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

[JonnoM]

Hi Sandd,

 

This is my experience. I got my med check done in March 2014 and Police check in April 2014 so was expecting to have to be in Oz before they ran out. I was all set to have to make a trip to activate the visa and then sort out the final move for later this year. My visa was approved 10 Dec 14 and I have to make first entry into Oz by 22 June. Hope that helps. :smile:

 

Wow, you are cutting it a bit fine on the arrival date! I would be too worried that there would be a strike or something that caused an unforeseen couple of days delay :shocked:

[Melibios]

Congrats Lisa and Family! Fantastic news!! Hope you have a fantastic time in NZ, especially knowing it all begins for you when you get back to Aussie shores! :-)

We've got friends in NZ so thinking it'd be the perfect excuse for us to visit when it's our time! My hubby won't be working if he goes back on a tourist visa anyways, he'd be looking after bubba and generally getting used to the heat and things while I go to work - not sure if he likes the idea of being a house husband, think he'd prefer being a kept man! Lol

[Sandd]

Thanks so much for all your help! We were thinking we'd need like 10+ stat decs after reading through all the info! Sounds like as long as we have a few from aussie citizens and the rest are just plain statements we should be okay?

[datstheone]

That's great news, congrats!! I'm a fair way behind you, so not quite counting the seconds yet - we appear to share the same CO though! :wink:

I am the POM and have just been granted a 100 visa and this time next week will be on my way to rejoin my wife to start our new life together in Sydney. As I am retired I was able to visit Australia several times and met several of my wife's friends there. When we were preparing my application we asked 3 of the friends we had visited together for our 888s and another Australian citizen now living in US who had known us individually before we met and as a couple.

 

I submitted my visa application with three of the four 888's but in one case without a certified copy of their passport page to prove citizenship. This, and the last 888 arrived after visa application was submitted.

 

As my wife and I married after my application had gone in when I submitted a copy of our marriage certificate and the missing certified passport page I asked if I should also upload the extra 888 and was told that this was not needed as what I had submitted was sufficient.

 

I guess that in the end it comes down to the quality of the evidence you can submit, not the quantity. Two comprehensive 888s that tie in with the rest of the application may well be all that is needed.

[elzawelza]

Hello! I'm an Aussie and my partner a Pom and we're currently compiling our application and have spent the last few months on these forums getting loads of advice and Info (first time poster though!)

 

we seem to have come across loads of things that need stat decs? How many on average do people seem to have completed with their applications and how much is the cost to have them signed/certified in the UK/Where is the best place to do so? Can anyone give us a ball park figure on how many stat decs they have completed?

 

many thanks in advance!

 

We did one stat dec each and then once it was witnessed by a solicitor we uploaded it to each of the different sections of the application it related to...about 7 or 8 in total. If you want I can find the template I did and email it to you? It also only cost us about a fiver to get ours certified...but then we did use a solicitor in Derbyshire which is markedly cheaper than one down in London lol

 

Oh and as for stat decs from other people...two aussie citizens is all we had and my bf got granted subclass 100 straight away [emoji2] xx

Edited March 29, 2015 by elzawelza

[Whitey287]

After 9 months and 3 days my partner visa (100) was granted today! Finally!! Yey!!!! :jiggy:

[Josh Fordham]

After 9 months and 3 days my partner visa (100) was granted today! Finally!! Yey!!!! :jiggy:

 

Congrats!! Who was your CO out of interest? 8.5 months for me today

[Whitey287]

Congrats!! Who was your CO out of interest? 8.5 months for me today

 

My CO was RN. Fingers crossed that you hear something soon!!

[drizzy]

Granted today, 9 months and 14 days. Is this the longest of recent applications?

[JonnoM]

Granted today, 9 months and 14 days. Is this the longest of recent applications?

 

I have been watching very closely over the past few weeks (for obvious reasons!) and this is the longest wait that I have seen. A full month longer than some at the beginning of the month!

Anyway all's well that ends well. Many congratulations; the rest of your life starts today :smile::smile:

[Melibios]

Granted today, 9 months and 14 days. Is this the longest of recent applications?

 

 

That's fantastic news Drizzy! congratulations!

[Josh Fordham]

Wow, congratulations! Who was your CO?

[jane2403]

Hi,

I am Australian, Husband is English)

Is there anyone who while waiting for the partner visa, has decided to go out to oz on a tourist visa while waiting for visa approval? the 10-15month wait is soo long-it feels like a lifetime away!! Obviously I will only be able to work being Australian.

