TIPS on Filling Australian forms
1. Telephone numbers:
You should be aware what is the country code, the area code and the actual telephone number. For Bangladesh - the country code is 880 NOT 88. For Australia the country code is 61. The area code for Dhaka in Bangladesh is 2 and not 02. Similarly the area code for Melbourne in Australia is 3 and NOT 03. You may be using 02 for ringing to Dhaka from other cities in Bangladesh, or 03 for ringing someone in Melbourne from Sydney. But for a person riniging you in Dhaka from outside Bangaldesh they do not need to use the 0 before the 2. Similarly, when you are in Melbourne, and your numnber is 90171912,, your friend from the USA will ring + 613 90171912, In this example the + sign stands for the internations dialling code, as applicable in your country.
2. Primary school:
Upto the year before you start secondary school. In Bangladesh primary school is upto grade or class V. In Australia primary school is upto grade 6. Thus one spends five years in primary school in Bangladesh and six years Australia.
3. Secondary school:
Upto the year before you enter the university or teritary studies. In Bangladesh one spends year 6 to year 12 in secondary school and in Australia secondary school starts from year 7 and goes upto year 12. In Bangladesh one sits in two public examinations - Matic or SSC and HSC or O level and A level and in Australia one sits the High School Ceritificate Examinations after completing year 12 in secondary.
4. Teritray Study:
In Australia, studies done after completing secondary schooling is called Tertiary Studies. These are done at universities and tertiary and further educational colleges (TAFE colleges) similar to Polytechnic Institutes in Bangaldesh.
5. Permanent Address:
It is the place where you are currently staying on a long term basis. It may be a rental apartment or house. This is the address where you receive your mails. It is the address to which DIAC will try to find you, if necessary, and send your mails. Do not give your village address where your ancestors or whee you originally came from as your permanent address. If you do not stay there now, it will be considered your temporary address when you go there to visit your relatives.. You must provide your current Permanent Address (where you are staying now) in all DIAC forms and current documents that you obtained specifically for your migration application like Police Clearance Certifcate, Medicals, current CV, Most recent work reference letter etc., The following, documents, which you may have obtained for your records and use earlier like Birth Certificate, Educational Certificates, Marriage Certificate, Passport, may have other addresses.
6. Answering questions in DIAC forms.
(a) You must answer completely all questions that apply to you.
(b) If there are conditions in any question, and after satisfying one of the conditions you are asked to GO TO a question or section further down, you should jump to the appropriate question or section . You should not come back to the question from where you jumped to fill the next question. You are to skip all questions between the question you jumped from to the next question you jumped to.
(c) When a question does not apply to you, then you may write NA or not applicable on the very first blank field .
(d) If an entire section (like spouse information when you have no spouse) does not apply to you, you should write NA or not applicable on the very first blank field and then skil to the next section.
7. Given Names and Family Name:
Your first name or names is/are your given name(s). It can be a single name or more than one name.
Enter the remaining names after the names you have included as First names as your family name.
For example, if your full name is Abu Taher Mohammad Faizuddin Ahmad, you may do the following:
Given Names: Abu Taher Mohammad Faizuddin
Family Name: Ahmad
Be consistent. Use the same given names and family name in all forms and documents.
8. Citizenship and dates of obtaining citizenship.
If someone was born before 14th August 1947, say 1st January 1947 and stayed all the time in one place, which is now in current Bangladesh, that person should have had citizenship of three countries as follows:
1. Citizneshp of British India at birth
2. Citizen of Pakistan on 14th August 1947
3. Citizen od Bangladesh on 16th December 1971
If there is insufficient space to record all three entries, then try to combine the earlier two citizenship details as follows
Citizen of British India at Birth and then Pakistani on 14th Auguat 1947.
9. Fill tables in reverse chronoical order. Put the current or the last details for that table on the top row and so on. In the top row, under the To field write or enter current. Do not leave any time gaps. Cover all time periods from beginning till current. If you did not work for a few months after completing your srudies, you should mention "looking for work" or "unemployed" for that period. Do the same when there is a gap in between two jobs.
10. While filling online forms in the To field for any date you should enter yesterday's date.
11. While filling online forms for some fields you have to choose one from the list of provided options, Choose one that you think is most suitable. For all employment related questions - current job etc. you should choose your nominated occupation.
(c) Amin Rahman
Last updated on 24/11/2009