Tntaglia Posted November 8, 2017 Author Report Share Posted November 8, 2017 @SimpleSimon If we don't sell before we leave basically we have to choose between leaving it empty (and continuing to pay the bond), or renting it out. The rental market for a place our size is almost nonexistent, plus we've been landlords before (when we moved from Cape Town to Joburg we didn't sell our house for 5 years and rented it instead) and we hated it. So renting is not an option we want to explore unless we absolutely have to. And our research says selling an empty house is much harder than an occupied one, you lose out on quite a bit of value in the process. Basically on balance if we can get it sold everything will just be easier - so we're going to do what we can to get that done. The good news is the show day went really well, some of the people already came back to look again so hopefully we'll have some movement. If not we'll show again in 3 weeks. Other news, we've applied for police clearances, the current wait time is supposed to be 5 weeks. So now we wait. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimpleSimon Posted November 8, 2017 Report Share Posted November 8, 2017 Makes good sense. Thanks for explaining it to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fidjet Posted November 9, 2017 Report Share Posted November 9, 2017 Yes everyone also asked why we didn't rent out but I don't trust renting in SA, between me, my parents and in-laws we have had 6 different properties for rent in the last couple of years and every time it is a nightmare. Most renters don't take care of your place, and I'm not talking about maintenance or upgrades I mean basic things like not smashing holes in the roof or breaking the hinges of cupboards. One place we had to replace the bathroom since at some time it must have flooded and the cupboards got so wet they were rotten away. My one friend works with rentals and the horror stories she has told me over the years is enough to make me never rent, the most common thing when ppl move is to take stuff with them, curtain rail hooks are always the first to go followed by lights, fitting and in one place they even got into the roof and took the think pink and geyser blanket with them. Hope your place gets sold soon. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tntaglia Posted November 14, 2017 Author Report Share Posted November 14, 2017 I've been really excited about our move the last week or so. Yesterday I entered my oldest to sit the selective high schools entry exam in March 2018 - luckily they allow us to enter her even before having a visa and being in the country. So hopefully that will work out well. We are still waiting for NSW nomination approval, but a couple of forumites who applied at the same time got theirs approved so there's a chance we'll see movement sooner rather than later - we're still less than 2 weeks into the 12 weeks timeframe so I'm not holding my breath, but I am really at peace that things are going to work out. We signed up with an agent yesterday (George Lombard) - he comes super highly recommended to deal with potential medical issues, and since we don't know how the Aus government is going to feel about my hubby's heart condition, we decided to rather bank the medical knowledge instead of trying to do it on our own. So I've spent the last few hours just getting stuff together, completing forms etc. so that we can be as ready as possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tntaglia Posted November 16, 2017 Author Report Share Posted November 16, 2017 We lodged our police clearances at the police station on 6 November. The officer said it takes 5 weeks at the moment (the official thing is 2 weeks). Well a few moments ago I finally received the SMS that says they have received our application and it is in progress - so this far I guess the 5 weeks is fairly accurate. A week and a half to let us know, 2-3 weeks to process, another week and a half to send it back. Oh well. I really hope that we'll get it around the same time as the visa invite (NSW currently processing our sponsorship application, tomorrow will be 2 weeks for that) so then we have everything when we apply for the visa and we have a chance at a direct grant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tntaglia Posted December 11, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2017 PCCs received! Finally - that was quite a drama. We applied on 6 Nov. My hubby's was completed by the last week in November and he collected from the police station, no problems. Mine was more problematic. I received the SMS saying it's finalised on the 6th of December, so exactly a month after lodging. I went to the police station on the 6th, 7th and 8th a few times a day, and received all possible explanations for why it's not there yet. Including that they couldn't give it to me without the original receipt proving I applied (I'm sure this was a stalling tactic), and on the 7th that they somehow managed to collect the Rustenburg police station's PCCs that morning instead of the Randburg ones so they have to go back and exchange. Anyway, I decided to rather go to Pretoria myself and collect this morning. I left home around 7:15 and arrived at the CRC service centre around 8. It was virtually empty - 3 people in the collections queue ahead of me, 1 person at the applications/reissue counter. It took about 5 minutes to get to the front of the queue. I gave the officer my reference number and he looked up my records on the system, and told me that my PCC is not ready yet. There is a systems issue on their side where if the status changes, it sends out the confirmation SMS but in my case the status changed from "in progress" to "error", not "completed". Minor panic attack. I looked at the record and noticed that they have my race as coloured, I assumed that was what triggered the error but the officer shrugged that off. Then he asked me to wait, disappeared into the back and came back 3 minutes later with a newly printed and signed doc, with both names on it. I commented that I'm glad both names are on there and he said that is probably what triggered the error message. Not sure I understand it, but anyway - I have a valid PCC, both names, spelled correctly and everything. Very happy. