Evisitor (651) and exemption processing times

[Culterguy]

moliere19

Your experience is pretty well the same as ours. We applied for exemption 28th October, got approved within a few days. We applied for evisa and then nothing for weeks. As Our flight date approached 4th Dec, I applied for exemption again, this time had the visa application reference to put in. Concluded that we should have put visa application before exemption although how you are supposed to know that? Anyway the 2nd Exemption was approved after 4th Dec, and as I guessed evisa approved a day or two later. We had to cancel flight , moved to march 22. There was an interesting article in Sydney paper sent by by son, which indicated that we are not alone. The system was poorly thought through when 1st November opend to close family of oz citizens. I had advised some friends I know in the same boat, to do their Visa first before exemption and what do you know, they got their evisa and then exemption within a few days.

[Karl D]

On 08/11/2021 at 01:41, Sue 320 said:

I've no idea what the 'right' answer is to this question but going on advice from FB forums - it has confused many! - we just put 'Parent of an Australian Citizen'.  

Oh sh**t..we put Lead Passenger. Hope that doesn’t go against us. We are parents just didn’t understand the box.

the gov website says apply for a visa first ( we did 651 ) and in previous years had that back approved in hours. Then we applied for the exemption as on the form it asks for a TRN for the applied visa.

we travel in Feb, flights been booked and moved several times over the last 24 months 

Edited December 27, 2021 by Karl D

[Sue 320]

1 hour ago, Karl D said:

Oh sh**t..we put Lead Passenger. Hope that doesn’t go against us. We are parents just didn’t understand the box.

the gov website says apply for a visa first ( we did 651 ) and in previous years had that back approved in hours. Then we applied for the exemption as on the form it asks for a TRN for the applied visa.

we travel in Feb, flights been booked and moved several times over the last 24 months 

I really wouldn't worry I don't honestly think it is that significant. As long as you have uploaded all the necessary documentation to support your application for exemption and have entered the reference numbers for your 651 applications you should be fine.  The exemption grant should trigger the visa grant - just be aware that the e651 can take a little longer to process then in pre-pandemic days but you should be prioritised.  Good luck!

[Lavers]

7 hours ago, moliere19 said:

We applied for the travel exemption in mid November and received the TER approval on 28th November. We had previously submitted a visitor visa 600 application in September and the status of that just showed received so we then submitted a e-visitor application on 29th November for travel on 30th December. To date we have heard nothing on either application despite immi saying they are prioritising applicants with a travel exemption. We have called them twice but get no definitive information so we have therefore cancelled our flights. Has anyone else had a similar experience or even a better experience where you have received both a TER and a visa? We just want to know if everyone else is in the same situation as us or whether our application has somehow got missed. Thanks for any info.

 

Hiya

We got our E651 approved within the hour and the travel exemption within the week for my mother in law.

Did you have to submit any evidence?

[Tulip1]

I’ve today applied for a visitor visa and then done an exemption request, adding in that visa TRN.  Does anyone have an up to date timeline on getting these approved please. 

[Lavers]

5 minutes ago, Tulip1 said:

I’ve today applied for a visitor visa and then done an exemption request, adding in that visa TRN.  Does anyone have an up to date timeline on getting these approved please. 

I did mine at the end Nov start of Dec and both done within the week.

[moliere19]

11 hours ago, Lavers said:

Hiya

We got our E651 approved within the hour and the travel exemption within the week for my mother in law.

Did you have to submit any evidence?

We submitted everything requested with the application which was all standard things. If we don't get a positive response to our email, or indeed the visas,  I think we will start the whole process again when the holiday period has ended and immi are back at work. 

[moliere19]

18 hours ago, Culterguy said:

moliere19

Your experience is pretty well the same as ours. We applied for exemption 28th October, got approved within a few days. We applied for evisa and then nothing for weeks. As Our flight date approached 4th Dec, I applied for exemption again, this time had the visa application reference to put in. Concluded that we should have put visa application before exemption although how you are supposed to know that? Anyway the 2nd Exemption was approved after 4th Dec, and as I guessed evisa approved a day or two later. We had to cancel flight , moved to march 22. There was an interesting article in Sydney paper sent by by son, which indicated that we are not alone. The system was poorly thought through when 1st November opend to close family of oz citizens. I had advised some friends I know in the same boat, to do their Visa first before exemption and what do you know, they got their evisa and then exemption within a few days.

