17 April 2014
and another step!
Today we finally got the letter from my neurosurgeon's office and we were able to send off all of the paperwork that we hadn't included in our visa application before. We had this information sent overnight, which means that our case officer will get it in the morning. Now we just need to wait to hear back from her. Our migration officer (the guy that we paid to help us) said that he thinks we'll probably hear back by the end of next week at the earliest because of the Easter holiday. Let's hope it all works out!
12 April 2014
One step closer!
At about 1 in the morning, I received an email from my migration agent saying that Rohan and my visa application has been granted a case officer! A case officer is the person that works for the Australian government to determine if the visa is granted.
We are currently in that process now. They have requested a few additional pieces of information. I already have a couple of them, aka the background checks that I had such difficulty with obtaining, but I have a couple more to obtain before sending it off. Luckily the case officer is actually someone at the Australian embassy in Washington, DC rather than someone in Australia. This will mean that it will be a lot faster for my documents to get there, which makes me happy and not as worried about them getting lost!
Hopefully this will all mean that we're able to obtain all of the information and get granted the visa soon!
On a side note, one of the other boxes that we shipped for the wedding made it there the other day. It's such a relief to know that all of the dresses (mine, Rohan's sisters, and Adri's) have made it there safely. Shipping always makes me nervous! We're still waiting for the last box, but at least that one wasn't as crucial!
EDIT: the other box got there a few days ago.
We are currently in that process now. They have requested a few additional pieces of information. I already have a couple of them, aka the background checks that I had such difficulty with obtaining, but I have a couple more to obtain before sending it off. Luckily the case officer is actually someone at the Australian embassy in Washington, DC rather than someone in Australia. This will mean that it will be a lot faster for my documents to get there, which makes me happy and not as worried about them getting lost!
Hopefully this will all mean that we're able to obtain all of the information and get granted the visa soon!
On a side note, one of the other boxes that we shipped for the wedding made it there the other day. It's such a relief to know that all of the dresses (mine, Rohan's sisters, and Adri's) have made it there safely. Shipping always makes me nervous! We're still waiting for the last box, but at least that one wasn't as crucial!
EDIT: the other box got there a few days ago.
07 April 2014
Shipping is so fun!
Last Saturday, my dad and I went to mail a bunch of stuff over to Perth for the wedding. We had one big box full of candy and party favours and another even bigger box full of my dress, my future sisters-in-law dresses, and Adri's flowergirl dress. We got to the post office and they said that the boxes were too big to ship to Australia, we looked at the weight but forgot about measurements. We had the choice to either repack them into smaller boxes or ship using FedEx, which is more expensive.
We decided to get some of the smaller boxes. My dad worked on some tetris skills and he managed to get the candy/favours in one box and the dresses in the other while I worked on the paperwork. Well he got them all in with the exception of my dress. Even if it were in a box to itself, there was no way that my dress was going to fit in a box that size. We had those two boxes full of everything else sent off and we went to FedEx to ship my dress.
That was a fun experience. Not! Apparently FedEx has all sorts of requirements that the US postal service doesn't have us fill out when we ship stuff. The guy working there looked up the information and there was all sorts of information that we needed to include, such as what the dress was made out of and make sure it had a sewn in tag with certain information. I did not want to have to open up my dress bag in the store and touch it, but luckily I could just stick my hand down the part where the hanger sticks out and find the needed information. Then he said that we could either fill out some sheet or go set up an account on the computer in the back and fill it out online. We chose that online option.
That ended up being a mess. There were so many times that we didn't know what we were doing and we had to get him to help, which he didn't seem to be all that inclined to do. Eventually we got through it and sent it off.
A few days later, my mom and I got a message from Michelle, Rohan's mum, saying that it was in Australia but stuck in customs. Apparently we didn't include the correct form or something. It wasn't really that surprising since the guy seemed to be telling us at the beginning that we needed another form, but then we didn't seem to need to fill that out when we sent it. Anyway, Michelle got contact information from the guy at FedEx in Australia and found out what we needed.
The next day, my dad was able to get in to FedEx and get it sorted out. He had to fill out a form, which involved calling me at work to get some more information, but it ended up working out. He was then able to send the paperwork via email to the guy in Australia. We got a response that night that it was cleared for customs. I kept tracking it online throughout the night, but it still said out for delivery when I fell asleep. When I woke up, I got an email from Michelle saying that my dress had arrived and she took a picture of the dress bag hanging up.
I'm so glad that it got over there safely and my dress is there waiting for me! Now we just need to wait for the other boxes to get there!
We decided to get some of the smaller boxes. My dad worked on some tetris skills and he managed to get the candy/favours in one box and the dresses in the other while I worked on the paperwork. Well he got them all in with the exception of my dress. Even if it were in a box to itself, there was no way that my dress was going to fit in a box that size. We had those two boxes full of everything else sent off and we went to FedEx to ship my dress.
That was a fun experience. Not! Apparently FedEx has all sorts of requirements that the US postal service doesn't have us fill out when we ship stuff. The guy working there looked up the information and there was all sorts of information that we needed to include, such as what the dress was made out of and make sure it had a sewn in tag with certain information. I did not want to have to open up my dress bag in the store and touch it, but luckily I could just stick my hand down the part where the hanger sticks out and find the needed information. Then he said that we could either fill out some sheet or go set up an account on the computer in the back and fill it out online. We chose that online option.
That ended up being a mess. There were so many times that we didn't know what we were doing and we had to get him to help, which he didn't seem to be all that inclined to do. Eventually we got through it and sent it off.
A few days later, my mom and I got a message from Michelle, Rohan's mum, saying that it was in Australia but stuck in customs. Apparently we didn't include the correct form or something. It wasn't really that surprising since the guy seemed to be telling us at the beginning that we needed another form, but then we didn't seem to need to fill that out when we sent it. Anyway, Michelle got contact information from the guy at FedEx in Australia and found out what we needed.
The next day, my dad was able to get in to FedEx and get it sorted out. He had to fill out a form, which involved calling me at work to get some more information, but it ended up working out. He was then able to send the paperwork via email to the guy in Australia. We got a response that night that it was cleared for customs. I kept tracking it online throughout the night, but it still said out for delivery when I fell asleep. When I woke up, I got an email from Michelle saying that my dress had arrived and she took a picture of the dress bag hanging up.
I'm so glad that it got over there safely and my dress is there waiting for me! Now we just need to wait for the other boxes to get there!
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