BacktoOz83

8 hours ago, Ben34uk said:

Has anyone done a aat review on a visa or know anyone 

 

You can look up judgments on Austlii under the Migration Tribunal. Also, if it interests you, you can go to the MARA page and there is a list of agents who have been barred and reasons why and there's more than a few who have not uploaded documents resulting in refusals. It makes for interesting reading.

33 minutes ago, laf said:

Congratulations BacktoOz!! I also received mine this afternoon. Both the 309 and 100. So relieved. Have to arrive before 23 March so can now look forward to a summer trip.
Thinking of all you still waiting. Katiebobbles you will be next I'm sure.

Congrats! They must've been clearing their desks for the weekend! 

Hi all,

Well most bizarrely and unexpectedly we got our visa today!

It was unexpected because we were asked for police clearances (extra ones as my husband had declared some convictions in other countries) and we uploaded these exactly a month after they were requested. Then straight away the CO emailed our agent asking for us to sign a further disclosure form which was weird but asked to give permission for NZ police to confirm how many "letters of police clearance we had received (still don't understand this relevance) but we signed it electronically and sent back same day. Our agent told us it was uploaded but that  it would likely take time for them to process the form then request the info from NZ etc (plus NZ were the ones we waited for an entire month for the police clearance) but we received the grant the next day!! That is bizarrely quick without factoring time differences in!! We had all just recovered from a housewide sick bug and put our Xmas decorations up when we got the email at 5pm so we are currently celebrating!  Our timeline below for interested sake:

Lodged 12 April 2018

Info req: 29 Oct 2018

Submitted: 29 Nov 2018

Further form to sign and submitted: 29 Nov 2018

Grant received: 30 Nov 2018

3 minutes ago, Thisforumisalifesaver said:

Spoke to the Aus High Commisson on Friday...  apparently my profile on their system they've somehow incorrectly marked me as an Aussie citizen. They said it's a system issue at their end and sent a request to their processing team to correct my profile (back to UK citizen). What a howler! Anyways I'm hoping for them to drop me a call today/tomorrow so this is sorted out before my morning flight to Melbourne on 28th Nov. The chap on the phone said he's only ever seen this happen once before.. 

Maybe it will also move your application to the top of the pile somehow too? Just approve it and be done with It? Fingers crossed! 

5 minutes ago, adelaidian said:

Hi laf and further info peeps,

I'm new here and I just wanted to show you some support because my partner and I are going through pretty much the same situation! we are using a migrant agent so we can't check the progress on immi website. our visa application (820) got refused previously due to some stupid technical mistake so we can't afford to get it refused again!! We are just hoping the police checks that they asked for are the only documents they need to finalized the application! 

Oh no - why on earth was it refused? Did you use an agent last time too?

Good luck - hoping they circle back around to us who have been asked for further info soon!

Oh la la London is going off again! Congratulations to all. Disappointed our NZ Police report is taking so long (over 3 weeks now) and we have managed to get an Australian one, Portuguese one and have it translated in the meantime. It's so frustrating feeling that we are treading water waiting for further info. Gaaah! 

4 hours ago, Katiebobbles said:

Lol.... I heard on a forum ages ago (before I applied) someone believed that there were more 309s granted at the start and end if the month ...... so I have now resigned myself to not hearing until then .... I mean if they want to prove me wrong and send me a golden email today I am not against that ... in these cases I like being wrong!!!!.... but for my sanity I am choosing to believe that.
I have to say since having the request I have found myself being a little all consumed by this and I have to go back to the previous mindset of just wait to see when we hear from them. I am getting into some right states of what if there is a problem, should I have done more ..... there is nothing to be done now I just have to trust I gave enough to prove we are genuine (I mean if you met my hubby you would know it is ... No way you have 8 years and a sprog together for a visa ..... there are easier ways in (And shorter life sentences!!!))
But it's so hard that someone you never meet and never talk to can hold your whole future in their hands ....

