Skilled - Sponsored (subclass 176) waiting times

[gekkonaut]

Heya,

I'm currently living in the country, in Melbourne.. I was considering either a skilled independent or a employer nominated migration.. i was eligible for both... i wanted to go the fastest route.

Someone told me about the 176 and how, if sponsored by the state, my application would be given much higher priority and go through faster than either. I did the skills assessment, and put the real PR application in 2.5 months ago (along with the state approval.) now.. I'm not sure if this was the fastest way to go. I've heard reports of these being passed anywhere from 2 weeks to 4 months..

I'm getting tired of waiting.

I was wondering if anyone has recently got a 176, and if you could tell me how long it took?

I've called both the state (victoria) office and the skilled migration office in adelaide, and all either can quote is the non-prioritised application time - and currently, they're only looking at November applications .. mine was filed in March.. the girl on the phone in adelaide said "almost every application is prioritised these days" - but she was talking about the 175 prioritised list. She seemed clueless about 176's. my agent seemed to think 176 prioritised would be faster than the 175 list, so we still went with the 176. is there a difference? if not, it looks like i'll have to hold out another 6 months or so -- i have no idea what's going on here.

they haven't even entered my medical records yet as the eletronic application status says: "Health requirements outstanding". I hope they don't go past the 6 month time before they even get around to entering them (I got this done fairly early in the process, around the time I did the skills assessment.)

So far it's taken about 6 months, if you include the skills assessment, and afaik employer nominated takes 5-6 months.. so I'm starting to think ENS would have been faster. I wish I could do something to speed this up, because I'm looking for more job freedom. I feel a bit like my current employer is taking advantage of my 457.

Any info to share would be appreciated.

James