Visas Granted

You beauty! After weeks of nail biting suspense the visas have finally landed in our laps and its done and dusted. Phew! Its been like waiting for a delayed flight at the airport but without the overpriced coffee. Not knowing when they could be approved has frustrated us all big time but the dream is now a massive step closer – just the bloody Avmed clearance to wait for…

Our visas took 4 weeks from the completion of the medicals and took 7 weeks in total. I was checking the account daily during the working week and it was amazing to see it flip from “further assessment” to “finalised”, I did a little dance that would make TikTok proud.

I was asked to submit further information which was sent to me via email – its also in the messages section of the application page on the immi account. I had stupidly added the wrong birth certificate for my daughter. Once I added the correct one it asked me to submit and that indicates to the agent its been added to the file.

The visas are checked every 28 working days after the first time an agent looks the account. If you’re lucky and submit your visa and have the medical a few days later before the agent first looks at the account, then you could have your visas granted in weeks rather than the two months it looks to be taking at the time of writing.

Post Visa Administration

The day after the visas were granted I received an email from the OLRS team asking me to send in the following:

• Reserve liability waiver – This document shows your status as  “Abroad Unavailable” ensuring you can’t be called up to the reserves while in Australia. I emailed my desk officer in Glasgow and it took 4 weeks to arrive via email.
• Copy of my JPA security certificate – A simple screenshot from JPA is accepted. Worth checking this well before its needed to make sure it hasn’t expired.
• Proof of resignation – This can be your certificate of service or a letter from your CoC.
• Any change of date from the LOO you can enlist into the ADF.

All this paperwork is generated after you have signed off and needs to be certified as true copies and sent via email as normal and it is needed to apply for your Australian security vetting.

The security clearance is now the OLRS team’s problem – They’ll sort it out and send your golden ticket, I mean enlistment signal. Once the enlistment signal is received its over to Australia House in London to arrange flights, removals and your stay in London prior to flying out…more to follow on this phase when we receive our enlistment signal.

When Did I Sign Off?

I rolled the dice and signed off back in November 23. I had decided regardless of how the OLT went I was going to leave. This thankfully paid off! Now, fingers crossed for an early release hoping to move in Sep 24; two months earlier than the original LOO.

If you decide to sign off before your visas are approved then you can get all your ducks in a row and get all of the above organised and ready to send – saving precious time but this is against the advice of the OLRS team and comes with risks.

The OLRS team told me they need a minimum of 5 months from the visas been granted to the enlistment date: this hasn’t been the case for others so it might have been workload dependant.

I honestly cannot wait to get to Australia now. After 2 years of playing the waiting game were just a hop skip and a 5-month wait away from swapping our umbrella for sunscreen.