SUMMARY: Spouse Visa Processing times OFFSHORE-UK. Please add your Stats.

[Kayla]

When did you submit Kayla?

 

Congrats on the complete stage welcome to the wait!

 

Hey DaveS,

 

Application sent: 12th April

Money taken: 16th April

CO contact: 17th April

Medical: 30th April

Application completed: 10/05

 

Where are you planning to live when you go over there?

[Guest rafeyp]

Hello everybody,

 

I'm new to this website, but thank goodness it exists as alot of my questions are already answered!

 

My situation is as follows.....currently married to an Australian citizen and we have a 4 month child together. My partner and I have lived together for 16 months, 8 of these months have been at my parents house as we moved back during my wifes pregnancy due to ger morning sickness to be closer to my family..... Currently my wife is in oz with or child as she is awaiting clearance to come back into the uk as her old visa ran out...My visa application is now (i think) complete and so i thought i would post what i am going to submit to see if i will be producing enough evidence or if i need to provide more.....so far i have got;

 

My Stat dec

partners stat dec

2x australian citizen stat decs

partners parents stat dec

my parents stat decs (including confirmation that we had been living with them)

all certified documents (birth certs, passports etc etc)

police check

letter from old landlords

joiint bank statements

joint utility bills

marriage certificate

photographs

evidence of joint travel (copies of tickets and iteneries)

Passport photo's

 

can anybody advise me of anything else which can add weight to our application also of any ways of proving that our current situation is only temporary until my wife returns to the UK

[Kayla]

Welcome rafeyp

 

If I were you I would also add evidence of contact for the time your wife has been in Oz like emails, phone records, etc.

Proof of your wife's visa application would probably be helpful too.

 

Good luck!

[Playghirl]

Sounds like you have loads, good luck.

[DaveS]

Hey DaveS,

 

Application sent: 12th April

Money taken: 16th April

CO contact: 17th April

Medical: 30th April

Application completed: 10/05

 

Where are you planning to live when you go over there?

 

Hi Kayla

 

We are moving to Sydney initially - its where my Wife is from and her folks still live.

 

I am keen to move elsewhere before we buy property - mostly because I could never afford property in Sydney that I would want.

 

Will see how I go winning that argument....

 

What about you?

[DaveS]

Hi Rafeyp,

 

Why not throw in your childs birth certificate as well?

 

Cheers,

Dave

 

 

 

Hello everybody,

 

I'm new to this website, but thank goodness it exists as alot of my questions are already answered!

 

My situation is as follows.....currently married to an Australian citizen and we have a 4 month child together. My partner and I have lived together for 16 months, 8 of these months have been at my parents house as we moved back during my wifes pregnancy due to ger morning sickness to be closer to my family..... Currently my wife is in oz with or child as she is awaiting clearance to come back into the uk as her old visa ran out...My visa application is now (i think) complete and so i thought i would post what i am going to submit to see if i will be producing enough evidence or if i need to provide more.....so far i have got;

 

My Stat dec

partners stat dec

2x australian citizen stat decs

partners parents stat dec

my parents stat decs (including confirmation that we had been living with them)

all certified documents (birth certs, passports etc etc)

police check

letter from old landlords

joiint bank statements

joint utility bills

marriage certificate

photographs

evidence of joint travel (copies of tickets and iteneries)

Passport photo's

 

can anybody advise me of anything else which can add weight to our application also of any ways of proving that our current situation is only temporary until my wife returns to the UK

[Kayla]

Hi Kayla

 

We are moving to Sydney initially - its where my Wife is from and her folks still live.

 

I am keen to move elsewhere before we buy property - mostly because I could never afford property in Sydney that I would want.

 

Will see how I go winning that argument....

 

What about you?

 

We will be staying with my partners parents in the Blue Mountains in the beginning. After we have settled in and found work we will probably rent in or around Sydney until we buy property. We haven't decided yet where to settle down eventually but there is a good chance that we will go back to the mountains. I agree, unfortunately property in Syndey is incredible expensive.

 

Good luck with the argument ;-)

[greeneyes]

Eeek money taken and CO assigned! Does anyone else have PS?

[greeneyes]

Eeek money taken and CO assigned! Does anyone else have PS?

