McZazzles

'Settings' (top of page) >> scroll down, 'Edit signature'. You can also add your stats to this spreadsheet below too, so people can keep track of your progress. Good luck with your application! :-) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Aopvk3Y5mD7HdGp5V2hESFluN3V0QWNBTDg2TWJoLVE#gid=0

Good afternoon Poms, This time yesterday I was an extremely happy bunny, because (completely out of the blue) I got that wonderful little email - partner visa (309) granted!! Data lodged (with character check): 19/11/2012 CO: VF Medicals: 01/03/2013 Granted: 22/05/2013 (just over the 6-month mark, initially quoted 8-9 months) To anybody who applied before me and hasn't heard back yet, I know it can be super frustrating, but honestly it'll be any day soon! Best of luck to everybody still waiting, and I hope that you all get granted your visas nice and early too :jiggy:

That's really fantastic news, congratulations!! They seem to be flying through the applications now (given the guesstimated 8-9 month wait). I applied in mid-Nov, so I hope that these recent December grants are a sign of good things to come soon!

Thanks for the replies! Well I've been looking at flights with Emirates and Qantas, and both allow date changes at a fee (£75 and £90 respectively, if I'm not mistaken) - so that definitely would be an option. Snifter, my CO has told me that she has everything she needs, and so it does just look like we're playing the waiting game again now. That's a good point, it wouldn't hurt to drop her an email around August-time

Hi fellow Poms, I have applied for the 309 subclass visa, and my estimated grant month is August, based on the date I lodged the application and the current processing time at the London office. I am looking into one-way flights to Oz, and naturally they are getting more expensive the closer August becomes. I just wondered if anybody could tell me, how soon prior to the estimated grant period did they book flights? I know I could book a provisional date and change it later, but I would rather not have to pay the fee to do that if it can be helped. Has processing time been known to be greater than 9 months? (I don't think I have noticed any instance of this through browsing the forum, but I may be wrong.) Since I applied in November, the only change has been '8-9' months to '9 months', and so I thought of booking flights for ten months after lodgement date. Anyway, any advice would be appreciated! Thanks in advance :hug: McZazzles x

Hi all, Thank you very much for reading and for your advice. In hindsight I can now see that my CO must have been trying to buy me time (albeit me not needing it, especially since my character checks expire at the end of October). As Rupert pointed out, I think it would still be OK to go ahead with my plan of moving in August - I'm still hopeful that it'll be granted by 9 months, and maybe before if I'm lucky! If not I'll just sit tight in good old England patiently. And so the waiting game continues :yes:. Thanks once again, you've put my mind to rest x

Good evening/morning fellow Poms :cool: I have benefited greatly from the advice on these forums over the past few months, but being unable to find a recent answer to my query, I thought it was time to create an account and get involved! I lodged an offshore 309 spouse visa application in mid-November 2012, and was told that the current processing time would be at least 8-9 months. Being the optimist I am, I thought that we wouldn't be kept waiting any longer than August, which is when I had planned to emigrate to Australia to be with my hubby. All was going well so far, until yesterday when my CO requested medical checks; the reason this was an issue was because she recommended that these shouldn't be done until mid-Feb, because if my visa wasn't granted before they expired a year later, I would have to do them again. This got me a bit worried, as putting off the medicals until so late in the application suggested that the wait could be much longer than we initially anticipated! I know this is probably just precautionary, but it still set off a few alarm bells in my head. Desperate to join my other half in August as planned, I asked my CO whether I could come to Aus on a tourist visa prior to being granted my 309 (with a view of departing for a few days while the visa would be granted), and she said that would be fine. My concerns are however, that I wouldn't be able to convince Australian immigration staff at the border that I wanted to enter on genuine tourist reasons, especially if I came on a one-way ticket. Has anybody else been in this situation where they've gone over to Aus on a tourist visa, on the basis of waiting for another visa to be granted? Were there any problems with border control upon entry? Also, has anybody experienced a longer processing time than 9 months? Hope somebody will be able to share some words of wisdom! McZazzles x