How to ensure your 189/190 visa timeline is as short as possible

[FrodoBeanbaggins]

After being inspired by Jordy's excellent post, The 100 step process to immigrating to Australia from South Africa, I thought I would summarise what I believe is one of the most efficient ways of obtaining a 189/190 visa. It all comes down to timing and making sure that everything that can happen in parallel does so. Even if you're not interested in expediting the process, the diagram may help to give some clarity about the requirements at various stages. I'm explaining this from the perspective of an individual but the steps are mostly similar for a family.

 

Disclaimer: I didn't use a migration agent and I don't claim that this advice is in any way authoritative. It is merely based on my observation of the process. Your mileage may vary depending on your circumstances, points score, etc.

 

Lets say you've made up your mind about emigrating to Australia, you've chosen to do it on a 189 or 190 visa and you know you can score enough points. Although it takes a ton of patience, there is also a lot you can do to keep things running in parallel. Have a look at the attached diagram (or download it here) - the stuff in every column can happen at the same time.

 

Here is a detailed explanation:

1. The first step is to obtain a skills assessment, which requires the following documents. They can all be applied for in parallel and will also be used in further stages:
   1. Apply for your unabridged birth certificate (and renew your passport if necessary). This can take a couple of weeks to several months, so it's definitely the first thing you want to do.
   2. Get references from your current and previous employers (refer to the relevant Australian assessing authority for details). It's worth doing this as early as possible in case you have trouble getting a reference out of an uncooperative ex-employer.
   3. Request your academic transcripts and get your degree translated (if applicable). The company that handles this (MIE) is pretty efficient, so it can be done in less than two weeks.
2. While the above is in progress you can book and take the language test, e.g. IELTS. This is also something worth attending to sooner rather than later, considering that you may have to retake the test if you didn't achieve your target score and opportunities may be limited depending on your location or demand for the test.
3. Once you have a positive skills assessment and language test result, you can lodge an Expression of Interest (EOI).
4. While you wait to be invited to apply for a visa, you can apply for your Police Clearance Certificate. The Aus visa documentation recommends against applying for your PCC before being invited because there is no guarantee that you'll be invited before the PCC expires (12 months). However, in South Africa the PCC can take weeks or months to be issued and can be renewed fairly easily, so it's usually worth the risk. Besides, if you have enough points and your occupation isn't close to its ceiling, the time between EOI and invite can be days.
   Tip: If you are in Pretoria, you can save a couple of days by visiting the CRC in person to deliver your application and fetch the PCC, or alternatively you can use a courier. Don't post it.
5. Once you have received an invitation to apply for a visa, you need to provide the following:
   1. Certified copies of all the previously mentioned documents.
   2. Medical test results (can be obtained in days).
   3. Complete form 80.
   4. Your PCC, which is hopefully ready by then.
6. Sit back and wait for your visa grant.

 

I hope this is helpful to anyone who has ants in their pants about getting to Aus (and those that don't). I personally regret not doing it this way, but so we learn.

 

Please feel free to suggest improvements or correct me on any mistakes I've made.

189_190 visa application timeline.pdf

Edited March 27, 2016 by FrodoBeanbaggins

[CTtoAus]

Thanks so much for taking the time to put this together! I was under the impression that one needed the IELTS before you could submit the  skills assessment, so have been slow in getting everything ready for that given that we are only writing in a few weeks. 

[RussellJ]

Cool post.

I would add,  if you haven't started the process and are still undecided or just looking around... Get those UBC's anyway they can take months.  My son's took a YEAR. 

I thought PCC's were valid for 12 months?

[FrodoBeanbaggins]

43 minutes ago, RussellJ said:

I thought PCC's were valid for 12 months?

 

I just checked and you're right, Aus considers the PCC valid for 12 months. The 6 months expiry is only within SA. Thanks for the correction, I've updated the post.

[FrodoBeanbaggins]

You're welcome @CTtoAus. Which assessing authority will you be submitting to? I'm only certain of the requirements for ACS (Australian Computer Society), so you may just want to confirm whether yours have the same requirements.

[CTtoAus]

It is the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAA). I double-checked the letter I got from my migration agent and that does include the IELTS results on the list of required documents for the skills assessment, so perhaps it is different depending on the assessing authority. I've got nothing to lose to submit my other supporting documents to the agent so long, though, so am working on it as we speak.

Thanks again!

[yoda]

On ‎2016‎/‎03‎/‎27 at 6:07 PM, FrodoBeanbaggins said:

Tip: If you are in Pretoria, you can save a couple of days by visiting the CRC in person to deliver your application and fetch the PCC, or alternatively you can use a courier. Don't post it.

Hi Frodobeanbaggins,

Do you perhaps know where the CRC in Pretoria is?

Also, I have seen on another post that Unabridged birth certificates are not required for adults only minors. Were yours asked?

[JackoFam]

This an excellent post, thanks for making the time to put it together. Our visa process moved along at a nice quick pace until we were stuck waiting for our PCCs for two months. Then it seemed as if our app was at the bottom of a pile after we submitted the PCCs as after 3 weeks we had heard nothing. I emailed my agent about it and she said she would email our CO just to check in and the next day we had our grant. So a polite email might bring your app to the top of the pile!

