kaoticturtle

If you're living together then I'm sure DIAC will see it as such, but I would imagine the difficulty might be proving some of the aspects they require if you don't have the usual bills etc to show - for example for financial aspects. Did you still have bank statements going to one address? If you booked your flights together that would be more evidence that you were travelling together. Another thing you might be able to do is go through your bank statements and credit card statements and show that you are doing cash withdrawals and purchases in the same places? Others might have a better idea of how DIAC will view it, and more suggestions on how to provide evidence for that time

Haha I'm an August applicant and unfortunately I can't give an update as I haven't heard anything. Its still 2 months away from the 8-9 month mark though so I'm not too surprised. My case officer is pretty tight lipped too so I'm a bit scared to send any chasing emails! We're just keeping ourselves busy and not thinking about it too much. Its amazing how quickly the weeks go by when we just get on with things and get stuck into planning what we're going to be doing in Oz. Its great to hear everyone's news - its keeping me all excited about when mine will be granted I hope there's more news of grants soon!

All fixed again I've put a comment in as well to ask people to take any filters off before they exit the spreadsheet. Hopefully they will!

I think I've sorted it out - someone had applied a filter which only showed some of the lines :-)

When I applied back in August the notes that I read said that the police checks would be requested by the case officer and you didn't need to submit them with the application. I used the checklist on the London High Commission website (http://www.uk.embassy.gov.au/lhlh/immi_partner.html) and police checks aren't explicitly on there as being something that has to be in the application. The information was presented differently when I applied though and I'm sure it was more explicit that police checks shouldn't be completed before application. Point 9 on the current version does however say that the immigration officer will request anything further if necessary. At the moment, applicants aren't being asked to apply for their UK police check until a few months after they submit as once the visa is granted you have to enter Australia before the certificate expires - this is 12 months for the UK police checks. As the visas are taking 8-9 months to process, if you front load the police check you will have very little time to enter Oz. I'm no migration agent, but from the experience of people on this thread ( http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/migration-issues/58449-summary-spouse-visa-processing-times-offshore-uk-please-add-your-stats-694.html ) applications don't seem to be refused for one or two missing pieces of information - the case officers seem to give you time to send them anything that was missing. I would imagine this might not apply if you give them a 50% incomplete application, but it doesn't seem to be an issue if its only one or two things

I haven't been on here in a while so thought I'd drop in to see what's been happening and unfortunately it looks like there aren't many visa's being granted at the moment - or at least not for members on here. I've got my fingers crossed for all the July applicants that you get good news soon! As expected, I haven't heard anything further about my visa. I'm expecting it to be at least another 2 months, and probably longer, before I get any news. Here's hoping the next few months fly past for us all :biggrin:

Hi Cobmum From everything that I've seen on posts here, waiting seems to be the norm now. I think the reason is that you have to enter Australia within 12 months of the police check and medical being done. Given the processing times are so long, if you do them straight away that doesn't leave much time for entry after the visa has been approved. Responses to emails and post seems to vary between case officers. Some seem to give confirmation of receipt really quickly, while others take ages. Mine took weeks and weeks to confirm that my extra bits had arrived, but they did eventually so I wouldn't worry Given you emailed the extra question, it almost certainly arrived. KT

Thanks George I'm not getting too caught up about it and I've not been thinking about it much other than the occasions when I come on here - far too busy at the moment! I've accepted that I won't see any final decision until I've been told I will so there's no point hoping for anything earlier - even if some July/August applicants seem to be being told they may hear earlier. I haven't been told that so I doubt I will, although I may still keep a tiny flame of hope alive deep down :tongue: Thankfully I'm in a good place in that I'm with my husband as he's dual British/Australian so we don't have to be separated. I think I would be less relaxed if we were on the opposite sides of the world! I do also appreciate that DIAC give an indication of how long it will take and, as you say, seem to stick to it. At least I have a pretty good idea of how long it will be until a decision is made. It would indeed be a nightmare for the estimate to be wrong, but possibly even worse to have absolutely no idea at all!

