Timeline on 309/100 via applied for in London

[Almat]

On 05/10/2020 at 09:07, TrudiStrange said:

Sorry, another question I can't seem to find the answer for yet (not started the online application so cannot see all the detail) - scans of passports etc, do these need to be certified?

@TrudiStrangesorry I missed this... Im not entirely sure but I did get mine certified by a teacher just in case x

[Almat]

On 05/10/2020 at 10:02, TruthSeeking said:

Wait, so you applied for the Exemption before even being approved for the 600 tourist visa?

We applied a couple months ago for the 600 and still waiting. I have read on multiple websites of the Government saying do not apply for an exemption unless if you have a visa. My wife doesn't have a visa and we are stuffing around waiting and I read this to see that maybe this may make it faster. I wonder if others are doing this.

@TruthSeeking thats right i applied for the 600 visa first then the exemption. How did you get on?

[ainzlondon79]

On 21/10/2020 at 11:55, kazronicus said:

Hello! In response to your questions, from our experience: (1) - No, we didn't also do an attached 40SP, we just completed the sponsor application in immi, by setting up an account for me as the sponsor. (2) Yes, we reused the same written answers (and great that you've referenced your attachments in those - it'll make their lives easier, we were nowhere near that organised! - you might just want to reword that they're attached to your partner's application/ref number?), (3) You get an email with a more detailed attachment (explaining what has been granted and when you need to enter by), but nothing goes into the passport as its all recorded electronically in the immigration systems. We plan on taking a print out of the letters with us, just in case, for when we go through immigration.  Best of luck!

Thanks so much your taking the time to reply, your response is very helpful.

[AJF]

On 05/10/2020 at 09:07, TrudiStrange said:

Sorry, another question I can't seem to find the answer for yet (not started the online application so cannot see all the detail) - scans of passports etc, do these need to be certified?

https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/help-support/applying-online-or-on-paper/on-paper/certified-copy

 

seems like you have to get things certified for paper applications but not digital ones. Have a look at the above link

[Anais_V]

Just received an RFI, which seems really straighforward. They just want updated police checks as both mine and my partner's are about the expire. 

I applied in London on 1 December 2019, frontloaded the application, no agent.

Should I be optimistic about an impending decision? Either way, it's good to know someone is at least looking at our application!

I might be getting ahead of myself, but as I am currently in Australia, I wonder what happens if they do grant the visa. Presumably, I'd still be expected to leave the country and then return to activate the partner visa. Just doesn't seem such a great (or even feasible) prospect given the ongoing COVID dramas. Has anyone done this recently?

[keiraciara]

Hello!

Posting here to let you know that they are making decisions!

We applied 28th November 2019, front loaded everything, no agent and heard nothing at all until yesterday when an email came saying we got the 309 and the 100!

Amazing. Can't believe it. I had set myself up for another year of wondering and waiting. I had been checking on here every day just to see whether there were anyone else who had some news that would give me reason to be optimistic, so now, hopefully I can do this for someone else!

Loads of luck everyone!

 

[KaptainKylie]

Hi everyone! It's been a while since I checked in on here. I received my 309 grant in February from the London office and obviously the whole global shutdown put a spanner in the works for getting over here... But I arrived on September 24 to Sydney! My husband and I flew separately and had 1 flight each get cancelled, but we both made it in the end. 

I know that I for one had a lot of anxiety around what would happen once I got here, especially since I was flying separately from my husband. As our visa grants are all digitally attached to our passports, I felt like I was missing something. When I got off the plane, they just scanned my passport as normal and let me into Sydney without much hassle at all. After I got out of my hotel two weeks later and flew up to Queensland, though, they thoroughly checked my visa documents and needed me to provide some proof of address. Since I hadn't yet lived in Queensland, I showed my husband's Centrelink and that was sufficient. 

I kept a diary of each day in quarantine that a lot of people in the Facebook groups for people in hotel quarantine found helpful (PS definitely join these groups before flying over!  they are a wealth of useful information.)

http://kaptainkylie.com/2020/09/30/australian-hotel-quarantine-diaries/

I really hope you all get over here ASAP. It's such a relief after the UK lockdowns to be able to go out with almost complete freedom. 

