Juncobalt

1 hour ago, wattsy1982 said:

Is there a 'typical' amount of time between test and approval? or does it vary state to state, council to council?

I passed my test on 20th dec 2017 but not heard anything since. Only applied end of August so I know I'm lucky to get a test less than 4 months after applying.

We are in QLD, under Gold Coast City Council.

You may have to wait for very long time because enhanced integrity and identity checks will be performed to your application after test. If waiting for more than 8 months before test email, the app is a good one and will be approved very shortly once test done. 

1 hour ago, Eddie0719 said:

Hi @Juncobalt,

Thanks for your update.

I am not quite familiar with legal stuff so I called a local lawyer discussing my situation. However I was told by a kind lady lawyer that we or they could do nothing but wait at this stage. She also explained to me that due to backlog of applications from April onwards and short staffing from the DIBP the processing time becomes unpredictable and  has been beyond everyone's control.

I noticed that you are about to take some legal action, so can you please let me know what you could do to make a noise?

Ps: Applied 29 March 2017 - Exam 29 June 2017 - Nothing since then.

Thanks and regards,

Eddie  

That’s a common excuse of the department but it only works for the submissions after April 2017. If you have a good think you will agree with me. If they adhere to the time sequence of submission, the backlogs should be nothing to do with us whose applications are in the very first places of the queue. As we have seen on this forum, quite a few applications submitted recently and/or much later got approved on the same day or in a couple of days after test. This proves backlogs slowing down the processing to be a lie.

Additionally, in fact there are nearly equivalent total applications in 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 years as to 2016-2017 but there were never widespread delays occurred to the applicants. If carefully read Ombudsman report, it’s easy to find the true reason causing the widespread serious delays is their so called enhanced integrity and identity checks. Once again to be emphasized, the appalling delays in our applications are NOT caused due to checks themselves taking a lot of time, but due to the deactivation of applications (suspended), which is very clear in the report. 

24 minutes ago, londonluci said:

We are also getting increasingly frustrated and angry at the whole thing. My partners application submitted nearly 12 months ago now, test done and passed in June. Not a peep since. It's the inconsistency, lack of transparency and unfairness of the whole thing that is most unsettling. 

Hi londonluci, I can feel your pain as we are in the same boat. I do encourage these who are subjected to serious delays (i.e. in fact it should be 12 months instead of 14 months after submission and 7 months after test) to take strong actions against them. If everybody do nothing but wait silly, they will be acting as they want and think you do not mind or you can tolerate the serious delays no matter how long it is. This will be a disaster i am sure, coz once the time breaks the threshold (14 months), they will say so sorry we have not set the upper limit of time that an application to be finalized. This is also shown in Ombudsman report that some applications even have been for 5 years, ridiculous. Another reason why delayed applicants need acting now is that god knows when they will change this time frame again to 2 years or even longer.  It's hard to say for these crazy persons. 

18 hours ago, Sheila said:

75% are in 11 months. we already completed 8.75 months. 3-5 month is ceremony time. We should get approvals  by end of Jan or Feb ? @Elliot Tsao

Hi Sheila,

My experience suggests the situation may not be optimistic. Even 14 months is the time taken from lodgment to ceremony but they do not care. They tell you're eligible to complain and call again after 14 months expires; in fact till then they have already had you case delayed for at least 3 months (coz approval to ceremony takes at least 3 months as per the current time lines). To be even worse and ashamed, as what I guess, they always leave a back door to themselves, that is, 14 months is the time taken to processed 90% applications. 

Today, I called again I was told as such words plus they do a lot of checks. S**t words, Ombudsman reported whatever checks do not take 6-7 months and AISO also confirmed the external checks take at most 3-4 months. What's unacceptable is that they lied your application is being processed but in fact it is not processed (suspended). 

Next week, I will complain again to the Global Feedback Unit with a very formal complaint letter, if by the end not approved, decide to escalate legal action. 

