Student Visa - Australia

My uni is having its exam weeks now. I am currently juggling my part between marking my exam papers, invigilating two exam sessions and in the midst of applying for my Australian student visa.

I would say that the application for the student visa is a tedious process. You need to fully understand its requirements and prepares the required documents to support your application. The info and its instruction could be accessed in the Australian Immigration's website.

The application could be made either through three ways, either by post, by hand or through online, of which I prefer the latter. The online application is quite easy. The visa cost me for AUS$430, which is paid through online.

The next day, I received an email notifiying the acceptance of my application and requesting for supporting documents (quite efficient!!).

Here comes the tedious parts!!

I need to get documents such as my Marriage Certificate and my children's birth certificates, translated by a Certified Translator. I have to take a day leave to travel to High Court Melaka to get this service. It cost me RM20 per page being translated.

Then, copies of our passports and the translated documents need to be certified by a Commissioner of Oath.

After that, I need to scan these documents in pdf formats and email them to the Australian Immigration office in Perth, Australia.

There are also medical check-ups that my family need to go through. I am currently trying to identify suitable dates to arrange for it. Mind you, the medical check-ups need to be made at the appointed Australian Immigration's panels only. Luckily, the nearest panel of clinics are available in Melaka.

I hope that, my family and I are in healthy conditions and can get through with it. InsyaAllah....

IELTS - The result

I received the result today through pos ekspress mail.

The result is ....... band.

Hint: I don't have to re sit the test...heheh - Alhamdulillah

Pasport Malaysia

Finally, classes are over. I will take a day off this Friday.

I need to bring the whole family to the Immigration Department in Melaka to apply for Malaysian passports. I on the hand, need to replace mine since my passport will expire on 25 April this year.

My wife called the immigration office in Segamat inquiring some information and was made known that in Segamat, the passports will be ready in 7 working days, while in Melaka, within 2 hours...

Time is gold. I need the passports quick in order :

1. to notify ECU on my intention to bring school age children to Australia. The uni need the front copies of my children passports to register them in school at Perth.
2. to assist my application for student visa, and
3. to assist during our medical check-up with the appointed panel of doctors later. We need to bring along the passports during the health examination.

Further info pertaining to application for the Malaysian passport is available at the Immigration Department's website. You can even download the application form (Form IM.42-Pin 1/97) for free from it, else it will cost you RM1 each should you buy it over the counter.

IELTS

5 April 2008 @ Subang Jaya, 8 am - 2 pm

It stands for International English Language Testing System. I registered to sit for the test about a month ago. It cost me RM530 and another RM100 for its Practice Test Kit.

The only reason why my blog is written in English is simply to get me prepared (mentally and physically) for the exam. I have no intention to boast myself by using the English in my blog nor any intention to sideline my own language. As a human being, I know my strength and certainly I even know about my own weaknesses. One of my own weakneses is to converse fluently and flawlessly in English.

I have to admit that, by practicing writing in English in this blog does help me a lot especially during its Writing and Speaking sub-tests. I also make use of the net to search for the IELTS's free practice test. You may find it here and here. I was made known about it from my friends. There are a lot of free test samples actually...try googling it, you may find more useful sites for your IELTS preparation.

Overall, I'm happy with the conduct of the exam, though I admitted that I could have done much better actually (I blamed myself for that):

1. Listening sub-test (30 minutes-40 questions) - I'm pretty satisfied with it;
2. Reading sub-test (1 hour - 40 questions) - it's ok actually - time management is crucial. There are 3 lengthy passages that need to be understood in order to grasp the information to enable you to get the correct answers. I don't think I am happy with the result.
3. Writing sub-test (1 hour - 2 tasks) - I'm happy with it.... Task 1 requires you to describe about two histogram charts in not less that 150 words. For Task 2 - you need to write an essay requiring you to express your opinion for not less than 250 words.
4. Speaking sub-test (15 minutes - 3 parts) - It's ok I guess. For the first part I should have been more talkative, I think.

I'll get the result in two weeks time. I can only hope for the best. Or else, I do have spares of RM530 to re-sit the test...ha..ha...ha....