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mcacmartin
6th June 2009, 12:17 AM
OH and I are suffering from a bit of a dilemma at the moment. I am impatient by nature, whereas he is a little more laid back. Lately though, it seems some of my impatience has rubbed off on him and we're not sure what to do...

Our application was FINALLY submitted and accepted at the end of January. They told us "approximately one to three months" for a decision. We (stupidly) jumped the gun and gave our co-operative housing association notice that we would be moving out at the end of April. The idea had been that we would stay in temporary digs til the blueys came through. We figured his application (PR through family sponsorship...sponsored by me) was pretty cut and dry. Murphy's law being what it is, right before the end of that three month period and right before when we were hoping to get the notice he (and the kids) had been accepted, we got a letter stating they wanted more blood tests done because he was ever so slightly anemic. When I say 'ever so slightly', I mean only JUST outside the range. Someone sure is picking at the MA's office. They also wanted reports from 20 years ago on a double ureter he was diagnosed with that has not caused him ANY problems in 20 years.

Anyway...we submitted the new blood tests and a letter from his family doctor who he's had for 32 years now (!!) saying that no reports existed any more (seeing as it's been 20 years..they would have been shredded at LEAST 10 years ago) and that as there have been no problems in that 20 yrs, that he saw no reason to waste valuable time and resources ordering pointless tests.

Those were submitted and accepted the 24th of April. At the time, we fired off an email from OH to our CO asking approximately how long it would take for the MA (is anyone else astounded by all the abbreviations and letters??) to make his recommendation and the final decision to come through. Our CO in Washington (where they work 3 staff, 3 hours a day LOL) said "Approximately 20 working days".

By our calculations, that should take us to May 21st..or thereabouts. We knew it was an approximate timeline so weren't tooooooo worried about it.

So here's where our dilemma comes in. It's now been 31 WORKING days (and yes I accounted, properly I think, for US holidays).

I've always subscribed somewhat to the old adage "the squeaky wheel gets the grease" and have been known to make phone call upon phone call and send email upon email to get answers. But (!!) in this particular case, even though we are now both horribly impatient and wanting answers, I'm almost scared to bother our CO.

We sent a very polite and light in tone email last week just saying it had been a month and might she have any news on when we might expect to hear something, and got no response whatsoever....from a CO that usually responds within the hour. We've heard nothing.

Do we keep emailing in the hopes that she can give us some idea? Or do we just leave it alone and keep frantically checking our email in the hopes that we'll hear something today. Or now. or now. Or how about now?

Arrghh!! This is such a horrible waiting game! We have til end of August in our temporary digs, but would REALLY like to be in our new house in NZ well before then!

Meg

dusk
6th June 2009, 12:20 AM
a quick, short and polite enquiry asking for an update on the situation won't hurt, as you say its been 2 weeks longer than originally suggested :)

JandM
6th June 2009, 01:49 AM
No harm in asking nicely, as Dusk says.

However, the CO doesn't control the process. The CO's decision is dependent on what the MA says, and the MAs are back in NZ, dealing with referrals from wherever in the world. Bothering your CO can't affect things at all. Individual applicants are not able to have any contact with MAs.

It's hard to bear, but ALL these processes when in the hands of a big bureaucracy take as long as they take - I'm amazed your CO even gave you an estimated time. The best you could say is, she probably was basing it on the fact that the last time she'd had to make a referral, that was what happened, but who's to say how many cases have got into the queue since then?

Sovenok
6th June 2009, 02:48 AM
definately, it's time to be squeaky!

Tui2too
6th June 2009, 03:40 AM
they say no news is good news...
maybe she is waiting to give you good news! one can only hope!
good luck!
(i know.. that's no help at all!)
At least when they are on holiday there is an automated message reply, so no reply from the CO must mean she's waiting on the MA too..(?) a watched pot never boils and all..(now i'm really no help! lol)

mcacmartin
6th June 2009, 06:32 AM
Ahhh Tui, what a tangled web of helpfulness you weave :)

So like I said, we sent her (the CO) an email last week just asking when we might hear something. Got no response.

We sent another one this morning that would have landed in her inbox right as the office was opening....basically (and politely) said that it's now been 31 working days and that we understand things are busy but were wondering if there was any news on our front from the MA.

Nothing. The office is now closed for the weekend so now I get to sit and stew about it for the weekend.

Do I start again on Monday with an email every day? Every two days? Every week?

*sigh*

GreenMeansGo
6th June 2009, 08:33 AM
What if you gave her a call saying you were worried that the emails had been lost in cyberspace? It does happen, and you could be very apologetic for bothering her, just you were worried since she's always been so quick responding in the past. ;)

good luck!

BkyMonster
6th June 2009, 12:34 PM
I'd agree, whenever we wanted some information we inquired if things were lost, or asked if we needed to provide further information or similar.

Good luck.

dusk
6th June 2009, 05:43 PM
I wouldn't however suggest that you start bombarding your Co with daily emails... you may end up just annoying them :)

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