Skilled Working Visa Subclass 175 for Australia

I applied for a Skilled Working (175) visa about six months ago and was wondering if anyone has recently had their application accepted or knows someone who has. I am wondering the turnaround time because some have told me 6 months some have said over a year so I am wondering if there's anyone out there who has an experience to share. I have called immigration and emailed them but I don't seem to get any straight answers. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Unfortunately, there seems to be little consistency. I`m in a similar situation myself, but from accounts I`ve been reading, it seems to be taking anywhere from 5 months to 9+

Thanks for your reply. Have you ever heard of it taking over a year? I know some people where it did and they had to re-do all of their police checks and medicals. When I contacted immigration they told me this can happen but they will try to fast track our application because we are from a no-risk country. So far I have heard nothing since.
Are you still waiting for your visa to be approved? Is it the same as mine?

Is it an MODL 175 application, or non-MODL? That will make a difference as to how fast it's processed. MODL just means the occupations are in demand, hence processed faster.

It could take anywhere from 6-12 months for low risk countries. You can check out the British Expats site to see how long its' taking for applications. There's always lots of discussion about that.
http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=32

You can also look at the British Expats Timeline site, where people put their own details in and it gives you a bit of reference for your own application.
http://www.beupdate.co.uk/indexvisa.php

There's also another timeline site that where people put information on as well.
http://www.austimeline.com/
The site seems to be down at the moment though, so maybe it'll be up later. It's not a government site so it relies on people to put their own information in.

There is no way to know where you're actually sitting though. So there's no point in bugging them trying to find out how much longer. I tried many times myself but all they can tell you is what types of applications they are processing at the moment. So they'll tell you what month they are up to with your types of applications. Not much else to find out that way. I found the timeline site with British Expats great because you could see who is getting visas and when they applied.

Don't worry though, not too much longer. We applied in 2006 and it took 6-7 months in total. We also send in our medicals and police checks at about the 5 months mark so that helped speed things up a bit. Ours was an MODL application and it was paper based.

Thanks for the information. I have an occupation on the MODL list.I am a 'B' Pressure Welder. When I talked to immigration they told me that it makes somewhat of a difference that I am on the MODL list but not by much. When we applied we sent in our police checks and medicals almost immediately and it has now been over six months. From what you are saying, it sounds like we should know fairly soon. I will check out those links so that I can see where other people are at as well. Thanks again! Also, when you moved to Australia where did you settle and what factors made you decide to settle there? I am really looking at Mackay because of the great need of work but also the Brisbane because we have good friends moving there.

I'm sure you're aware but you have to validate within a year of doing police checks and medicals (whatever you did earliest). So if it's been over 6 months then you've got less than 6 months to validate, which basically means you have to visit (or move) to Australia. I had to mention it just in case because some people get caught with a short validation time. If you don't validate it expires so it's important.

My husband is a mining engineer so we basically went wherever he could find work. We chose to avoid Perth because most things are fly in fly out there. I had planned to move to the Hunter Valley area in New South Wales for about a year. When we arrived we looked all over for jobs and he was offered one there and one in Brisbane. We ended up in Brisbane because the pay was way better and there was more to do.

So basically it was jobs. We don't really have the luxury of finding work in just any town. He has to be either at a mine or in a big city where they have planning jobs. If we had a choice we probably would've ended up in a smaller town within an hour or two of a big city, but that's just us. We're actually just outside of Brisbane in the Bayside area. Mostly because it's a bit cheaper here than in the city, but also we prefer the quieter area and it's really pretty over here.

The other big factor is of course housing because it can be really expensive. We came from fort McMurray so luckily we're sort of used to that! I've heard Mackay can be expensive as well because there are lots of mines nearby (or within flying distance).

If you haven't already you can check housing prices. here:http://www.realestate.com.au/

Good luck with your decision. It's tough trying to decide where to go.

I did know that we have 12 months before the medicals and police checks run out. But do you know if say we get our visa accepted on month 11 and we decide to leave Canada (we are from Leduc) on month 13 would our medicals and police checks still be ok? I have heard that you have 1 year from your acceptance date to leave your country to move to Australia. I have also heard of visas taking over a year and people having to take them again, hence, paying the fees all over again.

