CelinaOz

Hi Deenickolly, I'm in similar timings to you, well about a month behind you. It seems from this forum the "norm" is about 6/7 months (although I know some people are taking longer and the official timings are 10-14 months), so I'm sure you'll be ok for a January move.

 

It's great that your CO said you'd have the heads up before they grant. We haven't had any contact with ours since the first email introducing herself as yet.

 

It seems from what people are saying on here that the really quick applications are people that have been married for 10+ years and have children, is that true of the people on this thread that have had grants in 3ish months?

 

 

 

 

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Hi there! We had a quick approval - married 7 years, 2 children.

Wow, not long for you Mark! Super fast timings. We are still waiting to sell our house - been on the market for nearly 4 weeks. My husband may be offered a job in Sydney (we find out in the next couple of days), so we may end up starting our Oz journey there! Exciting times for us all. X

So so so envious. We submitted 1/2.CO assigned the same time as you BUT I then discovered that I wasn't Australian -I am the sponsor! I took out British citizenship in 1999 and unbeknown to myself, I lost my Ozzie citizenship- I have renewed passports -no trouble but obviously cannot sponsor my husband without Ozzie citizenship. If you thought that applying forthe visa was bad -try resumption of citizenship. You can onlydo it through Canberra- Australia House can't help- Theywont respond or accept any evidence by email; they deny receiving certificates which you resend but then it is held up by Border Control for 3 weeks. Eventually 2 1/2 months after starting the process they agree they have everything they need but it will take another 77 days to process. Why?

When I finally become an Aussie again we can restart visa process. We wanted to go out in October- seems highly unlikely as obv have to sort out our house here!!!!

Oh no, what a mare for you! Sounds like it's a royal pain getting it sorted. Fingers crossed for you it is sorted quickly.

I agree! We should all meet up for a drink once we are there!! It's been great to share this journey with others! The forum has been so hopeful and reassuring x

@CelinaOz @Aprilfool How's the planning coming along?

We aim to complete our house sale on 30th Sept, Mrs H and the Little one fly out on 2nd Oct, I finish work 7th Oct (28 years service), then plan to spend the week sorting out loose ends and plan to fly out mid October. The last 6 weeks has been somewhat of a whirlwind, so much still to do! We both plan to take the rest of the year off, before hitting 2017 full on. Exciting times ! Hope all well...........

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Wow, not long for you Mark! Super fast timings. We are still waiting to sell our house - been on the market for nearly 4 weeks. My husband may be offered a job in Sydney (we find out in the next couple of days), so we may end up starting our Oz journey there! Exciting times for us all. X

Great news........ So glad my two forum buddies @CelinaOz @Aprilfool and myself are all now Brisbane bound!!

Just what I was thinking. Lucky us, hey! Exciting times ahead.

Husband and daughters visas granted today!!!! So excited!!

Straight to 100 too x 6th March we applied so just over 4 months!!!

 

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Yahoooo! That's brilliant news, so pleased for you. It's a weight off your min is t it! We're planning to head to Brisbane early Dec to early Jan, depending on our house sale etc.

Ever had one of them days.........Visa approved this morning, house went on market at lunchtime, 1st viewing this afternoon, offer received and accepted !!

 

Today is a very very good day!

That's crazy!! Big congrats. Can't believe such a fast turnaround - what's your ETA to Oz?

Well, today is THE day, Visa approved........straight to 100.

 

Really mixed emotions, but a great relief that everything has now been confirmed.

 

This forum has been a god send over the last 6 months, so thanks for all your input, comments and support.

 

Now, just like everyone else, we have a house to sell and jobs to resign from!!

 

Next stop Bribie Island..........

Wahoooooo! Fantastic news - glad you've got yours now too. You're in the house selling gang. Our open day is 6th Aug - so crazily now trying to get the house perfected! X

Application for 309/100 on 23rd March 2016, Case Officer (N) assigned on 3rd June 2016, Medicals & Police Check requested(within 21days) 3rd June 2016.

Medical undertaken 13th June (Manchester) and approved 14th June

Police check requested 3rd June and received 18th June.

All uploaded 18th June and submitted.

 

Visa granted today, 15th July. 16 weeks and 2 days in total, or 3 months and 22 days! Relieved!

 

I was careful to submit lots of information. We have been together 10 years and married for 7 years almost and have 3 children so that wasn't hard. I consolidated a lot into PDF so that I could really include a lot of good quality and relevant info for my visa. I am lucky I'm quite sentimental as providing the social side of things like invites etc wasn't hard. Roll on house sale! [emoji16]

Congratulations to you. Nice to get it so quickly isn't it! We were rather shocked (& delighted) with 3 months & 5 days. You're in the same boat as us - our house is going on the market in two weeks, eek.

