Timeline on 309/100 via applied for in London

[Almat]

@Robin’s Emigrating hi there... For my form 888 I used my husbands Auntie (Australian), my father-in-law (Australian), a friend (Australian), my mother (British), my father (British). So all were family apart from the friend. 3 Aussie's and 2 brits. I also front loaded my application which meant I submitted with my medical check, police report and about a week later submitted my husbands Uk and Australian police report. If you send me your email address i'll share the resource that I referred to. Just got my visa in November - delighted!

[Robin’s Emigrating]

@AlmatThank you! I will PM you my email address. Really appreciate it. For clarity, there’s a section in the application where you provide the names of ‘Supporting Witnesses’. Should these be the same folks as those that fill out the 888 forms? It seems to ask for details of 2 supporting witnesses, but I see that you can add more.

[Jbaker]

On 04/12/2020 at 13:55, Robin’s Emigrating said:

Love some help from the gurus here on Pomsinoz. We’re nearing completion of Stage 1 of my 309/100 but have a few questions:

1. We’ve provided names of two Supporting Witnesses from our marriage. One is my Best Man (British) and the other is one of her bridesmaids (Australian) as her maid of honour was my sister and I assume you cannot use family members. I’m told we’re required to submit 888 forms to validate once we reach the ‘upload’ stage. Should these be from the same two people, or others/more? Also, should we prioritise two Australian citizens as supporting witnesses, or is one Brit and one Australian ok?
2. We’ve separately been requesting our daughters citizenships, however that process works differently as you’re able to upload documents prior to submitting so already have a good feel for what is needed. Are there any good/trusted resources you can recommend that walks through the required documents to be uploaded? I’m sure guidance is provided once we get there in the process, just trying to get a head start.

3. I keep hearing people talk about ‘front loaded’. Does this mean they’ve completed all uploads and medicals/police checks before the case officer picks it up?

Thank you!

I uploaded two 888s both from Australia citizens.  One from a friend I used to work with who moved home to Oz a few years back and the other from my brother-in-law’s wife.  That proved to be sufficient.

Edited December 6, 2020 by Jbaker

[Robin’s Emigrating]

Another quick question. We’re applying for both our kids citizenships and my 309/100 visa in parallel and have been presented with a question in my visa application about whether our kids are Australian Citizens. Should I mark them as “Australian Citizens” on the grounds that they will be by the time my application is processed, or mark as something like “Other”?

[Greystones]

Hi Everyone,

Have been following this blog for months now and have finally submitted my 309 application! We are filling out the sponsor application now as well and it is looking for the same statements that I had to do for the 309 (Give details of financial aspect of relationship, nature of household etc etc) - I'm just wondering how much effort I need to put into these? Can I just reference the statements in the main application which I agonised over for ages before submitting??

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Greystones]

6 hours ago, Robin’s Emigrating said:

Another quick question. We’re applying for both our kids citizenships and my 309/100 visa in parallel and have been presented with a question in my visa application about whether our kids are Australian Citizens. Should I mark them as “Australian Citizens” on the grounds that they will be by the time my application is processed, or mark as something like “Other”?

If it's any help, we did the citizenship first and once submitted the paperwork they came through in about a week, so it was a really quick turnaround (I know other peoples have taken longer) 

[GuyPB]

20 minutes ago, Greystones said:

Hi Everyone,

Have been following this blog for months now and have finally submitted my 309 application! We are filling out the sponsor application now as well and it is looking for the same statements that I had to do for the 309 (Give details of financial aspect of relationship, nature of household etc etc) - I'm just wondering how much effort I need to put into these? Can I just reference the statements in the main application which I agonised over for ages before submitting??

Thanks in advance for any help!

Hey!

We did joint statements for each section signed by both me and my partner. I then uploaded those statements to both my application (applicant) and my partners forms (sponsor). They were identical.

Hope that helps

G

[Almat]

On 05/12/2020 at 12:19, Robin’s Emigrating said:

@AlmatThank you! I will PM you my email address. Really appreciate it. For clarity, there’s a section in the application where you provide the names of ‘Supporting Witnesses’. Should these be the same folks as those that fill out the 888 forms? It seems to ask for details of 2 supporting witnesses, but I see that you can add more.

@Robin’s Emigrating just checked and I used the same people as I did for 888 forms x

[Almat]

9 hours ago, Robin’s Emigrating said:

Another quick question. We’re applying for both our kids citizenships and my 309/100 visa in parallel and have been presented with a question in my visa application about whether our kids are Australian Citizens. Should I mark them as “Australian Citizens” on the grounds that they will be by the time my application is processed, or mark as something like “Other”?

@Robin’s Emigrating I would defo mark them as citizens as long as there is no doubt they'll get their citizenship 

[Almat]

3 hours ago, Greystones said:

Hi Everyone,

Have been following this blog for months now and have finally submitted my 309 application! We are filling out the sponsor application now as well and it is looking for the same statements that I had to do for the 309 (Give details of financial aspect of relationship, nature of household etc etc) - I'm just wondering how much effort I need to put into these? Can I just reference the statements in the main application which I agonised over for ages before submitting??