Do you know anything about the amount of work in Brisbane for welders? One of the reasons we were looking at Mackay was obviously the money but I am not sure what the going rate is for a First Class welder in Brisbane. Since doing more research I think we would rather live in or around Brisbane but not if the income doesn't match the cost of living.

I have had two companies contact me from Australia (because they got my information from the immigration website)asking me to work for them but one company was in Darwin and the other was in Dubbo. We decided that those two locations wouldn't be a right match for us because we have three kids and want to be close to the ocean and close to civilization. The other consensus I have also found that there is pretty much no point in looking for a job while you are still in Canada because most companies in Australia want you there before they will consider you.unless they are in desperate need (like Dubbo or Darwin). Did you find that with your husband as well?

lpawlick,

It does indeed normally expire after a year after they are taken (see below), and this is normally what they base the entry date on.

Once a decision is made and they give you a precise entry date, you must enter Australia by that point or the visa becomes void. In an extreme situation, they might be willing to extend it by 3 months, but it has to be an extreme situation.

I'm still waiting for my visa to be approved, and have the same concerns as you (already did medical and police check). I'm using an agent, and asked her to inquire what's going on regarding my lack of a decision or movement. She indicated that things are moving slower than they were earlier in the year, but on the other hand, just last week, she had 4 cases which were approved suddenly, with no other previous indication that the case was progressing, so sometimes it looks like nothing is going on, and then the happy e-mail will just show up one day! Unfortunately, for my case, all she could do is send a reminder to them that my file has everything it should need, to try and push them a bit faster on it.

She also told me that DIMA case officers do have the power to extend the "validity" of a medical/PCC by up to 6 months if no decision is made yet, and could base an entry date on the extended validity, but she said so far none of her cases has had that happen (not sure if she meant that it was because an extension has never been required, or that no case officer has ever done it for her when it was needed).

I actually just checked my online visa information and for the first time since the department has received my medicals (May), they posted that on Oct 27 they are further processing my visa. I'm not sure what this means but hopefully it means they are continuing on with it.
jimflea, when did you apply for your visa? Is it a 175? Good luck with yours.it make me really excited when I see others get their visas granted when they have been waiting so long!

Ok, it appears as though the medicals/police checks does need to be clarified a bit.

Once your visa is granted they give you a validation date where you must enter the country even if it's just for a visit. The validation date is based on when you did your medicals & police checks. Generally the date is one year, but that's only if you did medicals/police checks at the last minute and then had the visa grant. Since most people don't do it at the last minute you have a shorter time period.

In your case you did your medicals/police checks about 6 months ago. So even if your visa is granted right now you will still have at most 6 months to enter Australia. The longer it takes for your visa to be granted the less time you'll have to validate.

For example if you did your medicals/police checks on May 1st, 2008 then you have to validate your visa by the end of April. It wouldn't matter when your visa was granted. This is why it's really important to give yourself enough time and not do the medicals/police checks too early.

So if they don't grant your visa until say. next February then you'd still only have until the end of April to validate. That just means a quick trip over for them to stamp your passport, you don't have to actually move by them. Once you've validated you have about 4-5 years to make the move over. It's 5 years from the date your visa was granted I think.

Getting immigration to extend the validation date is almost impossible, only in extreme circumstances will they consider changing the date. So you're pretty much stuck with it. The only thing you could do is notify immigration that you want to redo your medicals and police checks so that you can have more time to validate, this can only be done BEFORE your visa is granted. Once you've notified them you can redo them and send them off again. Then once your visa is granted they will base their validation date on the new medicals/police checks. You just have to make sure to tell immigration so they don't grant your visa before you give them the new information.

So using your example. if you got your visa on month 11, you'd have until month 12 to validate. Which means only 1 month to make a trip over. It's not 1 year from acceptance, it's 1 year from medicals or police checks, whichever was done earliest.

As for your question about work I don't know what the situation is like for welders, you'd have to check the job websites.

http://www.seek.com.au
That's a pretty good one.

I agree, not much point looking while you're in Canada. You'll only find the employers who are desperate enough to look overseas, so you probably don't want to work for them, or move to where they are.

We tried looking for work but couldn't find anyone to even look at him even though his job was in high demand. Once we arrived though he had no problems finding work.