[b][/b] Bodacious1:
After much waiting, I finally received my grant this morning 19th Feb 2024 (189) on 85 points. It's been quite the journey and I am sharing a breakdown of my process so those waiting can keep hope alive. 
February 2019 - Made the decision to migrate to Australia (at this time I already had IELTS - Proficient so giving me 10 points)
December 2019 - Started putting my documentation together to assess as an ICT business analyst with ACS. I requested experience verification from my old employer which I got with no stress. However, my employer as at 2019 was not open to doing this so I had to go the statutory declaration route. Fortunately, a senior colleague agreed to help me with this so I was able to submit an application to ACS.
January 2020 - Received feedback from ACS; my experience with the employer I had to use statutory declaration for was assessed insufficient so I did not get any points for this, which meant I lost points.
March 2020 - I requested a review and provided additional supporting documentation. I encountered some difficulty at this stage because even though I provided my colleague's employment letter, staff ID and most recent promotion letter (on letterhead paper), ACS said I hadn't done enough  . So I had to resort to extraordinary measures. Luckily, the senior colleague who provided me with a statutory declaration has a heavy internet footprint that proved he was a staff of my organisation at the time so I provided web pages, website links and even a screenshot of his email account on our official outlook that also showed the current date at the time. I also prayed and believed God for favour.
April 2020 - I received a full positive assessment from ACS which meant I got the maximum points for work experience. Since I had all the requirements for lodging an EOI, I went ahead to lodge a single application for 189 and selected several states. Of course because of COVID-19 restrictions, the waiting game proper started.
September 2020 - Sat for PTE because my IELTS expired in August 2020. I scored 90 across speaking, writing, listening and reading so this pushed my English to Superior netting me maximum points. Updated my EOI with this result and continued waiting.
October 2021 - After consulting on this forum, I created a single EOI for SA (189, 190, 491) and continued waiting.
February 2022 - I created another EOI, this time for NSW (189, 190, 491) and continued waiting.
April 2022 - The EOI I created in April 2020 expired. My ACS skills assessment also expired so I had to apply for a fresh one in June 2022.
July 2022 - Received updated ACS skills assessment.
August 2022 - Victoria opened up so I created and lodged an EOI and continued waiting. Also placed a registration of interest (ROI) with Victoria but was not selected in the invitation rounds for August, September, October and November 2022. I was a bit discouraged at this point but was left with no other option than to continue waiting.
December 2022 - Received an invitation to apply for 189 on two EOIs (NSW and SA). This was a miracle because by January 2023 I would be turning a new age that would have reduced my total points to 10. Also, the points I had were the minimum points scored for my occupation in the December 2022 invitation round. So this was truly a miracle for me.
January & February 2023 - Did my medicals and submitted my application for the 189. Waiting game resumed.
October 2023 - I received a notification that my application was being assessed.
February 2024 - Grant received. Halleluyah!  Congratulations, is there a telegram group for this ? |
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