wellieboots

Ciska, I think what George means is that your CO for your PMV does not make the decision on your tourist visa, only takes note of what dates you intend to be in Australia so that he can ensure that your PMV is not granted during that time.

You will still need to apply for and be granted a tourist visa, and your CO will not be involved in that decision.

So I take it then that the kids are yours rather than you and your partner's, and you are not entitled to the defacto spouse visa as suggested by diana?

As per my earlier response, you can apply for a tourist visa once your PMV is lodged, just keep your CO advised of your plans. if you go on a tourist visa having lodged your PMV application, assuming you can have an evisitor visa, it is valid for a year, with maximum trips of 3 months at a time. So it doesn't expire as such, but you need to leave and re-enter every 3 months. The other thing to remember is that because the PMV is an offshore visa, you and the kids need to take a quick overseas trip (NZ/Bali, whatever) when your CO tells you that the visa is ready to be granted, as he can't grant it while you are in Oz.

Good luck!

Are you suggesting that you get married and then apply for a spouse visa?

You would need to check out the requirements in your state in terms of registering a marriage - some countries require you to have a specific type of visa in order to come in and get married - as far as I'm aware that's not the case in Oz but I would check before you look into this strategy. You mention children - are these your children from a previous relationship or are you both the parents?

If you get a visitor visa, and then get married (assuming you can), you could then lodge an application for an onshore spouse visa. Then, once your tourist visa ran out, you would automatically be granted bridging visa A to stay in the country while your visa was processed. Be aware though that your bridging visa would have the same conditions as the visa you enter on (ie no work if you have a tourist visa). Last I heard, onshore partner visas were taking over 12 months to process, that's a long time to not be able to work. (You can apply for the work restrictions to be lifted but it's not automatic, you need to prove financial hardship).

Another issue is that once you are on BVA, you can't leave the country until your main visa is processed. For that, you need a Bridging Visa B, which is only granted in exceptional circumstances such as death in the family etc. So it also depends on how likely you are to want to or need to leave Oz in the year or so after you get here.

The other risk obviously is that immigration do not believe you are a genuine tourist when you arrive. Technically they can turn you around at the border but plenty of people seem to come onshore on a tourist visa and then lodge a spouse visa application afterwards, so provided you appear to be a genuine tourist and don't come with work references etc you will probably be fine but you need to be aware of it.

Photos, your personal statements, your stat decs from people who can vouch for your relationship, can all tell the story of the time you've spent together. How about travel tickets or itineraries from your trips to see each other?

I believe that for a PMV you are supposed to have completed a notice of intention to marry before you apply, but not sure if this is an absolute requirement or just something they prefer. I would read the partner migration booklet to confirm.

Again, mentioning in your statements where you intend to live and providing evidence of that would be helpful in terms of establishing that you intend to set up home together.

And for certification, we used a lawyer for some of ours and a GP for others.

Good luck!

Hi Claire,

that's unfortunate, and it doesn't sound consistent with what everyone else is saying - I would call back and chase up, what does your email from your CO say in terms of timescale?

If you applied through London, I understand that current timescale is something like 4 or 5 months (alhtough some of these guys seem to be getting them quicker than that). It is if you apply onshore that the timescales are closer to a year.

Good luck with whatever you can find out, that really doesn't sound right to me and I would chase it up if I were you.

take care

I had AB a while ago now (granted over a year ago) and for what it's worth he didn't say much, but i was granted in about 3.5 months (timescale back then was 3-4) and the only time I emailed him to chase he responded within a couple of days with my visa grant email!

Fleabo, that's fab news, congratulations!!!

I haven't been around for a while as life's been really hectic, but I've been thinking of you and wondering how you were getting on - all the best for your plans for the big move!!!

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...

JULY?!!

From a Jan application?

That's incredible! I really feel for you. But I guess at least you know it's coming.

Maybe I should chase mine tomorrow - that email I referred to last week didn't happen because I made a typo in the email address - :sad:

So now I'm stuck until tomorrow due to ANZAC day - I feel like such an idiot!

I sent a very polite email to my CO this morning just asking if he could confirm whether my application was still on track to be processed within the 3-4 month timeframe and could he give me a very rough idea of when I might expect to hear from him.

Not sure if he will even reply but I just said that we were struggling to make plans without knowing what the timeline might be (which is perfectly true, my OH is a bit focused, and he likes to have all his ducks in a row, so he won't even talk about plans to move until we get the email!)

keep your chin up every one x

http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/1163i.pdf

Here is the link to the health requirement for temporary visas - on a quick read I think you'll be fine because the WHV is only a short term visa but obviously I've just looked quickly.

good luck!

Congrats Linda! Hopefully there's good news for the rest of us soon!

good luck Linda, let us know how it goes on Monday!

The really annoying thing is that the OH suddenly announced on the way to bed the other night - I think we should have gone 6 months ago! OK, so why didn't we lodge an application last year then?!

Sorry - just frustrated!

I assume it doesn't matter if you frontloaded as CO said 3-4 months from the date of application. I hope he meant that, or its another couple of weeks added on as I only got everything in a couple of days ago!

they used to say that it helped it to get processed quicker if you frontload, but given the fact they seem to be sticking to the wait times quite rigidly these days, maybe it isn't making any difference.

Last year some frontloaded people were getting visas in 2 weeks!

No indeed.

You only have to send in your passport when it's granted, for them to put the sticker in it, and as per the recent messages on this thread, they appear to be on a bit of a go slow at the moment and there's noone on PIO who has applied in 2010 and been granted yet. I am one of the many people still waiting it out...:swoon:

Not really

The rules are that if you are outwith Australia when you lodge an app you must be outwith Australia when your visa is granted. Technically I guess you could get round this by going to New Zealand or something and coming back when they are ready to grant it, but it would be difficult to know when that would be.

You have to advise your CO in advance that you will be travelling to australia while your visa is in process, and what date you will arrive and leave (just so that they know not to grant it during that time).

Also I believe that when you send your passport in it has to be to London if that's where you lodged, but I may be wrong on that because I haven't got to that stage yet!

It is SO frustrating sitting waiting isn't it? We didn't frontload the application for various reasons (generally related to the 12 month validity and leaving our options open for when to go as we didn't have fixed plans, also because of little things like time off work to do medicals etc) but I was still hoping it would have been quicker than this. I reach the 3 month mark shortly so I know it won't be TOO much longer but I am getting impatient.

Oh well, I guess it isn't going to go any faster just because I'm worrying about it, but I find it hard not to!