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I am starting the journey of applying for Australian Citizenship. I am a South African citizen. Apparently, I need to apply for "Retention of South African Citizenship" before applying for Australian Citizenship, or I will lose South African citizenship. Is there something I can use as "proof of non-acquisition of Australian Citizenship" when I send off my forms to South Africa? It sounds a little backwards, but my friend in the UK had to do similar and the UK provides a "proof of non-acquisition of British Citizenship" form.

Ok, thanks Ken. That makes a lot of sense.

We're in NSW.

My partner and I are fortunate to have some assets both in the UK and in Australia. We have informal wills, but now we are deciding to be responsible and do things right. We would like to have official Wills drawn up. From the small amount of research that we've done, it seems that having concurrent Wills (one for assets in the UK and one for assets in AU) would be a good way to go. Does anybody have any lawyers that they can recommend to help us set this up from Australia? If anybody has done something similar, I would love to hear how you approached it.

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like there isn't any need to worry too much about the renewals then, Sponsor just can't leave the country unil RRV is granted. Just to confirm, does the travel restriction apply to the Partner on 820? Hypothetically, what if the Partner wishes to leave the country for a short holiday or trip out of necessity while the Sponsor stays in Australia?

Thanks for the reply. Yes, we're both currently in Australia. Happily enjoying the country and building our new life. That makes sense. So we will apply for the 155 once confident the 2 year period for the 5 year renewal has passed and apply for the 820 whenever we've got the documents together and just not plan any trips outside the country around this time until the 155 has been granted.

You can see our timeline in my signature. 820 takes a long time to process.

I need some advice. Background: * Partner Visa Sponsor holds 189 Visa that expires roughly June 2019. Plans to apply for Resident Return Visa (155) before this expiry date. Complication is that Sponsor will have only spent 2 years in Australia roughly April 2019. * Partner Visa Sponsee holds 820 Visa. Visa applied roughly May 2016. Therefore should be eligible to submit documents for 801 Visa roughly April 2019. * Therefore both Visas can basically be applied for in April 2019. Which order should the visas be applied for? Should the Resident Return Visa (155) be applied for first and wait for it to be approved before applying for the Partner Visa 801? Does the Partner somehow need to be added to the 155 application, or does it not matter? Or should we submit both Visa applications independently?

Thanks! Yes, it's a huge relief not having to worry anymore. We can stop checking the IMMI account on a monthly basis now! ? I probably shouldn't think about it yet, but what happens for the 801? Do they contact us via IMMI when we are eligible to apply for the 801? We'll obviously keep them notified about any address changes or changes in circumstances etc. We'll also keep all of our bills etc so that we have evidence for the 801 when that day comes.

We got it! We finally got the 820 approved this morning. 14 months, 1 week approximately in total from submission to visa grant. We front-loaded everything. That doesn't appear to have been very beneficial.

Another update: we received a message from IMMI on 2 July that our application was now "in progress". So hopefully not long for us now. It's been roughly a 13.5 month wait for us so far.

A quick update on our case. Still waiting unfortunately. When our front-loaded police checks expired, they asked us to redo those. Not overjoyed about having to pay for those again. My partners medical checks are coming up for expiry too, so really hoping we don't get asked to do those again. It's the risk we took though and apart from the visa wait, everything else in Australia has been kind to us. Almost 13 month wait for us now. Hopefully not too much longer.

Thanks, yes, we've decided to renew as well. We let them know via Immi. Hopefully it doesn't delay things much.

Congrats @Muttley I hope we hear something positive soon too. Our timelines are similar to yours.

My partner has an 820 Visa application in progress (we have recently been asked to upload additional documents), however, her UK passport is due to expire shortly. What should we do? Should we renew the passport or let it expire? What is the best way to notify the immigration case officer that a visa should not be issued as a new passport is being issued.

Update: We've just been assigned a Case Officer. They are requesting a few more documents. Certified birth certificate of the sponsor and police clearance of various countries of the sponsor. Hopefully we can get this done soon and then it moves towards a decision.

Bumping this thread to share progress with others that are considering applying for an 820, or who are in the same boat (waiting for an 820). 8 months down, still no case officer assigned. Not really a surprise to us.

For those watching at home: 6 months down. Still awaiting a case officer.

5 months down. No change yet. Still awaiting a case officer.

@andana I am not a migration agent, and our visa has not been approved yet, but we have been advised that scanned copies of the originals are fine.

Another update for anybody interested in onshore 820 processing times. It has been almost 4 months for us and we have not been assigned a case-officer yet. We expected this, but thought we would update if anybody else was interested to know that they onshore really does take long to start moving.

I'll keep this thread updated on our progress with an onshore application. We front-loaded, purely out of naive optimism! So far, no case-officer assigned, as you'd expect. My partner's tourist visa expired and she is now on the bridging visa and starting work in Sept. We are secretly hoping we get a case-officer for Christmas, but at the same time, we know this isn't realistic. Fingers crossed things go quickly for you. And for us!

Just a quick update to let anybody know who is watching this post or wants an indication of the current onshore processing times. It's been 2 months for us so far, and there has been no movement yet. We are still awaiting a case officer. We knew and expected this, so we weren't hoping for any movement so soon anyway. Perhaps after 6-12 months we will see movement. A bit of good news is that my partner has secured a fixed-term contract job on the bridging visa and she starts next month. Good luck to any others waiting patiently for onshore applications.

I've successfully used Disclosure Scotland. https://www.mygov.scot/basic-disclosure/ Was accepted and I'm in Australia atm.

You should then be fine to apply for the partner visa onshore (assuming no new changes come in). You'll have a very long wait before you can have work rights, but your bridging visa should be granted shortly after you get your application submitted. If I was you, I would get the application in pronto, so you get the bridging grant notice and also your application is in before any changes come in.