External Checks for Certain Countries -( Extended waiting periods)

[ranjith47]

Background Checks / Internal Checks / External Checks. They give it different names

 

After all the request Character documents and other document have been submitted, the Department asks certain applicants from certain countries to wait for external checks to be done on them . This would shoot up the timeline and the applicants end up waiting for a very extended periods of time, around 6 months or longer.

 

This has to be really hard on the Applicant who has gone through a lot of work in compiling and readying all required documents and getting police clearances from the respective countries and then again, they go for this ASIO led External Checks.

 

I understand it could be for security and integrity purposes, but I am here to get all people waiting for such checks and get an idea of what these Security checks are, why are they being targeted at only certain countries, and whether every applicant from that country goes through such external checks (Onshore and Offshore) or if not, what seems to be the qualifying factors for not requiring an external check.

 

If there could be a brainstorming of this issue, i am hoping atleast some applicants could benefit.

I currently have seen applicants from Bangladesh, Pakistan , African Countries (excl. South Africa) being put through for External Checks.

 

And I have no idea about India, China, US, the Middle East countries on their external check requirements.

 

I understand the high/low risk categories for countries, but my doubt is why only some High risk countries being counted for external checks!?

 

If anyone have their views , info or ideas.....

[Paul1Perth]

A friend of mine, degree qualified in Economics and working as a European sales manager at the time, had his application for emigration from the UK knocked back and he was put in the pool. He was single when he applied and devastated when he got the news. 3 years later he's married with a couple of kids and he gets a letter to go for his medicals. He's out here now, so 6 months coming from a high risk country is nothing. Costs about the same from the UK too.

[Joebloggs]

 

I understand the high/low risk categories for countries, but my doubt is why only some High risk countries being counted for external checks!?

 

If anyone have their views , info or ideas.....

 

Unless you have been living under a rock or in a cave (pardon the pun) for the last 13 years then I'm sure you know why certain countries are externally checked, although I understand it might be frustrating for the sake of us all living in a great country like Australia we would prefer these checks to be a thorough as possible. Even if it takes years.

[ranjith47]

Unless you have been living under a rock or in a cave (pardon the pun) for the last 13 years then I'm sure you know why certain countries are externally checked, although I understand it might be frustrating for the sake of us all living in a great country like Australia we would prefer these checks to be a thorough as possible. Even if it takes years.

 

And unless YOU have been living under the rocks or a cave for the last few months ( Pardon my dry humor too) or even a longer time, theres no reason why Australia doesnt have to do external checks on No Risk country applicants too for arguments sake. When you have done Official Police Checks on you,, whats this external check about...

And hey,, I know all about the risks and checks.. I was just arguing there just to counter that pun you never apparently intended ,,, and I would never want Australia or anyone to blindly accept official documents and hope they keep doing external checks on high risk countries which is logical and fine. But I was just thinking why Checks are performed on each and every applicant from such high risk countries.. There should be some kinda criteria.

[ranjith47]

I was talkin about snowden as my example for the post above btw...

[Joebloggs]

And unless YOU have been living under the rocks or a cave for the last few months ( Pardon my dry humor too) or even a longer time, theres no reason why Australia doesnt have to do external checks on No Risk country applicants too for arguments sake. When you have done Official Police Checks on you,, whats this external check about...

And hey,, I know all about the risks and checks.. I was just arguing there just to counter that pun you never apparently intended ,,, and I would never want Australia or anyone to blindly accept official documents and hope they keep doing external checks on high risk countries which is logical and fine. But I was just thinking why Checks are performed on each and every applicant from such high risk countries.. There should be some kinda criteria.

 

Mate you are talking in riddles, if its a high risk country then it's a high risk and it should be thoroughly checked. The criteria is its high risk ...end of story.

[ranjith47]

Mate you are talking in riddles, if its a high risk country then it's a high risk and it should be thoroughly checked. The criteria is its high risk ...end of story.

 

Yeah yeah!! only if you were in their shoes would you be trying to find out Why such delays and nothing being done about it!. Dont wanna play no blame game. Let the Thread end here as I do not see anything changing.!

