LauraF
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Congrats Anika and eggwise! you must be so excited after not seeing each other for so long. I'm happy for you both I emailed AB about 3 weeks ago to ask when my visa would likely be approved and he just told me the generic 5-6 months. How did you figure out it was 'due' to be granted at the end of October, did you just work out that was 5 months after your application or did your CO give you a ballpark estimation? Since I'm just wondering when to phone my CO to ask about booking flights early, as my own 5 month mark will be mid November and I see you applied only a couple of weeks before I did - so do you think that means I'd get a date from them if I asked myself in a couple of weeks time (ie at the same stage in the process you asked and got a reply?) I'm just not sure what to expect of them and don't want to get my hopes up although your news is really great I'm hoping my case won't for some reason be different I really want to book my flights to get over there almost immediately after mine has been approved, if possible so I can only do that if I know my date in advance. Apologies if that sounded way more complicated than I intended! Very eager here!
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How long before the 5 months is up do you think I should ask for a date? I want to book flights and get there are soon as possible as we've been apart for nearly 6 months already and there are still 3 months to go until the 5 month mark (which I still hope it will be as I applied in June.)
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So you think if the wait has changed, or is changing to 6-8 months, those who submitted before July (Aus financial year) will still be on the 5-6 month wait they were originally told? K17 apparently submitted at the end of May and has been told of the extension, I submitted mid-June and was told only last week that the wait has not changed after hearing other people were earlier informed of the change. So I'm really not sure what's going on here. I'm confused why some people have been told this and others have not. Can anyone shed any light?
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Me and my fiancé had been living together for 1 and a half years in England (Also for a year before that in Aus.) We applied for the visa after spending just over 3 months apart because he had to go home to study. There has been no problems with it and I've been told they have all the necessary information. Just make sure you mention in your declaration why you are currently apart (ie job/study/visa problems) and it should be absolutely fine, especially if you've already lived together for that long!
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I was worried about processing times possibly increasing so I sent off a quick email to check - I was advised today that current waiting times are still 5-6 months. It sounds like they might be changing in the near future though, but hopefully if we've already sent our applications off that shouldn't affect us too much and lets hope the 6-8 months is an overestimation just so they're on the 'safe side' anyway. I worry far too much! Here's crossing fingers. James- it could take you a while to fill in all the paper work and collect documentation, so I'd start looking into it as soon as possible. It took me and my fiance 2 months to gather all the paper work which has delayed us being together for that time! After it's sent off, as I've stated above at the moment it looks like 5-6 months/
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That's great news! It might just mean me going over there a month before the grant is due, but even knowing that is a relief because it gives me some hope of seeing him sooner. A holiday to NZ sounds nice too but again money was the issue with taking a Holiday Visa over there in the mean time ... perhaps something can be worked out though. Thank you Could someone please add me to the spreadsheet? I don't have a google account.
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Ooh can you do that... go to NZ for the grant date rather than having to be back in the UK? We (well... he) is saving up for my flight over there at the moment (for when the visas granted) which will only take a couple of months - so that would be financially possible. If it's allowed by the visa.
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Unfortunately neither of us can afford the cost of flights to send me over there on a holiday visa in the mean time. So right now it looks like by the time I get over there we would be apart for around 11 months after previously living together here for 15 months (and 10 months in Aus before that.) Could I also be added to the database? I applied on 13/06 through the London office for a PMV.
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We had no idea it would take this long, he was here with me for 15 months and left back for Aus in early March. If I knew all of this before and could go back in time we'd get on to this way before he left but along with the long processing times I was also surprised how long it took to compile the application and evidence (about 2 months just to get it ready!) Yes it looks like you're right, the stories I heard of visas being granted in only a few weeks seem to have been from around 2009 and 2010, something must have changed since then in immigration procedure. Damn it, where's my time capsule again!
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Thanks Dave, well that's just taken my current waiting time only up to 3 weeks... so another 5 months to go perhaps. Additionally, I'm now worried that we should have applied for a 309 spousal since we've been together for 3 years and have lived together. On the PMV I know we'll have to apply for the 309 after 9 months which is additional cost and stress at the same time we're getting married and trying to move in together on an extremely limited budget. We decided against spousal since we didn't have the documentation outlined in booklet one of "setting up a household together" and absolutely no shared financial bills - since we lived with each other at our parents places and had very little evidence of a 'de facto' relationship. With the 300 PMV apart from the intention of marriage certificate - all we sent to prove our relationship were declarations from people of our relationship and bank statements showing overlap of address.... that would not have been enough for a 309 spousal visa right? ... or is it worth asking my case officer. I'm not even sure whether it can be "swapped" at this point anyway but I suppose I'd like the absolute ease of mind that we did the right thing.
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Yes looking at recent stories it looks like it really will be the time stated but I hoped that was an over estimation and subject to individual applications (I think mine is a straight forward case, so hoped would make a difference). I just wondered because in this thread in 2009 people seemed to be getting their visas approved in only a couple of weeks - now it is 6 months that is a big difference. Is this due to newly introduced capping/ an increase in applications or did those people just get lucky? Do you know whether that will that count from when I submitted my application or when they received the additional police and health check they asked for? I know I should just chill but I can't. We've already been apart for 4 months, so plus the 6 months waiting time then another month to sort out flights etc, that's a year apart.... scary.
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I'm applying for a slightly different visa, the subclass 300 (prospective marriage) although both the Australian and London websites state that both the 300 marriage and 309 spouse visas have exactly the same processing times of around 6 months (http://www.immi.gov.au/about/charter.../visas/5.0.htm and http://www.uk.embassy.gov.au/lhlh/immi_processing_times.html) Does this mean that the 12 week waiting time quoted by the original poster in 2009 has increased since - or are 309 spousal visas for some reason taking much less time to approve than 300 marriage ones, despite the waiting times quoted being exactly the same (6 months not 12 weeks for both.) I went to the Bridgewater clinic which cost £260, so exactly the same fee as the one in Whalley Range. I was only there for half an hour, they got everything done quickly without any waiting in between although it was very thorough (get ready to be poked and prodded in only your underwear!) I hadn't shaved... it was pretty embarrassing.