April

12 minutes ago, LindaH27 said:

I just really wish that immi and migration agents would tell prospective new applicants about the “real” potential wait times! I really hate it when I see posts that say “we’ve just applied and we will be there in 3-4 years!” 
 

I actually think there may be some changes from the Senate enquiry - and I don’t think it will be reasonably good news.  Im probably wrong  - but I think they will attempt to stop the non contributory 804 parent visa - it’s now taking up to 30 years but the applicants are onshore on bridging visas and those from countries with reciprocal health care agreements  are costing the govt money in terms of using Medicare, public hospitals  and prescriptions etc and because they are classed as temporary residents,  any tax they pay on their income is being paid to their own countries and not to Australia. They’ve tried once before but it didn’t get through but other reviews since then have recommended it be stopped. The last review in 2016 had 4 recommendations

a) reduce the annual quotas

b) introduce a paid long term temporary visa

c) stop 804 except for very specific compassionate reasons 

d) increase the charges for the visas  

The first two have actually happened! The last one is one of the reasons so many applied in May/June 2017 as they thought or were told about the possibility of the charges being hugely increased so rushed to get them in before the new financial year started.

Any guesses on whether C & D options will happen this time ?? Im not even going to try and guess what they will say about the backlog that is the biggest for 25 years!!
 

Keep on keeping on !!

 

If they stop 804, those 804 applicants are likely to choose 143 and if they are back-dated, which means the queue for 143 is even longer. 

Thank you both, you speak to my heart. Thanks for letting me vent. I hope your children and their little families are well, but I'm sure they miss you lots! We had our first baby in 2019 and very fortunate to have my parents coming over supporting us for 3 months. I had emergency caesarean and almost had postnatal depression. My husband, my parents and my very good friend's support in that first 6 weeks got me out of the baby blue, and my husband and I as first time parents learnt how to look after our baby. There were lots of tears when my parents left but we all thought they can come back visit us soon. Now we're planning to have our second baby, and we don't know who's going to look after our toddler when I go to give birth (it's likely to be another caesarean) - my parents can't come until the border is open, and my husband's parents are older and not in great health themselves. I know my situation is not alone and on that parents are immediate families group, there are lots of people in much difficult situation than me. Back then each year it's either me going back or my parents coming over for one or two months, now I'm doing lots of facetime with my parents (love seeing them laugh when my daughter did something funny, you know toddlers they are the cutest). Thank you for listening to me, that means a lot. 

To Linda, thanks for all your posts, they are very informative. My parents applied around the same time as you. Do you think it would need another 6 years? What can we do if it's another 6 years? It has already been 4 years... I found hard to cope, if I knew it took so long I would have applied in 2015.

My parents applied 143 in June 2017, from what I'm reading on this forum (the FOI document listed number of applicants by months and by category), it seems there are more than 20,000 people ahead. If the quota is 3600 each year, which means my parents still need to wait for another 6 years for the visa? 

This has been the biggest regret in my life, I could have applied visa for them in July 2015 they could have already been granted the visa. My parents are getting older each day too and I am their only child. My husband and I had our first baby in 2019 and my parents only got to meet my baby briefly when she was born. And with the border restriction that they couldn't use the 600 visa to come visit. I so much miss them and wish they are here and can spend the time with us and their granddaughter.

I know regret cannot change a thing, and regret is useless, but it just brought me into tears every time I think of the visa and border and feel so hopeless. Is there anything I could do to change? I've explored the option of 'compassionate ground exemption to enter australia', the option of visa 870, the option of change to 864 (probably bad idea as I think we'll lose the position of July 2017). Maybe I should just accept and get on with my life, instead of spending my energy in regret? Sorry I just need to vent.