 

Oh aaand he requested me to get my medical check done too which I think is a good thing?!

[PollyGirl]

Did something that I said I wasn't going to do......... Spouse Visa is due to be granted the end of July, OH is already in Oz, was fed up and missing him so much. So I have booked my ticket to Brisbane for the first week of August, worst comes to worse can reschedule the flight for later in month or fly out on a holiday visa. Fingers crossed that the visa comes on time. Good luck to all those in the same boat :hug:

[Playghirl]

Did something that I said I wasn't going to do......... Spouse Visa is due to be granted the end of July, OH is already in Oz, was fed up and missing him so much. So I have booked my ticket to Brisbane for the first week of August, worst comes to worse can reschedule the flight for later in month or fly out on a holiday visa. Fingers crossed that the visa comes on time. Good luck to all those in the same boat :hug:

 

 

Haha you will be fine. Touch wood!! True worse case scenarios fly out on a tourist visa and then a month or so later when visa granted fly to Bali for romantic holiday while visa being granted! Win win I call it!!

 

Well my OH just got a tourist visa extension through so he can stay until 25th August. That will be 6 months in country. Mt has advised now late JUne for visa being granted. Think we applied 20th jan.

 

 

 

 

Cue more finger drumming!

[Playghirl]

Oh aaand he requested me to get my medical check done too which I think is a good thing?!

Yes all good. Welcome to PIO and the wait!!!

[BENS0N]

Did something that I said I wasn't going to do......... Spouse Visa is due to be granted the end of July, OH is already in Oz, was fed up and missing him so much. So I have booked my ticket to Brisbane for the first week of August, worst comes to worse can reschedule the flight for later in month or fly out on a holiday visa. Fingers crossed that the visa comes on time. Good luck to all those in the same boat :hug:

 

I have also done soemthing very similar. I have booked my flight to Sydney fr the 8th August and CO has told me tht the visa wont be granted until late August. It will be such a long time i cant deal with it so gonna fly over at the start of school holidays (as i am teacher). like you said worse come to worse i will have a few days in NZ. )every cloud and all that.

 

Good luck Polly

[Guest ScOz]

Did something that I said I wasn't going to do......... Spouse Visa is due to be granted the end of July, OH is already in Oz, was fed up and missing him so much. So I have booked my ticket to Brisbane for the first week of August, worst comes to worse can reschedule the flight for later in month or fly out on a holiday visa. Fingers crossed that the visa comes on time. Good luck to all those in the same boat :hug:

 

Hey..........Well done you! Sometimes you just have to do things even when it means changing your plans. I bet both of your are much happier with a date sorted. Defo go on the holiday visa, your heart won't be able to handle postponing your date and at least that way you can get excited about going instead of stressed. Congrats and good luckx

[Playghirl]

You will be arriving for end of winter, which is no bad thing! X

[DaveS]

Congrats on the booked flights PollyGirl. Very jealous.

 

Fingers crossed the visa comes on time for you.

[Guest nimhug]

Well done Pollygirl, Playghirl and Benson! Delighted for you all - good choice I think and fingers crossed that it will come through in time anyway!

 

I just emailed my CO to get an 'Out of Office' reply saying that she is on maternity leave....aaaaaaaaggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh:arghh:

[DaveS]

Well done Pollygirl, Playghirl and Benson! Delighted for you all - good choice I think and fingers crossed that it will come through in time anyway!

 

I just emailed my CO to get an 'Out of Office' reply saying that she is on maternity leave....aaaaaaaaggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh:arghh:

 

Doh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Guest brucey]

Hi all - am new to posting but have been reading threads on the site for a while now - is a fantastic resource. So I thought I'd put my story out there in the hope that I might get some feedback...basically, my girlfriend (she's the Aussie) and I submitted our 309/100 application at Australia House this morning and it was far from the satisfying/joyous experience we were hoping for. We've been living together since Jan 2010 but have had to wait until now so I could finish my qualification as a solicitor. Anyway, we submitted the following, in addition to all the mandatory stuff:

 

- 15 Aussie stat decs + 30 witness statements from UK friends/family

- joint current statements

- joint savngs account statements

- both of our individual account statements (as individul proof of address but also to show our total savings, which we reference in my girlfriend's sponsorship undertaking)