This was my original understanding and the reason I wasn't expecting anything before a minimum of 8 months from when I lodged. And that's why I'd love to see inside To me, it looks like nothing is happening and that is a bit frustrating, but given the visas aren't queued and capped there must be a reason why they take so long when so much of the processing appears to be conducted very early on. I'm the sort of person that wants to know why :frown:

I hadn't noticed that some people in August were being told Feb and March - I haven't been very good at reading all the posts in the past few weeks. If that's the case then maybe those of us in July and August will be a sort of crossover group that moves towards the 8-9 months with a couple in between at 6-8 months... Given June has been granted, I originally hoped that they couldn't wait until March to grant the July batch so there would have to be some crossover and people being granted before 8 months. So maybe that is whats happening and explains the difference between the phone conversation and the letter? We can certainly hope! After seeing the grants over the past few months pretty much all coming in on the projected timescales, I had accepted that I wouldn't see mine until April at the earliest but given the times have just increased maybe the past grants aren't a good indication? VF was really helpful to me when I had to ask a question and my case officer was off on holiday so maybe it would be worthwhile getting in touch just to check what the current expected time is? If you haven't been in touch with her much in the past then I doubt she would be annoyed or anything similar I would love to see inside DIAC as well and try to understand how they work. It certainly seems to me that the visas are queued and capped, despite DIAC saying that they are not! It is frustrating when you've spent all the time and effort putting the application together, only for it to apparently sit in a pile for over half a year. Maybe there is some other processing going on but from everything I've gathered (and the fact that processing times used to be 3 months!) there doesn't seem to be a good reason for it.

Hi Superchuckles and welcome to pomsinoz! Unfortunately the waiting times increased at the start of July from 5-6 months to 8-9 months. So, the people that have been having theirs granted in the last month or so are the last ones to have been within the 5-6 month waiting time. Those of us who applied after June are having to wait longer. From what I can gather, while the partner visas aren't capped and queued only a certain number are granted each month (which to me means they are capped and queued but clearly there is some distinction from DIAC's point of view...). Therefore, as the application numbers have increased they are now having to take longer to grant them. My understanding is that the case officers make an assessment fairly quickly as to whether you have submitted everything they need for a decision but then the application goes to the bottom of the pile for the actual grant. The waiting times seem fairly unmovable even if your application is very straightforward (e.g. married for many years plus plenty of kids). In terms of people calling up their case officers and helping to speed things along a bit, this seems to be only working close to the grant date. I think what happens is that your visa comes up into the pile that can be granted (and has waited the time given when it was lodged) and when you call the case office it can sometimes jog them to grant yours then then rather than working through one or two others first. However, I don't think I've heard of anyone successfully prodding their case officer to grant their visa before the duration they were told when they originally lodged - which is 8 to 9 months for both of us. I feel your pain but unfortunately there are lots of people waiting in different countries for their visa to come through so DIAC won't make a special exception as a result. There are people who decide that they can't stand the wait and move over on a tourist visa for the last few months. That would probably be an option for you if you can afford it. You can't work on while you are waiting and, as you applied offshore, you have to take a holiday out of Australia for the visa grant which makes the cost add up. There are people on here who have gone down this route who could give you more info if you want it. If you can't do that the the only real consolation is that once its granted you won't have to be separated again and before you know it you'll have been living in Oz together for years

We've just taken the risk. I think my visa was submitted a few weeks after you and its due for a decision in February to April. We're going travelling for 6 months so our stuff was actually picked up by the shipping company on Tuesday :frown: It's a bit scary but we're not due to land in Oz until July so there is plenty processing time spare and my occupation is on the right lists, plus my old employer is multi-national and have said they would take me in the sydney office is they need anyone so I may have a sponsor if I need one. There's lots of maybes in there though! Ultimately, I know I have passed the medical and rule changes are unlikely to come into force before my visa decision date so I think its a calculated risk. If we waited until grant we wouldn't have the travelling time we want. Also, now was a good time to finish up in the UK for us so we've gone for it. Maybe worth mentioning though that we are not having to sell a house or ship pets and we are only shipping half a 20ft. So, If it does all go pear shaped we'll just fly ourselves back to Europe and get our stuff sent back at some point. Luckily hubby is a dual national so we can stay here.

