May 2017 - Onshore Partner Application (820/801) Timelines

[dotdotslash]

I thought that I would start a thread for the few crazy people who submit for Onshore Partner visas this month.

 

Submitted: 18 May (Online)

Relationship: Defacto

Police Clearance: Front loaded

Medicals: Will attend next week

Current status: Awaiting Case Officer

 

[Guest]

Might be a good idea to put the info into a few lines of text in a signature. 

[dotdotslash]

Good idea! Done.

[dotdotslash]

Update to this. All our documents are now uploaded and medicals have been processed (hopefully not a waste of money). So now we wait and see if front loading the documents helps at all or not.

Still no case officer, but we weren't expecting one for at least a month or 2 anyway.

Edited June 4, 2017 by dotdotslash
grammar

[Guest]

Be prepared you may not hear from a CO for longer than that. Till they are much nearer and ready to process the application. Some people wait a year or so before hearing anything. 

[Naomi86]

Hi, can I ask, are you just at the first stage, applying for the 820? And you've added your medical and police clearance?

Will be intrigued to see if it helps, fingers crossed for you


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[dotdotslash]

@Naomi86 Yes, it's the first stage. Yes, we decided to upload medical and police clearance upfront, against most recommendations that we've read. We wanted to get it all out of the way as we feel our case is straight-forward and we come from a low-risk country (UK). Consider us the guinea-pig. 

 

It is an expensive theory to test if we've got it wrong, however 12 months for the medicals is a long time and one would hope that they would be able to get to our application within 12 months. This doesn't seem to be what we are seeing in the public average processing times though.

 

The UK police clearance didn't cost that much and it didn't take that long if we need to do it again. The medicals in Aus were more expensive (about 350 AUD), so it will be painful to pay for that again, but compared to the price of the Visa, the medicals look like a bargain!

 

We will keep this forum post updated with our progress. There don't appear to be many 820 applicants, but hopefully it helps somebody.

[Muttley]

Submitted onshore defacto partner visa for my girlfriend yesterday

[dotdotslash]

10 hours ago, Muttley said:

Submitted onshore defacto partner visa for my girlfriend yesterday

Good luck @Muttley Fingers crossed we get processed quickly.

[Muttley]

18 hours ago, dotdotslash said:

Good luck @Muttley Fingers crossed we get processed quickly.

Thanks, hope so!

Was your application decision ready? Was thinking that with medical and police clearances only lasting for 1 year we would wait 6 months or so, in order for it to be decision ready when a case officer picks it up in 10-15 months time.

[dotdotslash]

Yes, ours was decision ready. Could be a mistake, but too late now!  We just wanted it all out of the way without having any loose ends hanging over us. We might end up having to pay more in the end, but we didn't use an agent and we submitted before the fee increase, so I'll take that as a saving to make myself feel better.

[Dexi80]

Hi All

I just found this thread and its just what im looking into, maybe you can give me some advice ☺

I moved over from Scotland in February this year after my husband was made redundant, we didnt have a lot of time to wait about so i came over on a 1 year visitor visa (husband & children Australian citizens)

Plan was to apply for partner/spouse 820 visa and wait for it while here rather than sit it out waiting in the uk.

I find the many visa's all a bit mind boggling so my question is this:

Does the 801/820 sound the most suitable visa for our situation?

There are parent visa's that may be less costly? 

Children are 15 & 16 and have citizenship through husband.

The 820 is so costly but may be the best path to perm stay.

Also i have read it can take upto 17 months? Can you work while waiting?

Would love to hear from others that have or are doing this and what i should expect in terms of interviews/paperwork/reports etc and there costs!

Any advice ?

 

[Nemesis]

2 hours ago, Dexi80 said:

Hi All

I just found this thread and its just what im looking into, maybe you can give me some advice ☺

I moved over from Scotland in February this year after my husband was made redundant, we didnt have a lot of time to wait about so i came over on a 1 year visitor visa (husband & children Australian citizens)

Plan was to apply for partner/spouse 820 visa and wait for it while here rather than sit it out waiting in the uk.

I find the many visa's all a bit mind boggling so my question is this:

Does the 801/820 sound the most suitable visa for our situation?

There are parent visa's that may be less costly? 

Children are 15 & 16 and have citizenship through husband.

The 820 is so costly but may be the best path to perm stay.

Also i have read it can take upto 17 months? Can you work while waiting?

Would love to hear from others that have or are doing this and what i should expect in terms of interviews/paperwork/reports etc and there costs!

Any advice ?

 

Unless you have skills in demand and can apply for a skilled visa then the 820/801 is your only option.

Did you not research this before moving?

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Dexi80 said:

Hi All

I just found this thread and its just what im looking into, maybe you can give me some advice ☺

I moved over from Scotland in February this year after my husband was made redundant, we didnt have a lot of time to wait about so i came over on a 1 year visitor visa (husband & children Australian citizens)

Plan was to apply for partner/spouse 820 visa and wait for it while here rather than sit it out waiting in the uk.

I find the many visa's all a bit mind boggling so my question is this:

Does the 801/820 sound the most suitable visa for our situation?

There are parent visa's that may be less costly? 

Children are 15 & 16 and have citizenship through husband.

The 820 is so costly but may be the best path to perm stay.

Also i have read it can take upto 17 months? Can you work while waiting?

Would love to hear from others that have or are doing this and what i should expect in terms of interviews/paperwork/reports etc and there costs!

Any advice ?

 

I think the partner visa is your only option tbh. Unless as said, you meet the requirements for a skilled PR visa. 

Are you on a 1 year tourist visa and if so, does that mean it has until Feb 2018 to run to now?