Timeline: 

Applied 29 February, 2019
RFI 10 December, 2019
Visa Grant 5 February, 2020
Arrived in Aus 24 September, 2020

[Anais_V]

21 hours ago, keiraciara said:

Hello!

Posting here to let you know that they are making decisions!

We applied 28th November 2019, front loaded everything, no agent and heard nothing at all until yesterday when an email came saying we got the 309 and the 100!

Amazing. Can't believe it. I had set myself up for another year of wondering and waiting. I had been checking on here every day just to see whether there were anyone else who had some news that would give me reason to be optimistic, so now, hopefully I can do this for someone else!

Loads of luck everyone!

 

Congrats! Must be such a relief. I applied at about the same time and just got an RFI as well. Maybe that's coincidence, maybe the London office just started ramping up things again...? Fingers crossed for everyone here!

[DaisyN]

Hello everyone. Ive found these boards helpful over the last year and have created an account to share my news.

We submitted our application in late November 2019. We included everything (police checks, medical etc).

My British partner and I are not married but been together many years and have children. So we have lots of paperwork and photos from over the years.

Not heard anything at all until last week when the visa 309 & 100 were both granted. (London office).

So it was pretty much 11 months. Im so pleased its been approved, as i thought my partner's medical might need to be taken again.

Now i can focus my worry and panic on relocating and flights. It seems theres hardly any flights and they are very expensive and/or booked flights are being cancelled?  I dont understand why theres only 12 months to activate the visa, be great it that time period was extended at the moment.

Good luck to everyone.

 

[keiraciara]

5 hours ago, DaisyN said:

Hello everyone. Ive found these boards helpful over the last year and have created an account to share my news.

We submitted our application in late November 2019. We included everything (police checks, medical etc).

My British partner and I are not married but been together many years and have children. So we have lots of paperwork and photos from over the years.

Not heard anything at all until last week when the visa 309 & 100 were both granted. (London office).

So it was pretty much 11 months. Im so pleased its been approved, as i thought my partner's medical might need to be taken again.

Now i can focus my worry and panic on relocating and flights. It seems theres hardly any flights and they are very expensive and/or booked flights are being cancelled?  I dont understand why theres only 12 months to activate the visa, be great it that time period was extended at the moment.

Good luck to everyone.

 

Sounds like they are busy at the London office! Same timeline for us too, although with all this drama we are postponing the move until the economy opens up again and we can get jobs etc.

Hooray for getting over this hurdle though! Big congrats!

[JMcKie]

On 17/09/2020 at 10:53, JEN9316 said:

2020

Hi All,

RFI request came in today, applied 27th May 2020. I'm currently trying to fill out my UK police check and I have gaps in addresses due to traveling etc. but it won't let me go any further. Has anyone else ran into this problem?

[Almat]

13 hours ago, DaisyN said:

Hello everyone. Ive found these boards helpful over the last year and have created an account to share my news.

We submitted our application in late November 2019. We included everything (police checks, medical etc).

My British partner and I are not married but been together many years and have children. So we have lots of paperwork and photos from over the years.

Not heard anything at all until last week when the visa 309 & 100 were both granted. (London office).

So it was pretty much 11 months. Im so pleased its been approved, as i thought my partner's medical might need to be taken again.

Now i can focus my worry and panic on relocating and flights. It seems theres hardly any flights and they are very expensive and/or booked flights are being cancelled?  I dont understand why theres only 12 months to activate the visa, be great it that time period was extended at the moment.

Good luck to everyone.

 

@DaisyN Huge congrats! Im relocating too but on an exemption and 600 visa... still waiting on partner visa

[ainzlondon79]

20 hours ago, Almat said:

@DaisyN Huge congrats! Im relocating too but on an exemption and 600 visa... still waiting on partner visa

Hi @Almat - what was your DOL for the partnert visa? And can I possibly ask how long the 600 + exemption took to come through for you after you applied? We are considering going the same route while still waiting on partner visa to come through... many thanks

 

Edited November 7, 2020 by ainzlondon79

[ainzlondon79]

On 06/11/2020 at 07:33, DaisyN said:

Hello everyone. Ive found these boards helpful over the last year and have created an account to share my news.

We submitted our application in late November 2019. We included everything (police checks, medical etc).

My British partner and I are not married but been together many years and have children. So we have lots of paperwork and photos from over the years.

