SUMMARY: Spouse Visa Processing times OFFSHORE-UK. Please add your Stats.

You shouldn't feel guilty... well maybe just a little bit.

 

"I'd almost be tempted to advise someone to leave off a key document to generate an early request.

 

Common theme of people applying after but getting the grant before. CO requested documents early.

 

Squeeky wheel getting the grease principle"

 

It seems the way of it. I suspect software / case management jumps files to the top of the pile and CO's just grant whilst they're looking at it.

 

It creates some sense that you get punished for trying to do the right thing and diligently completing the application as thoroughly as possible.

So frustrating...I front loaded, medical.. police checks etc and have even just uploaded another police check as mine was due to expire may time :-(

So frustrating...I front loaded, medical.. police checks etc and have even just uploaded another police check as mine was due to expire may time :-(

My worry now is that I either get the email when I'm in Oz on holiday or get granted weeks before my police check and medical expires. Gives us zero time to do anything.

The following post is intended to be light heartedly funny rather than deeply bitter and sarcastic.

Hi guys, great news. Got the golden email today for my husband. At last.

I applied 《insert date 7 weeks after you》

I forgot to include any passport numbers and so got an email asking for these from the case officer 2 weeks later

It turned out my husbands passport was expired so we were asked to renew it. 8 weeks layer that came. They then asked my husband to provide a police check. We uploaded that in two weeks. He was then asked to provide a statement about his time in prison which was uploaded a month later after he forgot to sign the first one. They also asked me to resubmit the 888 forms as they weren't completed by Australians. We did that too.

CO asked we do our medicals two weeks ago. He went 3 days ago and we got the grant today.

Good luck everyone. Just be patient.

Look. I know it'll all work out and how lucky I am. I'm missing my wife. Been separated since 04th Jan. Flying out on 04th of March to visit her. A grant before then would save me so much hassle.

Got it set up so that I wouldn't need to come back if the grant came.

What forum Uthred? 2nd September...still waiting :-( arrrghhh

Applied 8th September and still waiting as well. Lol. It's very frustrating.

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3rd September for me.

Vicky is start of September too. 4 of us all waiting, all I assume straightforward too.

Crazy this process.

Pressed the button and paid the massive bucket of cash Dec 13.

Wife is Aus, met 9 years ago and been married for the last 2.5 years with no kids.

Waiting for instruction before doing medical and PC.

As simple as it gets.

Hurry up and wait :laugh:

Pressed the button and paid the massive bucket of cash Dec 13.

Wife is Aus, met 9 years ago and been married for the last 2.5 years with no kids.

Waiting for instruction before doing medical and PC.

As simple as it gets.

 

 

Hurry up and wait :laugh:

Haha good luck mate. Gets a bit tedious a times and there's no real order to when you'll get your additional documents request.

These forums help.....until someone gets a grant who applied after you :biglaugh:

Haha good luck mate. Gets a bit tedious a times and there's no real order to when you'll get your additional documents request.

 

These forums help.....until someone gets a grant who applied after you :biglaugh:

Then you feel like an old spinster.

Pressed the button and paid the massive bucket of cash Dec 13.

Wife is Aus, met 9 years ago and been married for the last 2.5 years with no kids.

Waiting for instruction before doing medical and PC.

As simple as it gets.

 

 

Hurry up and wait [emoji23]

Unzippy my husband is 4 months in and is waiting for a email to do medical and police check and hasn't heard anything yet.

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The following post is intended to be light heartedly funny rather than deeply bitter and sarcastic.

 

Hi guys, great news. Got the golden email today for my husband. At last.

 

I applied 《insert date 7 weeks after you》

I forgot to include any passport numbers and so got an email asking for these from the case officer 2 weeks later

It turned out my husbands passport was expired so we were asked to renew it. 8 weeks layer that came. They then asked my husband to provide a police check. We uploaded that in two weeks. He was then asked to provide a statement about his time in prison which was uploaded a month later after he forgot to sign the first one. They also asked me to resubmit the 888 forms as they weren't completed by Australians. We did that too.

 

CO asked we do our medicals two weeks ago. He went 3 days ago and we got the grant today.

 

Good luck everyone. Just be patient.

 

 

Look. I know it'll all work out and how lucky I am. I'm missing my wife. Been separated since 04th Jan. Flying out on 04th of March to visit her. A grant before then would save me so much hassle.