Thanks in advance for any help!

@Greystones we just used my applicant statement and tweaked it for the sponsor version.... made it less wordy since it came from a man! ha ha... mine was long and emotional : )

[bicek]

Hi everyone,

Just to update you all, my partner's 309/100 visa was granted yesterday!

We applied at the beginning of March this year. Had a request for more information in November (Health Assessment and ACRO police check) and we finished uploading these updates yesterday. The visa was granted yesterday! Apparently it was granted in Tel Aviv, not London. 

I have a couple quick questions in relation to the visa being approved....

1. My partner's passport is going to expire in the next 6 months so he needs to renew it before we travel to Australia. His visa grant letter details his current passport number which won't be in use by the time we relocate. Do we need to alert them to the updated passport info, or does this not matter? And if so, how do we tell them? Through the immi portal, or contacting the embassy directly? Bit clueless on this one, and want to make sure we do everything right in preparation. 

2. Does anyone know about visa entry conditions? We've tried to look up on vevo which ones would be relevant in my partner's 309/100 visa but it's not clear. The immi site states that condition "8502 - Not arrive before person specified on visa" could apply to the visa. As in, he might not be able to enter Australia to activate his visa without his sponsor (me) entering at the same time. Does anyone have any experience/understanding of this? Does it only apply to the temporary visa (309) or to the permanent residency (100) visa too? It's possible he will need to travel there solo to activate the visa if we can't all get over there in time by the final visa entry date. So we want to be sure on this, as apparently if the condition does apply, they can cancel your visa on the spot if you don't enter the country with the sponsor (me).

Thanks for any advice you can give! And i've got my fingers crossed there are more visa approvals on the way for you all. 

[bicek]

On 07/12/2020 at 16:15, Greystones said:

If it's any help, we did the citizenship first and once submitted the paperwork they came through in about a week, so it was a really quick turnaround (I know other peoples have taken longer) 

When did you apply for the kids citizenship? Was it this year? Just curious re turnaround times.

[Almat]

1 hour ago, bicek said:

Hi everyone,

Just to update you all, my partner's 309/100 visa was granted yesterday!

We applied at the beginning of March this year. Had a request for more information in November (Health Assessment and ACRO police check) and we finished uploading these updates yesterday. The visa was granted yesterday! Apparently it was granted in Tel Aviv, not London. 

I have a couple quick questions in relation to the visa being approved....

1. My partner's passport is going to expire in the next 6 months so he needs to renew it before we travel to Australia. His visa grant letter details his current passport number which won't be in use by the time we relocate. Do we need to alert them to the updated passport info, or does this not matter? And if so, how do we tell them? Through the immi portal, or contacting the embassy directly? Bit clueless on this one, and want to make sure we do everything right in preparation. 

2. Does anyone know about visa entry conditions? We've tried to look up on vevo which ones would be relevant in my partner's 309/100 visa but it's not clear. The immi site states that condition "8502 - Not arrive before person specified on visa" could apply to the visa. As in, he might not be able to enter Australia to activate his visa without his sponsor (me) entering at the same time. Does anyone have any experience/understanding of this? Does it only apply to the temporary visa (309) or to the permanent residency (100) visa too? It's possible he will need to travel there solo to activate the visa if we can't all get over there in time by the final visa entry date. So we want to be sure on this, as apparently if the condition does apply, they can cancel your visa on the spot if you don't enter the country with the sponsor (me).

Thanks for any advice you can give! And i've got my fingers crossed there are more visa approvals on the way for you all. 

@bicek huge congrats well done! You’ve panicked me a bit as I’m flying on New Years Eve with the children and my Australian husband is flying later once his work is finalised. I can’t see any stipulations on my visa hard copy or VEVO.  

[Almat]

2 minutes ago, Almat said:

@bicek huge congrats well done! You’ve panicked me a bit as I’m flying on New Years Eve with the children and my Australian husband is flying later once his work is finalised. I can’t see any stipulations on my visa hard copy or VEVO.  

@bicek is the 8502 shown on your visa?

[bicek]

10 hours ago, Almat said:

@bicek is the 8502 shown on your visa?

We can't see any evidence of it on the visa, but there's nothing on vevo that states explicitly that there are no entry conditions, so we're just not 100%. I wondered if the condition would apply to the temporary visa (309) but not the permanent visa (100)? I'm hoping as my partner has been issued the whole lot in one go, we don't have any entry requirements....but we're just not sure. 

Does anyone have just the 309 visa issued, and does it state this condition (8502) on your visa anywhere? Would love to know if anyone can shed light on this!

Edited December 11, 2020 by bicek

[Greystones]

13 hours ago, bicek said:

When did you apply for the kids citizenship? Was it this year? Just curious re turnaround times.

