Parents visa - when does the visa fee get charged?

[Qflyer]

My parents are about to lodge their Contributory Parents' Migrant visa application. Does anyone know if the first lot of visa fee is pretty much charged straight away (within say 1 or 2 weeks after receiving the forms) or do they tend to drag their feet?

Reason being I was going to apply for a new credit card (from NAB if anyone is interested) which is offering 60,000 bonus Qantas Points if I spent $4,000 within 60 days of account opening. As they do with most big purchases whenever they visit Australia my parents have agreed to transfer me cash and let me put my card details down so I can earn the Points - and I was thinking this would be an easy way to trigger the NAB bonus Points offer. Can I be sure that DIBP will charge my card within that timeframe?

Edited August 27, 2017 by Qflyer

[Tulip1]

They took my first payment almost immediately. I cannot remember exactly when but it was certainly within a week or two.  Not sure they will take the payment from your credit card though, I would assume it would need to be a card registered to them at their address. Certainly that's the norm otherwise people could just use any old card they found/helped themselves to!. I know when you shop online with a card it has to be registered in your name and at your address so you may wish to check your card can be used as it is them that is doing the application not  you. 

Edited August 28, 2017 by Tulip1

[Qflyer]

Thanks Tulip1. The forms imply that they can use anyone's credit card so long as that person consents - it does ask for the card holder's name, billing address, signature etc. 

I know that when I applied for my student visa and didn't have a credit  card, they encouraged me to use someone else's (ie mum's) credit card as they prefer card to bank cheque. This was more than a decade ago though. Worth checking for sure.

Edited August 28, 2017 by Qflyer

[Tulip1]

1 minute ago, Qflyer said:

Thanks Tulip1. The forms imply that they can use anyone's credit card so long as that person consents - it does ask for the card holder's name, billing address, signature etc. 

I know that when I applied for my student visa and didn't have a credit  card, they encouraged me to use someone else's (ie mum's) credit card as they prefer card to bank cheque. This was more than a decade ago though. Worth checking for sure.

That sounds positive, good luck 

[Qflyer]

1 minute ago, Tulip1 said:

That sounds positive, good luck 

Thanks! Can't believe I'm back on the immigration hamster wheel again - just when I thought getting my citizenship was 'the end' haha. 

[Tulip1]

It's a long wheel, wait times almost three years at present 

[Qflyer]

The application arrived at the Department on 21 September. Application acknowledgement letter received & credit card charged over the weekend on 28 October (a Saturday - someone was working overtime!).

 

My parents weren't given a laundry list of what happens next though unlike some of the reports on here and elsewhere (eg no instruction to send in Form 80). It'd be due to the extended lead times I imagine. Now we hang back and wait...

Edited October 30, 2017 by Qflyer

[Cerberus1]

I wouldn’t be 100% certain that the visa fee will count towards the $4,000 spend.  Spending on ‘Govt fees and charges’ doesn’t earn points. Most credit cards clamped down on this (or the regulator clamped down) some time ago. 

[Qflyer]

26 minutes ago, Cerberus1 said:

I wouldn’t be 100% certain that the visa fee will count towards the $4,000 spend.  Spending on ‘Govt fees and charges’ doesn’t earn points. Most credit cards clamped down on this (or the regulator clamped down) some time ago. 

Still works for NAB. Their only exclusion is gambling transactions, and "govt fees and charges" usually relate to things charged to your bank account like stamp duties and the like unless a merchant has specifically spelt out a broader exclusion. This ranges from the likes of Citi (and all white label cards issued by them - Virgin Money, Qantas Premier etc) which precludes any form of spend at government-related merchants for Points accrual (this extends to an otherwise eligible merchant like a café operating out of a government building), to other less restrictive issuers which only exclude ATO expenditure.

The blanket prohibition by Citi is annoying as I use one of their white label cards as my back up non-AMEX card, but lots of ways and means to get around it. For example, in Sydney you can top up your Opal card at Coles/Woolies where the transaction isn't a government-transaction and thus earn Points whereas transacting with Opal directly will not get you Points; you can also sometimes pay Council rates via Paypal to avoid the transaction being classified as 'government.'

In any case I ended up passing up on the 60k NAB offer but they then ran a 90k bonus Points offer a few days later with the same mechanic. As we didn't know when the visa charge was going to come through we put the other half's dental surgery (at a non-government facility) on the card which instantly qualified for the bonus Points (ouch...). The visa fee got put through an ANZ card where I know it definitely qualifies for Points based on recent and anecdotal experiences.

Edited October 30, 2017 by Qflyer