Anais_V

Visa granted - 309 and 100!!! Processing office was Berlin. Elated after the long wait!

For background:

• Belgian national, Australian citizen de facto - together for just under 3 years at application (no children)
• Applied 1 December 2019, frontloaded with everything but the medical
• Medical completed mid december 2019
• Arrived in Australia on visitor visa in March 2020
• RFI November 2020 for updated police checks as they had expired (Aus only)
• Wrote to the Berlin office to confirm I supplied all the information requested + restated the details of my case
• Visa grant onshore 2 March 2021

11 minutes ago, lepea said:

Visa grant - 309 and 100!! The email came through at 5.50pm Brisbane time. The processing office was the Australian Embassy Belgrade. 

omg, congratulations! That must be such a relief. Fingers crossed for everyone else (myself included ;-))

45 minutes ago, lepea said:

Just checking in on those in Australia still waiting for a visa. Anyone else hoping we all get grants after the 27th? 

Pretty much

Fingers crossed for everyone who's been waiting a long time!

8 minutes ago, Didgeridone said:

I found this to be the best forum for understanding the timings so just wanted to contribute.

Took the gamble and organised the Health Check and Police Checks ASAP.

• Australian with British partner (unmarried)- together 5.5 years.
• Partner application submitted online in the UK with all evidence - 18th January 2021
• Sponsor application completed with all evidence - 19th January 2021
• Australian and UK Police checks for both applicant and sponsor uploaded 25th January 2021
• Medical completed  - 12th February 2021
• 309/100 both granted - 17th February 2021  (no RFI)

Congrats. Wowsers. That must be a record! What office did this go through?

On 13/02/2021 at 09:44, lepea said:

Good news for those in Australia - from 27th Feb there will no requirement to be offshore for the 309/100 to be granted
 

https://covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au/covid-19-visa-concessions?fbclid=IwAR2pxgb8dDDj_x0UEMwggKBHs0lIYVAZXe56O-y_ZuARdazXDiOITjj4n5Q

That's excellent news! Thanks for sharing.

Just a quick update to say that I actually got a reply from the Berlin office after complaining about the long wait and the lack of communication. Not super informative, but the gist is that they (apparently) don't know when the off-shore requirement will be removed:

"Thank you for your email.

Please note that as you applied for your partner visa outside of Australia, it is a legal requirement that you must be outside of Australia for us to be able to grant your visa. Normally we would request that you travel outside of the country to allow grant. At the moment this of course is not possible.

There have been discussions in Australia to allow applicants to remain in the country for grant due to the pandemic. We are also awaiting further information in relation to this matter.

As soon as we are in a position to grant your visa we will contact you. Until then you will be required to apply for another visa to maintain your legal status in Australia."

18 minutes ago, ainzlondon79 said:

Hi @Anais_V we received the fantastic news this morning that both our 309 & 100 visa's were granted so hopefully yours is not far away as I have confirmed it was processed by the Berlin office... Needless to say we are super happy although slightly dreading sorting out flights and shipping our possessions 

Wow - that's fantastic news. You must be over the moon. Congrats and good luck with the move. She'll be right

11 hours ago, ainzlondon79 said:

We live in London (and applied in London) and we're also waiting for an update from the Berlin office after receiving an RFI in November 2020 and supplying the information in December. It seems there's a few people on this forum waiting on any kind of update from Berlin, I wonder if Germany extending its lockdown is having an impact? Hopefully we will all get good news some time soon 

Thanks - good to know it's not just us, but sorry to hear you're also still waiting. We applied on 1 December 2019, so 14 months today...Really hoping for a response soon!

I hope Comlay'90's fast turnaround for their approval (congrats!) means that things are moving along in the Berlin office. It also suggests that applications certainly do not just get added to a queue and processed in order. So frustrating. The whole process is just a black box, isn't it?

Fingers crossed for everyone!

Has anyone had any luck actually contacting the office that is processing their visa? I got a RFI in November 2020, from the Berlin office. I promptly supplied the documentation (police checks which had expired). Nothing since. I emailed them on the 3rd of Jan, but got nothing, then again today and got an automated reply. I was trying to get some kind of an update/complain about the time it is taking (>14 months) for an ostensibly very straightforward case. I did not put it in those words exactly, but that was the gist.

The automated email says that the inbox is only for people submitting paper applications to the Berlin office and that people should refer to the attached FAQs, the first of which is:

"I want an update on my application

Any requests for status updates sent to this mailbox will not be responded to.

Information on processing times for all visas can be found at https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-processing-times/global-visa-processing-times"

Super helpful

I def. read on this forum somehwere (sorry, can't find the post) that it's worth following up on email after you upload docs in response to the RFI as this may prompt the CO to pick up your application. This automated email leads me to conclude that might be wishful thinking... or ... is there a different email address to contact? 

Thanks for any and all insights. 

10 hours ago, Jet88 said:

Hi , can anyone please give me clarification on how long 309 partnership visas are taking to process in London at the moment? I am australian, my husband is English and I am wanting to move back to oz end of the year but have read 309 offshore applications can take up to 2 years! Does it actually take this long? If so, are we better off moving to australia, my husband arrive on a holiday visa then apply for a partner visa when onshore (i think this means he can't work for 3 months?) TIA   

Hi Jet88, it looks like a lot of applications are actually being processed by the Berlin office at the moment even if you applied in London. For up-to-date processing times, you might find this helpful: https://abcdiamond.com.au/subclass-309-visa-processing-times-in-2020/#:~:text=The average processing time for,an average of 11 months.

I've heard that other people have been successful coming to Australia on a visitor visa and then applying for the onshore partner visa. You should be fine as long as the visitor visa does not have a "no further stay" condition attached to it. If granted the Bridging Visa A when the visitor visa expires, your partner should get work rights, but I don't think that is 100% guaranteed. Perhaps a good idea to consult an agent for some expert advice

Good luck!  

Hi all,

I was just wondering if anyone has been able to find more information about the COVID-19 waiver for offshore applicants who happen to be onshore when their partner visa is granted? The official statement that it will be implemented "in early 2021" is so vague, it's really useless. 

It did make me wonder though whether they are holding off on granting any 309/100 visas for applicants that are currently onshore until this legislation comes into force. Or maybe I am just deluding myself that there is some kind of rationale for the lack of communication and the frustrating delays.

Cheers, Anais

On 04/01/2021 at 18:30, ainzlondon79 said:

@Anais_V  thanks so much for this! we completed our medical back in mid-December and nothing had happened with our application still at the "Initial assessment" stage even though we could see on the Health Assessment tab "health clearance provided - no action required". 

As this was the only piece of information requested on the RFI we didn't think we needed to do anything further until we discovered the same "I confirm I have uploaded the requested information" button on the uploads page. My guess is this appears for all RFI's even if the only item requested is the medical.

We've now clicked this and the application has moved to "further assessment" so hopefully this provides the prompt needed for someone to check the results of the medical. For anyone else that has received an RFI for a medical I would also recommend clicking this button on the bottom of the "Attach documents" page.

I don't know why they would hide the button at the bottom of the page . 

I read somewhere else that it might be worth replying to the email you receive with the RFI. Always worth a try, I suppose. 

I remain hopeful that I will soon get a decision, but I have not heard anything since I submitted the requested information in mid-November (it was just an updated police check). I also emailed the Berlin office (where my RFI came from), but to no avail either. My status still says "further assessment".

Good luck to all of us!