Hi everyone! We're busy looking over customs forms at the moment and trying to work out what we need to declare on form b534. Under section 7, do we need to declare leather items? Things like leather jackets, belts etc? Obviously they are made from animals but leather isn't specifically mentioned on the form. I'm leaning towards over declaring but did anyone else do so? I can ask the shipping company on Monday but we're trying to get as much done over the weekend as possible. Thanks! KT

Congratulations!!! Have a fab time once you get to Oz :biggrin:

Hi Steph I don't know how your blood pressure may affect your medical results, but my blood pressure skyrockets when I'm anxious so I can sympathise! It sounds like the doctor was awful too. When you go to your doctor and they test you again, if it comes out high remember that you can ask them to take it again. If you explain that you are really nervous I've always found doctors to be sympathetic and they have always redone mine. In fact, I've sometimes had to have it repeated two or three times with it dropping a little each time until it returns to normal as I calm down a bit. When you go in remember to breath deeply, wear loose clothing so that the doctor can put the cuff on without clothing constricting you and also make sure you don't cross your legs as that can artificially raise your blood pressure. Good luck! KT x

Thanks for the concern Mongrel, but yes, we have kept a reasonable amount aside for when we arrive. We've been planning the move for over 3 years so its kind of exciting that we're now in the position to take the plunge We've got family that we will live with once we arrive for as long as we need to (my mother-in-law is incredibly excited to have us as my other half has been over here for 6 years now) and with my line of work I should be able to pick something up fairly quickly. I've been in touch with a couple of recruitment agents and have a few contacts so I'm hoping to be in a good position when we land. That's the hope anyway! We're well aware that we're taking a risk but the travelling is something we've both wanted to do for ages and most employers don't want to recruit someone for them only to show up 6-9 months later. Sometimes I guess you have to take a bit of a risk

We didn't have any returned but there weren't any originals in our application (bar the police certificate and stat decs). We photocopied everything and have kept the originals.

We're definitely not taking the direct route. We decided that given we were leaving here without jobs in Aus we'd save up and take 6 months off We're off to Canada for a month, back to the UK for a week then heading to Japan. We're there for 2 months before heading down to south-east asia for a bit then our final flight will be Bangkok down to Sydney. Ours isn't the most cost effective way but if you wanted a bit of sightseeing I can recommend flying into South-East Asia (e.g. Bangkok, Singapore or Kuala Lumpar) as those are quite cheap routes from the UK. Expenses for travelling round that part of the world are pretty low and there are some amazing things to see. Flights around SE Asia are really cheap (just have a look at air asia's website for example) and then the best flight we found down to Oz was with Malaysian Airlines. In advance, you can get Kuala Lumpur to Sydney for £300 :biggrin:

I've just seen your question about valuable items. We added some on to our policy (e.g. dSLR camera, laptop) with insure and go for an extra premium. You have to specify them up front but if you do (and pay the extra amount!) they seem to be ok with it.

No problem - glad I could help! I was pulling my hair out trying to find something suitable as well :biggrin:

Thanks everyone That sounds like a bit of a nightmare Rikyuu. We have certainly been warned by several companies that if we go groupage it may take quite a long time for our things to arrive. However, they are picking up at the end of the month and we don't arrive in oz until July due to the travelling we're doing. So, even if it takes 8 months we're not going to be too fussed. Even if it takes longer, we'll be at the in-laws for a month or two so we'll cope Hopefully it will be quicker than that though!

