problem with student visa

ida was due to leave for australia on sunday, 1 july 2007 but because of a delay in getting her student visa, she had to leave at a later date. how did this problem arise?

idp gave us information on the application for a student visa on 11 june. ida did not respond to it until 16 june. we downloaded the forms from the website, not realising that the information on medical check-up was on the same forms. went down to idp at relc to make enquiries and was told that we had to decide on where to have the medical, including x-ray, done on our own. we picked sata woodlands.

the medical results were sent over to australia on 22 june but the x-ray result was not given to them until 25 june. as 1 july got nearer, we started to panic. went down to idp to see if they could help in any way to speed up the process. they were not very reassuring, saying approval normally took one week to ten days after receipt of the medical report.

we kept going on-line to check the status of our application. on 29 june, when there was still no indication of the visa being granted, i called the immigration department in perth and was told that they were still awaiting clearance from the health section. their advice was not to travel to australia until the visa was approved, otherwise we would have to make an onshore application in australia, pay the aus$430 and go through another round of health check.

i also went down to the australian high commission at napier road to seek their assistance. they told me that there was nothing anyone could do to help but wait for the approval to come from the immigration office in perth.

we called the travel agent to cancel the two tickets (booked on sia) and made fresh booking for a flight leaving after the 1 july. all flights on sia were fully booked up to the 23 july. fortunately, we managed to secure two tickets on emirates leaving on wednesday, 4 july. then, we had to pray that the approval for visa would come before the 4 july.

on monday morning when i checked online, the approval message was displayed. so relieved that the problem was resolved.