[FrodoBeanbaggins]

On 31 March 2016 at 4:49 PM, yoda said:

Do you perhaps know where the CRC in Pretoria is?

Also, I have seen on another post that Unabridged birth certificates are not required for adults only minors. Were yours asked?

Hi @yoda, see this page for the address: http://www.saps.gov.za/services/applying_clearence_certificate.php. They are apparently open 24/7 although I'm not sure I'd want to go there after dark...

 

Regarding the UBC, I used mine for the skills assessment and the visa application, but having another look at the ACS's document requirements it seems I could also have used my passport. The visa application just asks for "birth certificate." I was always under the impression that adults also needed UBCs and it seems many people here are under the same impression, but according to this post you can use a passport, ID or abridged birth certificate too. Can anyone else confirm whether this is the case?

[FrodoBeanbaggins]

On 28 March 2016 at 9:08 AM, CTtoAus said:

It is the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAA). I double-checked the letter I got from my migration agent and that does include the IELTS results on the list of required documents for the skills assessment, so perhaps it is different depending on the assessing authority. I've got nothing to lose to submit my other supporting documents to the agent so long, though, so am working on it as we speak.

Thanks again!

 

Interesting, thanks for the info @CTtoAus. I've updated the diagram to reflect this (unfortunately I can't edit the attachment any more, but the Dropbox link in the post should lead to the updated version).

[Minime]

Hi

 

So I was discussing everything we still need to do with my husband over the weekend and we were wondering if there is a certain amount of time that the Australian Government has to assign a case officer to your visa application?

 

The reason for asking is that we would like to do our police clearance as soon as we submit our visa application, but this will be no use if we are going to wait forever before we get a case officer.  Also do you only have a certain amount of time to submit your medicals and pcc to the case officer?

 

 

[acocksm]

On 3/27/2016 at 6:07 PM, FrodoBeanbaggins said:

1. Once you have received an invitation to apply for a visa, you need to provide the following:
   1. Certified copies of all the previously mentioned documents.
   2. Medical test results (can be obtained in days).
   3. Complete form 80.
   4. Your PCC, which is hopefully ready by then.

 

Thank you for the post... It was so helpful!

We submitted our visa application at the beginning of this month and have attached all of our documents. I have not attached/come across form 80... which section does this need to be attached under?

Secondly I have recieved my police clearance and after contacting the Pretoria Police department personally... they still did not include my maiden surname... Will this be a problem?  I just attached what I had

 

 

[JonathanR]

Thanks for this. The whole process seems like a well timed dance. 

 

The passports though take about a week. I got mine exactly after a week and there were two public holidays in that week as well. You have to go to one of the new offices though where everything is digital. If you are a South African born citizen then you can even book an appointment online so you don't have to wait in queues the whole day. 

Also there is an option to take the Pearson PTE english test but you have to check the requirements of your assessing authority.

 

[Bela]

@FrodoBeanbaggins - this is awesome, wish i had stumbled upon your post years ago, but at least it provides a summary for the ones that will follow.

 

@Minime- apply for your PCC so long, so that when the case officer sends you a mail -requesting more docs or want to clarify something, they give you a small timeline, but understand if you explain, PCC's take long.  Apply for them and upload them into immiaccount asap.

 

The timeline quoted on our coomunication from our CO was 28 days.

Edited August 16, 2016 by Bela

[Minime]

@Bela Thanks for the advice, I think someone else suggested that we apply for PCC when we submit expression of interest, apparently the timeline then works out perfectly. 

[Kevin]

Nice post, @FrodoBeanbaggins.

 

For some professions, it would be necessary to do the language assessment (item 2) before the skills assessment (item 1).  For instance, teachers must prove a certain level of English proficiency before applying for their skills assessment.

 

Oh, and I guess married persons should apply for an marriage certificate at the same time as they apply for unabridges birth certificates.

Edited August 23, 2016 by Kevin
minor grammar error

[Deezo]

Thank you for this excellent post on your process @FrodoBeanbaggins  

 

Im confused because some forum topics mention that as long as your documents are uploaded in colour then they dont need to be certified?

Yet i am busy with the upload of the documents now and completion of Form 80 etc and on some of the ? (question mark for help) they say certified...

 

So can anyone else comment on this is is this also CO dependent?

[FrodoBeanbaggins]

Thanks @Kevin, that's useful information (I wish I could add it to the original post but I can no longer edit it).

 

@Deezo, as far as I'm aware, all your documents need to be certified except your PCC and Form 80.

[Deezo]

Thanks @FrodoBeanbaggins  

 

Oh well i just went ahead with colour uploads so now we have to wait and see once a CO is assigned and if they want certified copies... 

 

PS. Its rather strange as some documents like IRP5 etc there are no originals as they are from eFiling so dont know how someone could certify that anyway?

Edited August 30, 2016 by Deezo