Visa evidencing. How long at present?

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi all

 

I'm hoping that a few lucky souls who have been granted their visas recently will be able to help with this query.

 

I've read that once the Grant letter is issued, you have to wait 3 working days before sending the passport & Letter off to DIMA in London for evidencing. How long have they been taking in the last 3 months, say, to evidence the visas and return the passports, please? I've read that they sometimes turn things round in as little as three days, but is that the norm?

 

Thanks very much for any help.

 

Gill

[ali]

Gill,

 

When I got my visa last month, I got the email on the Wednesday, and passports were in the post the next day. £4.50 each way registered mail! Came back within 5 working days

 

Ali x

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Thanks Ali

 

I'm getting a bit neurotic about Mum's time-line because her initial meds were done on 9 November 2005. The first anniversary of that is now less than 12 weeks away, so I'm getting a bit concerned about the First Entry date. :?

 

Thanks again for your help. You're a star. You can always be relied on to come up with hard, solid facts, which do make life so much easier for the people who haven't been through the very last stages as yet.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest Nelson]

Hi Gill.. Our situation was exactly like Ali's - registered post on Monday, back by Friday..

 

Hope all going well with your mum's move otherwise!

 

Krista

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Krista and thank you

 

London are evidently not a weak link in the timeline, which is a relief. Centrelink might be, however. They can't see my sister for another fortnight, almost, and told her that it might take them anything up to a further 28 days after that for them to give the OK to the POPC. Which would take us up to the end of September/beginning of October.

 

Mum's CO is a nice girl by all accounts, but a stickler for the rule book. She might not ask for the balance of the money until she has had the OK from Centrelink. It then seems to take the POPC about 3 weeks to process the money after they have received it, so potentially that is another 3-4 weeks up the swanee.

 

All of which would be taking us perilously close to 9 November, leaving us with very little time to get the wretched visa evidenced and Mum back out to Australia.

 

I do know that DIMA has a discretion to extend the Initial Entry date. I think that as long as the visa is granted before 9th November, we can probably do a horse-trade with the CO about the IE date.

 

However, my sister is as laid back as the rest of her fellow-Australians now, having lived there for 25 years. The word "pro-act" does not seem to penetrate their consciousness, let alone their vocabulary or their actions.

 

I intend to chase Centrelink from pillar to post in the same way as I did with the AFP, to prevent any dawdling by them. I don't really want to interfere in sister's dealings with the CO but again, I will if I have to. I don't see any reason why Mum's visa should not be wrapped up by the end of September if Centrelink and the POPC both get their skates on. My sister is predicting mid-November, however, which makes me despair of the lot of them, sister included! :evil:

 

Cheers & thanks again

 

Gill