ainzlondon79

26 minutes ago, Nicko said:

Hey guys just wanted to share our timelines, as my wife has just received both her 309 & 100 in just under 3 months.

• Application Received 19th May
• RFI for my 2 children's birth certificates and mine and my wife's - 24th May
• RFI for AFP certificate - July 1st 
• uploaded certificate - August 3rd
• 309/100 visa granted today - August 13th

We front-loaded the medical and UK police checks. I knew they were issuing them quickly but we never thought it would be before September. We are so happy, lots to organize now.

congratulations @Nicko that's awesome news!

17 minutes ago, Nicko said:

Sorry, I started a new thread amd should have put it in here. I’m a dual citizen and Just been asked for a AFP Certificate even though I have lived in the Uk for 20years and still here. I uploaded the uk one now they are asking for this.

Hey Nick - yeah we had the same. As the sponsor you need BOTH UK and AUS police checks. The visa applicant only needs police certificates for anywhere they have lived for over 12 months. Make sure you order the correct one from Australia too as there are different categories, you need the one with full disclosure.

1 hour ago, Robin’s Emigrating said:

Just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone for all of your help with organising visas and such! We’re now in Melbourne and hunkered for quarantine in a health hotel (my daughter had a very slight cough from a previous cold that wouldn’t go away, and they weren’t taking any chances!).

All the best for all of you, and feel free to reach out if I can ever be of any help.

wow @Robin’s Emigrating congratulations on actually making it home! Can I ask who you ended up flying with? We're all booked with Qatar for September but we are pretty worried about about being bumped at the last minute! Our kids always have (non-Covid) related coughs too so I wonder if we'll end up in a health hotel too then

16 minutes ago, Bella88 said:

- Visa 309/100 granted 4th March 2021!

thanks to this forum I was made aware of the sneaky little button at the bottom of the “upload docs” page you need to click once uploaded your RFI.

Congrats @Bella88 you must be so pleased! don't feel bad we also missed the sneaky little button after we completed our medical

Congrats also to @GRS that's really appalling how long you have had to wait... I hope there is no one else left on the forum now that has been waiting longer than this

On 01/03/2021 at 09:21, lepea said:

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

Congratulations @lepea I think you and @Anais_V have been waiting the longest, the on-shore rule change seems to have had an effect... must be a huge relief 

1 minute ago, Anais_V said:

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

 

 

 

Congratulations @Anais_V you must be so happy after the long wait! It's so good to see so many approvals coming through now 

On 01/02/2021 at 01:10, Anais_V said:

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!

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 

On 29/01/2021 at 23:54, Chocci said:

Wondering if anyone in London had any visas granted by the Berlin office in the past couple of weeks? 

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 

5 hours ago, darch said:

Hi all, like a few others on here, I've just received my 100 visa - hang in there if you are waiting to hear! Despite applying to London, mine was handled out of Berlin and after hearing nothing since application for 309/100 in April, got an RFI to get health checks, and for my wife (& sponsor) to redo one of the forms, which had apparently been changed since we submitted. I had originally held off on getting the health checks as had been advised they were only valid for a year, and with the estimated timelines for the visa up at 18 + months, didn't want to have to do them twice! Once we those in last week, I got the grant notifications just a day or two later, for both 309 and then immediately 100 

Wow! Congratulations @darch you must be so pleased. It's great to hear the Berlin office is again processing applications after being closed over christmas.

Can I ask exactly when you submitted your RFI?

28 minutes ago, Robin’s Emigrating said:

Folks. Can anyone remind me how long the UK police certificates are considered valid for with the Australian authorities? Initially thought it was 6 months, but the website says 1 year for Australian police checks, so wondering if the UK is the same. If they are I will get ours now!

@Robin’s Emigrating 99% certain that the ACRO police certificates are valid for 12 months. I checked my ACRO and there is a "Date of creation" (21-09-2020) and a "Date printed" (28-09-2020) which was about a week later. I'm not sure which one they go off when determining the 12 months!

On 24/12/2020 at 01:23, Anais_V said:

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...

@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.

18 hours ago, Anais_V said:

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.

@Robin’s Emigrating to clarify on this it will happily allow you to submit more than 2 Form 888's under the relevant section of the document attachments if you wish. We submitted 4 just to be on the safe side with a mix of friends and family from both sides. I've got no idea whether it helps or not as not got the visa through yet - I'm sure 2 would be fine

Hi all, just wanted to provide an update as we received an RFI for our medical today! This was the only item requested. It has caught us out as we only had the medical booked for the 14th December! It has come from the Berlin office, so as others have said it does appear they are picking up a lot of work for London office applications. It makes me wonder if we had the medical earlier we might just have got our visa today... never mind, will see what happens after we complete the medical and it gets uploaded, still might get our visa before xmas, what a wonderful present that would be 

We only applied in September so it's not even been 3 months yet. It is clear that they are now processing applications much faster and people should ignore the 17 month timeframe quoted on the immigration website, make sure your applications are fully front loaded and get your police and medical checks as soon as possible!

