Parent visa application timelines (143 & 173)

[wats0ng]

On 10/12/2020 at 00:23, Juniper said:

143 and 870 Visas:

We are also applying for an 870. Our 143 was lodged 31st October 2016. We hope to get away with a 3year 870 but are worried it won’t be long enough. Opinions please?

 

 

I’m new to the Forum so forgive me if I  have missed something obvious but why is there an expectation of 3 years to process a visa that was lodged 31st Oct 2016?

As I understand it they are processing visas up to 2nd June 2016 at present. Surely even accepting the quota limits imposed for this 2020 - 2021, a year should be sufficient?

My application was lodged 2nd Nov 2016

[Skani]

2 hours ago, wats0ng said:

I’m new to the Forum so forgive me if I  have missed something obvious but why is there an expectation of 3 years to process a visa that was lodged 31st Oct 2016?

As I understand it they are processing visas up to 2nd June 2016 at present. Surely even accepting the quota limits imposed for this 2020 - 2021, a year should be sufficient?

My application was lodged 2nd Nov 2016

There is a large backlog from previous years when applications have outnumbered the approvals granted. 

As at 30 June 2020  the "pipeline"  (i.e. this backlog) of the total Family stream was

 " 213,805 first stage applications, an increase of 4.7 per cent compared to the pipeline of 204,137 first stage applications as at 30 June 2019....

Contributory Parent and Non-Contributory Parent categories accounted for 27.3 per cent and 23.5 per cent of the total Family stream

 Contributory Parent and Non-Contributory Parent categories were 3,730 places and 669 places, respectively." 

https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/research-and-stats/files/report-migration-program-2019-20.pdf

So about 100,000 were  in the parent visa pipeline at 30 June but around 4,400 only granted during the year.

 

[Skani]

Just thought to add:  

If you want to check the comparable situation in 2015-16 the details are here, on page 14:

https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/research-and-stats/files/2015-16-migration-programme-report.pdf

[LindaH27]

1 hour ago, Skani said:

There is a large backlog from previous years when applications have outnumbered the approvals granted. 

As at 30 June 2020  the "pipeline"  (i.e. this backlog) of the total Family stream was

 " 213,805 first stage applications, an increase of 4.7 per cent compared to the pipeline of 204,137 first stage applications as at 30 June 2019....

Contributory Parent and Non-Contributory Parent categories accounted for 27.3 per cent and 23.5 per cent of the total Family stream

 Contributory Parent and Non-Contributory Parent categories were 3,730 places and 669 places, respectively." 

https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/research-and-stats/files/report-migration-program-2019-20.pdf

So about 100,000 were  in the parent visa pipeline at 30 June but around 4,400 only granted during the year.

 

That is the total of ALL parent visa applications - it’s pretty evenly split between contributory snd non contributory applications. For contributory parent visas a better  idea is given by @Alan Collett who requested information from immi. He provided a chart as follows 

Edited December 12, 2020 by LindaH27

[Juniper]

On the face of it, yes it does look as if it should only take about a year but people are still waiting from February, March and April 2016 plus many in May to have their visas granted. It seems that some people in June 2016 have been asked for ‘further information’ but it will take a long time to process the 1,874 applications from June alone!  The Parent Visa Centre have been working on May 2016 applications (of which there were many!) for several months. It also depends on how many of the 20/21 allocation of approx 4,500 have been used already. When the allocation has been used the visa granting will simply cease until July 1st 2021 when the new allocation kicks in and so on.
So looking at the numbers who applied each month between May and November 2016 and perhaps adding on a backlog, our visa will certainly take longer than another year to be granted, more like 2plus at the least.  Of course - perhaps the annual allocation will be increased! but having already waited for over 4 years, aged 75 and with ALL  my family in Australia, I just want to join them as soon as possible!  That is why we are considering the 870 which if we are lucky, may be granted when the Australian Border restrictions are lifted!   Maybe ....