- both of our credit card statements (as individual proof of address that matches up)

- joint electricity bills

- telephone/internet/tv licence bills (not held jointly but submitted as individual proof of address that matches up)

- joint tenancy agreements

- joint council tax statements

- individual pension/health insurance statements (as individual proof of address that matches up)

- nomination of a beneficiary for death benefits for each of us

- phone bills

- 200+ photos

- cards/joint invitations

- flight booking confirmations

- emails

 

All of the above docs dated back to when we first moved in. I know the requirement is only the most recent 12 months but I figured it would be good to paint the whole picture. plus, also, i had some concerns as some of our May statements for accounts hadn't come through yet because they're generated around now (this is a question itself - will it be held against us if our most recent joint account statement is almost 4 weeks ago? the statement is generated around the 14th of every month and we just haven't received it yet).

 

I'm probably going to open myself up to criticism by admitting that all this info took up 5 lever arch files. We knew that it was completely over the top but this move means everything to us (and I'm sure you all understand that feeling) and it's in my nature, as a solicitor, to take the cautious route and always submit more than less. I figured, at worst, the CO would just disregard a certain amount of it but that was fine by me. to make everything easily navigable, we put in a folder, in plastic sleeves, tabbed it up and dumped an index on the top. Again, I figured if I was going to make the CO do a ton of reading I'd easily identify everything for them. We also did summary tables and attached them to a few docs, like bank statements, so the CO could easily reference payments made.

 

Anyhow, we took all 5 files to the first counter and the lady instantly knocked us back and said it was too much. She asked how long we'd been living together and determined that if we hadn't exceeded the 3 year threshold for the permanent visa then we only need to submit the last 12 months worth of docs. this was painful to hear but fair enough. so we went away and removed anything pre-Jan 2011 (slightly over a year but, again, just me being cautious). this reduced it to 3 files. we then went to another counter and the lady basically got quite irate with us and said the following:

 

- this is still too much.

- the docs won't fit inside one of the plastic wallets they package them up in for the CO (I'm honestly wondering why this is a problem - just use more than one, right...? she eventually used 3. hardly the end of the world...)

- this is a lot of reading for the CO (er, is that not what they're paid to do...?)

- do we really need everything in there? did we really need to submit evidence for so many bank a/c's?

 

We stood firm and she eventually took all the docs but she made us take them out of the folder, so she could put them in the plastic wallets referred to above. As we did, my girlfriend politely explained that everything was tabbed and in order and could she try and keep them in order (she was stuffing docs in willy nilly). She huffed, slammed the docs on the table and kept stuffing them in fairly piecemeal. We spent so much time trying to make everything easy to find and the counter lady absolutely butchered it. there'll be random summaries floating around detached from the statements they relate to, random tabs here and there and an index somewhere that isn't even remotely correct. I guess I just want to know whether you guys think:

 

1 - the messy nature of it will be a problem? Everything's there...the CO might just have to find it now. My concern is just that they won't have the inclination to sift through EVERY individual sheet of paper.

2 - the evidence was sufficient?

 

And going back to my above point, does it matter that we didn't have statement right up until the day of the application?

 

I appreciate that I called it completely wrong in terms of the quantity that needed to be done and I've learned my lesson. But I'm a little disappointed at the way the cashiers behaved this morning. I don't mind being told that I can submit certain info but it might just not make a difference. I'm a little less happy about being asked to remove docs that the Partner Migration booklets says are helpful (for what it's worth, every doc is still there, just only from Jan 2011 now) before having the paperwork reduced to a messy pile and then shoved in a plastic wallet.

 

Today was supposed to be the beginning of an eager 6 month wait for some good news. It all just feels a bit glum right now.

[Guest brucey]

PS - my point is just that it's not fair to tell people that an application is too much when the application process doesn't give you an entirely definitive list of what to submit. we all know the usual docs but some of it is left for us to intepret and apply to our individual circumstances. nor do i think it's fair for the cashier to ask us whether we really need to include certain pieces of evidence...i'd be more than happy to exclude some of our bank statements and council tax bills if the cashier could confirm that it wouldn't prejudice my application. but, of course, she wouldn't do that...because it's not her decision. so, for admin reasons and because DIAC's plastic wallets aren't big enough (?!), we've been bullied into tearing out random bits of what was a well compiled application. i tried to make it easy for the CO but they've just made it harder. apologies for the rant. just found ths morning's experience quite disheartening. we put a lot of time and effort into this because it's such a big deal to us to make the move. i'm now concerned that, if the CO comes back asking for more evidence, i won't know what he/she has actually manage to see/find in our bundle. i'm not sure what else we could add really...

