[brian]

Hi Mark,

As yet I still have not received any communication or messages and no full nomination. Starting to lose hope a bit here.. should I try to contact them or do I just keep waiting?

They asked about my current employment on 1 July which I responded the same day. And then my email to them was on 8th july where I proactively sent extra docs for my self employed history. I received the automated reply from the mailbox.

Thanks

[brian]

Thanks so much for the reply. Very helpful and reassuring. Will hopefully all work out and get a response soon. 👍

[brian]

Hi,

Quick update.

Almost 8 weeks since receiving invitation to apply for nomination to NSW 491.

Just over 6 weeks since applying for full nomination.

2 weeks since receiving a request for more information – current employment status and update. I received the email asking about current employment – I am not currently employed in my chosen occupation. I responded to the email directly and did not amend anything in the EOI because I am currently unemployed and searching for new work. I did not receive any response except the automated email reply from the mailbox.

8 days since I PROACTIVELY sent further documents and complete evidence for self employed period. (50 odd pages as a single pdf of evidence including invoices, bank statements, sample data, emails, company docs etc), this COMPLETE evidence was not previously uploaded into the NSW application portal because the portal is a bit chunky, not user friendly and perhaps I just made a mistake not submitting it all at first because it was a 10mb file and I should have found a way to do so. Either way I felt I should just proactively send it before they possibly request further information about it.

I have only received the automated response on both of the emails I sent.

I have not updated my original EOI which I submitted some 3 months ago. It still shows:

– Relevant employment in the last 10 years. A total of 4 years and 8 months of employment. (This includes the experience before the confusing vetassess ‘deemed skilled date’.)

Points automatically calculated in EOI from my experience was 5 points for 3years of experience.

I gathered extra evidence to support my application – this was self employment evidence. Some 50 pages of emails, invoices, bank statements, letters, sample data etc). This was included after the original submission because I was still gathering data at the time of EOI submission. And purely to ensure if they deduct 2 years of skilled experience (prior to ‘deemed skilled date’), I can prove my self employed period and still achieve over 3 years of skilled, post ‘deemed skilled’ work experience to claim 5 points.

I’m worried about changing my EOI or doing anything further that could jeopardise my application.

Up to now and with my application I have submitted and provided evidence of employment for full history of employment in the occupation. Total of 5 years and 2 months. (Vetasses deemed me skilled after 2 years and deducted those years. ) I am only claiming 3 years of skilled employment but provided all 5 years and 2 months of experience.

Included a statement with my application to state I included my self employed period of employment to add a full history of my employment, not to add or claim further points, because I was unsure if my experience prior to the deemed skilled date by vetassess would be counted or if it would be deducted

Is there anything more i can do? If i should change my EOI should I do it? – remove 2 years of relevant (prior deemed skilled experience), and then add my self employed period?

I check my emails everyday and wake up early anxiously awaiting full invitation so I can submit the visa application next. This is exhausting and I am about to go somewhat off the grid in Africa for about 6 weeks.

[brian]

Hi Mark.

I finally received a request for more information. They have asked if I am currently employed in my field or closely related field.

I am not. I am looking for a new job to gain further experience but I was almost certain I do not need to be employed in that field to qualify for nomination.

Do I just reply via email? Something like:

Thank you for your email.

I would like to confirm that I am not currently employed in my nominated occupation of Aerial Survey Technician.

I understand that employment in the nominated occupation is not a mandatory requirement under the pathway I am applying through.

Please let me know if any further information is required.

———-

From what i can see on the nsw.gov website under 491 it does not state any requirement to be employed in my occupation under pathway 2.

Be invited to apply by Investment NSW

To be considered for NSW nomination under Pathway 2 you must:

• Be skilled in an occupation that is:

  • within an ANZSCO unit group identified on the NSW Regional Skills List; and

  • is eligible for this visa.

• Be currently residing:

  • in NSW and have continuously resided in NSW for a minimum period of three months; or

  • offshore and have continuously resided offshore for a minimum period of three months.

[brian]

Hey Mark. I submitted my application for the full nomination almost 4 weeks ago now. I know the NSW processing guidelines is about 6weeks but feeling a bit stressed it’s taking so long as I’ve seen numerous posts on FB and other forums where people applied around the same time and have since received full nomination.

