fact that dealing with the Australian Departments (Skills, IMMI, DIAC etc) is proveable & undeniably the most professional in comparison to RSA departments....at least the Australian departments have proveable, logical reasons why for delays etc. & genuine excuses...(at least our experiences so far)...so here's to waiting for 12pm today to find out if our Certificates are ok for uploading...still waiting on a CO to be appointed, but that could easily be explained because of PCC's missing, 1 dependant medical (at least not main applicant) & more importantly the ENS Nomination, which to our knowledge is not completed...submitted & acknowledged-yes, but we do not find out about the ENS nomination being approved as it strictly speaking only goes through/ gets approved, the day the Visa is granted, because without the one the other is null & void.

Oh well...Hope you all have a fabulous day out there! Time to sign-out. Great to see some good movement on those of you with visa's in & granted etc! Enjoy the fruits of your rewards!

[SmellyN]

20 August 2013- A New Chapter Born...

So to start with we hereby announce the birth of our son! Born 2 wks ago! (Forgive my tardiness in updating- we've been "drilling"! LOL!)

This event has weirdly cemented our resolve in getting things "done & dusted" (yet again!) So still waiting on things (iro of visa in)

As to addition of our newborn,(remember our visa is not decided yet, so thankfully we can do this!) this is how it's going:

RSA Home Affairs: Application for newborn Unabridged Birth Certificate & Passport...

Just under a week old we all "schlepped" to the nearest Home Affairs (in our case Malmesbury)...we opted to do this rather than having the hospital apply, because in terms of applying for the passport too, it would be the quickest option.

Not too bad under 2hrs for once! Just taxing in terms of travel for us- but one document (UBC) richer at the end of the day to get more wheels turning! Passport app. in too, so it was just a wait for the passport.

1wk later to the day (y/day) we have the little man's passport in hand already! IMPRESSIVE! Ask nicely, don't let the pressure off for one second (even drop that 1minute; 1-line e-mail to "expedite" with a reason why etc) & things will happen quickly.

Completion of Medical: (X-Ray portion "on hold" due to pregnancy) Done! (I'm sounding like Gordon Ramsey now! LOL!)

Intercare's Schnetler Corbett X-ray Dept. did the X-rays & was uploaded onto the system before we even got back home.

Subsequently to note: On the visa system the rest of the family's medicals that were completed just over a month ago have disappeared from the visa system & are now happily reflecting for those applicants "No Health Exams. required for this Visa Subclass..." YAY!! PROGRESS! So just one to go now!

Have been e-mailing DIAC to make sure they are actually "aware" of the new documents that are uploaded & they have come back within 24hrs with answers at least.

As to the visa- we are awaiting appointment of Case Officer still on both the Nomination & Visa portions of the sponsorship....although this could be directly due to the employer delaying documents on the nomination side...we will never know as this portion remains highly confidential between Employer & DIAC- you need to be able to have ultimate trust with yr sponsor for sure! There are definitely times that you will doubt whether visa will go through, as certain documents are required from Employer for DIAC & you know it hasn't been submitted yet, because you need it to submit on your portion of DIAC visa & then it is not forthcoming/ delayed -without these things the visa cannot move at all. It's a stage-by-stage thing. In our specific case we've had a suspicion that employer is delaying things slightly due to contractual obligations...we did prepare for it never the less & weren't too concerned, because of the pregnancy & getting past the "addition of newborn" stage to the visa.

So now everything uploaded as far as we can & till a csae officer gets appointed & comes back to say what they want still, we can officially say that the ball is in everyone else's courts & all our work is done, on time & slightly earlier than expected!

Watch this space!

[SmellyN]

26 August 2013: A Case Officer is appointed!

So the Monday we were appointed a case officer- amazing news...it's like seeing the little light at the end of the tunnel.

THE Request for More Info: the proverbial "snag" list we were waiting for to see where we might have gone wrong.....

Turned out to be nothing major.

1.)DIBP (as they are now known) had advised us incorrectly for medical requirements for newborn thinking we were onshore (?!??? -go figure! It DOES say DIRECT-Entry on the application....) They said we only needed a reference letter & in actual fact we HAD to do a full medical for baby. Luckily we in town that day (we stay in rural so logistics can be a problem at the best of times) & went straight to Intercare durbanville again. We asked nicely to slot little one in because of circumstances & they did help. It literally took all of 5min for the actual appointment anyway, because there wasn't blood tests etc. like the full adults, nor BP-checks like with the kiddies either. Only problem was that although Case Officer HAD confirmed that baby was added on visa...he wasn't SHOWING on the visa system, nor got we draw the referral letter with a HAP-ID for the medical. Intercare understood the predicament & we both agreed to mail from both sides about the problem, otherwise they wouldn't be able to link results through to the otherside. Intercare heard back first & confirmed that his HAP-ID was generated etc. But AGAIN, we weren't seeing on the visa system, so was very frustrating literally having to work "in the dark" with regards to the little man's details (everything else we just uploaded under hubby's profile as main applicant for the case officer).

2. & 3): Turned out to be a standard employment/ skill issue.....

One was the viewing of the actual sponsored-employment contract & they wanted just a cover letter from sponsor-employer just to clarify certain points which might actually have seemed a bit vaugue-which we attended too & the other was just confirmation of the requirement for the 3yr's employment at the required skill level in nominated occupation. Easily proveable from our side.

So everything was uploaded/ explained in email to case officer before the next day. The only thing we were outstanding was the cover letter from the employer, which we received 2days later & uploaded too. So it was just the wait for baby's meds to be showing & the CO to go through the last stuff.

4th September 2013:

We received an email back from CO who said he needed nothing further from us, but was waiting on the Employer now who had not dealt with THEIR Request for more info.....????!!!??? So what on earth is going on????

Turns out there was a "list" -again we will never know what.

5th -25th September 2013:

Possibly both the Shortest & Longest wait we've experienced in a long time! NO NEWS from anyone. Drove us nuts! Employer saying everything sent to Agent dealing with Nomination-dealing in turn with DIBP. Turns out it was the same CO for the Nomination & Visa.

Nobody actually giving us the black & white evidence we so badly craved & CO completely quiet. Yr mind really starts playing with you & paranoia hits with all sorts of conspiracy theories coming to mind!

We did manage to confirm telephonically with the call-centre (not CO) that the whole family's Meds are all through & Showing, but baby isn't showing on visa still -again till you see the wording in black & white (no further health exams required...) you don't want to trust anything that has been said to you in verbal format. It doesn't set yr mind at ease with all the Med-referrals & setbacks that have been happening.

Finally manage to get in contact around the 20th with the agents to "walk" the whole thing through with them verbally as to what was going on & why we weren't hearing anything (at this stage we were not allowed to know anything more from DIBP, because it was an Employer issue now so our hands our tied.) Agent "says" it was a viewing issue...we'll never know, but that they got confirmation from CO that he has everything now....still we don't receive anything & Agent says they will email at least copy of confirmation to us, to set our minds at ease....LOL!: Still waiting....

So we sit tight & wait through the weekend again.

GEES!! We are beginning to think that all is lost as answers are not forthcoming, nor are issues being logically explained....the "red-tape" behind the scenes....wondering even more everyday that goes by, if this thing is ever going to happen.

Read on & Switch now to our Part 2 of our story: "186 Visa Granted: Happy (& Sad) Days Ahead!"