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Applying for a Resident Return Visa (RRV) appears to me to have become a tad more difficult, or maybe it's my imagination. The time schedule for the RRV has just changed to 5 - 10 days, from 5 - 8 days. Not a big difference there so no worries. However the part that I find a worry is "Applications that do not meet the residence requirement will take longer to finalise than the published processing times advertised above. Processing timeframes for these applications can be up to 12 weeks." I applied for a RRV 6 weeks ago. I was in Australia and advised to just apply online via my IMMI account. I did this, and I had immediate acknowledgement and receipt of payment for $365. I don't qualify for a 155, but have mitigating circumstances which I think are applicable and permit me to apply for a 157 (3 month entry) I won't bore people with the details of the mitigating circumstances, safe to say these prevented me from returning to Australia as planned last year. I certainly fall into this category of not having been in Australia for enough days. I really do!! My days had been non existent since 2015 when I had to return home to UK. I went back to Australia in May as my current RRV at the time was due to expire and fearing the worse or being guilty of not activating a RRV granted to me, I made the trip down under and wanted to speak to an Immigration official to try to explain the situation. I was worried about the situation I was in. But I was told "not necesary just apply online through your IMMI account" I am now free of all matters which prevented me from returning, but I fear it is a year too late. In all fairness the Australian Immigration people have been extremely accommodating, sympathetic and kind with my previous RRV applcations. However I feel maybe their patience has been exhausted now by my own failure to return and settle as planned. It may just be a case of tough luck, bad luck and hard luck, but maybe my visa for Australia is shot. I take full responsibility for this and it is through no fault of the Australian immigration or anyone else. It's not really my fault, it is just the way fate has dealt my cards, which sometimes we have no choice but to accept. I was just wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience and had to wait 12 weeks to see if they are granted a RRV or not? I am doubtful now that my visa will be granted, and I may have to just accept that fate has worked against me, and it is not to be. The next few weeks waiting for an E-mail and checking my IMMI account will be quite tense. For the record when I flew out of Australia back to London, as is the normal practice, a Border Official at the airport kindly spoke with me in private and pointed out that my RRV was about to expire and handed me a leaflet. I explained that I had already applied for a RRV and showed her my acknowledgement and receipt. The lady was really helpful. She then told me that I could actually return without a RRV but that I would need to go to the departure airport very early and the airline then have to telephone Canberra for a Code to permit me entry. I was surpried by this as I had never heard of this before. I thanked her for this advice but explained to her that I would never do that, as I don't think that's a very good thing to do. Knowing the way the airline staff are in Heathrow, I wolldn't trust them to assist me, and I would be too worried about causing a problem, breaking the rules and the law and ending up with a ban.. It is however a contradiction in terms of practice, a genuine RRV application taking 12 weeks to process, yet a way in to the Country through a telephone call and a code from Canberra ? That's not for me as I have never abused the Visa system, or my status as a Permanent Resident and with my luck, I would probably get thrown into jail and never heard of again. ?? Regards, best wishes and good luck to all.

Can anyone please tell me how long a residents return visa takes to process also if a 're entry visa has elapsed is it difficult to get back?

Does anyone have much knowledge on the cap and que process? I submitted an application for a resident return visa subclass 155 157 on 25/11/17. I've called and have been told it's in process, I was told this 2 5 months ago and still nothing. I've recently seen a document about capping and queing once the magic number has been reached for that program year, I have seen that there is a special eligibility cap for former residents, but from what I can tell that's for the subclass 151. Does anyone have more info please? I'm going mad searching and searching and not finding much. I'm currently living in my parents sofa with my 6 year old as my landlord sold our house and I don't think it's worth starting a tenancy yet. Thanks in advance ?

Hi, I'm new to this site and looking for some advice please? My wife, our 3 kids and I have recently been awarded our 175 Skilled Independent visa and have received our visa grant notice. My wife is 7 months pregnant and we informed the DIAC of this and were informed that we would either have to come to Oz to validate our visa and have the baby in Oz, which means leaving in 3 weeks - a stretch for us all but not impossible - or we would have to have the baby in the UK and then apply for child migration sponsorship, which could take up to 8 months in the UK. However, we need to be in Oz by September as I start a new job and in any case we would have to be in Oz by the end of October at the latest to validate our visa before medicals expire. Does anyone know whether we could have the baby in the UK, then travel to Oz to validate our visas in September, have the baby come in on a normal 12 month e-visa and then apply on-shore to add the baby to our visa or do the child sponsorship submission whilst we all remain in Oz? Or would we have to take the baby out of Oz under the terms of the e-Visa? It all seems confusing and I'm not sure if there are any special cases or fast track routes that we can use - we're not trying to frig the system or do anything intentionally to bypass the rules, but it seems odd that you can't add a new addition onto an existing visa award? Has anyone got any experience of this or know if we can bring the baby in and then apply whilst staying in Oz? We're not averse to having the baby in Oz, but are fairly clueless at the moment as to the set up with hospitals, midwives, costs, what's covered and what's not under Medicare and whether we could get private insurance at this late stage that would cover pregnancy, as I know a lot of insurers won't cover it unles you have cover 12 months before the birth date - Initially we would go to Sydney as we have friends there to help out, but will need to be in Brisbane for work by the end of August after the baby is born. Thanks in advance Martin