[DaveS]

Brucey!

 

First of all well done on submitting & welcome to the queue. Second - immediately stop worrying.

 

You are going to get an email from your case officer in the next few days who will list what you missed - if anything (and I doubt you missed anything after reading that post). & in 6 months you are going to get your visa.

 

You did over do it - its easily done. Its such a huge thing in our lives that we want it to work out. I think a big problem is there is absolutely no promotion of the fact that your CO gives you a chance to address shortcomings. They do not reject applications for omissions (at least not from what I have read here) they just ask you to fill them. I suppose this is one of the reasons we have to wait 6 months. To maintain first in first out they need to ensure people get some time to get a completed application in.

 

Anyway its done now - the woman showed no appreciation to the amount of energy you invested into your application - but look on the bright side - ITS IN!

 

 

 

 

Hi all - am new to posting but have been reading threads on the site for a while now - is a fantastic resource. So I thought I'd put my story out there in the hope that I might get some feedback...basically, my girlfriend (she's the Aussie) and I submitted our 309/100 application at Australia House this morning and it was far from the satisfying/joyous experience we were hoping for. We've been living together since Jan 2010 but have had to wait until now so I could finish my qualification as a solicitor. Anyway, we submitted the following, in addition to all the mandatory stuff:

 

- 15 Aussie stat decs + 30 witness statements from UK friends/family

- joint current statements

- joint savngs account statements

- both of our individual account statements (as individul proof of address but also to show our total savings, which we reference in my girlfriend's sponsorship undertaking)

- both of our credit card statements (as individual proof of address that matches up)

- joint electricity bills

- telephone/internet/tv licence bills (not held jointly but submitted as individual proof of address that matches up)

- joint tenancy agreements

- joint council tax statements

- individual pension/health insurance statements (as individual proof of address that matches up)

- nomination of a beneficiary for death benefits for each of us

- phone bills

- 200+ photos

- cards/joint invitations

- flight booking confirmations

- emails

 

All of the above docs dated back to when we first moved in. I know the requirement is only the most recent 12 months but I figured it would be good to paint the whole picture. plus, also, i had some concerns as some of our May statements for accounts hadn't come through yet because they're generated around now (this is a question itself - will it be held against us if our most recent joint account statement is almost 4 weeks ago? the statement is generated around the 14th of every month and we just haven't received it yet).

 

I'm probably going to open myself up to criticism by admitting that all this info took up 5 lever arch files. We knew that it was completely over the top but this move means everything to us (and I'm sure you all understand that feeling) and it's in my nature, as a solicitor, to take the cautious route and always submit more than less. I figured, at worst, the CO would just disregard a certain amount of it but that was fine by me. to make everything easily navigable, we put in a folder, in plastic sleeves, tabbed it up and dumped an index on the top. Again, I figured if I was going to make the CO do a ton of reading I'd easily identify everything for them. We also did summary tables and attached them to a few docs, like bank statements, so the CO could easily reference payments made.

 

Anyhow, we took all 5 files to the first counter and the lady instantly knocked us back and said it was too much. She asked how long we'd been living together and determined that if we hadn't exceeded the 3 year threshold for the permanent visa then we only need to submit the last 12 months worth of docs. this was painful to hear but fair enough. so we went away and removed anything pre-Jan 2011 (slightly over a year but, again, just me being cautious). this reduced it to 3 files. we then went to another counter and the lady basically got quite irate with us and said the following:

 

- this is still too much.

- the docs won't fit inside one of the plastic wallets they package them up in for the CO (I'm honestly wondering why this is a problem - just use more than one, right...? she eventually used 3. hardly the end of the world...)

- this is a lot of reading for the CO (er, is that not what they're paid to do...?)

- do we really need everything in there? did we really need to submit evidence for so many bank a/c's?