Hi everyone! My husband and I have just been through the process of getting quotes and I thought others might find our experience useful. Please note that what is written here is just our opinion from the contact we have had with each company We got quotes from the following companies: Doree Boner White and Co Anglo Pacific John Masons Crown We deliberately contacted some of the main companies that seemed to be used quite frequently and that we felt would provide a good level of service We decided that cutting corners and going for the cheapest option for shipping might prove to be a false economy. We also contacted PSS but they sent through an assessment form for us to complete before they would arrange for someone to come round and to be honest I never got round to filling it in. With 5 others I decided we would have enough options Doree Boner were the first to come round so we weren't too sure what to expect before hand. The rep was very friendly but we felt he was very sales oriented and quite arrogant. He also said some things about third party insurance which we felt was scaremongering and when we checked didn't actually reflect the policies that insure your move and letton percival actually sell. That put us off them quite substantially and we felt like he was really pushing for the sale. After the visit, we had been told the quote would arrive quite quickly (within a few days I think) but it took well over a week to reach us. By the time the quote arrived we had seen some other companies and come to the conclusion that we wouldn't go with them as we really liked some others. White and Co really impressed us when they came round. The rep was very friendly and helpful and we felt that they approximated our required space quite well. The contact that we had with the office was also good. Anglo Pacific also came across well and we felt they were very professional. However, the rep told us that they don't have a specific company that they use in Australia. While they are FIDI registered, and therefore pass off to a FIDI registered company it varies from load to load. We have had friends who had problems with a different company when the Australia company their stuff was passed to went bust so we wanted to make sure we knew in advance who was taking our things in Oz. This meant that we ruled Anglo Pacific out after their visit. John Mason's rep came across reasonably well and their office was particularly good. The woman working in the office was very friendly and efficient. The rep that came round (in my husband's opinion as I wasn't in at the time) seemed a bit bumbling to him but the quoted space was similar to others and the inventory was accurate when I checked it. The quote came through the quickest for JM although White and Co and Crown weren't far behind. Crown probably came across the best between the office and the man who came to do the survey. The person that I spoke to in the office on first contact gave me the most information and chatted quite a bit about the whole process in a way that the others didn't. The man who came round for the survey was chatty and friendly, seemed to be very competent at assessing the space required and didn't seem too sales oriented. After the visits, we were left considering White and Co, John Masons and Crown as our three front runners. I had only read good reviews of John Masons and Crown so we decided to go ahead with asking them any further questions that we had. For those that are interested, JM and Crown were the cheapest quotes that we had although all of them were fairly similar. Doree Boner were the most expensive but not by that much. Please don't PM me for more details on the quoted prices as I can't remember all the details exactly and I don't have some of the quotes anymore. We are going with groupage for about half a 20ft container (we are travelling for a while so have no time pressures) and quotes came in around £3000 (some above and some below). Note that this includes a fairly long journey after arriving in Sydney to reach our delivery point. We spent quite a long time asking JM and Crown various questions to make sure that we understood the whole process. Both were excellent during this time and they gave us a lot of information. In the end, there was very little to distinguish between them and we were very confident that both would provide an excellent service at very similar prices so we finally just picked one fairly subjectively We learned quite a lot during the process and two things really stood out. We got hugely different quotes in terms of cubic feet from the companies. They ranged from 500 through to over 650! We felt that the earlier quotes were slightly inflated as some of the things we are shipping were not as compact as they might be (e.g. my wardrobe looked full but the clothes were actually just spread out). On the later visits we were careful to collate things a bit better around the house and in the garage and I reorganised my wardrobe to make the amount of space required clearer. Each time a rep came over we learned something new. It was really good to get all the different views and between them all we think most things were covered. However, on reflection most of the reps missed something that might be important so research away from what the companies say is really important. We're just glad we have PIO to help! Hope that helps others just starting to get quotes. If anyone has any other questions feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer KT

Hi everyone! I've not really been on for a while so thought I would give an update. Two weeks ago I hadn't heard anything from my CO after having done my medicals and sending in my police certificate back in September. Given we're having to pack things up soon to go travelling I went fishing for information and asked my CO if there was likely to be anything else needed as I wouldn't have access to my paperwork soon. It was a success! I didn't get an official letter from him or anything but he responded to confirm that he didn't need anything further at the moment. Also, I cheekily asked if he was able to tell me whether I was being assessed for the 309 or 100 and he confirmed the 100! I was really unsure whether we would get that as we don't have children and have only been married for 2 years. We've were in a defacto for two years prior and I was really careful about the evidence that I put in to make sure I could back up that length of time but still...I had heard that unless you had been married for years and years it was rare to get the 100 without kids. yay!!! :jiggy:

hello! We had exactly the same problem. We're travelling for 5 months (including 3 weeks of snowboarding) after leaving the UK and before landing in Oz. I finally managed to track down that insure and go will do one way insurance for pretty much all of their travel insurance policies. They finish 24 hours after you land. In order to get it, I sent a query in through the contact section of their website and then someone got back in touch with me to go over the details. Another option is to look at other companies that specialise in backpacker insurance. They seemed to offer some good rates and often didn't have the requirement to end your journey in the UK. We didn't go with them in the end as I wasn't happy with the level of cover they offered for boarding but outside of that they probably would have been ok. If you do go with them just make sure that they give you the level of cover that you want KT

Hi When you get assigned a case officer the letter that they send you will set out how long you should expect to wait. I applied in August and the waiting time then was stated as 8-9 months so I would guess yours will probably be the same. Have you seen this thread here? It's got everyone in the same position in it so you should find some others that have recently submitted as well http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/migration-issues/58449-summary-spouse-visa-processing-times-offshore-uk-please-add-your-stats.html KT