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

[Guest]

Okay cool that's great news I could get my mum to do that, what about the time we were in NZ? Would that just count as a long holiday together? We've only got flight tickets and pictures as our evidence of being in NZ together, would that be enough? (they can't expect you to have loads of evidence on holiday can they?!)

 

If you've got tickets for both of you into and out of NZ on the same flight etc and your PP's stamped accordingly I can't see it being a problem. Explain in your supporting statement you went on a WHV together to NZ for a few months.

[christiancarella]

Our visa application was lodged a few days ago and today the money was taken. Now begins the long wait for migration. Good luck everyone!

[aimee9586]

Hi Everyone,

 

My 309 visa was granted in London in October 2011 and it will soon be two years since my lodgement date, so my partner and I are starting to sort things out for the second assessment stage. I wonder if anyone is able to advise if there are any minimum stay / travel conditions etc once PR has been approved? We are likely to need to return to the UK later this year temporarily for family reasons and I'd like to know what the implications of this might be.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Aimee

[Quinkla]

Hi Everyone,

 

My 309 visa was granted in London in October 2011 and it will soon be two years since my lodgement date, so my partner and I are starting to sort things out for the second assessment stage. I wonder if anyone is able to advise if there are any minimum stay / travel conditions etc once PR has been approved? We are likely to need to return to the UK later this year temporarily for family reasons and I'd like to know what the implications of this might be.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Aimee

Your permanent visa will be valid indefinitely but only allow travel for five years. Provided you are living in Australia when the five years is up, it's no problem and you can apply for a resident return visa if you need to travel overseas. Alternatively, you might have been able to get citizenship (must have lived in Australia for four years, one as a permanent resident - and have spent not more than 12 months outside Australia in that four year period and not more than 3 months overseas in the last year).

 

If you are not living in Australia at the end of the five year travel period you may be in difficulty if you wish to return to live in Australia.

[jameslfc]

Bugger, mid-read my email. Need to provide more financial evidence and new certified copies of my documents, I didn't realise Post Office certifications weren't accepted! Feel a bit dumb now, oh well

[Guest]

Bugger, mid-read my email. Need to provide more financial evidence and new certified copies of my documents, I didn't realise Post Office certifications weren't accepted! Feel a bit dumb now, oh well

 

Call round your local solicitors and ask them how much they charge for certifying copies. Mind charged me something like £30 for the lot (and there were a fair stack). I copied it all ready, took in the originals (inc passports etc) and copies and left them there and went back an hour later, all signed and stamped. Paid the fee and off.

[jameslfc]

Call round your local solicitors and ask them how much they charge for certifying copies. Mind charged me something like £30 for the lot (and there were a fair stack). I copied it all ready, took in the originals (inc passports etc) and copies and left them there and went back an hour later, all signed and stamped. Paid the fee and off.

 

Thanks, just found one in the city centre here (Manc) who certify copies for free! Just need to bring photo ID and a recent utility bill, as added ID for me I suppose. Going tomorrow morning.

[BritChickx]

thanks for your help we have print outs of 2x tickets for things we did in nz, some with my name on, and our wwoof membership with our picture on, so should be ok!

good luck to everyone else.

Btw do you need to provide proof of savings etc? as most of the money we wll have will be from what we sell once we have the visa. Not house just the car and house bits.

[Guest]

Btw do you need to provide proof of savings etc? as most of the money we wll have will be from what we sell once we have the visa. Not house just the car and house bits.

 

Nope. I don't recall the financial questions being on the new application forms.

[aimee9586]

Your permanent visa will be valid indefinitely but only allow travel for five years. Provided you are living in Australia when the five years is up, it's no problem and you can apply for a resident return visa if you need to travel overseas. Alternatively, you might have been able to get citizenship (must have lived in Australia for four years, one as a permanent resident - and have spent not more than 12 months outside Australia in that four year period and not more than 3 months overseas in the last year).

 

If you are not living in Australia at the end of the five year travel period you may be in difficulty if you wish to return to live in Australia.

 

Thanks very much Proud Pom.

 

I understand that it is possible for my permanent visa to be granted whilst I am overseas - does anyone know if there would be another initial entry date if this was the case, or any other conditions?

