Any SIR Invitations from 136 originals out there Sender: S4T

Hi,

Please tell us we are not alone with this headache!

Our SIR invite letter was in the same envelope as our outcome letter on 30 June 2005. We originally applied for a 136 in May 2004, but as we are both in our forties, and when they raised the points last year, we knew that we were scuppered.

We therefore immediately applied to SA (03 July 2005) for SIR acceptance, and they kindly said yes they would have us (04 July 2005). We did what we had to do for DIMIA, and then informed the CO that we were front-loading the PCCs and Medicals. No problem so far, CO seemed happy and so were we.

Then, last weekend we sent a courtesy email to the CO informing PCCs were posted 02 August 2005, and Medicals went 10 August 2005. As we have not bothered them, expect with changes in circumstances, we decided to politely ask if she had any idea when a final decision would be reached.

Our email was forwarded to the SIR Unit (which ups to this point we did not know existed) and then we received in reply, what we hope was an automatic DIMIA response, informing us that we may have to wait up to seven months for a final decision.

When we had 'picked ourselves up from the floor', we forwarded the response to our CO, who immediately responded to say that we would have to take any queries up with the SIR Unit directly, as she was no longer involved!!!!

We are now waiting to hear from the SIR Unit, to whom we sent a polite but 'please sort this out' type of email on Thursday 01 September 2005, asking if SIR invites (especially those of us who are pre-July 2004 136) really do have to wait the indicated seven months.

As anyone else come across this?

What is really annoying, is that when the points were raised, we emailed asking if we could transfer to the then 'new' SIR Visa, but the Unit Manager told us to wait as we had not been buttessed. Just think how much time would have been saved for both DIMIA and us if we had been allowed to transfer back in July 2004.

Best regards,

S4T

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