Is the end of the financial year likely to influence times?

Also, I have a big camping trip booked in already for end of July through august. South africa, Namibia and botswana.

I’ve read that I will likely need a medical and police clearance for the application and apparently i can do the medical in other countries, only I need to see an approved doctor and have my HAP ID linked with my application in order to schedule the medical, which will then link to my application.

I could do my police clearance now early, but not the medical.

Should I do this?

If they exceed the 6 weeks and I dont receive full invitation before I leave for the trip, if they ask for more information but im innthe bush with no signal or wifi how much time do.they usually give me to respond to their request for info? Obviously dont want to miss any requests or deadlines.

Thanks

[brian]

I should clarify i definitely submitted more docs here than i submitted to vetasses. But in terms of all the docs I had gathered and then the limitations with the system, and how they wanted it structured or uploaded it wasn’t what I had prepared and had to go through everything and rearrange docs.

I walked away feeling like I could have easily uploaded another huge amount of evidence.

[brian]

Hi Mark,

So I gathered a lot of evidence and was ready to submit.

First, I contacted an old agent I had consulted and been assessed with last year. I wanted to ask her questions about the deemed skill date and how they deduct years. I found some videos online that seem to point to people being misled by the deemed skilled date but I couldn’t find a clear answer anywhere – hence reached out to the agent.

I couldn’t believe the response I got, it was shocking to be honest. A typical consultation or assessment is about 30 to 45mins long and costs about 250 to 300 aussie dollars.

Well this agent got back and immediately congratulated me on the invitation to apply. Then proceeded to quote me 1700 aussie dollars to look at my documetns and submit. they were not open to a consultation where I could just ask a question for 300 dollars.

Needless to say I didn’t take them up. seemed like daylight robbery. I hope I don’t regret that but I feel I gathered a lot of evidence.

The uploading system was easy. But there were a few things I had to just grab on the fly that I had not prepared.

1. Last six months of bank statements for my current account. Not impossible but a bit stressful – they wanted to see everyday transactions. Well, I use a credit card for everyday things and earn travel points and bonuses – but I read online that credit cards are not your own bank account. Anyway, I gathered my bank account statements and combined them. It showed payments to my other account and credit cards but not much shopping and subscriptions (I don’t really have any to be honest).

2. Driving license – this is apparently to verify my identity. So I quickly scanned that in.
3. Passport.
4. Vetassess skills assessment outcome letter.

5. English language exam results

6. Any education degrees or certificates.
7. Work experience and points claims.
– Fill out your points scores. Choosing years of experience claimed and age and so on.

Upload documents.
Now I had pains takingly arranged them into periods of work at different companies. The upload system seemed to split the uploads into options.
Payslips,
Bank statements showing salary payments,
Employer references,
Tax documents,
Superannuation docs.
Employment contracts.

Some of the documents I did not actually have. I had Employer references, bank statements and salary payments, payslips.

So I uploaded what I had. But I had file size limitations so felt I had to only include 2 or 3 payslips for each job. A handful of bank statements for each year I am claiming. Employment contracts – I only had one, also included a statutory declaration for my self employment year with client references. But couldn’t include all sample data and extras (they actually warn again including extra documents).

I feel like I submitted more documents to vetassess but couldn’t fit them all on here.

I don’t know if I need to contact them and offer more documents. Or if I will be contacted if they need any further information from me.

It was very stressful.

And then the payment – I had 30mins to pay before the link expired. Fair enough – but if the link expired it delays your processing even more.

Here’s hoping I didn’t drop the ball when I didn’t take up that agents 1700 dollar offer to do my application.

• This reply was modified 2 months, 2 weeks ago by  brian.

[brian]

to prove self employed experience I have gathered a bunch of evidence so far and have reached out to previous contacts at companies I did projects for, they have agreed to give me client testimonials for my work and projects and attest that I was working for myself and info about their role and such. Do you happen to have any recommendations on how to structure a client testimonial letter?