Not heard anything at all until last week when the visa 309 & 100 were both granted. (London office).

So it was pretty much 11 months. Im so pleased its been approved, as i thought my partner's medical might need to be taken again.

Now i can focus my worry and panic on relocating and flights. It seems theres hardly any flights and they are very expensive and/or booked flights are being cancelled?  I dont understand why theres only 12 months to activate the visa, be great it that time period was extended at the moment.

Good luck to everyone.

 

congratulations @DaisyN and thanks for posting your update. It's really helpful to see that requests are being processed in the London office so the rest of us waiting can see how far they've made it through the applications! Can you also keep us updated on how you go with finding flights etc. as that will be the next challenge for all of us too

[Robin’s Emigrating]

Hey all! We’re new to this forum but have some questions we’re trying to clarify RE visas.

Does anyone know what processing times look like from the UK right now for a 309/100 visa? My Wife (Australian) and myself (British) have been married for 4 years and living together for about 8, mostly in the US but we returned to the UK about 1.5 years ago.  We also have 2 kids together. 

Per the above, our hope is that our situation is pretty straightforward case. Does that have any impact on timeline? The website currently suggests 75% within 17 months and 90% within 25 months. Does anyone have any recent experience about what a timeline might look like in our situation?

Secondly, for our kids there seems to be 2 options. One is a 101 visa, and the other is to go straight for citizenship. Everything suggests citizenship certification and then a passport is much quicker and cheaper, but wanted to check if anyone feels otherwise.

Thanks all!!

[Robin’s Emigrating]

Hey guys. Looks like I jumped the gun a bit on my message. Have now been able to review some of the earlier responses and seems that even if a fairly straightforward case you’re still looking at probably a year plus at the moment. Any further info / experience folks have on timing at the moment, or indeed the kids citizenship question, would be really appreciated. Thanks.

[ainzlondon79]

15 minutes ago, Robin’s Emigrating said:

Hey all! We’re new to this forum but have some questions we’re trying to clarify RE visas.

Does anyone know what processing times look like from the UK right now for a 309/100 visa? My Wife (Australian) and myself (British) have been married for 4 years and living together for about 8, mostly in the US but we returned to the UK about 1.5 years ago.  We also have 2 kids together. 

Per the above, our hope is that our situation is pretty straightforward case. Does that have any impact on timeline? The website currently suggests 75% within 17 months and 90% within 25 months. Does anyone have any recent experience about what a timeline might look like in our situation?

Secondly, for our kids there seems to be 2 options. One is a 101 visa, and the other is to go straight for citizenship. Everything suggests citizenship certification and then a passport is much quicker and cheaper, but wanted to check if anyone feels otherwise.

Thanks all!!

Hi! Welcome to the forum. We're in a similar position to you (together for 9 years, married for 5 with 2 kids) and only submitted back in early September so we still have a while to go but we have learned a lot from this forum!

The timing at the moment from the London office is coming out at around 11 months for straightforward cases, with 2 people last week that lodged in November 2019 getting their 309/100's. They appear to be roughly processed in time order even though some people have been waiting longer, depending on the complexity of the case. It will be interesting once some of the people that submitted post lockdown (March 2020) start getting their 309's as processing slowed right down around this time for a few months.

It's worth noting you'll need police certificates from everywhere you've lived in the last 10 years for more than 12 months. So for you UK (ACRO) and US, and for your wife UK, US and Australia (AFP). You also need a full 10 year travel history of everywhere you've travelled (even day trips and holidays) and it took my wife and I a fair bit of time to put that together.

For the kids, I would highly recommend getting Australian Citizenship by descent followed by Australian passports - this is what we did. This is the cheaper option and means they don't need to be marked as migrating on the 309 application. So I would get started on this right away as you will need this before submitting the partner visa and you want to get yours into the queue as soon as possible. After submitting the written section of the 309 you can attach documents in the weeks after that (police certificates, medical etc.) as no one is likely to pick it up during that time.

[Robin’s Emigrating]

13 minutes ago, ainzlondon79 said:

Hi! Welcome to the forum. We're in a similar position to you (together for 9 years, married for 5 with 2 kids) and only submitted back in early September so we still have a while to go but we have learned a lot from this forum!