Katie I have noticed that too and when I read someone else had, I felt completely validated ha! Yes there was definitely a trend for UK visas at the end/beginning of the month, almost like clockwork for a while. I am kind of hoping that there is some weird process in which they do all their reading processing out in the middle and then approvals in one go, so all of us who have had requests for info will come through in one great lot soon! At the very least the new processing times should be published soon and will have hopefully come down again.

Hi Ben

17 hours ago, Ben34uk said:

Nice to see everyone getting there visas. Looking more like 2 years for mine. 

Here was my post from April  have appealed the decision in June with the AAT but been told will take up to 18 months to get a court date for the appeal then go from there I guess  whole thing been a nightmare 

 

 

Hi all. 

Ok so I applied for my partner visa on the 6th March 2018, my Mara agent sent all the supporting evidence along with the visa application and as far as we knew all was great 

after 4 weeks we received an email from the embassy with a refusal letter stating they hadn’t got any of the supporting evidence 

there was a note on the log in page on the immi account that some clients were experiencing technical difficulties uploading documents but as far as my agent saw everything had been uploaded 

We applied for a refund to which they refused that  we are now in the process of appeal  it has been 2 months since we sent the documents off 

has anyone got any experience in this section with regards to how long the appeal will take   

We feel like after paying £5.5k not one person at the embassy has even looked at our application and due to an error there end we are suffering because of thus 

The whole situation is terrible the way the embassy have dealt with us  and to see on this forum someone else applied a month before us and they were approved within 23 calendar days 

We are in exactly the same position as you, gave our docs to our agent who claims to have uploaded them in Dec 17 with our application and then in Feb it was refused. Agent didn't even realise it was refused until we prompted her to log in in April 18! We believe that she just didn't upload the documents and thought she would have more time or would get some kind of prompt from the Dept (perhaps about medicals etc) before she did so but they changed the way they were doing things and just started rejecting applications without supporting docs. Do you have any proof your agent did upload? Our agent has paid the fee to reapply and we did so in April 18. I plan to ask for a partial refund as well. Could you perhaps speak to another agent and ask how legitimate it is that there was just an IT error? Perhaps do a subject access request for info from the Dept of Immigration which may confirm no docs were uploaded. It is worth pursuing I think. Having outsourced the job of specifically uploading the documents, I would think an agent should keep screenshots or similar as proof that it has been done. You can look up the MARA agents code of conduct online too. It is hugely upsetting, we too feel as though we have been waiting forever but please don't be fobbed off by the agent, of course they will claim "IT issue. Also as with us now that you have had s visa refusal you will have to declare it if it is ever asked on future visa applications for other countries so it has serious implications aside from the money.

Best of luck x

Still waiting here too dondons, although we are waiting on police certs so we are sort of on hold until they come through. The AFP one was done on the same day we applied but the NZ one is apparently likely to take the full 28 days! It's so frustrating seeing a load of grants come through and know we aren't even in the running at the moment! 

On 01/11/2018 at 16:28, Jon the Hat said:

We will be heading to Brisvegas too! Will have to arrange a pomsinoz catch up!

Wow congratulations! On a Saturday too!  Fantastic news!  Things are really flying at the moment, I hope the police checks we were asked for hurry up and arrive before this period of speediness changes!

Wow it's so funny that there is suddenly so much happening when nothing seemed to move for months and months. Long may it continue!

Yep Jon we are 12 April, you are March I think? Hopefully final sign offs for you and the grant will just appear in your inbox one day! We actually originally lodged in Dec 17 but our rubbish lawyer thought she would have more time to upload the docs I had sent her and by Feb it was refused - she didn't even realise until April! She did pay for another application but the long and short of it is that we feel we have been waiting nearly a year now! I am still unsure if we will even get it with my husband's criminal record - nothing over or near 12 months imprisonment but definitely a few things on there, so worried they will decide it is enough want to refuse it. Anyway all our checks are being applied for today so fingers crossed they arrive swiftly! Mhaffie how long was it that your grant came in? Am hoping for pre Xmas! 