10 minutes ago, Sheila said:

I was on bridging visa 4 around 3 months between two 457's, they did not ask anything?. In last 4 years, you should not be overseas 4 more than 1 year and not more than  3 months in last year which is pr year.  Better to check with migration agent

More precisely, it depends on the bridging visa type. If the holder has been onshore all the time between two visas (bridging visa A) there is no problem. But obviously he had a bridging visa after the valid substantial visa expired (Bridging E) due to MRT. 

22 hours ago, Vir said:

Hi everyone, 

i got a question regarding to apply for citizenship.

i arrived in Australia in 2009 on student visa, in 2013 I applied 457 visa after complete my study and visa was approved in couple of month but due to my employer fault IMMI canceled my employer nomination in 2015 so I can’t apply my ens (permanent residency) after few month they cancel my visa as well because I can’t found new employer And I got bridging visa E, I applied MRT which was not successful then federal but I withdraw federal before hearing and go back to my country then I applied Rsms offsure which was approved in 8 month and I come back may 2017 after 9 month so my question is am I eligible to apply for my citizenship in may 2018 or not or I need to wait again 4 year? 

Thxs to all 

You’re not eligible in May 2018 coz ur valid visa was discontinued for some time. Ur new residence requirement is calculated from May 2017 and will be met after 4 years since then. More specifically, u ever held a bridging visa for quite a long time, whigh is one of the factors disqualifying you with residency requirement as DIBP designated. Please refer to https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/Trav/Ente/Retu/residence-calculator

6 hours ago, Eddie0719 said:

Hi @Chris N Lora

Thanks for your reply.

I just checked everything I received from the DIBP. I firmly believe that I didnt receive the letter you uploaded. @Juncobalt how about you?

 

 Chris, thanks for ur example letter. Eddie, I confirmed to have not received such a letter with application ID. Only got an email for the test appointment. It’s very hard to understand why they do things in a very different way. This is typically unprofessional conduct. But it’s not strange coz they are immi, as all that they have been doing throughout citi processing. Inconsistency and no standards are their work guidelines. LOL

54 minutes ago, Eddie0719 said:

Hi @Juncobalt

Correct you and I dont have the so-called reference ID.

Your case seems very uncommon. Have you tried to call them? If so what did they say? May I please know your original nationality?

 All the best,

Eddie

Hi Eddie, we are from the same home country. Called Sep they said wait; called half month ago said wait. This Monday made an online complaint to Global Unit of the dept with a complaint letter. Then wrote the app in final stage but couldn’t give a definitive waiting time and with the above explanation. Their excuses have been abused and always in my expectation. 

4 minutes ago, Chris N Lora said:

hi Juncobalt. did you use the client ID or the application ID? ... I used the application id, when  the immigration Dept emailed you the "Acknowledgement of receipt of an application for Australian citizenship" open up the PDF, look down to the application id just above the email address you gave you, should be an 8 digit ID number. ... if you enter that one it should work.... same for you eddie. 

 

Chris 

Thank you Chris, but unfortunately DIBP just sent me a 'Citizenship Correspondence Email for a Test Appointment' no acknowledgement email at all. So there is only a client ID in this email; they are too unprofessional, anything relating to citizenship application seems to variable. For example, Eddie, u and I all come from NSW, u have application ID but not the case for Eddie and me. 

They process the applications totally inconsistently, arbitrarily, no standard, very randomly, lack of fairness, using the case by case and complexity of the cases as the excuses I mentioned. In brief, this dept is disappointing. My app has exceeded 13 months since submission and 6 months after test. I made a formal writing complaint but very disappointing is such that a reply as below

'you will appreciate that applications for citizenship are assessed on an individual basis.  Where relevant, a case may be forwarded to another part of the Department to assist with the assessment of your case.  Sometimes an applicant may be asked to provide additional information and/or attend an additional interview to assist in completing the assessment.

The length of time taken to complete an assessment varies for individual cases and may be undertaken at any point in the citizenship application process.  Timeframes depend on factors such as the number of applications the Department is dealing with, the individual circumstances of an applicant and the complexity of resolving each of the criteria in the application.' 

To be intolerable is that they lie to us, saying that ur case is complex and many factors take time or so called checks. The excuse of delays due to security checks (most time consuming procedure) have been negated by clarification of ASIO that only a very small percentage of these have been caused by errors resulting in a delay in the completion of the security

assessment.(https://www.igis.gov.au/complaints/immigration-matters). Also, a series of 'may' factors, e.g.,  providing additional information and/or attending an additional interview are also liars coz request to additional information and/or an additional interview did not occur to delayed applicants at all. This confirms their excuses. I don't believe anybody recognizes it's fair to process the very fresh apps first, making it approved on the same date of the test of just a few days after test. We are in the very first places of this so long queue but these stupid persons put these late applications in front of us to cut in line.

This is to say, if they are so accountable to care ur case, just a few hours work to make it complete, not too complex taking half or even more than 1 year but if they put aside and never look after application, it will be endless waiting and becomes so 'complex' from their mouths.

24 minutes ago, Chris N Lora said:

Hey Eddie, I have been able to upload my application on line ...

If you have an immi account, all you need to do is copy and paste the reference number of your applications, add you date of birth, passport number, and country.

Once that is done, it should import the application on to the online account, I hope it helps I did it today. 

Hi Chris N Lora, there seems no way importing the paper application into the immi account due to no application ID for paper applications. The DIBP website says citizenship paper application is not importable. I tried to use Client ID as an application ID when importing but no luck. Do u have an application ID (NOT Client ID) in the acknowledgement email for ur paper application?

On 2017/12/7 at 11:52, Ali W said:

 

The citizenship application residency requirement needs no more than 90 days in the year immediately before applying. So if there are more than 90 days of 101 in this year, It seems he is ineligible to apply in 2017. 

On 11/29/2017 at 09:24, Eddie0719 said:

A person from my council did the exam on 28 Nov and got his approval letter straightaway after the exam...

While I ve been waiting for 5 months after the exam.

Application: 09.09.2017
Test email: 09.11.2017
Test: 23.11.2017
Update from Received to Approved on online account: 23.11.2017
Approval letter received: 29.11.2017 (dated 23.11.2017)

3 hours ago, Eddie0719 said:

A person from my council did the exam on 28 Nov and got his approval letter straightaway after the exam...

While I ve been waiting for 5 months after the exam.

I am worrying about their another excuse that 'sorry, Mr Eddie 0719 you belong to the 10% we don't say 90% applications are sure to be processed in 13 months and NEVER PROMISE, that's just an estimate and statistics'. Plus case by case excuse so we are desperate even if the expected time is due. Mine is an example. They are no care, no responsibility, no accountability to us. 

According to the cases you mentioned above (not the only one) and the fact that permanent resident applicants from the same home country got approved in a significantly varying time, it can be concluded that 1) the so called checks are just excuse they use to deal with the applicants' ANGRY inquiries or complaints on delayed cases. If they checks do exist, the approval timeline for applicants from the same risk rating country should be very similar (a small variance) but it's not the case. 2) some applications in citizenship and PR got approval letter straightaway after the exam (for PR is the submission) suggests the so-called checks are not done on these cases, wherever such applicants come from because EXCEPT security check but police check and other checks at least take some time but now it's 0 day. It can be deduced from 2) the so-called checks are not needed and performed to case, but if your cases happen to be delayed, sorry guys you're unlucky to be 'CHECKED'.  There is no way for us to know whether or not it's indeed subject to checks so there is no NO SOLUTION to this excuse, either. LOL

Don't forget they have the last one 'you are coincidentally not in the 90%' ; tragically, they do not have the timeline for this 10%. 

