LisaAndFamily
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We applied on 27 June and went to Oz on an e600 tourist visa in Sept. Received a 'depart for grant' email on 24 March, 3 days short of 9 months. The requirement is that you need to leave Australia for 3 business days for the grant to process. We found New Zealand to be the cheapest option (Bali is set to execute some Australian citizens so we didn't care to give them any tourist money anyway). At this very moment, I am writing from my iPad while sitting in a lovely garden of a house we rented near Auckland close to shops, restaurants, train, bus, beaches, supermarket and a short walk to the top of Mt Hobson which is one of many high volcanic cones in the Remuera area. We just stumbled onto this place on line and would highly recommend it. Thankfully we were able to do this over the Easter holidays so as not to disrupt the children's schooling (it hasn't been an easy road for them having been to 3 schools in less than a year). Received the grant notice last night at 8pm our time. Had a bit of a scare as they issued the grant on the wrong passports. We are dual citizens, USA and UK. It was supposed to be issued on the U.S. passports but the grant letter had them on the UK ones. After emails and expensive phone calls and much fretting about how to get the UK passports from our bedroom in Sydney to us in NZ in 3 days, they changed them back to the U.S. ones at nearly 1am our time (ugh the time zone thing is crazy). Relief!! The wait is over. For now.
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Oh thanks for the heads up. We have booked a house and are making it a little holiday with my husband and son as well (they are Aussie so don't need to leave). We also have friends in NZ. Pricey. Makes me shudder when I think of how much money we have spent, but it amazing to be able to make it all happen and live in this beautiful country.
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FINALLY!! Got the email 'Depart for Grant' letter on Monday making it 8 months and 24 days for us. We've booked our flights to New Zealand for the 6th to 11th (rules state we must be gone for 3 working days not including the travel days). Yaay!! Can't wait to stop being a 'visitor' and start working again.
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No problems at all. We have been very open about it from the start but to be honest the visitor visa goes thru your immi account anyway so they are very aware of your whereabouts and visa status. However you MUST treat it as a visitor visa and not a bridging visa which is only available when applying onshore. I am not allowed to work for example. Children are only allowed to attend school for 13 weeks but the NSW Temporary Residence programme waived that for us quite unexpectedly. Kids would have been bored out of their minds otherwise. We are hoping to get the notice any day (any minute, any second - am I counting here?) now. Seems like the best option is going to NZ. I think we have to be out of the country for 3 business days but have had no confirmation from my CO on this. Have only read this on the forums. I am finding the communication side of this rather difficult. I have had a grand total of about 3 emails from my CO in 9 months. She is not contactable other than sending an email via the immi account and asking them to forward it on which I did almost a month ago and have not had a reply. Just. So. Ready. To. Be. Done. Fingers crossed that this is my week. 8 months 24 days and counting...
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Arghhhh. No news for me. Was really hoping for yesterday. Now have to wait the weekend again. What about you Whitey287? We are both 27th June. 8 months 3 weeks and counting...
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Yaaay! 'Bout time. MrsW27 was right then. Best of luck. Manly is gorgeous!!
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We are the same as you. Been hanging out in Sydney because we couldn't handle being away from Daddy. Hope we both get our news this week. Are you planning a quick trip to NZ? Where are you in Oz?
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hooooooray!
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4:48 am in Sydney. Awake and happy for you!!
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This time next week you'll have a whole new outlook on life!:wink:
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Me toooooo. I'm in Sydney so I also wake in the middle of the night and check my email (during London business hours) on my I phone. Husband sleeps peacefully somehow. :daydreaming:
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Great news! Are you in Australia now (like me)? What parameters did they give you on leaving, returning etc?
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That seems reasonable to me. 9 months and 1 day? :wink:
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Is there anybody else out there who applied later than me in June 2014? I recall that 27th June was a Friday. Don't know if they count the weekends or not, but the last application date in the 8-9 month range would have been on the Monday, 30th June. I remember that we nearly didn't get it in (we went a bit overkill on the evidence). Would have been kicking ourselves had we waited a few days and ended up in the 10-14 month range.
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Ah ok. Mine must be a full-timer. Many congrats to you, exciting times ahead!
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Rikkeskill, how did you find out that your CO is part-time? I have had very little contact with mine.
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That's what is so great about this thread!