 

[SilMurtagh]

On 13/12/2020 at 04:34, Juniper said:

On the face of it, yes it does look as if it should only take about a year but people are still waiting from February, March and April 2016 plus many in May to have their visas granted. It seems that some people in June 2016 have been asked for ‘further information’ but it will take a long time to process the 1,874 applications from June alone!  The Parent Visa Centre have been working on May 2016 applications (of which there were many!) for several months. It also depends on how many of the 20/21 allocation of approx 4,500 have been used already. When the allocation has been used the visa granting will simply cease until July 1st 2021 when the new allocation kicks in and so on.
So looking at the numbers who applied each month between May and November 2016 and perhaps adding on a backlog, our visa will certainly take longer than another year to be granted, more like 2plus at the least.  Of course - perhaps the annual allocation will be increased! but having already waited for over 4 years, aged 75 and with ALL  my family in Australia, I just want to join them as soon as possible!  That is why we are considering the 870 which if we are lucky, may be granted when the Australian Border restrictions are lifted!   Maybe ....

 

Will there be a release of this information somewhere? How do we know if and when the approximately 4,500 spots for 20/21 have already been used up?

[MELBNGSM]

On 13/12/2020 at 04:34, Juniper said:

On the face of it, yes it does look as if it should only take about a year but people are still waiting from February, March and April 2016 plus many in May to have their visas granted. It seems that some people in June 2016 have been asked for ‘further information’ but it will take a long time to process the 1,874 applications from June alone!  The Parent Visa Centre have been working on May 2016 applications (of which there were many!) for several months. It also depends on how many of the 20/21 allocation of approx 4,500 have been used already. When the allocation has been used the visa granting will simply cease until July 1st 2021 when the new allocation kicks in and so on.
So looking at the numbers who applied each month between May and November 2016 and perhaps adding on a backlog, our visa will certainly take longer than another year to be granted, more like 2plus at the least.  Of course - perhaps the annual allocation will be increased! but having already waited for over 4 years, aged 75 and with ALL  my family in Australia, I just want to join them as soon as possible!  That is why we are considering the 870 which if we are lucky, may be granted when the Australian Border restrictions are lifted!   Maybe ....

 

+1 still waiting for VAC#2

[LindaH27]

3 hours ago, SilMurtagh said:

Will there be a release of this information somewhere? How do we know if and when the approximately 4,500 spots for 20/21 have already been used up?

It’s actually only 4000 places available for parents - contributory and non contributory! The split between  them  is not known yet. The other 500 places are for what is termed Other family  - eg last remaining relative and a few others. 
 

For example last year’s  total allocation of grants was around 6000 but only 4300 were granted. Only approximately 3700 of those were contributory (173,143, 884 & 864 - again the split between each category isn’t known) the rest were non Contributory (103 & 804) so people need to be aware it’s going to take a lot longer.   
 

Immi  don’t  announce when all the places have been taken - it will just go very quiet! It’s probable most of this years allocation has already been granted.  There seemed to be a lot of people being asked for 2nd Vac a month or so ago - snd that’s only on this forum - but it does seem to have gone quiet now. 

Edited December 14, 2020 by LindaH27

[MELBNGSM]

16 minutes ago, LindaH27 said:

It’s actually only 4000 places available for parents - contributory and non contributory! The split between  them  is not known yet. The other 500 places are for what is termed Other family  - eg last remaining relative and a few others. 
 

For example last year’s  total allocation of grants was around 6000 but only 4300 were granted. Only approximately 3700 of those were contributory (173,143, 884 & 864 - again the split between each category isn’t known) the rest were non Contributory (103 & 804) so people need to be aware it’s going to take a lot longer.   
 

Immi  don’t  announce when all the places have been taken - it will just go very quiet! It’s probable most of this years allocation has already been granted.  There seemed to be a lot of people being asked for 2nd Vac a month or so ago - snd that’s only on this forum - but it does seem to have gone quiet now. 

"Probable" the key word. They started asking for second VAC in Nov I think going by postings here. 
They did not do much since April when the application processing was on hold. 
Still some hope for people waiting. 