 

Thanks,

 

Aimee

[Tulip]

The only financial bits I added were payslips from my husband and a piece of headed paper from the company he works for offering him a promotion, I added them because Mark hasn't been in Australia for two years and I recall reading that we'd need evidence that he could provide for me as my sponsor, so we showed he was working here. You don't have to show savings and stuff.

[Suzee]

We didn't send any financial information at all, apart from a statement showing we had a joint bank account (although it didn't show the balance, luckily as there's not much in there!). They come come bank and asked for my UK citizenship certificate (as sponsor) but nothing about finances...yet...

 

We sent what I thought were significant photos where we could prove the date - eg photos from years ago when we looked significantly younger, photos of family members from each side together that were clearly taken years apart and holiday snaps with obvious backgrounds. I scanned 2 or 3 to a page and made reference to them in my statement. Also made sure we had some kind of evidence for each year we've been together which car insurance, house insurance, mortgate statements covered easily. We only sent 2 stat decs from friends (as we haven't told relatives yet!) but sent in a couple of wedding invitations addressed to us both, and postcards from friends/family addressed to both with a clear date stamp as to when they were posted. Not sure why I kept these things but they have come in handy. :biggrin:

[jepg45]

Just wanted to add to this for what it's worth...I applied back in October 2012 and got the standard 8-9 month response re processing time. SV is my case officer. Did my medical and police checks around the end of Jan, beginning of Feb.

My wife's Australian and we're actually heading back to Oz at beginning of June as expecting 2nd child and that will be last chance for her to fly but it does mean that my visa probably won't be ready then. So I contacted my CO just to let her know that I was travelling in June on a tourist visa due to pregnancy etc and did she think there was any chance my actual visa would be ready. All other contact I'd had with her had just consisted of her copying and pasting text from their website but this time I actually got personal response advising me to contact her again at the end of May to see where they were with the visa - I'm taking this as a positive!

 

However the concern was that she then asked me for my Police checks as she said that she hadn't received them. I went back to her to advise that she must have done as I'd had the orginal returned to me - turns out they had received them but nothing had been done with them and it wasn't on system. Who knows how long would have passed if I hadn't been in touch before they contacted me to ask for the checks again? So, always worth getting in touch every so often with your CO and asking if they need anything extra.

 

Fingers crossed for 8 month processing rather than 9 months!

[wolvesaussie]

we applied in october as well I guess we should check to see if they got the medicals and police check she did in. is there a way of checking online or is it just a matter of emailing. we thought we might be contacted to be told everything in order.

[littlekitty]

Hi guys, any grants happening out there??? Seems that since things moved to the revised time of 8-9months, the grants are much more few and far between.

 

My fiance, on the other hand, needs to extend his tourist visa to bring us to our processing time of May/June (so he needs another three months). Hopefully they will let him... He's going to call DIAC today and apply to extend. Otherwise he'll be going back to England to wait! (Which he is not too fussed about...) It would make things easier if he could stay until processings up.

 

Anyway, no news on any August applicants? (I think we're up to August..?)

[Overly optimistic]

Hi all,

 

Just doing some internet scawling while stressed and overthinking the visa stuff at work and discovered this helpful forum.

 

I applied for my PMV on 4th march (fiance is from Melbourne). Couple of probably over asked questions:

 

- Is 8-9 months really expected?

- Can I be proactive in sorting out CRB and medical now?

 

 

Alos, any advie as I have a 3 month notice period at work, I have absoultely no idea about when to give in my notice. Is there a trigger point at which i can say, I have about 3 months left to go? or is it a case of guess and wait?

 

 

She goes back to Melbourne very soon and so stressed about being apart for 6 months. This process seems really tough and only two weeks in. Maybe I am just freaking myself out....

[Guest]

Hi all,

 

Just doing some internet scawling while stressed and overthinking the visa stuff at work and discovered this helpful forum.

 

I applied for my PMV on 4th march (fiance is from Melbourne). Couple of probably over asked questions:

 

- Is 8-9 months really expected?

- Can I be proactive in sorting out CRB and medical now?

 

 

Alos, any advie as I have a 3 month notice period at work, I have absoultely no idea about when to give in my notice. Is there a trigger point at which i can say, I have about 3 months left to go? or is it a case of guess and wait?