1 hour ago, Bella88 said:

Hi All, I was hoping to pick someone’s brain... applied end of April 2020 for our 309 and had RFI 30th November just for my partners police check. I have uploaded everything but nothing has changed in terms of the status of my account. It still states “initial assessment”. Am worried I have done something incorrectly or is this normal once RFI has been uploaded and you just wait (and hope) until they next look at it? Thanks so much

Hi - I am not entirely sure, but from memory, at the very bottom of the uploads page, there should be a button that says something like "I confirm I have uploaded the requested information". Make sure you click on that once you've uploaded all the documents. After I did that, it seemed to freeze further uploads. Can't remember if the status had already changed to "further assessment" before I did that. Hope that helps...

On 18/12/2020 at 20:40, Robin’s Emigrating said:

Thanks folks for all the replies. A couple more questions:

1. A few areas in the process talk about the need to 'Certify' documents. including passports and birth certificates. My Birth Certificate already has the line 'I xxx person certify that...' as part of the official document. Do you know if a further certification is still required and, if so, how we would obtain that here in the UK? 

2. For 888 Forms we've got 4 folks in Australia that will fill out on our behalf. I understand both these forms and their passports (surprisingly, given they're Oz citizens) also need to be certified. Is that your understanding? Also, once the form and passport are certified, do they just need to scan and send digital copies to us to upload?

Thanks again for all the wisdom!

Other than the stat decs, documents generally do not need to be certified, unless it is a translation, which does need to be done by a certified translator. I just submitted digital copies (scans) of my documents such as passport, ID card. 

I am also pretty sure you can only submit 2 stat decs (form 888) to support your case, so there is no need to ask 4 people to do it. In any case, we supplied two: a close (mutual) friend and the sponsor's mother.

Good luck with it!

1 hour ago, psuwara said:

It seems the Berlin VISA processing centre is picking up a lot of work. We just had an RFI, VISA Applied from Russia (100/309). We expected that our processing would take place in Belgrade Serbia, but it's been done in Berlin.

It looks like they are getting through a lot of the cases.

My RFI came from Berlin on the 3rd of November, too. Applied through the London office. 

Still waiting, but slightly hopeful and banking on German efficiency

58 minutes ago, taraken said:

Yes! My partner had an email in August saying that they were ready to grant once he'd left the country, but were very careful to say that they weren't telling him to leave the country, etc etc. He responded to say that it wasn't feasible for him to leave, and their response was that his application would be put on hold until he could go. He's on a bridging visa until his new tourist visa is approved, and we've applied for work rights on that, although not hopeful it will work. Otherwise, we'll wait until NZ opens up. The other dim hope is a private members bill going to parliament at the start of Dec, which specifically calls for 309s to be granted onshore. We're crossing our fingers, as would be a dream if it goes through...

Thanks, that's really helpful! I was worried they would tell you to leave ASAP... I had heard about the petition going to parliament, but wasn't holding my breath, TBH

Hi everyone,

Just wondering - Has anyone been granted their 309 while they were onshore in Australia (during COVID-19)? I'm interested to know what the time frame is that the Department gives you when they're ready to make a decision on the 309, but you're onshore. That is, how soon do they expect you to leave the country? Before COVID-19, a quick/cheap trip to e.g. Bali and back solved the problem. But can is it possible to stick around as long on a tourist visa and wait for things to calm down before leaving Australia and returning to active the 309? I mean, the leaving part is still feasible, but the coming back bit is obviously tricky. 

Appreciate any insights!

Perhaps a silly question, but when responding to an RFI from the department, do we just upload the requested information and then...wait? In our case, they wanted updated Aussie police checks as both mine and my partner's were about to expire. Not sure if uploading the new ones  under the "character" heading will trigger the CO to look at our application again, or is there another way to prompt some action?

Thanks in advance for your insights!

21 hours ago, keiraciara said:

Hello!

Posting here to let you know that they are making decisions!

We applied 28th November 2019, front loaded everything, no agent and heard nothing at all until yesterday when an email came saying we got the 309 and the 100!