Edited December 14, 2020 by MELBNGSM

[SilMurtagh]

35 minutes ago, LindaH27 said:

It’s actually only 4000 places available for parents - contributory and non contributory! The split between  them  is not known yet. The other 500 places are for what is termed Other family  - eg last remaining relative and a few others. 
 

For example last year’s  total allocation of grants was around 6000 but only 4300 were granted. Only approximately 3700 of those were contributory (173,143, 884 & 864 - again the split between each category isn’t known) the rest were non Contributory (103 & 804) so people need to be aware it’s going to take a lot longer.   
 

Immi  don’t  announce when all the places have been taken - it will just go very quiet! It’s probable most of this years allocation has already been granted.  There seemed to be a lot of people being asked for 2nd Vac a month or so ago - snd that’s only on this forum - but it does seem to have gone quiet now. 

It's crazy to think that if all the 4000 spots for this year have been taken, and considering some of the applicants from March, April and May 2016 have already been requested further docs back in Feb/Mar 2020, they (us included) would have all of our medicals and police check expired if we need to wait till July 2021 for when the new batch kicks in. Surely they realise that these have an expiry date of one year and plan to grant those with a visa, no?

[LindaH27]

28 minutes ago, MELBNGSM said:

"Probable" the key word. They started asking for second VAC in Nov I think going by postings here. 
They did not do much since April when the application processing was on hold. 
Still some hope for people waiting. 

Don’t forget there’s a fair few 173 and 143 applicants who were visiting Australia when the borders closed and had to apply for temporary visas to remain. Many of them have been asked for 2nd Vac. The requirement before grant is that they have to be offshore. Although they could leave,  many won’t because there’s no guarantee they would get back in due to the caps on numbers entering and the numbers of Australians still stranded overseas. 
 There’s a campaign  afoot to persuade the govt to grant these visas without the need. to leave Australia. 

Until the applications have been granted  which could take sometime especially if the govt won’t change the requirement to leave.  they’re not going to ask more people for 2nd Vac 

[LindaH27]

28 minutes ago, SilMurtagh said:

It's crazy to think that if all the 4000 spots for this year have been taken, and considering some of the applicants from March, April and May 2016 have already been requested further docs back in Feb/Mar 2020, they (us included) would have all of our medicals and police check expired if we need to wait till July 2021 for when the new batch kicks in. Surely they realise that these have an expiry date of one year and plan to grant those with a visa, no?

Apparently those already in Australia but unable to leave to meet the criteria that they have to be offshore for grant  have had the date of Medicals extended 

[KittyMB]

Hi All, 

We were one of the ones who got told to head offshore to be granted visa, no other way about it. 

My parents left Melbourne to Singapore as transit passengers, they are now in Quarantine in Perth. They were granted the visa after 10 mins having gotten across departures

If you're in the same boat and have any questions, please by all means send me a message. Lucky for us, after nearly 5 years, we're done. 

Best of luck to you all

[Manish]

Hi,

Just needed some recommendation for visa renewal.

We await my mom’s 143 (Jun’16), like many of us. She has been in Australia since Jun-2019, and the first onshore extension of 600 is about to get over on 15th Jan’21.

Considering that 143 processing is near, and we have been waiting for the whole of last year hoping it would come up for processing.

I am in a fix if I should apply for 870 OR apply for another 600 extensions.

- I will ask for 12 months, however, if 600 is only extended for 3 OR 6 months. Then are there any challenges for further extensions?

- OR I should apply for 870 as hoping that 143 would get processed in the next year or so.

Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance.

[LindaH27]

19 minutes ago, Manish said:

Hi,

Just needed some recommendation for visa renewal.

We await my mom’s 143 (Jun’16), like many of us. She has been in Australia since Jun-2019, and the first onshore extension of 600 is about to get over on 15th Jan’21.

Considering that 143 processing is near, and we have been waiting for the whole of last year hoping it would come up for processing.

I am in a fix if I should apply for 870 OR apply for another 600 extensions.

- I will ask for 12 months, however, if 600 is only extended for 3 OR 6 months. Then are there any challenges for further extensions?

- OR I should apply for 870 as hoping that 143 would get processed in the next year or so.

Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance.

That’s a question few can answer as no one knows how immi work! 

 There’s a possibility it could still take a long while as there are quite a few people who need to go overseas first to validate their visa. Currently they’re still stuck in Australia although there are moves to ask govt to allow temporary onshore grants. But there’s a limited number of visas available this year -4000.  Don’t think they can get much further in processing until they know how many people have already gone offshore and been granted their visas. Also May/ June 2016 numbers are quite high. 
 

I've seen some  posts where another 600 has been granted but most are for less than 12 months. 

Sorry not to be of more help. Hope you can find a way !

[Manish]

Thanks. I understand.

I think whatever limited information we have read, points to that it could take another year for June'16 applications, but who knows. 

The patience is running low and we don't have much choice, but to keep spending additional money. And all the hassles with renewals. 

I will probably go with 600 and keep extending...as I don't know if i have enough time to get 870 done.

[LindaH27]

7 minutes ago, Manish said:

Thanks. I understand.

I think whatever limited information we have read, points to that it could take another year for June'16 applications, but who knows. 

The patience is running low and we don't have much choice, but to keep spending additional money. And all the hassles with renewals. 

I will probably go with 600 and keep extending...as I don't know if i have enough time to get 870 done.

Just to remind you the 870 is “supposed” to be applied for offshore! However I think you can ask for that to be waived?. 
 

I believe processing times for 870 are around 4 months but who knows in these strange times ! You as sponsor would have to be apply first which takes a while then parents have to apply within 6 months of you being approved so I don’t know how allthat would work with the limited time they may still have in Australia  

 

[Arti]

9 minutes ago, LindaH27 said:

Just to remind you the 870 is “supposed” to be applied for offshore! However I think you can ask for that to be waived?. 
 

I believe processing times for 870 are around 4 months but who knows in these strange times ! You as sponsor would have to be apply first which takes a while then parents have to apply within 6 months of you being approved so I don’t know how allthat would work with the limited time they may still have in Australia  

 

870s are being granted way faster for onshore applicants. All you need to do is ask for applying onshore in your sponsorship application.

Jun 16 could actually come up for processing any time now - BUT you never know! 

[KittyMB]

Where are you guys from? And did you only apply for an extension of 6 months for 600? As a general comment, my experience has been that they tend to accept what you ask for, so ask for more rather than less

We're from South America and parents had been here since March 2019 with a multiple trips,12 month on each entry visa, we were lucky that we had a holiday in Bali in November last year so that reset the 12 months, effectively that visa expired in Nov 2020. Before knowing they were making us go offshore, I applied for another 600 based on exceptional circumstances, being that South American borders are closed and the difficulty in sourcing flights to go back, they granted that 12 months, took them a couple of months to grant and they backdated it to when I first applied.

Something to consider, I'd suggest that you wait until about the 10sh Jan to apply for a 12 month one , she'd be granted a bridging visa when you apply and may take them a couple of months to grant it in which time, hopefully you'll have a better idea of how quickly 143 are moving and if not, potentially start moving to apply for 870. 

Best of luck

[Manish]

We are originally from India. Yes, I requested for 12 months extension, but only got 3. My mom has been visiting us since 2014, and they always gave 12 months. Until this time where we had to extend onshore and got 3 months. 

I am thinking and hoping the same that if they could grant 12 months. And visa Medical is valid until Mid-Oct21(1-year validity) and Police Clearance from India and AFP, so I think they could process it faster. This time it would cost about $1100 (second ext). That's why in double mind at the moment, to spend that $5500 or keep that for the big fee coming up for 143. 

Very stressful! 

Thank you for sharing !

 

[Samvaz99]

On 17/12/2020 at 14:32, KittyMB said:

Hi All, 

We were one of the ones who got told to head offshore to be granted visa, no other way about it. 

My parents left Melbourne to Singapore as transit passengers, they are now in Quarantine in Perth. They were granted the visa after 10 mins having gotten across departures

If you're in the same boat and have any questions, please by all means send me a message. Lucky for us, after nearly 5 years, we're done. 