54 minutes ago, bicek said:

Has anyone else got any experience of how long it took for your ACRO police check to be turned around?

Hi @bicek I had a quick look... we requested our ACRO on 12th September and we scanned and uploaded them on 1st October but we didn't upload them until a few days after they arrived in the post. So about 2 weeks I'd say from request to arrival by mail (and that was without the express option - I think you can pay extra to get it quicker) 

6 hours ago, JMcKie said:

Hi All,

It's looking like visas are starting to get approved again. I've also been asked for an RFI (medical and police checks) similar to others. Medical has been completed, I'm just waiting on my police checks coming. Is anyone also waiting for the AFP to send the police check over in the post?

Hi @JMcKie I just got my AFP check last month, it takes about 2 weeks from the day they email you saying its been completed and is being sent. Hope that helps!

On 10/11/2020 at 10:50, bicek said:

Hey,

Just to say that we were really surprised with how quickly the citizenship by descent applications were processed for my kids last year. We submitted it on a Friday and they were approved the following Monday! You just need to put the work in getting all the documents and information together. Hard to say if they are working as quickly now but it seems that processing times are starting to look more typical now after the blip at the start of the covid pandemic. 

@Robin’s Emigrating I also meant to reply back to this... I checked our kids CBD applications and they were approved exactly 7 days after submission (this was back in October 2019)

13 hours ago, GuyPB said:

Hey everyone,

I submitted my 309 offshore application back in June and I received my visa grant a few days ago. Just wanted to say a bit thank you for all the information that helped on this forum. I was expecting it to take at least 17 months but it was granted in just 5, so they must really be cranking through them. I applied in the UK but I was processed through the Berlin office.

If I can help anyone then please don't hesitate to ask.

congratulations @GuyPB that is amazing news! It's so great to see they are processing applications from as late as June 2020! Can I ask how you know it was processed through the Berlin office? does it say somewhere on the IMMI Grant Notification letter? Please keep us posted with any tips on finding flights etc. as it sounds like its a bit of a challenge at the moment and good luck with quarantine!

14 hours ago, Maddy86 said:

I had my visa granted today (309/100). applied in March 2020, front loaded as much as possible and uploaded police checks/did medical in July.

Cannot believe it, we were planning to spend tonight adding more to the application (we did the 40sp form rather than through an online account so were planning to do this tonight), but no need now! 

 This is fantastic news! Congratulations @Maddy86 please keep us posted with your next steps, finding flights etc. as for those of us still waiting it would be really helpful to know what happens after the 309/100’s are granted

1 hour ago, Almat said:

Hi everyone - so many of you have provided invaluable advice on my journey and I just want to say thank you.

Today I cried with relief as my 100 and 109 was granted!

I wrote a letter to the embassy in London on the 22nd October so this must have helped as I only submitted my application in March so that means 8 months it took to grant.

Have faith and hope guys, my timeline was nowhere near the 17-25 months quoted on the immi site. KEEP GOING, DON'T GIVE UP! And maybe a badgering letter like mine might help! Within this I highlighted that I had been issued a 600 visa and exemption and I was concerned that if my partner visa was issued whilst I was in Australia I wouldn't be able to leave in order for it to be granted due to covid restrictions. Common sense prevailed it would seem! xx

 

congratulations @Almat that's fantastic news!  So good to see some 2020 applications coming through (even if you had to send them a letter). We're considering applying for the 600+exemption soon just to have as a back option too, can I ask how long it took for 600 to come through after you applied for that?

2 hours ago, Robin’s Emigrating said:

AinzLondon -  Another quick question, can I assume the 309/100 application form is worded in such a way that we can’t get out of having the kids citizenship lined up before submitting my application? Is it one of the things we can ‘add’ like the police certificates and medical checks, or required before doing the initial submission? Also, do we have to have their passports, or will the citizenship only suffice?

As you can see...struggling to come to terms with adding 3-4 months (I think?) for the kids citizenship / passports to an already scarily long wait time!

Hi, I don't think so. I checked our written form and for each child you need to pick a value for "Australian Immigration Status" in a couple of different sections and we were able to pick "Australian Citizen" (not sure what the other options were) which is what you want. There are also questions like "Are there any migrating members of the family unit?" that you can answer no to once the children are Australian Citizens as they are "not migrating". 

I can't see anywhere where it asks for the children's Australian passport numbers (we uploaded scans of these in the documents section anyway, which can be done after submission) so if you can get the Australian citizenship by descent that should be enough and you could get their passports later or after the 309 submission.

Worth noting you have to pay the fee as part of the submission (to unlock the document upload section) so be prepared for that and start collecting documents now. Most forums recommend uploading around 75 documents (100 maximum) - the most time consuming parts are the essay questions and collecting your photos/social media posts and putting all of that into Word documents then exporting as PDF so they only count as 1 document when you upload.

15 minutes ago, Robin’s Emigrating said:

Hey all! We’re new to this forum but have some questions we’re trying to clarify RE visas.