[Maruska]

Hi Ranjith,

 

we are going through external checks now. We`ve been living in the USA for the past 8 years and we are citizens. In the past we used to work and live in Saudi Arabia and we traveled a lot, some of the travels took us to "high risk" countries. So it seems that even if you just travel there, they want to make sure you aren`t involved in a criminal activity. Not a clue how long it might take but hoping for the best (shortest lol):biggrin:. It`s been processing since August 2012.

[Skani]

Yeah yeah!! only if you were in their shoes would you be trying to find out Why such delays and nothing being done about it!.

 

Reason 1: There are so many applicants and the DIAC budget does not allow it to employ huge staff numbers to process these applicants.

(Tony Abbott, if he becomes Prime Minister at the next election, has said he will sack about 12000 public servants, so there are likely to be even fewer people in DIAC to process applications).

 

Reason 2: External checks are dependent on information from outside Australia. Commonly, these sources are very slow in providing information and Australia has no power to compel them to do otherwise.

[tinaisrar]

Background Checks / Internal Checks / External Checks. They give it different names

 

After all the request Character documents and other document have been submitted, the Department asks certain applicants from certain countries to wait for external checks to be done on them . This would shoot up the timeline and the applicants end up waiting for a very extended periods of time, around 6 months or longer.

 

This has to be really hard on the Applicant who has gone through a lot of work in compiling and readying all required documents and getting police clearances from the respective countries and then again, they go for this ASIO led External Checks.

 

I understand it could be for security and integrity purposes, but I am here to get all people waiting for such checks and get an idea of what these Security checks are, why are they being targeted at only certain countries, and whether every applicant from that country goes through such external checks (Onshore and Offshore) or if not, what seems to be the qualifying factors for not requiring an external check.

 

If there could be a brainstorming of this issue, i am hoping atleast some applicants could benefit.

I currently have seen applicants from Bangladesh, Pakistan , African Countries (excl. South Africa) being put through for External Checks.

 

And I have no idea about India, China, US, the Middle East countries on their external check requirements.

 

I understand the high/low risk categories for countries, but my doubt is why only some High risk countries being counted for external checks!?

 

If anyone have their views , info or ideas.....

Does the extended wait also apply to passport holders of a high risk country if permanent residency or a temp residency in uk? is it any different

[Maruska]

Does the extended wait also apply to passport holders of a high risk country if permanent residency or a temp residency in uk? is it any different

 

As per my personal experience ( above) there is no difference and checks will be performed. We`ve been in US on permanent residency for 5 years and that gain a citizenship, still have to go through the checks regardless of US being "low risk country".

[ranjith47]

From what I see,, the Department and those High Risk countries should put in a genuine effort to speed up external checks.. Countries in Africa, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and some middle eastern countries give a lot of applicants a real hard time in getting their External checks processed. Such checks affect a lot of Australian Visa subclasses and I hope to see some form of stepping up the game in terms of External Checks.

I fully agree with doing external checks . No second thoughts about that. I just hoped the countries work towards improving the process.

[tinaisrar]

From what I see,, the Department and those High Risk countries should put in a genuine effort to speed up external checks.. Countries in Africa, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and some middle eastern countries give a lot of applicants a real hard time in getting their External checks processed. Such checks affect a lot of Australian Visa subclasses and I hope to see some form of stepping up the game in terms of External Checks.

I fully agree with doing external checks . No second thoughts about that. I just hoped the countries work towards improving the process.

ooooo ok, while i agree and understand the checks from high risk country i sooooo hope it does not delay things for long for me. My partner is from one of the named countries but living in UK, he is coming as partner of myself. Oh well just have to ride it out i guess when the time comes, was looking at applying for visa in september. Just hope sorted before my 40th birthday else im stuffed!

[ranjith47]

Yeah ,, looks like applicants from high risk countries or whove been to one shouls have to plan to apply Australian visas and give themselves a huge waiting timeline.... This is even harder and time consuming than planning for a baby and the 9 months of waiting ants everything .. It really is a pity

[ArthurPendragon]

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty