laf

14 minutes ago, SydneyBound said:

Very true, we are looking to buy in Sydney which is crazy prices at the moment. Need every penny we can get. We shall have to rent out our place for a while and rent in Sydney. 

We may have to weigh up the possibility of the exchange rate improving against ongoing price rises in Sydney and falls in the SE of England.

Should have done this a few years ago when it was $2.2 to the £.  Anyone like us wanting to sell up and buy a home in Aus will be seriously affected. Don't want to have to downgrade or move further out into the sticks .

I suppose I shall have to hope that it’s done quick. I fly in 17 days and hoped to activate it then. 

Would have expected it to be quick at that point it’s two simple forms. Strange,  and doesn’t bode well for me as mine was a complex request. 

1 minute ago, SydneyBound said:

And you provided them 10 days ago or are you still waiting on the one? 

I uploaded the Aus one a few days earlier followed by the UK one on the 4th when I clicked the button to finalise the application.

Just now, SydneyBound said:

10 days? Damn! I was hoping for a quick turn around with mine. Did you have a lot to provide or was it straight forward? 

Just my husband (my sponsor's) UK and Aus police checks. I'd already provided my UK check. Who knows whether everything is ready to go once they have those.

41 minutes ago, dondons1uk said:

I'm.so stressed about it. I can't even log in as all through an agent and I don't want to harass them. Seeing Ben's situation has made me super paranoid. 

 

I can't get my mind off waiting for this visa. I hate my life being in the hands of someone in this way. 

Using an agent should really take the pressure off and give you confidence but it seems even they can mess up.

40 minutes ago, SydneyBound said:

how long ago did you update the info? 

10 days now. I know it's not long....

It gave me a warning saying that they would process the application based on the information provided and the 28 days would no longer apply. 

Wonderful [emoji106]

25 minutes ago, TickledDragon said:

Not a 309, but our prospective marriage visa was granted today! 

We applied on 31st May, and got the grant email at 12.30pm today. We front loaded, and have had no contact until now - we were still on 'received' as of yesterday evening. 

Now to start planning! 

Congratulations!

Hi all, 
Additional evidence has been uploaded and I'm now waiting for my AFP check, how long did it take for other people? I called them yesterday and they said it could be up to 25 working days [emoji20]
 
 

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 

Congratulations, excellent news for you Floyd18!

14 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

It has to be a matter of days LAF, they just need to come back to it and tick off the additional info!  I have everything crossed for you!

Thanks Jon. Like you I'm a bit paranoid that I've done something wrong even though it's only been 8 days since I completed my application.

2 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

The one thing I have noticed when looking at Primary schools is the % of non English as first language pupils - which is a slight concern in some areas such as Chatswood, North Ryde etc.  I guess though the Chinese / Asian kids typically will have excellent English so I am probably reading too much into it, but Lane Cove / LC West Primary has a much lower %.

You would never know you were in Australia when walking around Chatswood and would definitely feel like a minority living there. Great if you like Asian food of course! Domain has a good suburb guide showing residents by ethnicity.

1 minute ago, Jon the Hat said:

I have fallen in love with Lane Cove remotely I think.  Hopefully it is as nice when we get there!  It is perfectly between the job which hopefully will now materialize in Macquarie Park and the City.  As you say a very expensive area generally, but Lane Cove a little bit less nuts than Mosman area.

So good you're in time for the new job. Yes Lane Cove's a great area. We also haven't been back there for many years but it's surrounded by lots of greenery and water which we love. We lived in a small unit in Mosman back in the day, could never afford a big enough place there now.

9 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

So relieved!  Thanks all.  Champagne will be coming out tonight!!

Enjoy the !!

That means it's been 9 months and 22 days for me, one of the slowest in this thread! 

3 hours ago, karlapatrick said:

Hi there!

Long time lurker on this post. Just wanted to chip in to let you guys know that I just got my visa granted this morning! Both 309 and 100.

Great news Karla, you must be so pleased. Best of luck for your future life.

We also plan to live in Sydney, Lower North Shore, one of the most expensive parts so will be interesting to see what we can afford, especially with the poor exchange rate. 

33 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

12:07 pm, then 12:08 PM today... 309 visa and 100 Visa GRANTED!!!!  

9 Months and 20 days!!!!  WOOHOO! Australia here we come!!!!!!

Fantastic news Jon. So pleased for you!!

1 hour ago, dondons1uk said:

My agent, rather depressingly, told me that it still may take the published timescales to get a final decision even though further information requested but I think that was backside covering.  They ask you to provide the info within 28 days so they must come back and review them as if people haven't provided the info in that time they would reject them.

I've done a bit of googling around and one migration agent advises it usually takes another 2 weeks from providing the info because you go back into their "awaiting further info" pile and they review them periodically.  So fingers crossed we won't be waiting too long!

Thanks for that info. Dondons. It's been a week since we provided the further and final info. (police checks) so let's all hope your second paragraph is their correct procedure!

6 hours ago, tsc said:

Hi all.

I received my 309 grant today. A bit disappointed that it wasn’t the 100 as well, but hey I definitely can’t complain.

We hadn’t been together for 3 years at the time of application (22.05.18), however we have been since July, so I was hoping they would take that into account prior to grant. Still very grateful though.

Best of luck to the rest of you, especially the March and April people. 

Great news tsc. Best of luck for your future.

More fab news; good luck all!

We got the email this morning. 309/100 granted overnight whilst we were asleep one half an hour after the other. We applied on May 9th via a migration agent with everything uploaded except the medical which was requested a few weeks later. We have heard nothing since then until now. I am british, my husband is an eligible NZ citizen - he lived in oz 1999-2001. We have both lived together in the UK pretty much since then. Married 13 years. 3 kids with dual NZ/UK citizenship also on the visa who were also granted permanent residency last night. Had booked flights this week regardless and I had a 3 month visitor visa. I am due to start work in february and my work there had starting looking into an additional temporary work sponsorship visa to ensure I could start. No need for that now. Slightly in shock but it’s an amazing feeling. Clearly they are suddenly processing their many piles of waiting visas.  Hopefully all of you waiting will get the news you want very soon. We didn’t believe it would happen then suddenly it does.  

We’ve had some exciting news today. My 309 and 100 visa has been granted! Very excited and champagne already opened. Good luck to everyone else waiting, fingers crossed it’s a short wait now they are rolling through.