We've got an estate agent valuation & chat booked in this week - so reckon it will be going on the market soon, as who knows how long it will actually take! We don't have any nearby relatives to crash with so I just hope it all works out with timings.

@QPRMARK and I have a similar time frame but I think mine will take a little longer as we have been delayed getting the non migrating medical [emoji85] for my step son. It's been done today so fingers crossed once that has been received they should have everything they need! We are 4 months in now. @CelinaOz you were so lucky!! I will be happy if we get ours by September! Our moving date is 1st July next year so we are now all excitedly saying we move in less than a year!!!

 

 

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Fingers crossed for you! Hope it all goes to plan - least you have lots of time. We are now looking at going over at the end of Nov/early Dec - eeek! Just got to sell the house, hubs has to study to get Oz qualifications and get everything sorted.

Congrats.......8 months is one of the longest waits ive seen on here for while, albeit well within the given timeframe!!

 

im 5 months waiting now.......hopefully not too long for me!!

 

Good Luck

Hope yours comes soon Mark! Can't believe ours came after 3 months & 5 days - working out when to go now.

I'm in shock for you and excited at the same time hoping a few of us get quick results!!! Well done there was obviously no disputing it! Who was your CO? We have someone called V.

 

 

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We have WP as our case officer. Totally stunned as haven't seen anyone get it that quickly - having a cocktail to celebrate as we're on holiday in Portugal - good timing! Hopefully this means a few others will get a quick turnaround too.

Thanks - still in shock it was so fast! X

OMG OMG OMG!!!! We've just had our visa granted (both 309 and 100), after 3 months and 5 days - cannot quite believe it!! Wow. X

I learned so much from peoples stories on this site, so here is mine which I hope you can learn from too!

 

In May 2014 I applied for an onshore partner visa, my partner and I had only been living together for 8 months but due to financial reasons preventing us from obtain a property together we figured we had a good enough reason for the Department to grant our visa.

 

In March 2015 this visa was declined. We immediately lodged an appeal with the Migration Review Tribunal and supplied further supporting evidence.

 

In June 2015 I found out, from this site or one similar, that I could also apply for an offshore visa whilst the decision was being made on my declined application. Although an expensive option, we chose to lodge this as it would save us the pain of selling up and departing Australia should the tribunal not work out in our favour. So in June i went overseas on holiday, after applying for a bridging visa allowing me to depart and return to oz and successfully applied for a 309 offshore visa.

 

I immediately received an email asking me to provide scans of my fingerprints for identifying purposes. After asking my migration agent, checking the information on the Department's website and even asking an Australian immigration officer at the airport, I returned to Perth with the intention of providing my fingerprints in my local immigration office.

 

On Monday morning I called the Department to book an appointment in order to provide my fingerprints. To my absolute shock and horror they informed me that I was required to provide this information offshore. I explained to them that I had already returned to Perth and was told my application would never be processed unless I flew offshore again to provide my fingerprints (keep reading it gets better).

 

So bearing in mind I only had permission to leave and return to Australia for the next 7 days, the validity of my bridging visa, I immediately flew back offshore to provide my fingerprints. An expensive trip I could have done without. I provided the Department with my fingerprints and was advised my application would now be processed.

 

Still in June 2015 I returned to Perth to await my application to be process and for a hearing with the MRT.

 

Meanwhile, I lodged a formal complaint with the Department and subsequently the Commonwealth Ombudsman about the lack of information provided in the Departments request for my fingerprints... I was like cmon guys if you had written the words 'this must be done offshore' it would have been as clear as day that I needed to provided them whilst overseas!

 

After a couple of months of waiting I finally got a response from them... so it turns out I could have had my fingerprints could have been provided in Perth and they sent me back overseas incorrectly... can you even imagine my emotions when receiving that email??!?! They did apologise though! Pfffft!

 

Anyways on to the compensation claim, so as a result of incorrect information which directly casued me to be at a financial loss, I lodged a compensation claim though the CDDA scheme.

 

In Feb 2016 I was contacted by the Department of immigration in London about my 309 offshore visa, It was ready to be granted but as its an offshore visa I had to go overseas in order to allow this. In March 2016 I travelled overseas again and was granted my 309 Visa.

 

Also in March 2016 I was given $1900 in compensation by the Department for the incorrect advice on my fingerprints. At least they paid for my airfare, accommodation, and taxis hey! Oh and my leave from work!

 

On March the 15 I heard from the Tribunal, they had decided to overturn the decision on my onshore application. Thank you MRT!