I have also found:

– company registration certs

– tax registration certificate for the company. Including the receipts from the accountants who consulted and got my docs.

– a few project reports and the outputs/data files.

– some correspondence emails between clients and myself (the original email address is shutdown but I had setup a backup Google at some point which received automatic backups).

– invoices for a few projects as well as one or two actual purchase orders

– proposal documents where I worked on city tender proposals and other project proposals.

– website and domain name registration emails and receipts for domain name hosting for.my company website.

– my own self declaration that I was working for myself and doing various projects. (Any recommendations or template to structure this?)

– I can also get supplier testimonials from other 3rd party contractors i used to assist on some projects. I have reached out to them

– I have company documents, brochures with service offerings, business card designs and website imagery etc.

– I have 2 email and documents from the bank where I setup the company accounts. However I do not have access and I do not have bank statements as the account long since closed down.

I’m looking for more info and trying to track down other stuff but for now that’s what I have.

In my own declaration, still working out the format and structure, I plan to explain that the economy and political instability in the country and the region lead me to only work for myself for only those 6months, and when I realised it wasn’t feasible and stable enough that’s when I took the next job overseas.

[brian]

Hi Mark.

Wow! I got an invitation to apply, today from NSW. I cannot believe it!!

[brian]

Hi Mark,

Thanks again for clarifying. So I have submitted the following:

Northern Territory –
I tried to submit but I cannot submit on their platform because at one of the questions: are you currently living in the Northern Territory, the answer is No and it then tells me:
“The NT Government is currently not accepting new nomination applications except for those who have urgent visa deadlines. You will not be able to continue this application.”

ACT:

Submitted the Canberra matrix.

Victoria

Made an account on the portal but have not found where I can submit an ROI. When I choose Apply I see the following as options. No 491 visa options.
VISA Type

188X – Extension

888A – Business Innovation

888B – Business Investor

888C – Significant Investor

Thanks again. I am still considering trying to study but I am seeing certain posts on facebook allude to an invitation round happening right now; are there usual or typical invitation dates or nomination times, or are they random, as and when needed?

Thanks

• This reply was modified 3 months ago by  brian.

[brian]

Hi Mark, thanks for all the help again. Definitely more helpful than one or two of the migration agents i have tried to deal with in the past and it’s definitely a difficult system to navigate. Makes me want to be a MARA agent just because I felt so let down when I paid such high fees for agents assessments and advice, only to feel like it was a waste, they are not very forthcoming with help as their entire business model relies on them doing the work, and to be honest once you have the road map it’s not actually difficult to gather documents and file for yourself. Doing it myself and with help from this forum is so much more rewarding. It’s a complicated process but not impossible.

If you have any guidance or info about where to engage each state separately that would be great. So far I registered on the migration western australia website.

I am unsure of other states and which may currently have my occupation on their list. If you have more info or can point me in the direction that would be great.

I found the following info thus far:

Western Australia
It is on the WASMOL schedule 2 list available for 491 nomination only. No 190 nomination.
I have registered as a candidate on the migration western australia website.

New South Wales
It appears to be on the list and falls under category for 3121. It follows the Pathway 2 for Offshore candidates and says I should submit an EOI on skillselect.
I have not found a separate registration or application page specific for NSW outside of skillselect.

Queensland
I don’t believe it is on their skills list QSOL offshore list unfortunately. Have not submitted any application direct to the QLD state.

South Australia
Listed for 491 nomination under offshore candidates. It says to register on skill select and submit my EOI. Does not mention a separate state registration or application.

Northern Territory
On the list for 491 sponsorship. Offshore migration list. I have not registered/applied to NT as I have just right this minute found a place to apply, but it says: Before applying, please ensure that you have first read our eligibility page and have lodged your expression of interest in the Department of Home Affairs Skillselect. I have done this. So will register with this portal and state today.

ACT
It appears on the critical skills list and eligible for 491 nomination. I have to submit a Canberra skills matrix. I believe my tentative score is only 55/185 so on the first look this does not appear very competitive, but I can attempt to submit this later today as well alongside the NT application above.

Victoria
I am not certain if it’s on the list for Victoria but I just found the Live in Melbourne portal. Will research this today as I have not submitted anything here.

