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

[StevenLozza]

Months for processing are on the immi.gov.au website but thats just a guideline,

Eg Australia House, London is 8 - 9 months but somewhere else like timbuktoo will be 5 - 7 months due to low volumes of visa applications.

Its unfortunate as I'm into my 8th month come Wednesday.

[MovingtoTasmania]

I was was told the same 5 months was the waiting time. It still says that on the immi.gov website. When I got my co she told me 8-9 months also. So me and my fiancé where very disappointed. We've been waiting nearly three months and it's driving us crazy. I was thinking of going over on a tourist visa if it's not back in time for Christmas. But was not sure how it works cos what would you put on your declare form cos you are intending to go over permantly but you'd only Be on a tourist visa

 

You wouldn't be intending to go over permanently as you would have to leave in order for the visa to be granted so you would put that you are there on holiday.

[MovingtoTasmania]

Months for processing are on the immi.gov.au website but thats just a guideline,

Eg Australia House, London is 8 - 9 months but somewhere else like timbuktoo will be 5 - 7 months due to low volumes of visa applications.

Its unfortunate as I'm into my 8th month come Wednesday.

 

Processing times on the immi website say from 5 months minimum to 12 months maximum depending on your personal circumstances.

 

 

@StevenLozza, I think it would be worth emailing your CO on Wednesday if you haven't heard, just something along the lines of "Am I still on track to hear within the 8-9 months?" and hopefully you will either get a grant back or at least email telling you "within the next 1/2/3 weeks". When I emailed the CO re hubby's application that's what I said, I didn't ask when it would be granted (as I didn't want it to look like I was taking it for granted) but when we would hear.

[jayney 77]

Hi everyone! :cute:

I'm new to this forum so I hope I'm doing this right! I spent the morning reading a lot of your posts and found it to be very helpful so I would like to post the update for my visa 309/100 application.

 

I am Australian and my boyfriend of nearly 3 years is Scottish.

Applied offshore from Ireland via London with a migration agent on March 20th 2014.

Police Clearances were all done in February and submitted with the application (the migration agent told us to do this but a lot of people seem to have been told to wait until after applying to do this. We needed three- Australia, Belgium, and Ireland)

Medical done and submitted on April 7th 2014

CO assigned on May 2nd 2014

CO is KC

Estimated time frame she gave us is 8-9 months

 

We went with a migration agent because we had a lot of documents from living in 3 different countries together in the last 3 years and were feeling very overwhelmed. We were originally told processing time was just 5 months by the migration agent and then she emailed us at the beginning of June to say we had been assigned a case officer (four weeks after she had been assigned) and to expect it to now take an extra four months. We were devastated by this news but after reading up on here and other forums, 8-9months seems to have been the consistent time frame for applications for at least the last year so I don't know why she would have ever told us 5months.

 

Despite this, we are staying with our original plans of moving to Australia in October 2014 but on a tourist visa, so I can work whilst my partner waits for his visa to come through.

 

Has anyone else done this? And are there normally delays with visas coming through around the christmas period? Going by the dates we would expect it between November 20th-December 20th. Does anyone else have KC as their case officer?

 

We are also planning on meeting with the migration agent in August to go through our plans of moving to Australia on the tourist visa and want to change our details to us being the primary contact from the CO instead of her as we don't trust her to be a reliable source of contact. Does anyone know if this is complicated? I think there's forms to be signed and filled in to transfer the contact details :confused:

 

Thanks everyone, and congratulations to everyone that has finally had their visas approved!!

 

 

 

Hi,

We moved over to Brisbane in early June, I am currently on a tourist visa waiting for my spouse visa to be granted hopefully very soon (application lodged 12/11/13 so 8 months next week). CO advised me that she will email me when ready to grant visa and I then have 28 days to advise her of my travel plans to leave Australia, and have to leave for 3 working days in order for visa to be processed.

I also wasn't sure which box to tick on customs form so left it blank and just explained my situation to customs person on way through and he just shrugged and said it didn't matter!