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Thanks Nemesis. I read somewhere that onshore applicants are notified when the CO is 'ready to make a decision' so the applicants need to make plans to leave the country. I'm wondering if that info will come within the same time frame as if I were offshore i.e; offshore applicants are informed on the day that the visa has been granted, onshore applicants are informed within the same 8 to 9 month timeframe but need time to make travel arrangements and be gone for the set time which will presumably take longer to then actually grant the visa. I thought they might give us a heads up a few weeks in advance which would be right now. Haven't heard a word so I guess they just wait until the day you would have had it granted as per your place in the queue and it is then not processed for a few more weeks while the travel is completed.
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Hello everyone, I discovered this website a couple of years ago occasionally reading threads etc. Have found this one particularly useful in the last couple of months soooooo I finally decided to join up and join in the discussion today! Here's my story: My husband is Australian/British. I'm American. We have lived in England together since 2006. We have five children - ages 23, 20, 16, 12 and 6. Four from my previous marriage and one of our own. My first husband died in 2005. I remarried to my Aussie hubby in 2006. Our youngest child was born in 2008. Hubby adopted the other four children in 2009. Our Important Documents box has more passports/nationalities than James Bond and the 'should we move to your home in Australia or my home in America or stay in England or live on the moon' discussions have been going on since we met. Ugh. A decision was finally made but not after a false start and a rise in the visa app fees. Used to be able to add the children to the app for free but since sometime in 2013, each child has an extra cost. My application has three of our children on it. Youngest is Australian and our eldest, as much as I am dying for her to come, is 23 and at the app time was happy living and working in London (that has since changed- *deep sigh*) so she was not added to the visa app. We applied offshore in London on 27/06 - just scraping by before the 10-14 month update. Phew! JonnoM - our CO is VF (same as MrsW27). We are well aware of the advice to not make 'irreversible' plans like quitting jobs and selling houses. However, that is exactly what we had to do. Taking a big risk I know but we prefer to call it a 'leap of faith' really. Hubby was working in Sydney for five months before we arrived on a 12 month tourist visa while waiting out the 309/100. Slightly complicated but because of school timings (one son's Uni and one son's GCSE's) and not prolonging the agony for the children who were very worried about leaving their friends, we opted to bring everyone out here. And, we simply couldn't live apart for a year (hubby was already in Sydney for 3 months before we applied + additional 8 to 9 month wait just too long for Dad to be away). This was very much a Now or Never decision both emotionally and financially. Had to sell the house because with a family this big, there was really no other way than to use the proceeds from the sale for the expensive application, medicals X 4, flights, shipping - the cost has been eye-watering. We are required to leave Australia and go offshore (for at least 3 working days I think) for the actual processing to occur. MY QUESTIONS: Does anyone know: If the visas take longer when there are children included on the application? How the process works for those of us who are waiting onshore but applied offshore, i.e; How much forewarning will we be given to organise flights to leave, will this delay our processing? I'm thinking that if we are in the queue and processing like others on this thread, maybe we will be due a grant from around 20th March onwards. Surely if we need to be out of the country in the next 2 to 3 weeks, my CO will be contacting me this far in advance to buy plane tics? Getting a bit nervous here. We knew this bit would be tricky but it's awkward with the children's schooling. Our older son only just started a Uni course yesterday and doesn't want to miss his lectures - same for our Year 11 son who shouldn't miss either (not to mention the other two kids but I think they are less of a worry). Really hoping that by some miracle it might all process over the Easter holidays. These on-line communities are a godsend. Very hard to communicate with and get answers from the powers that be but it is wonderful to connect with real people and read about their situations. This has been a long, hard road for us so far. ALOT more expensive than anticipated and we had some setbacks as well (UK shipping company Global Moving Systems stole ours and many other customers' money without shipping the goods so we had to pay another company £3,500 more to retrieve our belongings from their warehouse and have only just received our shipment a few weeks ago after a five month wait). The 'life is on hold' feeling we all have is so unnerving. The unknown. The waiting. The emotional and financial toll. My visa terms don't allow me to work so that's been really hard as well. I am a singer, choir leader/conductor and freelance writer. I really miss working. It's better to be together in the same city though. In the long run, I am convinced that this move will make for a wonderful future for our family, but let me say that getting on the emigration train is Not. For. The. Faint-of-heart. Good luck to everyone. I feel for you when hearing about all of your highs and lows. You have my utmost respect and good wishes. Applied for 309/100 - 27/06/14 CO assigned - 'VF' - 18/07/14 Arrived in OZ on 12 month tourist visa - 17/09/14 Medicals done - 27/10/14 Police checks submitted- 04/02/15