The timing at the moment from the London office is coming out at around 11 months for straightforward cases, with 2 people last week that lodged in November 2019 getting their 309/100's. They appear to be roughly processed in time order even though some people have been waiting longer, depending on the complexity of the case. It will be interesting once some of the people that submitted post lockdown (March 2020) start getting their 309's as processing slowed right down around this time for a few months.

It's worth noting you'll need police certificates from everywhere you've lived in the last 10 years for more than 12 months. So for you UK (ACRO) and US, and for your wife UK, US and Australia (AFP). You also need a full 10 year travel history of everywhere you've travelled (even day trips and holidays) and it took my wife and I a fair bit of time to put that together.

For the kids, I would highly recommend getting Australian Citizenship by descent followed by Australian passports - this is what we did. This is the cheaper option and means they don't need to be marked as migrating on the 309 application. So I would get started on this right away as you will need this before submitting the partner visa and you want to get yours into the queue as soon as possible. After submitting the written section of the 309 you can attach documents in the weeks after that (police certificates, medical etc.) as no one is likely to pick it up during that time.

AinzLondon79 - thanks so much! That’s super useful already. We’d been planning to get the kids Citizenship / Passports going later (given the shorter timeline) but will get going instead now.

As you say will be interesting to see how the timelines become clearer with folks that have been submitting during COVID. Do you get any indication as the application progresses, or radio silence until either an RFI or approval?

Yeah we’d been dreading the whole travel history / background check questions . We had to do a similar thing for my Wife’s visa application to the UK, as well as our US visa applications. Painfully laborious!

Really useful to know you can get the 309 application submitted, but still work on some of the other items (police check, health screen etc..).

[Robin’s Emigrating]

6 hours ago, ainzlondon79 said:

Hi! Welcome to the forum. We're in a similar position to you (together for 9 years, married for 5 with 2 kids) and only submitted back in early September so we still have a while to go but we have learned a lot from this forum!

The timing at the moment from the London office is coming out at around 11 months for straightforward cases, with 2 people last week that lodged in November 2019 getting their 309/100's. They appear to be roughly processed in time order even though some people have been waiting longer, depending on the complexity of the case. It will be interesting once some of the people that submitted post lockdown (March 2020) start getting their 309's as processing slowed right down around this time for a few months.

It's worth noting you'll need police certificates from everywhere you've lived in the last 10 years for more than 12 months. So for you UK (ACRO) and US, and for your wife UK, US and Australia (AFP). You also need a full 10 year travel history of everywhere you've travelled (even day trips and holidays) and it took my wife and I a fair bit of time to put that together.

For the kids, I would highly recommend getting Australian Citizenship by descent followed by Australian passports - this is what we did. This is the cheaper option and means they don't need to be marked as migrating on the 309 application. So I would get started on this right away as you will need this before submitting the partner visa and you want to get yours into the queue as soon as possible. After submitting the written section of the 309 you can attach documents in the weeks after that (police certificates, medical etc.) as no one is likely to pick it up during that time.

AinzLondon -  Another quick question, can I assume the 309/100 application form is worded in such a way that we can’t get out of having the kids citizenship lined up before submitting my application? Is it one of the things we can ‘add’ like the police certificates and medical checks, or required before doing the initial submission? Also, do we have to have their passports, or will the citizenship only suffice?

As you can see...struggling to come to terms with adding 3-4 months (I think?) for the kids citizenship / passports to an already scarily long wait time!

[ainzlondon79]

2 hours ago, Robin’s Emigrating said:

AinzLondon -  Another quick question, can I assume the 309/100 application form is worded in such a way that we can’t get out of having the kids citizenship lined up before submitting my application? Is it one of the things we can ‘add’ like the police certificates and medical checks, or required before doing the initial submission? Also, do we have to have their passports, or will the citizenship only suffice?

As you can see...struggling to come to terms with adding 3-4 months (I think?) for the kids citizenship / passports to an already scarily long wait time!

Hi, I don't think so. I checked our written form and for each child you need to pick a value for "Australian Immigration Status" in a couple of different sections and we were able to pick "Australian Citizen" (not sure what the other options were) which is what you want. There are also questions like "Are there any migrating members of the family unit?" that you can answer no to once the children are Australian Citizens as they are "not migrating". 

