No response on my GSM Application (subclass 176)

[vijay2002]

Hi all,
I had submitted GSM application subclass 176 in March 2009 for my family (wife + kids):
* I have MS from a premier US University
* I got 140 points (I am in the IT sector and my occupation is both in SOL and MODL)
* I got 7.5 and my wife got 8.0 in IELTS
* All documents have been submitted and my brother, who is an Australian citizen, is nominated as my point-of-contact on the application.

Since Mar 2009, my online application status shows as "Application received - processing commenced " and neither my brother nor myself have received any communication. My brother called the DIAC office but got the same response. According to him, a case officer has not been assigned yet.

Shall I loose all hope now? I was hoping that with such high qualification, high number of points and having an Australian citizen as my brother would speed up my process. But reverse seems to be happening

[nokia33]

were you in CSL when you lodged the application ?
it isn't possible that despite being in CSL you have not got a case officer for well over a year

[vijay2002]

were you in CSL when you lodged the application ?

I submitted my app online in Mar 2009 and got +ve ACS assessment in June 2009 for Information technology (java specialist), which I immediately couriered over. Since then, no word.