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Send a PM to Jonathan Ross here.

Why would you say you only have one chance? Do they state this on their website somewhere? photographers improve their whole careers, I doubt they have a list of names that they look at every time someone sends a portfolio for review to make sure they haven't applied already, in spite of how good the work is. if your work is good, I'd bet they'd be happy to accept you whether you've applied before or not. Anyway, I applied to Getty twice, 4 years ago and then two years ago, both times rejected, but then sent work in under the pay to play scheme (initially called Lifesize, now called Photographer's choice) and had my images accepted, and recently applied to Getty via Getty/Flickr and had 5 of my 10 images selected. I've contacted Corbis 2 times, first time my query went unanswered, second time they sent me to thier micro site (before Veer.) Contacted Jupiter before being bought by Getty, rejected. Masterfile twice, the first time they ignored me but the second time they liked my portraits and wanted those images however, at the time i didn't have model releases, so by the time I secured the model releases, Getty Flickr was showing up on my radar so I decided to put those images with Getty via Flickr because Getty earns more for their photographers than Masterfile does (or so I've been told.) I don't have a lot of images with Getty yet, however from my small portfolio i do earn more on a per image basis then I do from all the micros combined. However, having to pay $50 per image for placement makes it difficult for me to risk sending a lot of images to Getty. Now that I have images on Getty under the Flickr collection, which doesn't cost me anything, i'll try sending a lot more images their way to see what happens. So that's my experience for what it's worth.

I was going to apply in 2007 but 3 years later, I still haven't done it.  Hopefully I will try this year.  I don't really know why Getty and Corbis cant just look at our microstock portfolios to see if we are capable of working with them.  Getty do that with flickr and some istock exclusives.

Dont get this?  Getty has got a million collections nowdays but everyone seems to be under the understanding that as soon as you "get-in"  its a licence to print money??

Forget all this photographers-choice and all that.

Gettys Main-RM collection ( Stones- ImageBank) is the one to aim for and has been since 92. Thats where the real money lies and this is virtually a "closed-shop" unless you have totally unique material.

Not sure if this is the information you were seeking, but I was applied to Getty thru the portfolio review process and was accepted into the Photographer's Choice collection in late '08.  That part of the process was quick and easy for me ( I have two professional photo web sites to show) but I admit that I hadn't researched the scope of Getty and had assumed that I was applying for the House collection.  Upon realizing that I questioned my Getty 'handler' and got this response:

"With regard to submitting to the House collections we are constantly reviewing submissions to see if they fit within the creative guidelines for the House collections and if we find over time that this is indeed the case with your imagery, we will contact you about shooting for these collections.
 
I understand your frustrations at being moved to the PC collections and the limitations this places on you but our clients creative needs are constantly evolving and as a result when we are reviewing potential new signers, we are looking for imagery which is concept driven and with exceptional production value.
 
Please dont infer from this that the door is closed to you on submitting to the House collections in the future. Once again, we are constantly reviewing submission histories but I think its best if we simply work on building your portfolio on PC for the moment and see how things work out."

That took a lot of wind out of my sails because I the Photographer's Choice set up just does not sit well with me.  It struck me as only a conditional acceptance or partial rejection.  Not sure if they offer that to just anyone who passes their contributor test or what.  Basically they 'give' you your first 10 images placed for free; each additional image placement costs $50 (though they will 'give' you one additional placement the first time any image sells--or something like that).  I had been represented by an editorial RM agency for several years some success but they were closing their lifestyle division.  Until that time, I was used to submitting likely images and having a large percentage accepted and I figured that Getty would be similar.  It may well be for photographers in the House colletion--I don't know.  I have not made submissions past the initial 10.

Since then I made my first submissions in microstock (late '09) which is the opposite sequence than what you are asking.  I'm giving it a year of regular effort before I evaluate which path I continue.
 

Hi All,
 Sean gave the best answer with his link. I am super busy but want to help out with this question. Need some time to find exact answers and will get back soon. I can say that there has been some disinformation on this topic already here.

Talk soon,
Jonathan