Gatoruk

Thanks for the kind comments and I do agree about what you say Visas are. My real complaint isn't about not getting my visa granted its just annoyance at a government department paid for by the taxes of the people of that country that are so missmanaged that they can't even get around to reading visa applications. I wouldn't be this upset if they processed my application within 1 year of me sending it and denied me a visa. Its this endless waiting and frustration because there is nothing I can do to speed it up. I work in retail and particularly the service industry and thats why I have a real intolerance for inefficiency in the workplace. I know the D. of I. would argue saying they have record numbers of visa applications being received but has there been any investigation into seeing if the workers of this department are actually working efficiently or not? Perhaps theres an argument to hire more staff to help get through the 5 years of back applications. This is why I am asking about interest in the media as it seems to be an efficient means to shine a spotlight on this department and get someone asking these questions in a public forum. Over the next few days I will be writing to a few of the national papers to see if there is any interest. If there is I will post on here so that other people who are in my position can lend their voices to the case. Let me know if there is anyone here who would be interested anonymously to provide accounts of their experiences?

Is there any interest in Australian media about this - or do they already know about it but just don't care?

Really? So pretty much there is no guarantee my visa would ever be processed as they continually receive more Priority 5 than they can handle annually so continually pinch allocation from my visa type. Surely there must be some means to bring this situation to public awareness? Could you imagine the political backlash in UK if they said visa applications went unread for 5 years! Every newspaper would be calling for the immigration minister to resign! I wish my immigration advisor had told me I had the lowest priority visa on the market and would have to wait this long. At the time of applying she said 3 months to get the visa. Do you think I have any options? Thanks Gatoruk

No they haven't even begun to look at the application. As best I can tell it has been sitting in a pile of other applications for the past 4 years without anyone even looking at it.

Reposting..

Sorry I should have mentioned that I was applying for the 'In demand' job but not the 'critical skills' job.

Hi, I have joined this forum in desperation! I applied for a General Skilled Migration visa subclass 176 in June 2009. When I applied I was advised processing time would be 3 months. It's now rapidly approaching 4 years and I am devastated it's taken so long. The last update given by the D.of I. was that their allocation of my type of visa were getting smaller and smaller owing to the backlog of the higher priority visas. My question is: Is there anything I can do? 4 years for a visa is ridiculous and if this were a UK visa the newspapers would be all over the failure of the Border agency to process visas in a timely manner. Is there an institute I can complain to? If I do complain will this hurt my chances of getting my visa approved? Is this a normal processing time for this type of visa? Has anyone out there had the same awful experience with D. of I.? Desperately Yours Gatoruk