fleabo

I spoke to her at length, begged, pleaded, even lied. All she would say is "the terms of your visa application have all been met and you will receive your visa grant early in July". :wub:

It drives you crazy Peach. You find yourself questioning your own integrity as a human being. It takes the fun and excitement of the experience and spits it out on the pavement with a snear.:notworthy:

Way off topic - but about to reach 100 pages in this thread! :0)

Not if you view it 20 posts to the page - then it is close to fifty.:biggrin:

That is about as off-topic as you can get.

Sorry everyone!

I was about to moan about how off-topic this thread gets (special delivery queries, couriers, fly fishing etc. etc.) but I will just have to bite my tongue and relax!!:yes:

just let everyone know i got my email today from my co saying got visa so happy now i just need to send her my passport SO HAPPY XXXX

That is great news - congratulations. As someone who likes precise and concise posts, I love yours! :wubclub: Enjoy your celebrations and whatever planning you have to do!

Like others, I used Special Delivery. But with hindsight, I'm not really sure why. Special Delivery just means you can find out when something is delivered (also available with Signed For) and gets things delivered half a day quicker if you're lucky. But since the Embassy acknowledges receipt quicker than Royal Mail's confirmation goes on line; and since the Embassy only receives stuff once a day there is little to be gained from Special Delivery. The documents are important and it would be deeply annoying (at best) if they went missing. But they don't have much financial value, so no point insuring them. If I had my time again, I'd use regular first class post.

I think Special Delivery post gets treated seperately to first class and is therefore probably less likely to go missing. But I agree with what you say. It keeps Royal Mail ticking over though.

We are so happy... today we got our visa! we have had a few drinks to celebrate, we can now start organising our lives. We are so happy.. we will be booking flights for end of june. All the best to everyone else that is on this stressful journey. Peach, esp to you, youve been waiting just as long, but fingers crossed itll be there soon. My mother in law told me tonight its a good job Im a rottweiler!!! i.e good job i got on their case to sort it. July would have been too long for us to wait. But best wishes to everyone.. Thanks for everyones help! SO HAPPY! XXX

Excellent news! Congratulations...enjoy the planning and organisation.:wubclub:

We have not yet submitted application, but will do this if we are waiting a while!

 

Thanks

:cute:

In the name of the wee man, get your application sorted and submitted or you'll be waiting forever.:wubclub:

I was asking this as it might be that you plan to book flights for a certain date and then something happens that means you can't travel on that date so if you could say that you were planning to travel on a certain date would that suffice?

 

 

Tried that too!

yeah its defo not worth risking.. have seen a few cases get pushed through cos of start times on jobs though.

I tried the job tack but it had no influence on my CO.

My case worker has advised me to look at flights in July .....however can't confirm wen visa will be granted I submitted application on 12th March, CO assigned on 18th March... so did u book the flight

Its this type of Australia House nonesense that gets my shackles up no end! (I'm going to rant a little here, please excuse me!)

They explicilty tell you NOT to make any irreversible decisions like selling your home, resigning from your job, booking flights. Then when I phoned in March, my CO told me that she would grant my visa in May, and that I should go ahead and make whatever arrangements, etc. assuming that will happen. I then read the acknowledgement letter again - "don't make any irreversible decisions like selling your home, resigning from your job, booking flights until you have written confirmation from us." Hmmm. What should I do? Make some irreversible decisions on the basis of a phone call to my CO, or do as they say in the letter? So I waited some more...

Then, you read posts where folks have booked flight tickets and their CO has rolled over to have their tummy tickled and have almost immediately granted the visa. Fair play, I am glad folks are getting their visas in a timely fashion, the wait is a nightmare. But you think, my first engagement with an Australian Government Agency is to be told one thing by them, but then they do the opposite. You do as you are told only to see different rules being applied to others. Doesn't make a good impression on me. (Rant over).

Ultimately, I got the visa. I wasn't impressed with the decision making process or the consistency by which they seemed to be applying their 'rules'. At the end of the day, I only have to do it once.

I guess in hindsight they have you between a rock and a hard place. I ended up sending my passport in and asked them if they could please put a stamp in it. I got it back that week.:wubclub:

I think it was me that said we were given an exact time frame (8/5-8/6) but that was what my husband told me. When I checked the email it said they were processing between 3-4 months, so because we submitted on the 8/2 it could be between these dates. Not so definite!

 

Fleabo, have you got your visa yet? My CO has the same initials as Lindawob, think its the same one. Linda said her CO asked her to email her to remind her when three months was up (or something along those lines) so I am thinking she wouldn't take it badly if I did email.

Yes - I got my passport with visa on Friday. I believe that Lindawob had flights booked and had let the CO know...and Lindawob's visa was granted in 2 months. The moral to the story is book some flights, even though they tell you not to! Cheers.

We put our application in on the 8th February, so it has been 3 months and a week! Thinking about emailing our CO tomorrow and asking if it is possible to find out by the end of May, as I am a teacher and need to resign before half term. Anyone got any advice on this? I am sure I read a post saying that someone else had done this, but looked back through this thread and can't find it.

Probably depends on your CO somewhat. I have to work 3 months notice before taking up a new role in Australia (and sell a house etc.), but my CO was not remotely interested that type of personal circumstance other than if I had booked flights. So we ended up in a chicken-egg situation after 4 months where the CO seemingly wasn't prepared to grant the visa until I had definite travel plans but I couldn't commit to definite travel plans until I had the visa ! It all got a bit bizarre and confused really. If you want, PM me your CO initials and we can compare notes. Cheers.

aww, congrats fleabo! where you heading? just looking at photos on the net of great ocean road.. want to go now! ahh! It really cant come come soon enough, gonna head to sydney then do some road trips after we sorted our lives out.. good luck with the move

Sydney for us - or to be more precise, the Northern Suburbs. Looking like it will be August . We have a house buyer (fingers crossed) who wants to be in by end of July.