Am desperate for visa to come through as been offered really good job but can't get anything sorted till visa comes through!! So is a bit tricky. Hope that helps!

[jayney 77]

Just to clarify my comment above, you just need to inform CO of travel plans within 28 days, you don't need to leave country within 28 days, but obviously have to leave before tourist visa expires which is 3 month's.

[Guest]

Thanks for your reply, that eased my mind a bit I don't know why we were ever told 5 months, she was very certain about this as well and said it should only vary two weeks either way. She said it was possible to change but that her updates had told her 5 months was the normal average.

We're really hoping to have it before Christmas but still preparing for the worst case scenario where it might take longer. Do you think 4-6weeks is enough notice to give the CO of our intentions or should we inform them sooner?

Thank you again

 

I'd inform them now that you plan to go over on a tourist visa at such and such a date and apply for the tourist visa ASAP too. If you leave that till later and it happens to cross over with the partner visa it could possibly cancel out the partner visa (say it gets granted a bit sooner and you apply for the tourist visa around the same time). It's not worth leaving it if you know your plans. Also it may be your CO might even grant it to tie in with your departure.

 

I informed my CO we planned to depart on X date and told them this in the May. Visa was due to be granted in between Sept 26-Oct26 and that we planned to depart in early Oct. I also said that I understood if there visa was not granted by then I'd be going over on a tourist visa and then offshore for grant. CO told me to apply for tourist visa before doing anything else, once granted then I'd be ok to book flight and so on. My visa grant them came through at 7 months and so I never needed to use the tourist visa and my landing in AUS validated my partner visa

[LaurenCatriona]

Hi everyone, thanks so much for your replies, that really does help! @Jayney77 - Thanks for that, I wasn't sure on how it works with the CO for leaving the country and re-entering to activate the partner visa when it does come through. Did you go over there on a one way ticket? I was reading that people seem to say to go over on a return ticket in case there's any issues or questions upon arrival with no departure. I didn't know if that was being over cautious though.

@StevenLozza- I hope yours comes through really soon, if it's been 8 months already then you're definitely close! The waiting really is horrible

@Chloe Emerson- Did you have an agent or someone to tell you it was 5 months? They really should change that on the website to say longer than 5 months because there's a big difference in 5 months and 9 months when you're trying to plan such a big move. We will definitely be going over on a tourist visa first and wait it out there, it'll be very difficult to move in the extreme season change in December/January. Plus the cost of flights around Christmas!

[Chloe Emerson]

I just read on the website that was 5 months. I didnt use an agent did myself. I no I might book my flight for January seeing as after Xmas there are always flight sales.

Edited July 5, 2014 by Chloe Emerson

[LaurenCatriona]

I'd inform them now that you plan to go over on a tourist visa at such and such a date and apply for the tourist visa ASAP too. If you leave that till later and it happens to cross over with the partner visa it could possibly cancel out the partner visa (say it gets granted a bit sooner and you apply for the tourist visa around the same time). It's not worth leaving it if you know your plans. Also it may be your CO might even grant it to tie in with your departure.

 

I informed my CO we planned to depart on X date and told them this in the May. Visa was due to be granted in between Sept 26-Oct26 and that we planned to depart in early Oct. I also said that I understood if there visa was not granted by then I'd be going over on a tourist visa and then offshore for grant. CO told me to apply for tourist visa before doing anything else, once granted then I'd be ok to book flight and so on. My visa grant them came through at 7 months and so I never needed to use the tourist visa and my landing in AUS validated my partner visa

 

 

Wow that's fantastic! We are looking at leaving at the 7month mark so I will definitely get in contact with the case officer and let them know that. I didn't even think that the tourist visa could run the risk of cancelling the partner one. Did you just go for the normal free three month tourist online? That's brilliant for you the visa came through in time

[leftyandstumpy]

Hi @LaurenCatriona,

 

We would seriously be asking for some kind of refund from your migration officer if it were us!!!! We were back in OZ earlier this year and met with many migration agents and mentioned the 5mth time frame on the immi.gov site and they all said we would be looking at the 9 mth mark, once back in the UK we also contacted a few migration agents here (see if we could get a slightly cheaper quote to help with the process!!) and again were told the same 9mths. All agents also mentioned we should wait until assigned a CO and told to do our police check and medical due to the time frame on them being valid to enter OZ with approved visa etc.