 

 

She goes back to Melbourne very soon and so stressed about being apart for 6 months. This process seems really tough and only two weeks in. Maybe I am just freaking myself out....

 

Yes, current wait time is 8-9 months from application.

 

Re police check and medical. No, you are not supposed to do them now. Your CO will be in touch and give you a reference number for your medical and tell you when to get this done. And you'll be told to do your police check about the same time. Usually about 3 months after submitting they give a date for.

 

If you want to hand your notice in and leave as soon as your visa is granted then I'd say hand it in about 2-3 months before your visa is due to be granted. And by this point you'll know if there are any problems with your application or not. Worse case scenario then is you'll maybe be in the UK for a few weeks not working before your visa is granted.

 

I've spent longer times apart from my OH. 6 months really isn't much in the grand scheme of things.

[hhayes89]

Hi all,

I have just joined the site and have found it very useful over the past six weeks whilst I have been completing my Prospective Marriage Visa application, Subclass 300. I submitted my application to the London office on the 13th March, sent next day delivery and checked my bank to find they had taken the money the following day 14th March (same day it was received ) I'm not just waiting to hear from the office and hopefully will be allocated a case officer in the next week or so. I submitted my Police check with my application, so hopefully the final piece of the jigsaw is just to attend a medical.

We have been advised the same, 8-9 month wait I am travelling to Sydney on June 27th however, on a 6 month tourist visa which has already been approved- prior to PMV lodgement. Wedding is booked for mid January and have been advised by the department that I can just jump on a plane to NZ or Bali when my CO confirms the grant.

I have had all sorts of stresses with this application. My main concern was that me and my partner have not spent enough time together in person, approx 2.5 months, due to my Masters degree commitment and he works for the department of education in Aus. However, I firmly believe this shouldn't go against us because this is not stipulated in the criteria for the visa. Obviously by the time I arrive in Aus, until the date of grant I would have spent six solid months with him.

Anyway I love hearing people's stories. Thanks

[Tulip]

Hello, welcome to the thread. A few of us are in the same boat at the moment, just at the beginning of the waiting period and twiddling our thumbs. Like you, I'm heading out in June/July hopefully and waiting it out over there for the rest of my 8-9 month quota. I feel so lucky that I even qualify to get a visa through my husband's nationality that I'm not complaining about the waiting time, what's 9 months in the grand scheme of things?

[hhayes89]

Thank you. I think so, its just so frustrating. But it's not like I can do anything about it anyway, because I'm three months away from completing my MA in social work. I did consider the skilled working visa but that just seemed and then my partner proposed at Christmas and we were advised by an immigration agent that this would probably be the best option.

I'll just have to get used to being a lady of leisure for a few months when I arrive- obviously can't work on the tourist visa.

Can I ask- do you have a return flight out of Oz? This worried me somewhat when getting to border control.

[Guest]

Can I ask- do you have a return flight out of Oz? This worried me somewhat when getting to border control.

 

You don't have to have one, no.

[hhayes89]

Thank you. I wondered if anyone had any answers in relation to my question:

I have applied and been granted a 6 month tourist visa to allow me to gain entry and await a decision on my PMV. I go in late June and think it is less than likely that my application will get approved prior to late Nov/ Dec.

My question is, would it be possible to change my tourist visa to a work and holiday visa to allow me to work whilst I await the outcome of my PMV. I am 24 and have never previously held a WHV. If I cannot it would not be the end of the world as my fiancée is able to support me, it would just help with wedding costs and keep me from boredom.

...I think this is something my CO may need to answer...or maybe someone could help?

[andyandloz10]

to all that have just applied for the partner visa,, relating to form 40sp question 10, it ask's to "provide a statement at the end of this form outlining how you will meet your sponsership obligations", does this mean my girlfriend(the sponser) needs to write a statement explaining that if i wasnt to find work or accomodation then she would be more than happy to support me etc? can some1 please tell me what they said in this situation??

 

thanks

 

andy

[Suzee]

Sorry Andy, can't help as I didn't actually notice that when filling out the form. So my answer is we didn't write anything!! Only submitted last month so guess there is a chance they could ask for further information but they haven't so far.

[Tulip]

Andy, my husband wrote that he had work here in the UK and had found work easily in Australia, but that we'd be secure and were including payslips to prove he could prove for me.