Thanks for the info. We are not alone. I've written to immi helpdesk with all our details and will give them a few days to respond but if we haven't heard anything by early January I think we'll start the process over again but this time applying for the visa first. As you say how are you supposed to know that!

[Karl D]

On 27/12/2021 at 20:18, Sue 320 said:

I really wouldn't worry I don't honestly think it is that significant. As long as you have uploaded all the necessary documentation to support your application for exemption and have entered the reference numbers for your 651 applications you should be fine.  The exemption grant should trigger the visa grant - just be aware that the e651 can take a little longer to process then in pre-pandemic days but you should be prioritised.  Good luck!

Hi- just an update - got our exemption today and the visas approved separately within the hour.

so timeline if it helps anyone;

applied for e651 on 22nd Dec- received confirmation and TRN of pending 

applied for exemption on 26th Dec quoting TRN from visa app

received exemption email 31st Dec

received completed visas as granted on 31st Dec

just travel declaration to do 7 days prior to travel and we are off!

Grandkids here we come!

[moliere19]

1 hour ago, Karl D said:

Hi- just an update - got our exemption today and the visas approved separately within the hour.

so timeline if it helps anyone;

applied for e651 on 22nd Dec- received confirmation and TRN of pending 

applied for exemption on 26th Dec quoting TRN from visa app

received exemption email 31st Dec

received completed visas as granted on 31st Dec

just travel declaration to do 7 days prior to travel and we are off!

Grandkids here we come!

Great news Karl. We resubmitted our travel exemption request on 29th, with the e651 TRN, so here’s hoping ours gets processed in a similar timely fashion.

[Culterguy]

Moliere,

Hope this jogs the system, as it did for me, albeit too late for our early Dec booking. Let us know.

John

[Tulip1]

I applied for a 651 visa on 27th Dec and then applied for an exemption as an immediate family member, adding the TRN number to the application (both done on the same day). I received my exemption on 29th Dec but my visa application is still pending.  I’m not travelling until next month but I’ve seen on here many saying the visa quickly followed the exemption.   Should I be worried?

[Culterguy]

If its Feb you travel, you should be ok. However its a varied picture. We have friends, where husband got his visa, wife waiting 10 days on!

[moliere19]

9 hours ago, Tulip1 said:

I applied for a 651 visa on 27th Dec and then applied for an exemption as an immediate family member, adding the TRN number to the application (both done on the same day). I received my exemption on 29th Dec but my visa application is still pending.  I’m not travelling until next month but I’ve seen on here many saying the visa quickly followed the exemption.   Should I be worried?

I hope you’ll be ok but we got our travel exemption in November and still haven’t got our visas. We reapplied for the travel exemption again hoping this might jog the system as we included the visa application reference numbers. The second exemption came through on 5th January but still no news on the visas. Spoke with Immi last night and they said they couldn’t give us any information as we are within the processing time of up to 15 months!. Friends of ours applied for both travel exemption and visas on 29th December and got the exemption on 4th January and their visas the following day so it looks like the system is working. I think our case is probably an exception.

[Lavers]

16 minutes ago, moliere19 said:

I hope you’ll be ok but we got our travel exemption in November and still haven’t got our visas. We reapplied for the travel exemption again hoping this might jog the system as we included the visa application reference numbers. The second exemption came through on 5th January but still no news on the visas. Spoke with Immi last night and they said they couldn’t give us any information as we are within the processing time of up to 15 months!. Friends of ours applied for both travel exemption and visas on 29th December and got the exemption on 4th January and their visas the following day so it looks like the system is working. I think our case is probably an exception.

Strange we got our visa within the hour, hopefully you hear soon

[Jill G]

Please help. Got exemption 4 Dec for myself & my husband to visit Aussie family and grandchildren. Applied for evisa651 on 10th Dec. Nothing. Had to cancel flights for 7th Jan. Phone UK embassy. They don't deal with applications. Said phone Aus home affairs, who couldn't help, just referred me to their webpage. Frustrating when some folk get visas straightway.