And often forgotten about island of Tasmania.
Does not appear that the occupation is on their skills list. I have not submitted anything extra aside from Skill select.

If you have any further other sites or info that would be helpful I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you

[brian]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the info. Yes. Bit disappointed really as I have 80 points but I am reading on other forums such as reddit, and I saw also a statistics page where it shows that 312116 and state nomination is not very common. Maybe 5 in the last 3 years, and each of those 5 nominations had 95 points.

So bit wary my 80 points will not be sufficient.

Currently in an unrelated field and have been applying to new jobs but it’s not exactly an easy job market in the UK unfortunately.

I thought that if I received family nomination then I would receive an invite. Clearly that only boosts my points and is no guarantee of an invite. Quite unfortunate again really.

Thanks for the help and info. If all else fails and I do not receive a nomination I may have to try go and study in Australia.

• This reply was modified 3 months, 2 weeks ago by  brian.

[brian]

To add to previous reply: from further research it appears because that the Other geospatial scientist role is considered a skill level 1, instead of the aerial survey technician skill level 2, therefore I probably will not receive a positive assessment without 5 years of relevant work experience (I have 2 years of highly relevant) and then another 2.6 of somewhat relevant work experience. So I assume I likely would not receive a positive assessment.

[brian]

Great info, thank you for the help.

I have also found that I could submit another application to VETASSESS for Other Geospatial scientist – 232214.

This I believe aligns with my work but I would only just scrape 2 years specifically with this kind of experience from my most recent role, hopefully this would be enough to be considered as qualified. Or is the requirement higher? I assume 2 years as that is what I required to be considered qualified for the aerial survey technician role.

With Other Geospatial Scientist therefore I am eligible for 189 independent as well as Family sponsored 491 for regional australia. In which case I could receive family nomination and an invitation to apply? Correct?

I believe I would have to get a new statement of service from my employer and HR department, slight modified to be more in line with the requirements of other spatial scientist – from what I can tell I should NOT submit the exact same statement of service to vetassess. Instead just reword it to focus more on the analysis side as opposed to the technical field work side. Which is 100% accurate as I spent majority of my work time in the office, preparing plans, analysing data and maps etc. which very much lines up with other spatial scientist.

If I received a positive assessment based on the 2 years of work experience I have, I would then have:
Under 40 – 25 points.
Recognised degree – 15 points.
Single applicant – 10points.
Work experience – 2years (qualifying years). 0 points
English language – superior. 20 points.
Family nominated/sponsored regional 491. – 15points.

Total points 80.

Is this correct? Can I run into any issues with this? Other than the potential negative assessment? If I did this and got the positive assessment, then I might receive the 491 visa due to family sponsored?

My only other option would be completely retrain in a different career path within australia with the hopes of then securing the 485 graduate visa and then permanent residency. But that is extremely costly and can take another say 4 years.

• This reply was modified 3 months, 2 weeks ago by  brian.

[brian]

Hi Mark, I have just gone to submit an expression of interest. A few questions if I may:

1. It asks me to select visa types. My visa would be 491.
Skilled Work – Regional (Subclass 491) (Provisional) – State and Territory Nominated

I have not yet been nominated and have not received a nomination by a state, I thought this was the first step and I would then receive nomination after submitting my EOI.

2. It mentions I should contact state and territories directly – so I plan to do this and will apply to any and all states and territories which include the 312116 visa on their lists.

3. Before I click to submit the expression of interest it has a sort of summary page that seems to indicate I have 90 points. I am a bit confused as I don’t feel I have 90 points, I had calculated that i had 70points.

Skilled Work – Regional (Subclass 491) (Provisional) – State and Territory Nominated

The EOI for this subclass is able to be completed. The client’s claims equal 90 points

I of course don’t want to submit it with an error but from what I can tell everything I have input I should have 70 points – without a nomination.

I have also input my work experience – all of it. On VETASSESS assessment they assessed that I had 2.6years of experience because the first 2years was seen as qualifying me for the position. I have included all 4.6years of experience on the application, not just the last 2.6 post qualification. Is this wrong/incorrect?

thank you for your help.