Australian Values Statement

30 October 2007 ⋅ 2 min read ⋅ immigration

Since 15 October 2007, if you apply for visa, you need to sign the Australian Values Statement to acknowledge that you understand and appreciate the values, way of life and laws of Australia. It’s mandatory now and you can’t get an approval without it. To give you all necessary facts and figures, they issued a 40-page book called Life in Australia. On its colorful and well-designed pages you learn many curious geographical and lifestyle facts. I only quickly skimmed through it, but my immediate impression was that it is a great and entertaining read. Here you can learn more about the statement, the procedure and download the book itself. You can also order a printed version on some languages, and they promise to release an audio version soon. Interesting, hah! Comments from the past Danielle Says: December 2nd, 2008 at 14:41 Thanks. I’ve been looking for it for a long time, and aha, finally i found it here!

ACS, Finished

29 October 2007 ⋅ 1 min read ⋅ immigration

On Saturday, as we landed in Kiev on a way back from the vacation in Egypt, my cell buzzed with a message. A second later my heart broke out the chest — a note from my mother said that they had received the letter from ACS with my skill assessment results. Oh my God!

The next day I paid a visit to my parents, opened the letter to learn that I was approved and granted the highest category of IT specialist. On top of that, they certified me suitable for additional points for excessive knowledge in J2EE, and attached the form for a discounted membership. As you may or may not know, ACS is an organization gathering and training IT specialists under its umbrella, which helps immensely when looking for new job opportunities.

The next step would be to collect all documents necessary for the main visa application and proceed with it online. It will probably take another year to process it to immigration office, but still it’s already half way up to success.

Great news, hah!

Government Consultation Blog Discussion Paper

25 September 2007 ⋅ 3 min read ⋅ immigration

Now this is really crazy (in a positive sense, certainly). I knew Australian Government to be liberal and modern and up-to-date (relatively to some other places on this planet), but this news caught me by an absolute surprise.

ACS, The story continues

21 September 2007 ⋅ 2 min read ⋅ immigration

Yesterday after a 10 days of waiting for all necessary documents to be signed and delivered, I finally sent them to ACS. It’s an additional package they requested consisting of the certified copy of my birth certificate, and certified copies of reference letters from the previous and present employers and partners.

Let the ACS Skill Assessment Begin

6 August 2007 ⋅ 1 min read ⋅ immigration

This morning I sent the complete package of documents to Australian Computer Society (ACS) for skill assessment procedure. It’s a lengthy process (3-4 months in the best case) that will confirm me as a specialist in IT. This confirmation is an essential part of the Independent Specialist Visa application.

I hope the letter will reach the institution on next Monday, and they successfully withdraw the payment from my credit card. Then I will start counting days and watch the progress they publish on their site.

Wish me good luck!

IELTS: Done.

26 June 2007 ⋅ 5 min read ⋅ immigration

The long-awaited results of our IELTS test I was writing quite a bit about are finally on the table, unwrapped…

No IELTS Results Yet

19 June 2007 ⋅ 2 min read ⋅ immigration

We called British Council on Friday and I forgot to leave a note here for those who follow our little adventure. They promised to send the results to us on Monday, and put the special emphasis on that even though the marks will be ready, they won’t share them with us over the phone.

Well, as I think about it now, it’s quite a judicious move, isn’t it? Anyone could learn my results by simply calling them, and I don’t really like anyone to do this. So, let’s see what arrives. I wonder how long it is going to take, but it shouldn’t be more than a week for sure.

Short Report: Living through the IELTS Test

6 June 2007 ⋅ 7 min read ⋅ immigration

As you may know, we cherish the idea of immigration. Immigration to the sunny and sandy Australia. Last Friday (May 31, 2007) we flew to Kiev to take our IELTS examination, which always takes place in the British Council.