HI, it was October 2019 - so no impact by Covid. My wife is an aussie by birth so I think it was a straight forward case.

[bicek]

6 minutes ago, Greystones said:

HI, it was October 2019 - so no impact by Covid. My wife is an aussie by birth so I think it was a straight forward case.

We applied in July 2019 and it was 2-3 days turnaround. I'm Aussie by birth so was sorting for my two kids. But now pregnant with another one and needing to get them sorted once they are born, and need to get it sorted before we relocate! So just curious about timings, as people have said it is much slower now.

[BigJoe]

13 hours ago, bicek said:

Hi everyone,

Just to update you all, my partner's 309/100 visa was granted yesterday!

We applied at the beginning of March this year. Had a request for more information in November (Health Assessment and ACRO police check) and we finished uploading these updates yesterday. The visa was granted yesterday! Apparently it was granted in Tel Aviv, not London. 

I have a couple quick questions in relation to the visa being approved....

1. My partner's passport is going to expire in the next 6 months so he needs to renew it before we travel to Australia. His visa grant letter details his current passport number which won't be in use by the time we relocate. Do we need to alert them to the updated passport info, or does this not matter? And if so, how do we tell them? Through the immi portal, or contacting the embassy directly? Bit clueless on this one, and want to make sure we do everything right in preparation. 

2. Does anyone know about visa entry conditions? We've tried to look up on vevo which ones would be relevant in my partner's 309/100 visa but it's not clear. The immi site states that condition "8502 - Not arrive before person specified on visa" could apply to the visa. As in, he might not be able to enter Australia to activate his visa without his sponsor (me) entering at the same time. Does anyone have any experience/understanding of this? Does it only apply to the temporary visa (309) or to the permanent residency (100) visa too? It's possible he will need to travel there solo to activate the visa if we can't all get over there in time by the final visa entry date. So we want to be sure on this, as apparently if the condition does apply, they can cancel your visa on the spot if you don't enter the country with the sponsor (me).

Thanks for any advice you can give! And i've got my fingers crossed there are more visa approvals on the way for you all. 

Go back into your immi account, it will allow you to update your partners passport information.

[bicek]

1 hour ago, BigJoe said:

Go back into your immi account, it will allow you to update your partners passport information.

Ok thanks, hopefully that's still ok to update after the visa has been issued. Thanks for your help. 

[Robin’s Emigrating]

Hi folks. Just got Stage 1 of my 309/100 visa submitted and have been perusing the required documents list. I was surprised to see Form 80 as appears to be mostly the same as information provided on the electronic application. Is this required again? I’ve been abroad a lot over the last 10 years which was quite a job to fill out. Can you overflow onto the final page if you run out of space?

[Robin’s Emigrating]

Another question. The upload section appears to list the same forms in multiple sections (e.g. birth certificate, utilities accounts). Am I right in assuming you only have to upload the file in one of them?

Is it also correct that my wife, as an Australian citizen, also has to fill out a Form 80 and overseas police checks from our time living in the UK and the States?

Finally, for the ‘photograph - other’ should this just be a regular photo of you (e.g. something you might have on a social media account)?

[bicek]

19 hours ago, Robin’s Emigrating said:

Another question. The upload section appears to list the same forms in multiple sections (e.g. birth certificate, utilities accounts). Am I right in assuming you only have to upload the file in one of them?

Is it also correct that my wife, as an Australian citizen, also has to fill out a Form 80 and overseas police checks from our time living in the UK and the States?

Finally, for the ‘photograph - other’ should this just be a regular photo of you (e.g. something you might have on a social media account)?

Yep, you can just upload the documents to whichever section you feel is most relevant. We made an effort to spread them as evenly as possible across the sections. 

Police checks have to be done in any country that you've lived for 12+ months in consecutively over the last 10 years. Lucky for us we only needed UK police checks. 

In our experience, the applicant (my husband) submitted a Form 80. He didn't do the 1221 form. I didn't do a Form 80, but I did a 40 sp Form. 

What do you mean by photograph - other? Do you mean a category on the upload page?

[Robin’s Emigrating]

Thanks @bicek. There is a category in our uploads section called 'Photos-Other'. The description for it is "Provide a recent photograph of the visa applicant (other than a passport photograph)." so am assuming I will just pick something recent from social media.

[martymarty5436425]

2 hours ago, Robin’s Emigrating said:

Thanks @bicek. There is a category in our uploads section called 'Photos-Other'. The description for it is "Provide a recent photograph of the visa applicant (other than a passport photograph)." so am assuming I will just pick something recent from social media.

That's what I did.  I just made sure my face was clearly visible and I was facing the camera in the photo I selected.

[martymarty5436425]

On 14/12/2020 at 21:01, Robin’s Emigrating said:

I was surprised to see Form 80 as appears to be mostly the same as information provided on the electronic application. Is this required again?

I am not an expert, but I didn't submit this form and have a visa, so presumably not required!  I assumed it was needed in the past or for someone who is uploading a paper copy of the application.