kiwi_sparkles

On 28/12/2020 at 22:27, OZ4221 said:

Hey, does anyone know how long the wait is offshore in the uk?

Do you mean for the 461 application to be approved? 

We applied in March of this year and are still waiting.

23 hours ago, Aviavi said:

I applied visa 461 onshore on Jan 12 2018  .last time there was error in timing Still haven’t not received any information. Has anyone got their visa approved. Thanks in advance 

I've heard a few people have been approved this week -  their applications were submitted (onshore) in November 2017.

It's all secondhand information of course.  Could be wrong.

On 12/09/2020 at 02:35, Yvon said:

Hi, any news yet ? 

Nope..... still waiting.....

Wanted to post a mini update as my OH's application has finally been acknowledged.

We know it won't be processed any time soon, but at least it's in the system at long last... .only took five months to be logged ! 

On 03/07/2020 at 14:17, Aya said:

Oh no! Sounds stressful... It is annoying that they can't tell you if it has been lost or if it's sitting in a pile because of lockdown delays... Fingers crossed that your application is found soon! 

Thanks!  I swear it's sending me grey!  

Tried calling to see whether our application has been uploaded into their systems yet.  The call centre person agreed it should have been uploaded within a couple of weeks of being received, and a notification sent to us.  We know that hasn't happened.

They checked everything - passport numbers, address, emails etc - no record of our application, even though we have the courier receipt dated 19 March.

Also got told to check our Immiaccount payment (as we had to prepay the fee) as the application needed to be made within 30 days of submitting payment.... Sure enough - even though both the application and payment were received on 19 March, the Immiaccount thinks there is no application associated as the payment hasn't been claimed and it's sitting there waiting for me to request a refund.

So frustrating!  The call centre person doesn't know whether we should apply again or wait.

Just to be clear - I'm not complaining about processing times.  I'm just annoyed that no one seems to know *what* has happened to the application in the first place.

10 hours ago, Aleshia said:

Hopefully the borders will of opened again by the time the visa is processed too! It was only a 2 month wait for us in London last year

Ooh, that's nice and quick!! 

On 10/06/2020 at 19:49, paulhand said:

Pre-COVID both London & Sydney issued acknowledgments, usually within 24 hours or so, for 461 applications.
Beats me why they haven’t taken this online as well ... it’s basically a partner visa. I can’t see why it would be hard. 

@paulhand you are an excellent source of intel     

Here's hoping our application hasn't fallen down the back of a cabinet somewhere.

On 11/06/2020 at 04:06, Joycey90 said:

Good news they have acknowledged they recieved it and i have been granted a bridging visa. Now must wait i guess 2 years for the visa grant

@Joycey90  that's great news indeed.     

I'm currently looking at the temps in Brisbane, where it's coming into winter.... and it's warmer than our London summer.   Hurry up visa!!

2 hours ago, Joycey90 said:

Hey mate sorry to hear this. Any update on it? I lodged my 461 renewal via registered post last week and i am waiting for them to acknowledge they received it. not knowing they have even got it after all the work i put into it is pretty stressful. Any update from your side or can anyone tell me if you get an email from home affairs once they get the application?thanks 

It probably won't help much, as we lodged in London.  However we've not had any acknowledgement, other than the confirmation from the courier to say it was delivered back in March. 

From my digging around on the web, it seems some people have received acknowledgement in the past, and other's haven't.  At one point I did ring the number on the immigration website and some poor bugger (it goes through to Oz, and it must have been about 3am over there) went off to look in their system.  They said all the 461 documentation gets uploaded into the system (which begs the question, why the hell do we have to send paper docs in the first place?!) and that he couldn't see that it had been uploaded yet...   

But as Paulhand says the world has been in lock down, so while it's annoying I'm not surprised.   

8 hours ago, Csc1980 said:

How about south Brisbane such like Greenbank area? My concern is low crime rate, good schools, and jobs. Thanks

Thanks!

Just had to look that area up as I've not heard of it and I think it may be a little bit too far from the CBD.  I'm keen for low crime area (there's no kids so school's aren't an issue) but ideally it would be walking distance, or no more than 15-20 mins by train/river, to the city.  Not sure how crime in Brisbane compares to central London, but I suspect (although may well be wrong!) that Brisbane is a bit safer therefore being closer to CBD should be OK..... famous last words! 

On 21/05/2020 at 02:18, Aleshia said:

I don't know if we just got incredibly lucky or our personal application was just very straight forward.

I lodged ours by myself filled out all the paperwork etc. Submitted it offshore in London in May 2019 and we had it by September 2019 moved out here in November 2019. I too was super worried/stressed about the the wait times I think they're more relevant to lodging it here in Australia so I am not looking forward to renewing it again in 4.5 years. Hopefully you'll get some update soon, it is pretty minimal though I believe I got 1 email to say they had recieved it/begun processing it and then next I heard it was all done. COVID19 is most likely slowing it all down though. We were lucky to get out here before it all. 

On 21/05/2020 at 10:09, paulhand said:

This was a perfectly standard processing time for 461 visas lodged in London last year. 

On 21/05/2020 at 00:41, Jay M said:

Same boat. My 461 application is 26 months old now. I've gotten a bridging Visa paper but no acknowledgement / reference number. Called them number of times before, they said they couldn't provide information on this type of visa application - very very frustrating.

• 75% of applications: Unavailable due to low volume of applications.
• 90% of applications: Unavailable due to low volume of applications.

That is interesting to know about timescale for applications submitted in London.  I can only hope that it's still fairly short, although COVID will be impacting things now for sure.   

There must be a lot of this stuff that can be done remotely if people are working from home.  However it doesn't seem like they are processing anything right now as the timeframes on the website have stopped being updated.  I started tracking them in March (more out of curiosity than anything else), but they've stopped being updated as Jay M pointed out.  I am willing to bet that its definitely NOT due to low volume of applications.

Does anyone on this thread have any updates?  Finding other peoples experiences for 461s applications is proving tricky.  Lots of peeps posting info on other visa types, but not 461! 

Processing time, as of 28 Apr 2020 is now 33 months for 90% (I am sure it was <30 at the start of 2020) but strangely I'm sure the 75% timeframe has dropped since last month, from 27 to 25 months.   I am now keeping a spreadsheet to track this - mostly out of curiousity.

We only lodged my husbands application last month, just before the COVID lockdown began here in London so I think we are going to be in for a loooong wait.  I rang the customer services team a few days after I lodged it (an Aussie number) and they said we should get some sort of acknowedgement and a reference number once the data has been transferred into their system, but to call back in a month if we've not heard anything.  Called them on Monday, and they say it's not in their system yet. Suspect it's sitting in a post room gathering dust given everyone is working from home now.   

Yeah that's why I also mentioned an apartment.

No motels. I've nothing against them (we use them a lot when we do US road trips, and in NZ) , but for this trip, given importance of the visit, I want to stay somewhere extra nice.

So it'll either be a hotel, or an apartment.  If we end up in New Farm or West End then hopefully somewhere with a river view!

2 hours ago, BobHatton said:

New Farm, Fortitude Valley and West End would be my pick...

Thank you!  Sounds like we are in the right track.

Now the fun bit - to research some nice hotels 

8 hours ago, Jelly said:

These are all great. Also check out New Farm.

Thank you - will take a look!

Grrr, typing on my phone and it posted before I finished the title which should have said reconnaissance!

We are looking at relocating to either Auckland (I'm a kiwi, although lived in London since 1999) or Brisbane.