So after July last year when we started contracting with Respall, I got buried into paperwork. Lots of documents I needed to produce because I don't have them: English as Medium of Instruction, PICPA certificate, COE, Course Syllabus and a looot more.
English as Medium of Instruction: It's a good thing that I have my cousin Jericho studying in SLU so all I needed to do was send over an authorization letter for him to act on my behalf. He took charge and I received it through LBC once he claimed the documents.
So I thought, one down.
Never realizing the worse is coming.
PICPA certificate. I took an afternoon off so I can go to the PICPA office in Mandaluyong that day. I went to ABS-CBN in the morning and will go straight to PICPA after lunch. It was raining hard that day and while riding the jeepney, calmly browsing in my mobile, a bus overtook our jeepney splashing sooo much water inside. Yes, I got soaked, to my panties for Christ's sake, literally took a bath in flood water. So I proceeded to work and requested Cye to bring me in some extra clothes to change to.
Then I went to PICPA with Cye's pajama/maternity leggings because she is 2 sizes smaller. I found out that I needed to pay 4600 pesos as penalty and another 1500 for my annual membership fee. Let me explain. I passed the board in 2008 - the only time I ever paid my dues. It accrued until 2016 and yes I was even given a 50% waiver of fees so I should be thankful. NOT! But whatever, I need that piece of paper for my visa application so with a heavy heart I said bye bye to the money.
Who would ever think right? That being a member of a body that I never really felt good being a member at would be a vital part of my application? In retrospect, and being aware of how they are dealing with other countries to make our profession at par with their degree, I can't help but be thankful there's that kind of body that I became a member of.
Anyways. Another tick in my checklist.
COE. Now I understand how this step frustrates applicants specially those who've had a loooot of companies they worked in. I only had two and it took me around 3 months to get it right. There are a lot of considerations in obtaining one because you need to consider:
- the requirements of the assessing body. They need really detailed job responsibilities so they can assess if you really performed the tasks that are similar to their definition of an accountant for example. And boy do companies sometimes have this standard COE template that will take a lot of exchanges before they agree to use the format and words you provide because that is the requirement.
- the normal turnaround time of a COE request. Mine was a little complicated and had to go through a process each time I wanted the COE revised.
I can say that in this part, Respall helped a lot in making my COE right. I appreciate that they are screening it out before we submit an expression of interest because these documents can make or break the application.
Then we were ready to submit to CA ANZ my documents for assessment.
This was on 17 October 2016 and some 60,000 pesos later.
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On November 2 we received a request for additional documents, even trivial things as logo of the company needs to be in color, or that there needed to be an annual salary included in the COE can cause your documents to come back. Of course you see the days wasted because once you submit it again, another waiting game ensues.
December 15, they still needed to see some more documents and I think I did not bother too much because it's that time of the year. I took my time also. haha!
January 11 we submitted updated COEs from both of my companies, this is the third time they sent back the COE, sent back again on February 8 asking for yet another statutory declaration of my job description. I tell you I am getting soooooo pissed this time but what can I do? I guess some things you really need to work hard for so you can appreciate it all the more.
Finally, on March 7th, I received the favorable skills assessment from CAANZ. So I was wrong, it took me 5 months, some laziness, cash short, and a Christmas break to get assessed. Gone too was another 40,000. Immediately after, Respall submitted our Expression of Interest and received the Invitation to Apply on March 15th.
It took us until April 12th to grow money on trees, 250,000 of them before we can lodge the visa application.
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Once lodged, we were given a HAP ID that is required to get our medical examination. I chose Saint Lukes because that is where most in PinoyAU.info forum go and because I haven't been there, and because this is going to be a nice experience for us three.
So you have to go through Saint Luke's online scheduling system, fill out some stuff and pay via Security Bank 16,000 pesos because I pay 8k as principal and 4k each for C and G. Which later I found redundant because they still needed us to fill out a manual form in the clinic and them issuing us yet another receipt, for which I queued for in their cashier's. I understand that they needed to have a copy for BIR filing but why go through the process of paying in Security Bank when I can just pop my bills in when we were in Saint Luke's right? Could have saved me the time browsing for the nearest Security Bank in the area. I guess that's an area they need a look into.
We took Uber, quickly becoming my favorite at that time and G is enjoying it - having to look for the plate number as it arrives, trying to guess what color the car is and anticipating if the driver would be grumpy or friendly.
Then we reached Saint Luke's, did our thing - peed, drew blood etc - but had to wait after lunch for the physical checkup. I went with Gabby. Carlo, who was a little apprehensive because of his many what if's went to his doctor and came out very worried because he told the doctor he has ear piercings. I calmed him saying it was fine.
We went for lunch and boy rice in BGC is veeeery expensive. One cup is worth 25 pesos. Well, charge to experience. Maybe that paid for us stepping into the pristine lobby of the hotel este hospital.
So they said you really needed to take a day off to do your medical and it's true. You can go there queue as early as 7am but it took us until three pm to finish. We got negative results with HIV testing but had to wait until Monday for the blood tests and needed to consult a pediatric cardiologist to get expert opinion for G's heart murmur that the doctor detected.
So that would have costed us another 7k to undergo the 2D Echo that the pediatric cardiologist ordered so she can read G's heart condition but luckily it was covered by my healthcard, Medicard, and also very luckily that the heart murmur was not to worry about. It was later explained to us that only 30% of kids who had heart murmur turned up problematic and that heart murmur per se is but an indication that something may or may not be wrong with them.
I was detected with a 10 degree spine curvature to the right but was cleared and only recommended to see a therapist. In my APE with IBM eons ago they detected the same but I shrugged it off because the next year it was not detected. Then in 2014 it was again detected in ABS-CBN with me quickly shrugging it off again. I really must have had one. Remind me to have it checked up again here in AU.
With all our medicals done, the only thing lacking is our NBI clearance.
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I didn't have trouble obtaining mine because ABS-CBN has an annual mobile Kapamilya services where NBI, NSO, PAG-IBIG, DFA and others come to the office and we can just get what we needed there. So I paid 140 pesos to get the green NBI and sent it to Mel.
Carlo, on the other hand, had a different story because he's getting his NBI in the province. He needed to go online to schedule his appointment, went to their office and his name got hit. Apparently, if you got a recent NBI and is still active in the system, you will automatically get hit. He was told he needed to come back in 2-3 weeks so they can verify. Good thing he went through the same on his last clearance and he told the NBI guy about it. They told him to wait and then he got his clearance the same day.
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to be continued....
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