 

It's so disheartening to see a migration agent (whom we would all hope to be able to trust with this important task) giving incorrect information, they of all people should be up to date with the above information. Please please ask for some money back, it could be part of an airfare!!!

 

We too have lived in numerous countries and that's why we considered using an agent, after finding out more, reading threads and already having done similar process for the UK with and without the help of an agent we decided to do it on our own, a long process but we did it!

 

Good luck we hope it all goes well, we'll keep an eye on your progress and fingers crossed you can get some airfare money back out of that migration agent!!!!

[LaurenCatriona]

Hi @LaurenCatriona,

 

We would seriously be asking for some kind of refund from your migration officer if it were us!!!! We were back in OZ earlier this year and met with many migration agents and mentioned the 5mth time frame on the immi.gov site and they all said we would be looking at the 9 mth mark, once back in the UK we also contacted a few migration agents here (see if we could get a slightly cheaper quote to help with the process!!) and again were told the same 9mths. All agents also mentioned we should wait until assigned a CO and told to do our police check and medical due to the time frame on them being valid to enter OZ with approved visa etc.

 

It's so disheartening to see a migration agent (whom we would all hope to be able to trust with this important task) giving incorrect information, they of all people should be up to date with the above information. Please please ask for some money back, it could be part of an airfare!!!

 

We too have lived in numerous countries and that's why we considered using an agent, after finding out more, reading threads and already having done similar process for the UK with and without the help of an agent we decided to do it on our own, a long process but we did it!

 

Good luck we hope it all goes well, we'll keep an eye on your progress and fingers crossed you can get some airfare money back out of that migration agent!!!!

 

 

Thanks very much for your support we were so upset when we heard the actual length of time to process, but the stupid thing is that we originally thought it was 9-10months and it was her that convinced us it was definitely going through in five months, while always quietly adding that she had to of course advise us that circumstances can always change. She said hers had been going through in that time but I'm not convinced at all now. And it's not fair when you pay so much for someone! She even cost us three weeks in our application because she had made a mistake in it and it had to be redone but at least it's all in now and just the waiting game. I don't think I could ask for any money back, I had already bumped her down from her original price because I said I had everything ready and it just had to be put together properly as an application. And I'd be scared to say how annoyed I was with her until after we get the visa!!

[bigboy01]

Thanks very much for your support we were so upset when we heard the actual length of time to process, but the stupid thing is that we originally thought it was 9-10months and it was her that convinced us it was definitely going through in five months, while always quietly adding that she had to of course advise us that circumstances can always change. She said hers had been going through in that time but I'm not convinced at all now. And it's not fair when you pay so much for someone! She even cost us three weeks in our application because she had made a mistake in it and it had to be redone but at least it's all in now and just the waiting game. I don't think I could ask for any money back, I had already bumped her down from her original price because I said I had everything ready and it just had to be put together properly as an application. And I'd be scared to say how annoyed I was with her until after we get the visa!!

 

Hi LaurenCatriona,

 

I am currently using a migrate agent for my application. We had so much information after living in Australia and the UK for a number of years. I'm sorry to hear that your agent has messed you around so much. Our agent has been up front and honest with us from the start. In our first meeting with him he informed us that the current processing time for the visa would be around 8-9 months and that was in January 2014. When discussing the time frame he said that there was potential for the timings to be even longer.

 

He also gave a detailed description of the whole process. He told us under no circumstances to apply for our police report until immigration requested them as they only last for a year and front loading the application has no influence on the processing time, he said that in fact it may just cost you more money down the track.

