My Rojak March 2010

This is a backdated post. Yeah, March oh March.... the busiest month for me but still have to update my fellow blog follwers to let you all know what happening on my March 2010.

Randal was being send to a new nanny due to his previous nanny will be going to Australia to look after her granddaughter. He cried badly for the first day with new nanny and slowly accept the fact that he will be with these nanny for the coming year. This new nanny just stay next door to my parent's house and most of the time, my dad and sis will go and kacau him too........ maybe because of this, he feels more secure and happy to stay there.

My younger sister got married on 13th March which is also my brother's birthday too. I was busy helping my mom for the preparation for her wedding as my elder sister was away to Sarawak for hiking. More photos of her wedding can be view in my facebook......

On 20th March, it's Kendra's school annual sports day. She had been practiced had last few weeks and she got a silver metal for her house in her age group.

We had a small celebration for Kendra's 4 years old birthday before she fly off to Australia. It's just a simple dinner with my family members.

After the sports day, I was busy packing for our Australia trip. Our main purpose for this trip is to get our visa validated as part of the fulfillment for the visa granted. Now, we are officially an Australian PR. We visited Gold Coast and love the weather there. Hope can settle down in Brisbane. Hubby might be going there end of this year to hunt for job and hope that we can join him by next year as Kendra will finish her school term by that time. Photos of our trip can be view here, here and here.

Processing of Our Autralia PR

We had our Australia PR granted somewhere in September 2009 and some of my friends would like me to share with them how the process was. So, I will try my best to share it out with you how our application being processed. The process is base on the points system. You need to have at least 120 points in order for you to lodge your application under General Skill Migration (GSM) subclass 175. Beside this subclass, there are still few types of visa available.

He has to get his skills assess by the relevant organization/bodies. He work in IT field and of course he need to get Australian Computer Society (ACS) to recognized his skills.You may check out your skills recognition here. All relevant documents including a letter from your superior need to be submit to them. It took about 8 weeks for them to get back to you and no online submission for this. You have to send them the documents by mail and the result also will send back to you by mail. He paid AUD200 for this assessment.

While waiting for the ACS result, we registered for the IELTS test. We took the test on xx Dec and got our IELTS result 2 weeks after the test. For this IELTS test, the main applicants must score at least band 6 or you will get additional 5 points if you score band 7 for all 4 components. Hubby only scored band 6 for this test means he is short of points for him to lodge his application. He got 2 options which is either re-take the test until he score band 7 for all 4 components or get the State sponsorship which earned him 10 points. Moreover, if you lodged your application under GSM subclass 176 (State Sponsor or sponsor by a relative living in AUD), only 100 points is needed. So, hubby decided not to re-take the test as the test cost him RM530 per test. He tried to apply for the state sponsor from Queensland (QLD) due to we don't have relatives in AUD. The state sponsor is free of charge. You just need to make sure your skill is listed in their demand list. Each state will have a different list for this. Hubby got the letter from QLD xx weeks after he submitted all his documents.

Since he got the state sponsor from QLD, he has more than enough points to lodge his application. He lodged his application on 29th April with the fees of AUD2050. I think the fees had been adjusted to AUD2525 W.E.F 1^st July 2009. He didn’t appoint any agent for our application, all are done online and this had saved us about RM10k for the agent fees. He got the case officer allocated to him 3 weeks after the application was lodged. We are requested to undergo the Medical Examination (ME) and submit the good conduct letter. Due to I’m expecting at that time and can’t carry out the X-Ray. Right after I finished my confinement, we (include my 2 kids) did the ME and all reports were submitted by the panel doctor.

We got the grant letter around 4-5 weeks after the ME and stated in the letter that we must validate our visa by enter to AUD no later than 22^nd July 2010 and the visa expired 5 years from the date granted. Time to time, they are still some changes of the requirements for the application.

We have booked out tickets for our initial entry and I’m so looking forward to this trip. This will be the first overseas trip for Randal.

Lucky or Unlucky

Today is the replacement holiday for hubby's company so he decided to go to the Australian High Commission to get all our passport stamp for our Australia PR. He took the 8.30am bus and suppose to reach there before 12pm.

I gave him a call around 11.30am and I was being told that the bus broke down and he need to take a cab to rush to the AUD High Comm before they close for lunch. 12.10pm, my phone rang again and hubby told me that he was not allow to enter the building because he reached there at 12.02pm and their office was close at 12pm. He pleased the receptionist (a malay lady) to let him go in since he is travel so far away from Ipoh. But the malay lady insisted not to let him go in. I can feel how frustrated and annoyed hubby was at that time. He purposely took bus to get there but was not allow to go in because he was late for the 2 minutes. Opps, I forgot to mention that their office was only open till 12pm only. He please the receptionist again and again and even show her his bus ticket but she still not to let him go in. So, he have to leave with no other option.

At 1.30pm he called me again and let me know that he was on his way to Pudu and will be back soon. So, I just take note about it and continue my Facebook game. Not long later, he called me again and told me that he called to the High Comm office and his phone call was answer by an Australian lady. He told the lady about his case and she was helpful enough to ask him to go back to their office and she will get it done for him.

While I'm writing this post, I'm waiting for his call too. Don't know how the receptionist feel when she see hubby can go in later and will hubby make a complaint to them about this......hahaha!!!!

Australia???

Finally hubby passed his final paper of the CCNP and now he is a Cisco Certified Network Professional. Since he passed all the 4 papers of the exam and he is thinking to look for a better offer now. In the other hand, he also got an "weird" idea lately.........migrate to Australia.

We are thinking to get an Australia PR since hubby had did the online assessment of his skill and his score are qualify us for the application. From the info we gathered online (from the AU Immigration and some forum), we found that self apply can save us about RM7k compare to applying through agency. But with our location now (Ipoh), it's not so convenient for us to go down to KL for some of the forms submittion. We are still indecisive whether to self apply it or let it handle by agent.

One thing for sure is I must take the IELTS English test. I will go for the class this afternoon and will be sitting for the exam maybe end of the month. I joke with Kendra this morning that Kendra is going to school and so to mommy......hahahhaha!