Applying Australian Visa (PR SI 189) - Part II

Waiting for getting a CO was not difficult at start; as at that time, knowing that work on my part was done provided some relaxation. Also, at point of time - the timelines were around 4-5 weeks, which was good enough. So this time went fine but after one month, seeing the trend that DIAC is going really slow on things after the Dec holidays started to test my patience. 

Then came couple of bumps, back to back - DIAC updated the timeline on CO allocation on their site from 5 weeks to 7 weeks. After around 2 weeks they increased the same to 10 weeks. This was not expected from DIAC - then reason for the same cleared apart from holiday period of X-Mas and New year - DIAC increased invitation in Nov to two times than invites in Oct and the same was for Dec. So this hit was two folds - Holiday period on one side and double applications on other. Hence, with low mood I accepted it could take quite a while now.

It was close to two months when people around my timeline started to hear something for CO or getting direct grants. People were calling DIAC to know the status of their application as they don't know that they have a CO until CO asks something from them. And if you have everything already front-loaded then CO might just drop a grant mail directly. There were cases with people where CO was not able to see some of the uploaded docs due to some tech glitch at their end; so s/he demands the same in these cases.

If you are wondering what keep me informed of other applicants - its online forums that I mentioned earlier like Expat Forum.

I could have called DIAC myself - but it was a premium ISD number and would cost upto INR 100 (around 2$) per min. Average waiting time to speak to an operator was 30 min. That would have put a big hole in my pocket; so that helped keep my patience for some more time (by that I mean just a week). So, finally I called and got to know that CO is already allocated to my case - operator was not very kind enough to tell me when and who. Anyhow, some relief that my case is assigned. 

I would wake up at 4-5 in the morning sometimes to check my mails - it was something I did not want to do it but you know that happens when you are that anxious. After a week or so, I woke up at 6 AM - no mails. I slept like a baby then and woke up late in the morning just to find a GRANT mail that came in an hour ago - WOW, a grant without any document request. Great!

It took me few glances at grant letter attached in the mail to have it feel that its really a grant. Wow, my thought read - "I and my wife are now Permanent Resident of Australia :-)".

Whoa, when that sank in, my thought's wording changed a bit and became - "We have a PR and now we need to leave our stable jobs and go to an entirely new country and find a new job" 

Challenge Accepted!