Best of luck to you all

Hi KittyMB,

could you please let us how did you book flight because if we look for Singapore airlines flight, we can’t see any and if you could let us know about any agent to book flight that would be great.

 

thank you so much

[KittyMB]

@Samvaz99 Hi, 

First, there is only two approved airlines to take transit passengers into Singapore, Singapore Airlines and Scoot, for you to be a transit passenger, you must have the whole itinerary in one booking so you can't fly with SQ and then come back with Scoot. 

I rang the bookings for Singapore Airlines and found it too hard, they want you to give them exact dates and I was looking for anything available, for me that also meant if one flight is economy and another business then that's ok, as long as we get the flights, but she also didn't cope with that. In the end, I used the google search flights functionality 

https://www.google.com/search?q=melbourne+to+singapore&rlz=1C1GCEB_enAU907AU907&oq=melbourne+to+singapore&aqs=chrome..69i57.3095j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

Put how may people and start going one day at a time, there is a flight out of singapore at night, I think, and one in the morning so I did flights same date, then move return one more day and so on until I found availability for Singapore Airlines, going in economy and coming back in business class, the flights I found where sold by expedia, had no issue with that, I bought them through expedia and it was all ok.  (Also, I'm not sure that it'll work if you leave and come back to same city so we did Melb-Perth via Singapore,  I'm happy with that choice now too, because the parents are in Quarantine at the Westin in Perth -  I think the hotels being used for qauarantine in WA are much nicer than the ones in Melb,)

Send me a PM if you need any more help, I' happy to.

Edited December 20, 2020 by KittyMB

[Samvaz99]

23 hours ago, KittyMB said:

@Samvaz99 Hi, 

First, there is only two approved airlines to take transit passengers into Singapore, Singapore Airlines and Scoot, for you to be a transit passenger, you must have the whole itinerary in one booking so you can't fly with SQ and then come back with Scoot. 

I rang the bookings for Singapore Airlines and found it too hard, they want you to give them exact dates and I was looking for anything available, for me that also meant if one flight is economy and another business then that's ok, as long as we get the flights, but she also didn't cope with that. In the end, I used the google search flights functionality 

https://www.google.com/search?q=melbourne+to+singapore&rlz=1C1GCEB_enAU907AU907&oq=melbourne+to+singapore&aqs=chrome..69i57.3095j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

 

Put how may people and start going one day at a time, there is a flight out of singapore at night, I think, and one in the morning so I did flights same date, then move return one more day and so on until I found availability for Singapore Airlines, going in economy and coming back in business class, the flights I found where sold by expedia, had no issue with that, I bought them through expedia and it was all ok.  (Also, I'm not sure that it'll work if you leave and come back to same city so we did Melb-Perth via Singapore,  I'm happy with that choice now too, because the parents are in Quarantine at the Westin in Perth -  I think the hotels being used for qauarantine in WA are much nicer than the ones in Melb,)

Send me a PM if you need any more help, I' happy to.

Hi KittyMB,

Many thanks for your help.

I will request you if I need further information.

 Thanks 

 

[amahmood]

Hi All, 

We applied for our parents in September 2016 (subclass 143) and from what i read, we may need to wait another couple of years? Couple of questions please: 

1. We also applied for long stay visit visa in March 2020 (just pre-COVID) and still have not heard anything. Is this something we should be hopeful about. 
2. Can we apply for subclass 870? I understand from the home affairs website that you cannot apply permanent visa while holding subclass 870. Would this be an issue if we have already applied for the permanent? 

I did go through previous discussions so I apologize if my questions have already been discussed. Both parents are approaching 70s and living alone while we are all here in Australia. We are deeply concerned of their wellbeing so I would highly appreciate any guidance.
_______________________________________________________________________________

Applied 143 13/09/2016

[desert-eagle]

Has anyone had progress since October. I switched my parents visa from 103 to 143,  After acknowledgement letter no update so far... 

 

Queue date 103 visa 01/07/2015
Applied for 143 visa 12/10/2020
Acknowledgement Letter 25/10/2020