 

In May 2016 I was contacted by the Department of immigration asking me to provide new medicals and police clearances. I immediately advised them that I had current and valid ones on their systems as I did them all as part of my offshore visa application. After a few days of confusion on their part and some processing errors I was granted the 801 onshore permanent resident visa! This was all done slightly before the 2 years after my lodgement date too so that is a bonus!

 

Complicated I know but if any of you can learn from this or have any questions please feel free to ask away

Oh my goodness, you have been through a long visa journey - at least you made it through and out the other side - eventually! Phew. Good of you to put it on here to help others.

Ditto Celina......my wife and I both work in London and have a 3 hour round daily commute, we moved out of London a few years ago for a semi rural life change, now we are going for a complete life change!!

 

You know you've made the right decision when your 4 year old says......... I love it when the sunshines and can play outside at nursery!!

Oh yes, totally - we can't wait to start the new chapter of our lives. My husband's job (Wealth Manager - advises people with alot of money spare, on investment, pensions etc), means he'll have to work in a city (we just didn't want Sydney or Melbourne), so we'll have to live a 30 mins commute away.

Ps A rough guess(!) you like QPR - that's my husband's team!

Out of interest where are we all moving to? I'm heading to Brisbane, QLD. I grew up in rural QLD but I have family and friends all over Brisbane and QLD so going back to where I know and love x

 

 

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We are looking at Adelaide or Brisbane (3rd choice being Perth) - I lived in Adelaide years ago and enjoyed the smaller city, short work commute and beaches on your doorstep - so think it would be a lovely family lifestyle. Although all depends on work opportunities for hubs & Adelaide isn't the best place for that.

We are also looking at Brisbane (although have never been before)...the things that slightly put me off is the humidity & the beaches aren't around the corner (unless you move towards them - then there's a longer commute to work and we'd like a 30 mins journey).

One of the main pulls for us is that currently my hubs works in London & has an almost 2 hour commute. We have a lovely house - if we moved to get a quicker commute, we'd be in shoebox comparatively. So we want more family time (less commute time), beaches nearby and a decent house. That's our ideal anyway!

@CelinaOz we wanted to get out for the new school year but as middle son is doing GCSE's we need to wait till he's finished them really. How old are your children?

 

 

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Yes, that's fair enough. They are 3.5 and 6.5 years, so only one of them is school age and it's nursery for other.

i think the end of Sept is well within reason, what are your plans once granted?

 

Ive got a job to quit and a house to sell, Mrs H is heading back (home) mid sept and I plan to follow by end of the year......all being well!!

We've got to sell our house too & hubs has to give 3 months work notice (but voluntary redundancy may be up for grabs shortly so weighing up just taking it!). We hope to get out end of this year/Jan ready for the school year start.

All a bit quiet on here, how is everyone doing on the application front ?

 

Ive just finished collating the requirements required from my CO

 

The waiting continues........

Hey Mark,

The police check was uploaded last week and medical was done on Tuesday - so we're just waiting for that to be uploaded. Nothing more to do as that was all the CO asked us for. So guess it's just a waiting game now - said to the hubstar tonight I reckon we'll get granted by end Sep!! You can but hope hey.

Quickie question....in the case officer letter it says to upload requested documents at the same time (in underlined & bold - so I think they want that, lol!!). We just have the medical & police check requested on the letter.

We have the police check certificate back now, so I'm going to upload it - the medical is next week and we don't have to upload anything for that, right(?), as the doctor does it his end.

So, my point is, these two documents won't be uploaded at the same time, but guessing that's OK as how can you know what date the doc will upload!

Thanks X

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@CelinaOz can I ask how you found out about your CO did they ring or email you? Does it changed the status on your application? I am hoping we might hear in the next month as we applied only a few weeks after you xx

Ps I have now checked my account Status and it still says Application Received but by my name it says 'Approved' - I am the sponsor, so I'm assuming this just means they have checked me & I am approved as a bonafide sponsor for my husband. X

@CelinaOz can I ask how you found out about your CO did they ring or email you? Does it changed the status on your application? I am hoping we might hear in the next month as we applied only a few weeks after you xx

Hi, we got an email with a letter attachment from our case officer introducing themselves & saying we needed Police Check & Medical. Not sure if it's changed on Immi account status as not got on the computer yet. Probably only a few weeks until you get the same! X

Thats great news, nice to see things are moving!!

 

so just short of 3 months for us both to have CO assigned.............

Yes, just over 10 weeks! Anyone know how long normally it takes for Doctors to upload the medical? As our letter from the CO asking for it within 21 days so I'm guessing it needs to be actually done within 2 weeks to allow a week for uploading?

Yahoo, we now have a Case Officer (WP) - just received an email advising to get a Medical & Police Check with 21 days. So happy to see something happening!

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