The Great Ocean Road is just that. The 12 Apostles, Bells Beach, Cape Otway - wonderful.

Good luck!

Can I ask what supporting docs you used as proof of relationship?

 

thanks

Emma

· Marriage Certificate

· Written Statements from us

· Selected Photographs

· Statutory Declarations (x2 from Australians)

· Joint Mortgage Statements - one from each year

· Joint Bank Account Statements - one per year

· Council Tax Bills - one per year

· Joint Credit Card Bills - one from each year

· Wills

· Christmas Cards and Envelopes

Whoppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Subclass 100 granted today, 12 May!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:v_SPIN:

Submitted 7/1/10 (front loaded with meds, police and Form 80)

Initial case officer email 15/1/10

Some (not all) documents and passport photos (minus 1) returned 16/1/10

Hi there,

 

Hope someone can help myself and Renee with our de-facto visa application.

 

Renee is Australian but has been living in London with me for around 15 months. We have gained lots of evidence of this period, but have one concern.

 

We have been living at my parents house so none of the bills/rental agreements/mortgage are in our names. However we do have a internal transfer from our joint bank account to my mother for board.

 

Can anyone see this being an issue in our application.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Dave and Renee

and provide examples (or all) of any joint liabilities, insurances, memberships etc. that you might have, that are paid from that account. (You've probably thought of that already!)

We do have a car but I cant drive!

:cute:

Has anyone mentioned copies of Wills?

OMG!!!! Just come home to an email ...... Visa Approved!!! Yeeeeee Haaaaa!!

and it's perm, now to have loads of wine and plan when we go...

...excellent news - enjoy your wine!:laugh:

oh my god! Congratulations! It is just me and Fleabo in the slow-lane ) 118 days and counting.. )

Peach - I think they are just stress testing our cardio-vascular systems before letting us in!:rolleyes: Making sure we are of stern stuff and all that.

Congratulations to those who have just got their visas! I am not at all bitter...enjoy the bubbly or other celebratory drink of choice!:wubclub:

hi all,

Just to say thank you for all the help and support that has been out there on PIO which has kept me sane for the last 3 months and 9 days - not that I was counting or anything!

 

Anyway, the news is that my 309 was granted this morning so I can finally post a full timeline:

 

19/1 - sent special delivery

20/1 - arrived and payment taken

22/1 - app acknowledged by CO, who requested meds and pcc

25/1 - sent away for pcc

2/2 - medical done

7/2 - went away to Oz for a holiday for 3 weeks

1/3 - pcc arrived while on hols, sent away first day back

2/3 - CO acknowleged receipt of pcc and confirmed nothing else required and app would undergo further internal processing

26/4 - sent email to CO requesting a rough timescale if possible

28/4 - VISA GRANTED!!!! WOOHOO!!

 

Thanks so much again for all the time people put into these boards and the very best of luck to everyone who is still waiting - hopefully things are starting to move now...

I am not bitter at all....but CONGRATULATIONS!:biglaugh: Crack the bubbly open!

Some news... I cracked and phoned my CO again. She confirmed that all the conditions of my visa were met and that I would be getting a subclass 100 permanent partner visa. But, as I have no plans to travel until 2011 I won't be getting the visa until July!!!! So PARTY on the one hand MORE WAITING on the other!!

Hey Peach - that sounds a bit like the conversation I had with her the other week!:arghh:

Congratulations!

Hi

 

So, I am a right in thinking that at the moment it is 3-4 months processing time?

 

Thanks

Emma

:cute:

If you applied in January that seems to be the case. Whether the process will speed up or slow down for applications submitted now is anyones guess.:huh:

It is a pain in the bum, it seemed that everyone who applied in December 2009 got a fast turnaround. But since then the breaks have gone on. My application went in mid-Jan and my case officer tells me not to expect a visa before May (and I've been with my partner for 9 years, have a child together and a joint mortgage - so pretty straightforward I'd say). When I last phoned, she did ask me if I'd had a flight date I was working back from - which I didn't - but I got the impression that if she might have been able to get things moving.

 

It is a bit of a gamble, but three months still is possible. You never can predict if things will start moving quickly again. Any how welcome to the forum Have you got your application already prepared?

Just to second what Peach has said. My CO has told me a May approval beckons. I have the same CO and same application date as Peach (early Jan), with similar circumstances (11 years married, 3 kids, front-loaded with the works). I too was asked if I had a flight booked...

Good luck and get cracking on the application!

Congratulations Shel and Proud Pom. Great to hear postive news on the Partner Visa front.

Peach, I sense ours just round the corner...

Hi There,

 

We applied for a subclass 309 visa back in July 2009. At this time we have been married for 4 years and 7 months. Now it has been more than 5 years since we got married and the visa is still being proccessed. our question is:

When the visa is hopefully granted, will it be a permemnant visa (Subclass 100) or a temp 2 years years vis (Subclass 309)?

 

Thanks in advance.

It is not a direct answer to your questions I know but...

We have been married for 11 years. When we asked, via email, before applying for a 309/100, we were told "The case officer will decide to whether you will be granted a temporary or permanent visa". I don't know whether it a simple rule-based decision, or on a case-by-case basis (I suspect the latter) - others here probably understand the process better than I.

You seem to have been in the system for a while - have you had any communications recently?

Subclass 309/100

Submitted 7/1/10 (front loaded with meds, police and Form 80)

Initial case officer email 15/1/10

Pre-paid Special Delivery envelope returned with some (not all) documents and passport photos (minus 1) 16/1/10