On 11/28/2017 at 09:58, Eddie0719 said:

Citizenship Application: 27/03/2017 Acknowledgement: 27/03/2017 Online / Paper - Paper Test Email. - Citizenship Test 29/6/2017 -Citizenship approval letter TBA  - Date of ceremony - TBA - Type of ceremony Normal

Hi Eddie0719,

Same things are happening to me as well. Cannot apply for the jobs requiring citizenship. What's worse is, I have been unable to do any international travel for more than 1 year. What a shit!  I don't know why such low quality staff can get employed there but it's not strange because the department is so. 

Called last Monday and got nothing. Still asked waiting as they did in Sept over the phone and didn't say how long. Frankly, very disappointing.  Believe most agree with that approvals and/or or even ceremony finalization on the applications lodged far latter have destroyed the fairness.  

Quoted kiwi2768's thread:

Honestly, I'm of the opinion that if the DIBP were a private company they would have gone out of business years ago due to sheer incompetence. There is absolutely no excuse for people to be waiting more than six months for their citizenship application to be approved. I'm sure their motto is "No care, no responsibility, no accountability." 

29 minutes ago, Eddie0719 said:

I feel a bit depressed...It is so annoying that we had to change our Christmas travelling plan from overseas to domestic....

Hi Eddie0719, this is why we feel quite upset and disgusting if our application gets 'suspended' for approval for long long time. Waiting does not just waiting itself but means a lot, in particular, when we have overseas travel plans. Also, some jobs  may require citizenship; the waiting deprives those on 'waiting list' of the eligibility for job application.

I have been unable to do any overseas traveling since the application submitted more than 1 year before. Called this Monday but as expected they are nothing but helpless, always asking to wait. If they were placed on our situations, they would feel even more painful and might never say that endless waiting.  

Anyway, I will complain next week as mine has exceeded 12 months, still not getting approved. Their time line is 13 months taken for application lodgment to ceremony. Nobody will expect 1 month from approval to ceremony following their normal procedures (even if my app gets approved now). So it means my case is significantly beyond the time frame. I have to say how irresponsible and indifferent such case officers are. 

14 hours ago, Nemesis said:

They check Australian police records - not just serious stuff, but anything, including intelligence. they check ASIO records (national security), which includes things like No-Fly lists, security countries you may have visited since becoming PR.

Doing checks is just their excuse and the only one can be used to tackle with the complaints or the flooding incoming enquiry calls. The fact is the Dept does not have the capacity to process so many applications (various categories) in a limited time frame, in addition to poor organisational skills or indifference of some staff, which makes certain cases, i.e., these 'pending ones' unattended for very long time once undergone so-called checks. This is the main reason why the processing system seems chaotic and does not follow the chronological order. It's also why in this April they had changed the expected processing time from 6 months to 14 months, LOL, actually, they can change to 2 years or even a lot longer so as to have enough buffer time before the hotline jamed.

On 11/10/2017 at 15:09, Sheila said:

140 days and waiting

Hi Sheila,

We are on the same boat LOL. I have been waiting for more than 150 days since the test was done on 14 June, 2017 but there is still no approval letter. Quite annoyed and very disappointed at this Dept and its slackers employees. My application has been 12 months (paper application handed over to DIBP in person on 16/11/2016); called inquiry hotline but felt helpless.

They never sympathetic to those who have been waiting for so so long due to their problematic processing system and would be good at kicking the ball with the words 'case by case'. They are too powerful so that we cannot do anything except waiting, coz they always run around with the words 'doing checks' or 'case by case' to silence us when we r mentioning most others attended test much later have got approved. 

Don't believe they are pouring the approval letter these days, I would rather infer some irresponsible COs put aside certain unlucky applications like mine and those have already been waiting quite a few months. Frankly, it's unfair and not rational to address the applications in this way. Would u guys suggest us long-awaited applicants to make strong complaints to immi?   

Cheers.