You are to all intents and purposes a tourist in Australia if on that. If you were planning on an on shore partner visa application you probably would have been better to have gotten the 3 month tourist visa and applied within those 3 months before it expired. You would then have gone on to a bridging visa with full work rights till a decision was made on the partner visa. 

My understanding is that if you lodge now or any point before the tourist visa expires, you will remain on that visa till it ends and then the bridging visa will kick in and your work rights and access to certain other things also. Hopefully someone else can clarify that for you. You can lodge now and then be in the processing queue but be prepared for the long wait (yes 17 months is probably what you are looking at time wise, I doubt it will move much quicker from when you lodge). Lodging in the next couple of months would see a hopeful grant window around the end of 2018 I would think. 

I realise you moved in a hurry but you've not left yourself in an ideal situation having not researched this in more detail before you made the move over. Outside of the partner visa on shore now and what that entails you don't have anything in the way of options that I can think of. Off shore application may well have been the best option prior to your move but as you are already in Aus, its the on shore option. 

Good luck with it all

 

[dotdotslash]

I can more or less confirm what the others have said. The 820/801 route is what you want if you are aiming to get the visa through your Partner Onshore in Australia.

 

Your bridging visa is only valid after the expiry of the initial tourist visa. This was the case with my partner. The bridging visa was granted easily, but it is only in force after the tourist visa expires (i.e. 3 months after she arrived).

 

So my partner is unable to work for these 3 months. Then after that, she is able to work, but there could be difficulties if employers don't understand the bridging visa category. So it will probably be temp work while we wait for the partner visa to be granted.

 

12 months is a long time to wait, but perhaps your circumstances enable it to work on a single salary. Good luck! It might be faster to apply out of country, but that's tough for a family to be split like that. However, I have seen 5 month application times offshore on this forum. While the Onshore people seem to be waiting at least 12 months, if not more.

 

Also, don't mean to be a bringer of bad news, but there is a lot of talk about the visa rules changing 1 July. So it may be worth getting your application in before then, although thats going to be a rush.

 

[Dexi80]

Hi All

Thank you v much for your input.

Yes I can see that the 3month visitor then onto bridging visa is the way to go.

We wouldnt have managed to fork out the hefty cost of the 820/801 in that timeline though, it took us over 3 months to secure steady work, accommodation and suitable schooling.

Looks like a long wait till i can return to work but on plus side Ive been accepted to do some volunteer work.

As I understand it there is no longer going to be the proposed rule changes expected in July but Im going to get my application in pronto nonetheless.

Thank you for taking the time to reply ☺

and for the luck ?

[Guest]

15 minutes ago, Dexi80 said:

Hi All

Thank you v much for your input.

Yes I can see that the 3month visitor then onto bridging visa is the way to go.

We wouldnt have managed to fork out the hefty cost of the 820/801 in that timeline though, it took us over 3 months to secure steady work, accommodation and suitable schooling.

Looks like a long wait till i can return to work but on plus side Ive been accepted to do some volunteer work.

As I understand it there is no longer going to be the proposed rule changes expected in July but Im going to get my application in pronto nonetheless.

Thank you for taking the time to reply ☺

and for the luck ?

Just one question, does your 1 year tourist visa have any conditions attached to it? As in no further stay? 

[Dexi80]

Hi

No it has no conditions attached to it.

 

[dotdotslash]

On 27/06/2017 at 18:54, Dexi80 said:

Hi

No it has no conditions attached to it.

 

You should then be fine to apply for the partner visa onshore (assuming no new changes come in). You'll have a very long wait before you can have work rights, but your bridging visa should be granted shortly after you get your application submitted. If I was you, I would get the application in pronto, so you get the bridging grant notice and also your application is in before any changes come in.

 

 

 

[Heidi Bell-Langford]

We put in our onshore application in Jan 2016 and now have a case worker, everything done however on my husbands visa we added my stepson as a dependant (22) his has been rejected yet nothing on my husbands. We are needing a immigration lawyer to help us with an appeal we are on the sunshine coast QLD can anyone recommend please? Thanks

[dotdotslash]

Just a quick update to let anybody know who is watching this post or wants an indication of the current onshore processing times. It's been 2 months for us so far, and there has been no movement yet. We are still awaiting a case officer. We knew and expected this, so we weren't hoping for any movement so soon anyway. Perhaps after 6-12 months we will see movement.

 

A bit of good news is that my partner has secured a fixed-term contract job on the bridging visa and she starts next month.

 

Good luck to any others waiting patiently for onshore applications.

[Naomi86]

So applied for my partner visa yesterday and now just working through attaching all the documents, and just wondered how anyone who had front loaded there police and health check were going? Did it help?




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[Guest]

1 hour ago, Naomi86 said:

So applied for my partner visa yesterday and now just working through attaching all the documents, and just wondered how anyone who had front loaded there police and health check were going? Did it help?




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I doubt it will speed things up. Tbh the on shore partner visa is running at about 15 months or so iirc so no real point front loading them as they'll probably expire before the grant anyways. 

[Naomi86]

I doubt it will speed things up. Tbh the on shore partner visa is running at about 15 months or so iirc so no real point front loading them as they'll probably expire before the grant anyways. 

Thanks, kind of what I thought, I was thinking I'd leave it for a few months, but maybe I need to leave it for 6 months!


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[dotdotslash]

I'll keep this thread updated on our progress with an onshore application. We front-loaded, purely out of naive optimism!

So far, no case-officer assigned, as you'd expect. My partner's tourist visa expired and she is now on the bridging visa and starting work in Sept. We are secretly hoping we get a case-officer for Christmas, but at the same time, we know this isn't realistic. 

Fingers crossed things go quickly for you. And for us!