 

Got it set up so that I wouldn't need to come back if the grant came.

Where is this post from. What date did he apply and where from?

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I think it was made up...

Yes, I agree the waiting is tedious and the 'unknown' is also a bit of a pain. There doesn't seem to be any formula, and nothing anyone can do anyway to speed up the process. There's zero point in comparing stories - it seems some who have kids / don't have kids / haven't been together as long / have been together for 126 years are getting / not getting approval so clearly there's no 'tried and tested' formula here!

It's hard being away from the spouse / kids / family. Really hard, I feel for people in that position having been there myself. Keep the faith tho folks! Before you know it you'll be there, six months in full steam ahead with your new lives. I made a conscious decision about a month or so ago to not wish my life away wishing and wishing for our approval and to head out. Now that I recognise it's out of my hands I feel quite a bit 'free-er' for choosing to do that. I fill my days here researching / doing fun things that I know we won't be able to do when we move (as in things in Scotland that don't exist where we want to move to).

As the time old saying goes, this too shall pass.

Here's hoping for a few more grants this week :-) especially those who are separated from family.

ps @SimplyRhi don't feel bad, we're all delighted for you and it's not anything you did anyway, pure and simple luck of the draw. Don't let any guilty feelings overtake the enjoyment you felt when you received the approval, keep smiling :-)

Just called the embassy to bring up again me leaving for Aus on holiday this Thursday...

Got told that the wait is still 10-14 months and my CO will be aware my file has been noted to say I am going away. They will also see I'm in Oz as it's all recorded electronically.

When I brought up the fact there are so many grants being issued to people who applied after me he said that they must have applied for compelling circumstances to fast track the application.

Did say I had nothing outstanding but if I need a police check and medical my CO would contact me. I then explained I had already done these to which I was told 'that's good, it will help'.

So in a nutshell I'm in the same position and been told I just have to wait. All good fun.

Just called the embassy to bring up again me leaving for Aus on holiday this Thursday...

 

Got told that the wait is still 10-14 months and my CO will be aware my file has been noted to say I am going away. They will also see I'm in Oz as it's all recorded electronically.

 

When I brought up the fact there are so many grants being issued to people who applied after me he said that they must have applied for compelling circumstances to fast track the application.

 

Did say I had nothing outstanding but if I need a police check and medical my CO would contact me. I then explained I had already done these to which I was told 'that's good, it will help'.

 

So in a nutshell I'm in the same position and been told I just have to wait. All good fun.

You must be in a queue to be granted good to know that there is nothing outstanding.

I'm sure the last 2 that got granted and they applied after you were for 309 not 100, maybe there is a bit of a wait for the 100.

Pain but you calling may have made note to speed things up.

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You must be in a queue to be granted good to know that there is nothing outstanding.

 

I'm sure the last 2 that got granted and they applied after you were for 309 not 100, maybe there is a bit of a wait for the 100.

 

Pain but you calling may have made note to speed things up.

 

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We all apply for the 309 initially don't we? That's what I applied for - can only go straight to 100 if you've been together X amount of years or have a child and together over 2 years. Even then, I think you only ever find out the visa youve got when you get the grant email.

To be fair he couldn't tell I'd done my police and medical checks and had to tell him so they must only have a basic view.

We all apply for the 309 initially don't we? That's what I applied for - can only go straight to 100 if you've been together X amount of years or have a child and together over 2 years. Even then, I think you only ever find out the visa youve got when you get the grant email.

 

To be fair he couldn't tell I'd done my police and medical checks and had to tell him so they must only have a basic view.

Yeah that is true. It's such a pain we have no info and they only give basic info when you call.

But look on the bright side, nothing out standing that's good.

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Just called the embassy to bring up again me leaving for Aus on holiday this Thursday...

 

Got told that the wait is still 10-14 months and my CO will be aware my file has been noted to say I am going away. They will also see I'm in Oz as it's all recorded electronically.

 

When I brought up the fact there are so many grants being issued to people who applied after me he said that they must have applied for compelling circumstances to fast track the application.

 

Did say I had nothing outstanding but if I need a police check and medical my CO would contact me. I then explained I had already done these to which I was told 'that's good, it will help'.

 

So in a nutshell I'm in the same position and been told I just have to wait. All good fun.

I contacted the Europe Service center today as well asking about Form 888. I was told that even thought other people who applied after me have had grants recently that I can't compare two different circumstances, and the usually same as Uhtred the processing time is 10 to 14 months.

I hope to get a completion date for my house next week and then I intend to travel on a tourist visa hopefully in a around 3 weeks time. :wink:

I contacted the Europe Service center today as well asking about Form 888. I was told that even thought other people who applied after me have had grants recently that I can't compare two different circumstances, and the usually same as Uhtred the processing time is 10 to 14 months.

I hope to get a completion date for my house next week and then I intend to travel on a tourist visa hopefully in a around 3 weeks time. :wink:

What did they say about form 888, do we need to complete if we are in the UK. They are giving nothing away are they.

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What did they say about form 888, do we need to complete if we are in the UK. They are giving nothing away are they.

 

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Well that was my problem we haven't submitted any 888 forms as we have lived together for 12 years in UK and It seemed to imply it had to be filled in by someone from Australia.

I asked is this a required document and the tele handled suggested it was a required document.

She said that as we had lived in UK the document should be filled in by someone who knows us in the UK.

This set me off I asked what was going on as people with similar circumstances but applied after me had already been granted a visa and yet here was a document that apparently is a required document and my CO hadn't even been in touch to ask me to get these forms completed. Not a happy camper.

Has anyone else had their Visa Granted without getting the 888 forms filled in?

Well that was my problem we haven't submitted any 888 forms as we have lived together for 12 years in UK and It seemed to imply it had to be filled in by someone from Australia.

I asked is this a required document and the tele handled suggested it was a required document.

She said that as we had lived in UK the document should be filled in by someone who knows us in the UK.

This set me off I asked what was going on as people with similar circumstances but applied after me had already been granted a visa and yet here was a document that apparently is a required document and my CO hadn't even been in touch to ask me to get these forms completed. Not a happy camper.

Has anyone else had their Visa Granted without getting the 888 forms filled in?

We submitted 5 form 888. 3 people who are living in Australia now and the other 2 are aussie citizens but living in the UK.

Did she give you any info to where your application is up to?

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We submitted 5 form 888. 3 people who are living in Australia now and the other 2 are aussie citizens but living in the UK.

 

Did she give you any info to where your application is up to?

 

 

 

 

 

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We submitted 4 from Australia who are all citizens, and also, had 2 from the UK - used the form 888 but didn't worry about having their ID certified.... just had the form witnessed by someone on the list. We have lived in the U.K. For 8 years together, but had friends in Australia who attended our wedding and we had visited etc, so used them.....

I contacted the Europe Service center today as well asking about Form 888. I was told that even thought other people who applied after me have had grants recently that I can't compare two different circumstances :wink:

Yup. Just what I was saying earlier. Pointless comparing who applied when...

Well that was my problem we haven't submitted any 888 forms as we have lived together for 12 years in UK and It seemed to imply it had to be filled in by someone from Australia.

 

The very top of the 888 form states that 'if the visa applicant is outside Australia and is unable to have an Australian citizen or Australian permanent resident complete this form, any person who knows the applicant and their partner or fiance(e) may also complete this form."

So it doesn't have to be someone from Australia if you don't have this option. We had one friend (Aussie) who lives in the UK and has known us for quite a while fill in one and we had a friend in Australia fill out the other. The friend in Australia had their form certified by their local post office person; our friend then scanned the form and a copy of their passport and emailled it to us. Hope that helps.

Well that was my problem we haven't submitted any 888 forms as we have lived together for 12 years in UK and It seemed to imply it had to be filled in by someone from Australia.

I asked is this a required document and the tele handled suggested it was a required document.

She said that as we had lived in UK the document should be filled in by someone who knows us in the UK.

This set me off I asked what was going on as people with similar circumstances but applied after me had already been granted a visa and yet here was a document that apparently is a required document and my CO hadn't even been in touch to ask me to get these forms completed. Not a happy camper.

Has anyone else had their Visa Granted without getting the 888 forms filled in?

You need statements, either on 888s from Australians, or on any old bit of paper from peoplewho now you. They won't grant a visas without them they are an essential requirement. They are part of what shows that you are a genuine couple and that people see you as a couple. They are about the social side of your relationship.

As Ozzie says,its quite clear that they have to be done, by friends and/or family.