I can't see anywhere where it asks for the children's Australian passport numbers (we uploaded scans of these in the documents section anyway, which can be done after submission) so if you can get the Australian citizenship by descent that should be enough and you could get their passports later or after the 309 submission.

Worth noting you have to pay the fee as part of the submission (to unlock the document upload section) so be prepared for that and start collecting documents now. Most forums recommend uploading around 75 documents (100 maximum) - the most time consuming parts are the essay questions and collecting your photos/social media posts and putting all of that into Word documents then exporting as PDF so they only count as 1 document when you upload.

[Robin’s Emigrating]

9 hours ago, ainzlondon79 said:

Hi, I don't think so. I checked our written form and for each child you need to pick a value for "Australian Immigration Status" in a couple of different sections and we were able to pick "Australian Citizen" (not sure what the other options were) which is what you want. There are also questions like "Are there any migrating members of the family unit?" that you can answer no to once the children are Australian Citizens as they are "not migrating". 

I can't see anywhere where it asks for the children's Australian passport numbers (we uploaded scans of these in the documents section anyway, which can be done after submission) so if you can get the Australian citizenship by descent that should be enough and you could get their passports later or after the 309 submission.

Worth noting you have to pay the fee as part of the submission (to unlock the document upload section) so be prepared for that and start collecting documents now. Most forums recommend uploading around 75 documents (100 maximum) - the most time consuming parts are the essay questions and collecting your photos/social media posts and putting all of that into Word documents then exporting as PDF so they only count as 1 document when you upload.

Thanks again, really appreciate it. Will get cracking now!

[DUBtoBNE]

To answer the above question, I don't recall ever being asked to prove citizenship of the kids. I did upload their birth certs and their mum is Australian, so I suppose it is implied.

I got my 309/100 double grant last week. My visa was issued from Berlin, even though I expected it to come from London. I contacted DFAT to ask for priority as I am travelling in December to relocate in time for eldest child starting school in January. My child has a place already in school and my employer were willing to relocate me also.

I applied in February 2020 with all my police checks but due to Covid I only got my medical in July. We've been together since 2009, cohabiting since 2010, relocated to Ireland together 2011, engaged 2012, bought a house 2013, married 2014, first child 2015, second child 2018. I lived in Aus for 3 years from 2008 to 2011 initially on a 417 WHV visa then after 6 months a 457 visa.

[bicek]

Hey everyone,

My husband applied for the 309 visa back in March 2020 and we front loaded everything apart from the health check and police checks. We are organising the health check now as this got sidelined due to the first lockdown here in the UK. We have been together since 2008 and have two children together. Both of our kids have citizenship by descent and Aussie passports, so on my husbands form we were able to put that no family members were migrating with him.

HOWEVER..

So our situation is sort of unique in that we are now expecting another child in the middle of this process, and they will be due to be born next year. Obviously we won't have had their citizenship by descent/aussie passport sorted until after they're born! Does this complicate matters with the visa still being processed? Does anyone have any suggestions for how we should proceed on this? I am hoping the visa is approved in the next few months (which seems to be the pattern judging by other people posting - roughy 12 months for processing at the London office). The last thing I would want is for the visa to be rejected on a technicality that we are now expecting another child who wouldn't be classed as Australian yet. 

[bicek]

17 hours ago, Robin’s Emigrating said:

AinzLondon -  Another quick question, can I assume the 309/100 application form is worded in such a way that we can’t get out of having the kids citizenship lined up before submitting my application? Is it one of the things we can ‘add’ like the police certificates and medical checks, or required before doing the initial submission? Also, do we have to have their passports, or will the citizenship only suffice?

As you can see...struggling to come to terms with adding 3-4 months (I think?) for the kids citizenship / passports to an already scarily long wait time!

Hey,

Just to say that we were really surprised with how quickly the citizenship by descent applications were processed for my kids last year. We submitted it on a Friday and they were approved the following Monday! You just need to put the work in getting all the documents and information together. Hard to say if they are working as quickly now but it seems that processing times are starting to look more typical now after the blip at the start of the covid pandemic. 

[DUBtoBNE]

I'm not a MARA, and my experience is only my own but I can't see them reviewing a straightforward and presumably low risk (you're been together 12+ years and have a family together) to that level of detail.