457 Visa - Getting Worried

[donnyleigh]

Hi All,

I would really appreciate any advice.

I have been offered sponsorship by a company in Melbourne, they have applied for the visa but it seems to be taking forever. The company has told me to lodge my application even though I don't have the TRN or nomination approval letter. The company informed me that if I attach a note to the application with the ABN on, the visa office can marry the 2 applications up thus speed the process up, is that correct???

We are due to land in Melbourne on the 20/02/08 and I was going to start work on the 03/03/08, how realistic is that start date when I haven't even started my application??

Whilst I am asking all the questions I may aswell ask about shipping companies. I have had 4 quotes from Anglo Pacific, Crown, Migrate Global and The Removal Group. Crown are the most expensive but appear to have the best door to door service so I am trying to figure out the best option. The 4 quotes range from £2900 to £4000. I am happy to spend more money for the right service, the cheapest quote may have additional costs once my goods get to Melbourne??

I really appreciate any help on this as me the family are getting a little stressed by everything now. We seem to have done nothing yet but we fly out on the 16th Feb 2008 -YIKES!!!!

[Tiffani]

Originally Posted by donnyleigh

Hi All,

I would really appreciate any advice.

I have been offered sponsorship by a company in Melbourne, they have applied for the visa but it seems to be taking forever. The company has told me to lodge my application even though I don't have the TRN or nomination approval letter. The company informed me that if I attach a note to the application with the ABN on, the visa office can marry the 2 applications up thus speed the process up, is that correct???

We are due to land in Melbourne on the 20/02/08 and I was going to start work on the 03/03/08, how realistic is that start date when I haven't even started my application??

Whilst I am asking all the questions I may aswell ask about shipping companies. I have had 4 quotes from Anglo Pacific, Crown, Migrate Global and The Removal Group. Crown are the most expensive but appear to have the best door to door service so I am trying to figure out the best option. The 4 quotes range from £2900 to £4000. I am happy to spend more money for the right service, the cheapest quote may have additional costs once my goods get to Melbourne??

I really appreciate any help on this as me the family are getting a little stressed by everything now. We seem to have done nothing yet but we fly out on the 16th Feb 2008 -YIKES!!!!

Hi. I'm moving to Melbourne at the end of January on a 457, but our sponsoring university has an immigration attorney who basically just emails us instructions to follow and then the rest is taken care of so I don't have any real advice for you. How long has it taken so far? Our immigration attorney told us the entire process should take approximately 5 weeks. Right now we're waiting on our health check certifications to arrive on Aussie soil (sitting over the Pacific right now I guess, based on the tracking number from the Post Office), and I imagine the rest should fall into place after that.

The one thing I would have advised against would have been buying your plane tickets before you get the visa. I know that the prices go up the closer you buy the ticket to your departure, but since I work with international students and visiting researchers coming to the US, I know that it can cause lots of problems if the visa doesn't arrive before the flight reservation! Did you book changeable tickets just in case?

It seems like you still have plenty of time if you're planning to go in mid-February, that's almost two months away. It's stressful but I'd try to relax if I were you! Is your company sponsor using an immigration attorney? Are they a large company that sponsors a lot of immigrants and therefore know the system?

As for the moving company, the British system might be very different than the US system, but in the US it's largely unregulated, so you can get a lot of back-end charges if you're not careful. We decided to go with a company that cost a bit more than the cheapest ones but offered us a binding estimate whereby, so long as the actual weight of our goods does not exceed the estimated weight (and it shouldn't because they used the high end of the commercial weight estimates for everything), we cannot be charged more than the estimate, and that includes everything from packing, loading, customs clearance to unloading and unpacking once our stuff gets there. I would look for a company that will offer something like that because you don't want to receive an estimate of 3000 only to be told at the back end that it's actually going to be 6000, when you could've paid 4500 and had it be the definite price, does that make sense?

[donnyleigh]

Originally Posted by Tiffani

Hi. I'm moving to Melbourne at the end of January on a 457, but our sponsoring university has an immigration attorney who basically just emails us instructions to follow and then the rest is taken care of so I don't have any real advice for you. How long has it taken so far? Our immigration attorney told us the entire process should take approximately 5 weeks. Right now we're waiting on our health check certifications to arrive on Aussie soil (sitting over the Pacific right now I guess, based on the tracking number from the Post Office), and I imagine the rest should fall into place after that.

The one thing I would have advised against would have been buying your plane tickets before you get the visa. I know that the prices go up the closer you buy the ticket to your departure, but since I work with international students and visiting researchers coming to the US, I know that it can cause lots of problems if the visa doesn't arrive before the flight reservation! Did you book changeable tickets just in case?

It seems like you still have plenty of time if you're planning to go in mid-February, that's almost two months away. It's stressful but I'd try to relax if I were you! Is your company sponsor using an immigration attorney? Are they a large company that sponsors a lot of immigrants and therefore know the system?

As for the moving company, the British system might be very different than the US system, but in the US it's largely unregulated, so you can get a lot of back-end charges if you're not careful. We decided to go with a company that cost a bit more than the cheapest ones but offered us a binding estimate whereby, so long as the actual weight of our goods does not exceed the estimated weight (and it shouldn't because they used the high end of the commercial weight estimates for everything), we cannot be charged more than the estimate, and that includes everything from packing, loading, customs clearance to unloading and unpacking once our stuff gets there. I would look for a company that will offer something like that because you don't want to receive an estimate of 3000 only to be told at the back end that it's actually going to be 6000, when you could've paid 4500 and had it be the definite price, does that make sense?

Thanks for the response firstly.

It has been about 3-4 weeks since the sponsoring company applied for the visa, im told that immigration have a large backlog of applications to get through so this is holding things up. The company have sponsored before, they have sponsored 1 student whereas I am a fully qualified professional with a family (2 kids). The HR Manager is doing all the visa work and to be fair I think she may be having problems sorting things out. I take your point on the flights, but we looked at the difference in prices and it was massive, I mean it could have cost us up to 3 times more if we booked short notice after the visa had been accepted. Having thought about it a little more even if I can't start work until a month after the agreed start date it is no major problem, we will just have to get holiday visas to see us through the gap. I think you are spot on when it comes to shipping, I think crown sound best, door to door service by the same company, they actually have an office in Melbourne.

Thanks again.

[kaz101]

Hi Donnyleigh,

I can't offer advice with the visa but for the shipping from the UK to Oz we used Harrow Green and were very happy with their door to door service. We had about 7 companies round for a quote but I don't think we had Crown. It was down to Harrow Green and another company that we found at an Emigration show in Sandown.

Just make sure that the insurance is good and covers everything you need. We didn't have anything with mildew - I know that insurance is offered as well.

Regards,
Karen

[Liana Allan]

Hello
Did your employer paper-lodge or e-lodge your 457 application? Through which office? Which occupation did they select from the Gazette list for the purpose of the nomination? Are you completing your 457 to match their nomination and skills and duties outlined in the position description provided by the sponsoring organisation?
Are you planning on lodging your application as a paper application or e-lodging it?
What's your occupation?
I wish you the very best of luck. Liana