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tntaglia Posted January 9, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2018 I'm not in a good space today. On the PR visa there has been no movement, I applied for state sponsorship early in November and still waiting for a response. And I know they say 12 weeks but many people hear earlier than that so it's frustrating to be the exception. And then on the 457 I seem to be unlucky enough to have the most incompetent agents in the world (my employer's choice, not mine). They don't seem to do anything unless I remind them to - it's as if they entirely forget about our application. There was a 2 week period where they did absolutely nothing, and when I asked them the progress they said they were waiting for my employer to send them documents. I followed up with HR at the employer and it turned out the lawyers had only requested said document AFTER I asked for an update that day. So that's 2 weeks just wasted. Then on 13 December they confirmed they were ready to lodge my 457 application for priority processing (the visa was lodged 30 November), and they were supposed to send me a confirmation when they lodged it; I haven't heard anything yet and it's a month later. Not even an out of office, no responses to my emails. So it's entirely possible that they didn't lodge the application at all. Grrrr. Potentially another 3-4 weeks wasted. My husband resigned his job, his last day is end of Jan, so from Feb he's out of work - and we may well end up being in SA for a few months after that. Which would be OK if it didn't feel like the agent's incompetence is causing it. They told us 4-6 weeks for a visa grant, 6 weeks is this coming Thursday. Right now it just doesn't feel like we'll ever get to Oz. I need to decide in the next 2 days if I'm sending my kids back to school for this year - ideally if we leave for Oz in February it is not necessary and we save a LOT of money by not paying private school fees for the first quarter. But if it's going to take another 2-3 months before we get to leave, the kids need to be in school. And our house was "sold" (subject to bond approval) mid December but the buyers still don't have bond approval; if they don't get it by Friday this week the deal is off. So quite possibly back to square one on that too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mara Posted January 10, 2018 Report Share Posted January 10, 2018 @Tntaglia could you not speak to your future employers about the lawyers? They probably have no idea what is going on and who knows, perhaps neither do the lawyers, if they do not handle this kind of work all the time. The employers could tell the lawyers to sort it out asap. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimpleSimon Posted January 10, 2018 Report Share Posted January 10, 2018 Bear in mind that Oz shuts down from 3rd week December to mid-January. You may just be caught in the slow period. Don’t stress, it will happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grootliam Posted January 10, 2018 Report Share Posted January 10, 2018 Hi guys. We were waiting for our 457 visa also and the agent received information that there is a bit of backlog and they are processing priority visas first. So my new company on the otherside send a motivation letter last week to have our application prioritised and 3 days later we received the visa. Maybe try this @Tntaglia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tntaglia Posted January 10, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2018 @grootliam I would love to, in fact that's what we tried to do in December. But I received confirmation this morning that the visa lawyers have not lodged the priority processing request at all (they say the rules have changed). I'm trying to find out what changed and what we need to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TamTam Posted January 10, 2018 Report Share Posted January 10, 2018 So they basically lied to you? Oooh I would be the moer in! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tntaglia Posted January 10, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2018 Yeah I'm not a happy camper. But HR at my new employer is now getting heavily involved, these lawyers get a LOT of business from them so I think she's going to sort it out. Seriously if we can do the priority processing application in the next few days it would be awesome since it should then take only a week or two max to get the grant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tntaglia Posted January 15, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2018 The priority processing application was finally lodged on Thursday last week (11/01). Hopefully that gets us some action soon. The CEO wrote a very serious letter explaining how "profit sensitive" my presence will be from February and included proposals they've written where I'm listed as an expert on the project etc. I also had to quickly prepare the presentation that I'm giving on the 5th of Feb to send along with the application. It would be fantastic if this works. Meanwhile we're still waiting for the house buyers to secure a bond, but that should happen in the next day or two. On Friday an assessor from the bank came out to check the house value and he was satisfied, so I don't think there are many further hurdles to get through. Would be great if that can be finalised. We've also decided to go with Execu-Move to move our household contents. We've been torn between a 20 foot and a 40 foot container for a while - we can fit our minimum stuff into a 20 foot but the 40 ft is not that much more expensive (about 30% extra for double the volume). So I had a guy from Execu-Move out again last week to discuss and I'm now pretty convinced that we'll do the smaller one and send anything else that doesn't fit as a groupage afterwards. Or get a movecube separately. We have an allowance for reimbursement on moving costs which should cover most of the costs so that helps a LOT. Right now if all goes according to plan we'll have visas by end of the month (that's if priority processing goes ahead, otherwise we may have another month or three to wait). As far as I can tell in the beginning of Jan the 457 visas were being processed for end of September - so that's 2 months to go to get to end November if they process at the rate applications were received. I will do everything I can to be in Sydney on the 5th of Feb for probably a week or 10 days, and use that time hopefully to secure a rental for us. And then we'll all go across end of Feb. I'm a bit in denial about how little time that leaves to get everything in order. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tntaglia Posted January 17, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2018 Finally some real news! We received our 190 invite this morning. Our agent is ready to go, we are just completing an updated version of form 80 so I expect that we'll lodge the application tomorrow. I am thrilled! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tntaglia Posted January 19, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2018 190 visa LODGED this morning (SA time, just before 5pm Aus time). Had some bank issues first because they wouldn't allow a payment that big but got it sorted so all done. Nervously excited, now we wait. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fidjet Posted January 19, 2018 Report Share Posted January 19, 2018 Goodluck, hope to hear VISA granted soon 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tntaglia Posted January 24, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2018 2 pieces of bad news. One, the priority processing request for the 457 visa was denied. No information on why, my employer and their lawyers are appealing the decision but we're back in the normal queue for now. Second, the house buyers didn't secure the bond they needed so we're back to square one on house sales too. Another show day booked for this weekend. Sigh. On the up-and-down of emotions today is a down. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tntaglia Posted February 7, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2018 So both the bad news pieces from my previous post have been turned around. The house sale went through (buyers secured the bond after the sale expired so we signed a new offer to purchase), and they have now made all the deposits needed etc. so the sale is officially on. Yay! Second, it looks like our priority processing request was approved. I got feedback from my employer this morning saying they have been asked for more information on the position, proof that it really exists (including pictures of my workstation!), that it is in line with my claimed skills etc. So that definitely sounds like a visa application being processed, not just being assessed to determine if priority processing should go ahead. I don't have confirmation but I am cautiously optimistic. I am not sleeping well, the combination of stress and uncertainty etc is getting to me a little bit, and the possible priority processing is definitely going to make it worse. Back to checking my emails at 3am to see if there is news. But at least there is reason to hope. On the 190 visa we are now 19 days in. Immitracker says on average I should hear from a CO in 3 weeks. So a direct grant, if we end up getting that, could come through before the end of the month. I'm lucky in that 190 visas get processed before 189 so we could get lucky. Best case scenario that I'm praying for right now is that the 457 comes through by the end of next week, and then we can book flights, get our container packed and sell the rest of our stuff easily. And then hopefully the 190 can come through either just before or just after we land which would make life SOOOOO much easier. We have not had best case scenario on anything in this journey so far, so I'm keeping my hope tightly balled up, but at least there is hope. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TamTam Posted February 7, 2018 Report Share Posted February 7, 2018 The stress starts to affect your life in a big way. And not just the visas - the whole process. This is the second time I am going to be moving country and it's still really stressful. Although I will say the angst of leaving home (SA) is no longer there. So that's nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tntaglia Posted February 21, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2018 457 visa approved!!! Finally! What a way to wake up. I am obviously thrilled, super excited, and the panic is rising at the same time. We want to leave as soon as possible and need to figure out what that means. But the timing is fantastic since we have to be out of our house by 14 March and our container is getting packed shortly before that anyway, we were worried that we would not have visas by then. So much admin to get done now. I'm shaking! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
March2 Posted February 21, 2018 Report Share Posted February 21, 2018 2 hours ago, Tntaglia said: 457 visa approved!!! Finally! What a way to wake up. I am obviously thrilled, super excited, and the panic is rising at the same time. We want to leave as soon as possible and need to figure out what that means. But the timing is fantastic since we have to be out of our house by 14 March and our container is getting packed shortly before that anyway, we were worried that we would not have visas by then. So much admin to get done now. I'm shaking! All in perfect timing! It's happening and the new adventure is going to be exciting....congrats and all the best! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TamTam Posted February 21, 2018 Report Share Posted February 21, 2018 From all the analysis you have been doing for the visas approvals you definitely strike me as the type of person who already has spreadsheets of what needs to be done. Just tick it all off one at a time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tntaglia Posted February 21, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2018 Not just a spreadsheet, a whole Trello board full of things to do! Now just to get through it! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TamTam Posted February 21, 2018 Report Share Posted February 21, 2018 I am hoping we can use the relocation agent employed by hubby's company to sort out a lot of the stuff! Ps to cancel Telkom when we left SA we showed them the shipping manifest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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