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i thought i could be clever and save money by doing the health check for my visa renewal in Singapore.
according to Australia's Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC), form 990i0613, the cost of the medical and radiological examination is about $430. wtf.
that's 4 times the cost of the same examination in Singapore's SATA, which is about $108.
ridiculous.
the reason i have to renew my visa was because Curtin delayed my admission so i came here on a student visa granted for 4 months short of my course duration.
the application for the visa online is troublesome, as they need documents such as the certificate of enrolment (CoE) from the school, my passport certified as a true copy, and the medical results.
and to get my new CoE, i needed to enrol for my course units and ensure payment was made to the university. and because my course is screwed up and constantly changing, i had trouble enrolling online and had to do it manually.
i finally got enrolled on 6 Jan because the Curtin offices closed for a very long xmas holiday - 20 Dec to 6 Jan. then i emailed the administration office for the CoE on that day, replied that i wanted to apply for the visa in Singapore, and received it yesterday.
then i checked my old email correspondence with the DIAC and saw this warning:
You should not travel to Australia until you have received notification of the grant of your student visa. If you choose to arrive in Australia before your visa is granted, you may need to withdraw this application and lodge a new visa application on-shore.crap. this worried me.
i will be in Singapore for about ten days, giving me about 6 working days for the DIAC to assess the medical results and grant me my visa before i went back to Perth, assuming that i got the appointment on the earliest day and SATA sends them the results asap.
for my first visa, i submitted the online application on 2 Jan, did the medical on 18 Jan, and the visa was granted on 29 Jan. that was 11 days between the medical and the visa.
but then i thought, hey, i have my existing visa that allows me to multiple entry in and out of Australia, surely they will not threaten to invalidate my application if i don't get the visa in time.
so i called DIAC to enquire. the last time i did that, i was on hold for one hour. today it was for 40 minutes. in Singapore, i went to the embassy to enquire and waited there for about 2 hours. i would prefer to ask them in person, but i would spend 4 hours to get my question answered.
anyway, the young lady said i needed a health check because it has been one year since i did one. boo~~
and that i had to be in the country where i lodge the visa application until the visa was granted, even though i have an existing valid visa.
she said there were no exceptions. booooo~~~
i really don't want to spend $300 more than i have to, so i'm thinking of getting a second opinion. (-.-)
or another part-time job. (-.-)