Does anyone know what processing times look like from the UK right now for a 309/100 visa? My Wife (Australian) and myself (British) have been married for 4 years and living together for about 8, mostly in the US but we returned to the UK about 1.5 years ago.  We also have 2 kids together. 

Per the above, our hope is that our situation is pretty straightforward case. Does that have any impact on timeline? The website currently suggests 75% within 17 months and 90% within 25 months. Does anyone have any recent experience about what a timeline might look like in our situation?

Secondly, for our kids there seems to be 2 options. One is a 101 visa, and the other is to go straight for citizenship. Everything suggests citizenship certification and then a passport is much quicker and cheaper, but wanted to check if anyone feels otherwise.

Thanks all!!

Hi! Welcome to the forum. We're in a similar position to you (together for 9 years, married for 5 with 2 kids) and only submitted back in early September so we still have a while to go but we have learned a lot from this forum!

The timing at the moment from the London office is coming out at around 11 months for straightforward cases, with 2 people last week that lodged in November 2019 getting their 309/100's. They appear to be roughly processed in time order even though some people have been waiting longer, depending on the complexity of the case. It will be interesting once some of the people that submitted post lockdown (March 2020) start getting their 309's as processing slowed right down around this time for a few months.

It's worth noting you'll need police certificates from everywhere you've lived in the last 10 years for more than 12 months. So for you UK (ACRO) and US, and for your wife UK, US and Australia (AFP). You also need a full 10 year travel history of everywhere you've travelled (even day trips and holidays) and it took my wife and I a fair bit of time to put that together.

For the kids, I would highly recommend getting Australian Citizenship by descent followed by Australian passports - this is what we did. This is the cheaper option and means they don't need to be marked as migrating on the 309 application. So I would get started on this right away as you will need this before submitting the partner visa and you want to get yours into the queue as soon as possible. After submitting the written section of the 309 you can attach documents in the weeks after that (police certificates, medical etc.) as no one is likely to pick it up during that time.

On 06/11/2020 at 07:33, DaisyN said:

Hello everyone. Ive found these boards helpful over the last year and have created an account to share my news.

We submitted our application in late November 2019. We included everything (police checks, medical etc).

My British partner and I are not married but been together many years and have children. So we have lots of paperwork and photos from over the years.

Not heard anything at all until last week when the visa 309 & 100 were both granted. (London office).

So it was pretty much 11 months. Im so pleased its been approved, as i thought my partner's medical might need to be taken again.

Now i can focus my worry and panic on relocating and flights. It seems theres hardly any flights and they are very expensive and/or booked flights are being cancelled?  I dont understand why theres only 12 months to activate the visa, be great it that time period was extended at the moment.

Good luck to everyone.

 

congratulations @DaisyN and thanks for posting your update. It's really helpful to see that requests are being processed in the London office so the rest of us waiting can see how far they've made it through the applications! Can you also keep us updated on how you go with finding flights etc. as that will be the next challenge for all of us too

20 hours ago, Almat said:

@DaisyN Huge congrats! Im relocating too but on an exemption and 600 visa... still waiting on partner visa

Hi @Almat - what was your DOL for the partnert visa? And can I possibly ask how long the 600 + exemption took to come through for you after you applied? We are considering going the same route while still waiting on partner visa to come through... many thanks

On 21/10/2020 at 11:55, kazronicus said:

Hello! In response to your questions, from our experience: (1) - No, we didn't also do an attached 40SP, we just completed the sponsor application in immi, by setting up an account for me as the sponsor. (2) Yes, we reused the same written answers (and great that you've referenced your attachments in those - it'll make their lives easier, we were nowhere near that organised! - you might just want to reword that they're attached to your partner's application/ref number?), (3) You get an email with a more detailed attachment (explaining what has been granted and when you need to enter by), but nothing goes into the passport as its all recorded electronically in the immigration systems. We plan on taking a print out of the letters with us, just in case, for when we go through immigration.  Best of luck!

Thanks so much your taking the time to reply, your response is very helpful.

Hi all,

Thanks for having me. Sorry to hear so many are having to wait so long for their 309/100's. Having the option to apply for a 600+exemption is really useful to know if we get into 2021 and still haven't heard anything (which seems pretty likely!). Thanks to reading this thread - we realised we completely missed both the sponsor application and AFP check for the sponsor - both now completed.

I have a couple of questions in case anyone can answer them:

1) On the partner application, did anyone submit a written/PDF 40SP a form as an attachment? I read elsewhere that the sponsor application you do through Immigov is the same thing?

2) On the sponsor application, we referenced attachments for the written questions (nature of commitment, development of relationship etc.) as that's how we did it on the partner application as we found this much easier (word documents, converted to PDF). Can you upload the same written answers for the sponsor application or do they need to be re-written from the sponsor's perspective? 

3) For anyone that has actually received a 309/100 - when you receive it, is it simply an email or do you get a document or something to stick into the applicant's passport? I would have thought you would be required to send in the applicant's passport for them to put something in (as this is what I had to do for my original UK ancestry visa) but it doesn't seem so

Thanks again for all the useful tips. Good luck to all, I'm looking forward to hearing the good news when some of you get your applications finalised