 

We stood firm and she eventually took all the docs but she made us take them out of the folder, so she could put them in the plastic wallets referred to above. As we did, my girlfriend politely explained that everything was tabbed and in order and could she try and keep them in order (she was stuffing docs in willy nilly). She huffed, slammed the docs on the table and kept stuffing them in fairly piecemeal. We spent so much time trying to make everything easy to find and the counter lady absolutely butchered it. there'll be random summaries floating around detached from the statements they relate to, random tabs here and there and an index somewhere that isn't even remotely correct. I guess I just want to know whether you guys think:

 

1 - the messy nature of it will be a problem? Everything's there...the CO might just have to find it now. My concern is just that they won't have the inclination to sift through EVERY individual sheet of paper.

2 - the evidence was sufficient?

 

And going back to my above point, does it matter that we didn't have statement right up until the day of the application?

 

I appreciate that I called it completely wrong in terms of the quantity that needed to be done and I've learned my lesson. But I'm a little disappointed at the way the cashiers behaved this morning. I don't mind being told that I can submit certain info but it might just not make a difference. I'm a little less happy about being asked to remove docs that the Partner Migration booklets says are helpful (for what it's worth, every doc is still there, just only from Jan 2011 now) before having the paperwork reduced to a messy pile and then shoved in a plastic wallet.

 

Today was supposed to be the beginning of an eager 6 month wait for some good news. It all just feels a bit glum right now.

[Guest brucey]

Thanks, Dave S! I appreciate the reassurance. I'm certainly pleased the app's in, even if this morning was a bit of a farce. I'm hoping the CO doesn't have any further requests because, barring a will, I'm not sure what else we can provide. I just hope they have the energy to take a proper look at everything submitted!

[BENS0N]

Thanks, Dave S! I appreciate the reassurance. I'm certainly pleased the app's in, even if this morning was a bit of a farce. I'm hoping the CO doesn't have any further requests because, barring a will, I'm not sure what else we can provide. I just hope they have the energy to take a proper look at everything submitted!

 

Brucey all I can do is reiterate what Dave S said. When I applied for my visa I submitted only 1 folder and no where near the range of documents that you have submitted. I received an email within 2 days from my CO asking for proof of same address between dec - mar (which we just sent individual and joint bank statements plus mobile phone bills) and requested police cert and medicals. As you can tell we didn’t even have our evidence in chronological order and this obviously didn’t affect the outcome, so didn’t worry you will be fine. The extra evidence was completed and returned within 2 weeks and soon got the 'I am now satisfied that any outstanding documentation has been provided application processing time will be around 5 months from application lodgment.'

Brucey you will be fine, just now enjoy the long wait and apply for you police cert (as mine took ages) and enjoy the fact you will be getting your visa.

Good luck

[kaoticturtle]

Hey Brucey

 

I can't offer any advice as I'm completely new to all of this but I can definitely say that I sympathise with you! My husband and I are collating all our evidence at the moment (I'm a scot, he's the aussie) and we're looking at the pile of docs we've gathered wondering whether they really want to see everything that we think they've asked for? We've been living together for nearly 4 years now so there is definitely a lot... I don't think we'll fill 5 lever arches, but it will certainly be a good wad of paper that gets sent I think our approach is going to be to send 1 page from bank statements for each month for the past 12, then maybe 1 for every 3 months prior to that. That cuts the amount of paper down hugely but still gets across the message...or so we hope!

 

KT

[Guest brucey]

Benson - thanks very much - really appreciate the feedback. Is good to hear about other peoples experiences. As you can tell from what I submitted, it's been tough trying to gauge what is required and what isn't. Quickly reverting back to an earlier question of mine but do you have any idea what the position is on how recent your statements need to be? I know they're fairy strict on fulfilling the 12 month requirement but, as I said before, the billing cycle for all of our statements is mid-month and has only just passed so we haven't received our paper statements yet. So a lot of what we submitted takes us up to mid-April which kind of only gives me proof for 11 of the last 12 months (if you ignore the previous 18 months that I had to pull out today)...

 

KT - sounds like you've got the right idea! After our experience today, I would definitely advise keeping it simple. Was so disappointed this morning because it really felt like all our extra effort had actually put us at a disadvantage. Seriously just wishing I'd bulldog-clipped a few docs and put them in an envelope.