Culterguy

Very pleased for you, have a great visit with your family.

I can only suggest that you ask your daughter to contact her MP. That seems to have broken the log jam for a few in your position. Good luck.

I don't know if anyone else saw Simon Calder giving the big thumbs up to Australia, from Sydney Harbour this morning. If anyone can bring this thread to his attention, it would be interesting to see if he can blag a visit to the visa service office and find out what the@£$%^ is going on. Or at least he can caution those applying to 'get your visa fist" before booking flights and save all the stress we have been through. I don't know how to get in touch, he does Twitter, I don't.

I spoke to a friend last night and she got her visa in minutes!! I told her to do visa first and so on, but what she did was clever, she put her last visa number from 2years ago in a field somewhere, and I am thinking perhaps the filtering process in Oz end, says to intself well this is straightforward and ping, it was returned granted within as I say minutes. She is now waiting for her Exemption.So there you have it, visa granted without her exemption. She hopes of course that this comes in the next few days.

Paula, Outcome of applications all over the place. I talked a friend through the process a few days ago. Pointing out the best otcome resulting when you apply for visa first. Then putting TRN from visa application into Exemption. She called me back, within the hour said she had visa approved!! Go figure! She still needs her Exemption of course, but everyone seems to get that within a few days good luck John

Confirmation of this advice has been recorded in Australia’s electronic visa system. You do not need to re-apply for an exemption if flight details change. Our exemption document says above in the first section, so seems you do not need to re-apply. The Travel Declaration is much more definitive about date of travel, in that it has to be filled our within 72 hours of travel.

Fantastic result, well done Andrew for sharing. I don’t know where you found the email address, I looked everywhere on Immi site. Have a good trip Jill.

Well done Andrew. I spoke to the Help Desk three times and none offered any help, said they could not. Just did not think about looking for.an eemail address.. We are with visa now, and resheduled flights for Melbourne in March.

Jill, on your VISA application acknowledgement, you have it, right?, there is a Ref no! On mine its ten letters. There is a ref for each applicant on the immi account. the exemption request form has a drop down field I think, with TRN an option, put your Ref no/letters in there.

Your exeperience same as mine Seems like its Visa first, note TRN on visa application acknowledgement, you will have that already. Do new Exemption, but put TRN in that, there is a place for it, seems this is the order of application that is working for most folk. You don’t play tennis by any chance?

If its Feb you travel, you should be ok. However its a varied picture. We have friends, where husband got his visa, wife waiting 10 days on!

Moliere, Hope this jogs the system, as it did for me, albeit too late for our early Dec booking. Let us know. John

moliere19 Your experience is pretty well the same as ours. We applied for exemption 28th October, got approved within a few days. We applied for evisa and then nothing for weeks. As Our flight date approached 4th Dec, I applied for exemption again, this time had the visa application reference to put in. Concluded that we should have put visa application before exemption although how you are supposed to know that? Anyway the 2nd Exemption was approved after 4th Dec, and as I guessed evisa approved a day or two later. We had to cancel flight , moved to march 22. There was an interesting article in Sydney paper sent by by son, which indicated that we are not alone. The system was poorly thought through when 1st November opend to close family of oz citizens. I had advised some friends I know in the same boat, to do their Visa first before exemption and what do you know, they got their evisa and then exemption within a few days.

I reapplied for another exemption on the 19th November, and it came through yesterday,. 651 evisa just came through now. A week late for our planned departure!! So all the advice about doesn't matter which order you apply for exemption or visa, is I think wrong. DHA helpline reassured me twice that doesn't matter. Think I would still be waiting if I had not reapplied for exemption and put in the visa application TRN.

I just got through to the helpline, they of course point out straight away that they cannot discuss individual application, they have no access! and was also advised of course I should look at the processing times on the visa application site. 30 days to 7months!! The lady there said that if I put another new exemption in with the Visa reference, this may help. I did this a week ago and have not seen any movement on 'new exemption' or visa.

I have just cancelled a 4th December departure since visa has not tuned up, despite it being received on the 4th of November. You will note I came late to the discussion and so in ignorance applied for PARENT OF OZ CIITIZEN exemption first. I was not. able to put a Visa reference in the Exemption request. I have been told by Dept home Affairs help line that it does not matter the order of application . I think this is wrong. I Trailfinders Visa Dept also said it would not matter the order. I have now made new Exemption request, now with the Visa application reference number, so will let you know if this works.

rtridudr seems to say with some authority that the visa must be applied for first. I have got an exemption on 1st november. On my IMMI account I have confirmation of receipt of visa on the 4th November. Still no visa. if I need to cancel exemption then reapply, now with a visa reference is this the way to go? There is a string of letters agains my wife and my.visa application receipt. Is this the TRN?

In reply to question, what did I put in exemption application for visa status. I recall I selected No Visa option. I now recall on the exemption there was a space for a 10 digit TRN. which I left blank, regardless the exemption was granted on the 1st November. I am presuming that Passport numbers are also used to link all this together. As someone elsewhere points out, when you apply for a visa it points out, that priority is given to those with exemption. Kind of made me think then, that I did this the correct way around. We will see. Others posting and getting their visa seem to have done it in either order.

I have an exemption for wife and i to visit son in melbourne. It took just a few days, 2 weeks ago. However had my 651 visa confirmed received on the 4th November, but still no approval. Getting a wee bit worried, since in years past visitor visa normally turned around couple of days. We have flights booked for 4December, and thought we had done everything in good time. If you search 651 processing times, most visa sites says a few business days. However receipt of application on Immi account, says 31days to two months, if so not good. It does say that priority given to those with exemption, but 651 visa form did not ask exemption status, I guess/hope that passport details link the process, Any other experience with this, love to hear about it John