Amazing. Can't believe it. I had set myself up for another year of wondering and waiting. I had been checking on here every day just to see whether there were anyone else who had some news that would give me reason to be optimistic, so now, hopefully I can do this for someone else!

Loads of luck everyone!

 

Congrats! Must be such a relief. I applied at about the same time and just got an RFI as well. Maybe that's coincidence, maybe the London office just started ramping up things again...? Fingers crossed for everyone here!

Just received an RFI, which seems really straighforward. They just want updated police checks as both mine and my partner's are about the expire. 

I applied in London on 1 December 2019, frontloaded the application, no agent.

Should I be optimistic about an impending decision? Either way, it's good to know someone is at least looking at our application!

I might be getting ahead of myself, but as I am currently in Australia, I wonder what happens if they do grant the visa. Presumably, I'd still be expected to leave the country and then return to activate the partner visa. Just doesn't seem such a great (or even feasible) prospect given the ongoing COVID dramas. Has anyone done this recently?

On 06/10/2020 at 03:34, moominfillyjonk said:

I emailed the London office and they said they are still  processing but at very reduced capacity. I randomly came across this piece of information which shows they are processing but at dramatically lower rates pre-COVID.

Also does anyone know when you apply for the offshore visa you can't apply for a bridging visa to work in Australia can you? I've mentioned this to a couple of people (who have Australian partners), that we might end up having to go over on a visitor visa but it means I won't be able to work and they keep saying why don't you just apply for a bridging visa? And I say you can't do that on the offshore one, and they say I'm sure you can! Now I am self-doubting 

I'm intrigued (and a bit depressed) by this... I hope they pick up again with this new budget. Out of curiosity, what is the email address for the London office? As part of freedom of information, can we request current processing volumes?

2 hours ago, GRS said:

I have heard of a few people who did repeat 600 because of covid and will require a medical if done onshore. Most were until Feb 2021, so i think government is hoping borders will re-open by then.

Dont want to be pessimistic but I think chances of visa coming through this year for 309 if you are onshore is pretty slim what with borders closed and passenger caps until at least october.   

As for that news item - there is a whole facebook group /page for the campaign (Grant Offshore Visa Partners Now - Australia).  The petition link is https://www.aph.gov.au/petition_list?id=EN1677  which can only be signed by Aus Citizens/Residents so more signatures the better for the government to take notice.

 

 

Thanks - will check out the petition!

Hi,

I applied (from London) on 1 December 2019. All documents front-loaded, save for a police certificate for my Aussie partner (he lived in South Africa for a time and apparently police certificates have to be applied for by post...still waiting on it!). As far as we know, no one has looked at our application. It still says "Received" in my immi account.

Before COVID-19 I travelled back and forth between London (where my work is based) and Perth (where my partner lives and works). I am able to work remotely, and I had my e-visitor, so was able to stay for up to 3 months at a time. Travelled to Perth in March, intending to stay for 2-3 months, but then COVID hit, the UK was a mess and everyone was working remotely, so no point in me going back to London. Before my 3 months was up I applied for a 600 visa. Had to wait 80 days (!) but finally got granted the 600 visa allowing me to stay another 6 months (until Feb 2021). 

We had hoped to get the partner visa by the end of this year, but with the processing times as they are now, I am not feeling very confident at all. Without a "no further stay" condition on my current 600 visa, I guess I could just apply for another one - does anyone have experience with repeat applications for a 600 visa? Would it be better to leave the country when my current 600 expires and just wait out the partner visa back in the UK? The timelines are so uncertain, which makes it difficult to plan...

Also wanted to ask if anyone on here is aware of/involved in this petition, see: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-10/visa-backlog-keeping-couples-apart-as-department-of-home-affairs/12539312). There appears to be talk of removing the requirement for off-shore applicants (who happen to be in Australia when the  partner visa is granted) to leave Australia and re-enter the country, because of COVID. I sure hope so! Hope the government takes notice and deals with this ridiculous backlog.

Good luck to everyone!