Robin’s Emigrating

Hey all. As some of you know we’ve been about to start applying for a 309/100 visa, however a friend mentioned that you could instead just fly to Australia, apply for the 820/801 visa, then get a bridging visa and start applying for jobs and working. A few questions for folks on the forum: 1. I would be travelling on a Visitor visa. My understanding of the bridging visa is that it only typically comes into effect when your current, substantive visa expires. Does this mean if I travelled on a visitor visa I’d have to wait until it expired (6 months) before the bridging visa kicked in and allowed me to work? 2. Does anyone have any experience with timeframes for a bridging visa being issued, and how to get the one that allows travel? 3. Are there any other drawbacks to a 820/801 visa versus off shore visas? 4. Do you foresee me getting into issues with travelling to Australia during CIVID on a visitor visa, even if my wife is Australian? Thanks all Robin

Thanks again, really appreciate it. Will get cracking now!

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!

AinzLondon79 - thanks so much! That’s super useful already. We’d been planning to get the kids Citizenship / Passports going later (given the shorter timeline) but will get going instead now. As you say will be interesting to see how the timelines become clearer with folks that have been submitting during COVID. Do you get any indication as the application progresses, or radio silence until either an RFI or approval? Yeah we’d been dreading the whole travel history / background check questions . We had to do a similar thing for my Wife’s visa application to the UK, as well as our US visa applications. Painfully laborious! Really useful to know you can get the 309 application submitted, but still work on some of the other items (police check, health screen etc..).

Hey Folks. We’ve been eyeing a move from the UK to Melbourne for a number of reasons; spending time with my Australian wife’s family, more outdoorsy lifestyle/better weather, kids are young and adaptable so a good time to do it etc etc... Obviously a myriad of questions are coming up too though, including some about potential career options: 1. What are your thoughts about the breadth of IT opportunities, career potential there versus here? I’m 35 and have been working as an agile IT Project, Product and now Program Manager for one of the oil and gas majors for a number of years, including 5 years in the States, however have decided that now is a good time to move on and start a new adventure elsewhere. I’d been targeting moving into the tech sector and know that a lot of the Tech Majors (Amazon, Microsoft, Google etc..) have significant presences in the UK. London is also a bit of a Tech Hub for Europe. Any thoughts about relative opportunities, potential to progress, career satisfaction, here versus there? 2. What are peoples experiences with IT salaries in the UK versus Australia? Or perhaps better put, their levels of disposable income after factoring in cost of living? There seems to be broad concensus that salaries are better in Australia versus here, but perhaps outgoings can be a little higher too. What’s your experience working in IT? Much the same, better, less good? Any thoughts welcome. Thanks in advance all!

Hey folks. My Wife is Australian (I’m British) and we’ve been eyeing a move from the UK to Australia. Looks like my 309/100 visa will be the most challenging in terms of timeline, but for our kids is there any reason we should be considering a 101 visa instead of going straight for citizenship? Citizenship and Passport seem to be much quicker and cheaper, but want to make sure there’s not something we’re missing/misunderstanding in terms of timeline or complexity when applying from overseas. Thanks!

Hey guys. Looks like I jumped the gun a bit on my message. Have now been able to review some of the earlier responses and seems that even if a fairly straightforward case you’re still looking at probably a year plus at the moment. Any further info / experience folks have on timing at the moment, or indeed the kids citizenship question, would be really appreciated. Thanks.

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!!