[Lavers]

8 minutes ago, Jill G said:

Please help. Got exemption 4 Dec for myself & my husband to visit Aussie family and grandchildren. Applied for evisa651 on 10th Dec. Nothing. Had to cancel flights for 7th Jan. Phone UK embassy. They don't deal with applications. Said phone Aus home affairs, who couldn't help, just referred me to their webpage. Frustrating when some folk get visas straightway.

Maybe cancel it and redo. Got the visa approved within the hour for my mother in law to come (unfortunately)

Edited January 10, 2022 by Lavers

[Culterguy]

Your exeperience same as mine

Seems like its Visa first, note TRN on visa application acknowledgement, you will have that already. Do new Exemption, but put TRN in that, there is a place for it, seems this is the order of application that is working for most folk. You don’t play tennis by any chance?

[moliere19]

7 hours ago, Jill G said:

Please help. Got exemption 4 Dec for myself & my husband to visit Aussie family and grandchildren. Applied for evisa651 on 10th Dec. Nothing. Had to cancel flights for 7th Jan. Phone UK embassy. They don't deal with applications. Said phone Aus home affairs, who couldn't help, just referred me to their webpage. Frustrating when some folk get visas straightway.

Hi Jill,

We’re in the same situation with our travel exemption being granted at the end of November. All very frustrating having to cancel flights and not knowing when we can rebook. In desperation we applied for a second travel exemption and that was granted last week but still no visa. If we haven’t got the visa by later this week we’re going for the nuclear option of withdrawing the application and then submit a new one and then probably also apply for a third travel exemption just to see if that works. Other than that we will change our names by deed poll to Djokovic!

Andrew 

[Jill G]

Thank you so much Moliere19, Culterguy and Lavers, all very helpful . I cant find TRN number on our exemption? Email subject' Outcome of Travel Restriction Exemption Request TER0644859' [see attached] Like you were missing family soo much. 2 years since we've seen them.  

Edited January 11, 2022 by Jill G
error

[Jill G]

21 minutes ago, Jill G said:

Thank you so much Moliere19, Culterguy and Lavers, all very helpful . I cant find TRN number on our exemption? Email subject' Outcome of Travel Restriction Exemption Request TER0644859' [see attached] Like you were missing family soo much. 2 years since we've seen them.  

 

Exemption1.docx

[Culterguy]

Jill, on your VISA application acknowledgement, you have it, right?, there is a Ref no! On mine its ten letters. There is a ref for each applicant on the immi account.

the exemption request form has a drop down field I think, with TRN an option, put your Ref no/letters in there.

[Jill G]

Thank you. Very Helpful!  I look now at the email acknowledgement

[moliere19]

A beacon of hope for anyone still waiting for their visa after receiving their travel exemption. Our travel exemption was approved in late November and ever since we have been sweating on getting the visa even having to cancel flights we had booked for late December. Then this morning our visas arrived, yipee! Having said that I don't think it just happened without prompting. We had already emailed the eVisitor helpdesk in December but got no response (perhaps closed for Xmas/New Year?) so we again sent an email to them last Saturday and the email we received today, with the visas attached to it, was from the helpdesk. There are 2 email addresses for the helpdesk, one that seems to work and the other one that doesn't. For anyone who may need to try this avenue the email address we used successfully is: evisitor.helpdesk@homeaffairs.gov.au   

Hopefully this will work for you but just to also advise that we got our daughter to contact her local MP to try and put some pressure on immi to sort our case out. They were closed until Monday 10th January but when they returned they immediately called our daughter and then emailed her requesting all the details so they could resolve the issue. I'm not sure all MP's will be so proactive and treat it with urgency but at least they were prepare to take on our case if it wouldn't have been resolved by the visas being granted today.

Thank you to all of you that has provided guidance and advice to us during this stressful time and good luck everyone.

Andrew 

[Culterguy]

Well done Andrew. I spoke to the Help Desk three times and none offered any help, said they could not. Just did not think about looking for.an eemail address.. We are with visa now, and resheduled flights for Melbourne in March.