Hi Everyone,
As this forum helped me a lot, I decided to share my experience with this lengthy process which was my 186 DE application, now that the visa has been granted.
I will try to stick to the facts, hoping that this will help anyone who is about to go through the same path to make the right decisions.
Submitted: 05 July 2021
Approved: 01 Sept 2022
Processing time suggested: Between 4 and 12 months
Nominated as: Architect
Already working - as a freelancer - For the Nominating Employer at the time of submission.
Immi agent: Yes
My case has been peculiar from the start because of:
Experience
The experience to be assessed by the dept. was entirely Freelance.
I submitted all the invoices for every hour claimed, and literally summed up all the hours to make up for the necessary years of experience.
I also created a matrix with when and how the clients and jobs were overlaying, to show that the job has been consistent throughout the years.
Nominating Employer
My nominating employer is not an Architecture Firm, and I am the only one doing the nominated position in the company.
Although I had a positive skills assessment, I am not registered as an Architect in Australia.
The above situation generated two
Requests for further information.
Immigration Agent
---Please take into Covid largely affected the waiting time of the visa and also the quality of the Firm's Service---
The Employer wouldn't agree to partake without an immigration agent, and we hired an popular International Immigration Law Firm.
Budget:
We had 2 pre-application meetings and 2 extra fees billed for every Req. of Further info, all charged hourly.
Overall they charged about double the price of the visa itself.
Service:
The waiting time was over a year, and during this 4 different lawyers have been assigned to my case.
During the pre-app meetings I flagged the registration issues mentioned, a year before.
The first lawyer convinced us to apply.
She explained the risks in applying as a freelancer and without being an Architect firm.
But also explaining the process, their strategy and confirming that submissions like mine have been granted in the past.
The lastest awfully wasn't aware of the full picture, and made mistakes that brought the company to submit a letter of amends to the dept. and even change the name of the nominated position on the contract a month before submission.
After the grant, the Lawyer even admitted that was surprising to see my application approved considering the final hiccups and mistakes.
For these reasons, before receiving the final outcome, the company was filing a letter of complaint.
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My 5 cents - don't hire a Super-Lawyers firm unless an unlimited budget or multinational company has your back.
We would often hold back from enquiring, considering the fees are up to 600$ p/h.
I think that a smaller agent would probably do a better job in a particular situation like mine, and in a more straightforward situation, no agent is actually required.
I have been suggested this firm by a friend who went exactly through the same path with the same Immigration Law firm, but was nominated by a large IT company, and he would even receive calls from the law firm for updates.
I heard the voice of the latest lawyer assigned once in 1 year, when she admitted that she didn't even know I was Self-employed (the core detail of my application).
Finally, I have the feeling my case bouncing from one person to another within the firm was covid but also sadly budget related.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That's all!
I hope this helps anyone who will have to go through the same ordeal,
and Good Luck!!!
As this forum helped me a lot, I decided to share my experience with this lengthy process which was my 186 DE application, now that the visa has been granted.
I will try to stick to the facts, hoping that this will help anyone who is about to go through the same path to make the right decisions.
Submitted: 05 July 2021
Approved: 01 Sept 2022
Processing time suggested: Between 4 and 12 months
Nominated as: Architect
Already working - as a freelancer - For the Nominating Employer at the time of submission.
Immi agent: Yes
My case has been peculiar from the start because of:
Experience
The experience to be assessed by the dept. was entirely Freelance.
I submitted all the invoices for every hour claimed, and literally summed up all the hours to make up for the necessary years of experience.
I also created a matrix with when and how the clients and jobs were overlaying, to show that the job has been consistent throughout the years.
Nominating Employer
My nominating employer is not an Architecture Firm, and I am the only one doing the nominated position in the company.
Although I had a positive skills assessment, I am not registered as an Architect in Australia.
The above situation generated two
Requests for further information.
- The one related to the employer was contesting the genuine need.
They had 3 weeks to submit further info.
The company had to provide a plan of expansion and explain how the position would be fitting within the workflow.
They also submit examples of my past and present work with them.
- The one sent to me was only requesting the Registration to work as an Architect.
I had 1 week to submit further info.
Registration is not a requirement to apply for the visa.
Considering the weird request and the short time to answer,
the lawyer suggested that the Dept. was contesting I was lawfully working in my profession without anyone registered in the same position supervising me.
I had to provide statements from Architects and other Professionals who supervised my work.
All the involved were contractors and have never been employed by the company.
I provided engineers and other professionals' statements, but no Registered Architect got back to me in time to submit their letter( it was actually only 5 working days).
The company also provided a statement explaining how a typical job's process would be from start to end, and how they came up with the need for an Architect to begin with.
The statement was also quoting the ANZSCO description and the immigration website, noting that the only requirement was the skill assessment.
There are more details related to the profession that I am happy to share if you are an Architect but irrelevant to the general applicant.
Immigration Agent
---Please take into Covid largely affected the waiting time of the visa and also the quality of the Firm's Service---
The Employer wouldn't agree to partake without an immigration agent, and we hired an popular International Immigration Law Firm.
Budget:
We had 2 pre-application meetings and 2 extra fees billed for every Req. of Further info, all charged hourly.
Overall they charged about double the price of the visa itself.
Service:
The waiting time was over a year, and during this 4 different lawyers have been assigned to my case.
During the pre-app meetings I flagged the registration issues mentioned, a year before.
The first lawyer convinced us to apply.
She explained the risks in applying as a freelancer and without being an Architect firm.
But also explaining the process, their strategy and confirming that submissions like mine have been granted in the past.
The lastest awfully wasn't aware of the full picture, and made mistakes that brought the company to submit a letter of amends to the dept. and even change the name of the nominated position on the contract a month before submission.
After the grant, the Lawyer even admitted that was surprising to see my application approved considering the final hiccups and mistakes.
For these reasons, before receiving the final outcome, the company was filing a letter of complaint.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My 5 cents - don't hire a Super-Lawyers firm unless an unlimited budget or multinational company has your back.
We would often hold back from enquiring, considering the fees are up to 600$ p/h.
I think that a smaller agent would probably do a better job in a particular situation like mine, and in a more straightforward situation, no agent is actually required.
I have been suggested this firm by a friend who went exactly through the same path with the same Immigration Law firm, but was nominated by a large IT company, and he would even receive calls from the law firm for updates.
I heard the voice of the latest lawyer assigned once in 1 year, when she admitted that she didn't even know I was Self-employed (the core detail of my application).
Finally, I have the feeling my case bouncing from one person to another within the firm was covid but also sadly budget related.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That's all!
I hope this helps anyone who will have to go through the same ordeal,
and Good Luck!!!