Hi guys,

We have just had a request for information - police certificates. Ours was front loaded however my husband has a few things on his police record - one of which occurred in Portugal whilst on holiday so they have requested a Portuguese police check and we also submitted a police check for NZ because he knew he had a DUI so they have asked for an up to date NZ police check too. They've also asked for an Aus Police check which makes sense given the circumstances. So we have a bit of work to do to get it all done and submitted within the 28 days but it's positive to know that things are progressing!

I

9 hours ago, dondons1uk said:

I've been trawling forums all night driving myself crazy about when these visas may come in. 

Did anyone get grade b on their medical and have to go for extra health checks? I did and I submitted a full report which should be fine but it's made me worried my case will be judged complex or something and over looked. I have a mild auto immune condition fully managed by meds and my rheumatologist wrote a letter confirming this and that I'm not expected to have any relapse so I think I'm worrying about nothing again. 

It was almost easier when nothing was happening as it made me not think about it but now I know grants are occuring it's somehow made me more anxious!! 

I am absolutely no expert and in fact know nothing about the medical side of things visa wise however I have seen someone recently approved for a work visa (not sure which sort as I don't really pay much attention to visa types other than 309s) who had suffered with Leukemia about 6 years prior.  As I say, I have literally no idea how that compares in the eyes of a case officer but perhaps joining the Poms Wanting Oz facebook page might help you?  Good luck!

27 minutes ago, mhaffie said:

Hi All, exciting news, just had my 309 and 100 granted. Applied 2nd of April, without an agent. Request for sponsors UK and Australian police checks on 9th October, received and uploaded 20th...granted today. I hope this gives some hope to all others still waiting. It’s a relief to have the email and to be able to focus on something else. Fingers crossed you all get your grants soon and you can start making plans for the future....congratulations too to those who have also recently had their grants x

Oh wow! They are really rolling in at the moment! Congratulations! Will you have Christmas in Oz? 

Congrats!  So pleased for you!  I know it's frustrating for those of us who have lodged beforehand but based on the amount of us I've seen who have families, or who have been together for a long or short time, they don't seem to cherry pick on that basis and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it.  I am just pleased that things appear to be moving quickly in London at the moment and that can only be good for all of us!  It's certainly the most optimistic I've been in months. Fingers crossed for everyone!

2 hours ago, laf said:

I've just received the request from a case officer for my husband to carry out UK and Aus police checks.  It looks as if things are moving for us at last. 

Brilliant news! Hopefully March and April are now moving into the processing frame! Perhaps we can start to be cautiously optimistic about a grant this side of Christmas!

I totally agree, and think the view is likely the same everywhere but given how thorough they claim their checks to be, one would expect them to tick that box, male or female. In this day and age it seems an extraordinary decision that someone has made! I find this whole process so infuriating because so much is sort of hidden - nothing is transparent and to an extent I think that's fine but to pay $7k and not even be able to question anything is just madness.

How odd (and sexist!) that only men are required to get an Aus police clearance - women are capable of domestic violence too if that is the angle. That's interesting about the 10 month point, I have seen more visa grants (albeit all out of India) and movement on UK visas (on this board) than I have for ages. Perhaps it's just coincidence but I feel more optimistic than I have for ages. I too am hoping that having applied in April means we might get something between the 6 months and 10 months. On the plus side there doesn't seem to be too many people from early 2018 around any more does there?

1 hour ago, Katiebobbles said:

I agree Jon. We all have stuff that would be a lot easier if we had the golden email or just knowledge of when they would look at the application but this is the problem with something so opaque. We have to just stay as positive as we can and put in place what we can in the meantime.
Laf - you will defo need the Aus checks so maybe get those completed so you know you have a decision ready application.... i assume you have front loaded???
Fingers crossed these requests mean we are starting to get some movement and we all hear soon

Ooh now I'm confused. I haven't submitted my Oz police check as sponsor because I haven't lived there for over 12 months in the past 10 years. I thought that was ok (everything else for my husband's application is front loaded ie both our UK police checks). My migration agent certainly didn't mention it. I don't want to spend money I don't need to but also don't want to delay things. Has anyone been in a similar situation and was asked for Aus police checks? We lodged 12 April 2018 and yet to hear anything...