 

I would think it is only fair to ask for a refund. She is in the services industry and it was not what you expected. Don't feel bad because at the end of the day if she knew what she was talking about then you wouldn't have to feel this bad. I recently got the dates that I can do my medical and get my police reports and my agent sent me the email telling me that I can go ahead and book them. He was prompt with his response to me.

 

If any one is reading these post and wants a reliable agent to use then I would be happy to send the details who we used.

 

Also I have a question. Has anyone had a CO with the initials JM? what are they like?

[Guest]

It lists 8-9 months on the Aus High Commission website and has done for a long time. I only ever worked off the London website not the Aus one. The Aus one is useless at being updated and waiting times vary between countries. Use the website for whichever country you apply from I reckon.

 

http://www.uk.embassy.gov.au/lhlh/immi_processing_times.html

[tomski1982]

hi there,

 

i applied for my 309/100 at london office back on the 31st of october 2013 and after 8 months and 1 week got an e-mail with a grant letter attached today:) straight to 100 subclass.

bottle of champagne is chilling in the fridge and me and my partner shall be celebrating tonight:)

we are so glad the wait is over. we did the whole application ourselves and are so proud of it. we'll be travelling to OZ mid november.

if anyone needs any advise we are more than happy to help.

thanks to PIO for all the help.good luck to all those who are still waiting.

 

tom.:ssign19:

[LeviMonty]

I hate this waiting game and I'm only at the beginning... Only lodged my application 3 weeks ago and haven't even been assigned a case officer yet...

The next 8 months are going to DRAG in!!! Lol!

[MovingtoTasmania]

I hate this waiting game and I'm only at the beginning... Only lodged my application 3 weeks ago and haven't even been assigned a case officer yet...

The next 8 months are going to DRAG in!!! Lol!

 

:hug: It will go so slowly but so quickly :hug:

[Gary and Jenny]

It will soon pass believe me

[LeviMonty]

I'm trying to enjoy the time we have left here, but also trying to not rediscover anything that could make me wobble.

Roll on March/April Lol x

[Chloe Emerson]

I hate this waiting game and I'm only at the beginning... Only lodged my application 3 weeks ago and haven't even been assigned a case officer yet...

The next 8 months are going to DRAG in!!! Lol!

 

i hate the waiting game too! Especially as my fiancé is in Australia and I'm in England. I just hope my visa is granted before Xmas so we can be together for that

[MovingtoTasmania]

i hate the waiting game too! Especially as my fiancé is in Australia and I'm in England. I just hope my visa is granted before Xmas so we can be together for that

 

I should hope it would be granted by Christmas as that'll take you to the 8 month mark. Keep an eye and see how things are going for others; if the wait is maybe getting longer/staying the same etc. It's a shame that the spreadsheet wasn't kept updated really as that would've been really useful for people.

[Chloe Emerson]

Yeah I really hope so. my fingers are crossed! I have the same co that you had

Edited July 8, 2014 by Chloe Emerson

[MovingtoTasmania]

Yeah I really hope so. my fingers are crossed! I have the same co that you had

 

She was really great. I emailed her and she said I will be ready to finalise by the end of the month (this was on about the 23rd I think of May) and exactly on the last day of May, the grant came through.

 

Email her at the end of November stating your intention to travel to Aus for Christmas and ask if the visa will be finalised by xx date (pick a date) and hopefully she will grant by that date for you. She comes across as quite terse in email but she's actually really nice. We always started emails with chitchat, hope you are well, weather crap type thing and she got a lot friendlier.

[Chloe Emerson]

Ok thank you for that. Yeah she seems nice. I will email her in November and see how I go

[Aussieshamrock]

8 months and 17 days and counting..... After seeing everyone on here having their grants come through that have lodged around the same time as us a few weeks ago we became extremely excited and thought we'd email our CO with a friendly email to see if we were still on track to hear within the 9 month mark on Monday but unfortunately we still haven't had a reply, usually she's really quick with any replies so I'm hoping we haven't annoyed her and our email will come soon......I have absolutely every crossed!!!

[Aussieshamrock]

Omg! So excited right now! Just got the email from our CO. Our application has beenapproved, time to celebrate