I read that usually you can just let your CO know and then have to leave australia for a few days once approved. Also where would be cheapest to travel to that's closest? new zeland?

 

Also I was wondering if the time spent in Australia (while waiting for the visa) would be counted towards the years required for citizenship in future?

[Ozmaniac]

Hi,

I am Australian, Husband is English)

Is there anyone who while waiting for the partner visa, has decided to go out to oz on a tourist visa while waiting for visa approval? the 10-15month wait is soo long-it feels like a lifetime away!! Obviously I will only be able to work being Australian.

I read that usually you can just let your CO know and then have to leave australia for a few days once approved. Also where would be cheapest to travel to that's closest? new zeland?

 

Also I was wondering if the time spent in Australia (while waiting for the visa) would be counted towards the years required for citizenship in future?

 

Many people come on Visitor visas while their Partner visa applications are being processed.

Make sure you CO knows you're onshore and can contact you reliably and they send you a pre-grant notification so you can get offshore for the grant to take place.

Most people go the NZ but Bali is another cheap destination.

The time you spend in Australia waiting for your visa can be included in the 4 years residence requirement for citizenship provided you meet the other residence requirements i.e. outside Australia for no longer than 12 months in total in the 4 years immediately before applying including no more than 90 days in the last year.

[Melibios]

Hi Jane2403, we're hoping to do the same thing. My hubby is English and i'm Aussie. I'm currently on maternity leave but don't want to go back to work for just a few months here before his visa is approved so we'd like to go back earlier so that I can go back to work while he looks after the baby (which he'doing be doing here anyways if I went back to work)

Have you applied for his visa already? If so, when did you apply?

[drizzy]

Thanks everyone! Our CO was WP. Looking forward to getting out to Aus when the time is right!

[lozaoza]

Any July applications been approved yet? Trying to balance the end of my work contract and the lease ending on the flat with the need to ship goods and also losing out on potential jobs in Aus. It would have been so simple if heard already but now it could all go tits up. Will have to go out on the tourist visa soon. I applied 8 July

[Mirella]

Hopefully we hear from some July applicants soon!

[DS8831]

Hi, we applied for my Wife's visa 309/100 on 01/07/14 CO - VF.

Her visa was granted on the 01/04/15 - 9 months to the day!! We're obviously over the moon and can't wait to get out there in a few weeks - I posted to try and make the July applicants relax a little! Good luck everyone.

[tearsofred01]

Hi, we applied for my Wife's visa 309/100 on 01/07/14 CO - VF.

Her visa was granted on the 01/04/15 - 9 months to the day!! ? We're obviously over the moon and can't wait to get out there in a few weeks - I posted to try and make the July applicants relax a little!? Good luck everyone. ?

That's awesome! Thanks for letting us know and good luck for your future together!!!

[Josh Fordham]

That's awesome! My CO is VF too - would be very happy with 9 months

[giordano]

First post here with one more data point. We applied for a prospective spouse visa for my fiancée mid-May 2014 via a lawyer in Perth. Both of us currently live in England. Medical in June, then a long silence until visa issued on 25 February. We were never asked for any additional information, although after we spent a few weeks in Australia last August we supplied receipts for the trip and for expenditure on my house there.

[Max]

Hi all

 

I would really appreciate your help. My boyfriend is an Australian citizen and I am currently living in England. I am looking to apply for the Prospective Marriage visa (subclass 300). Can anyone tell me how long the processing times are? My other option is to apply for a skilled independent work visa but I think this will take much longer. I welcome any advice!

[PJd2628]

Hi all

 

I would really appreciate your help. My boyfriend is an Australian citizen and I am currently living in England. I am looking to apply for the Prospective Marriage visa (subclass 300). Can anyone tell me how long the processing times are? My other option is to apply for a skilled independent work visa but I think this will take much longer. I welcome any advice!

 

The current quoted waiting times for London at 10-14 months

[LisaAndFamily]

Many people come on Visitor visas while their Partner visa applications are being processed.

Make sure you CO knows you're onshore and can contact you reliably and they send you a pre-grant notification so you can get offshore for the grant to take place.

Most people go the NZ but Bali is another cheap destination.

The time you spend in Australia waiting for your visa can be included in the 4 years residence requirement for citizenship provided you meet the other residence requirements i.e. outside Australia for no longer than 12 months in total in the 4 years immediately before applying including no more than 90 days in the last year.

We applied on 27 June and went to Oz on an e600 tourist visa in Sept. Received a 'depart for grant' email on 24 March, 3 days short of 9 months. The requirement is that you need to leave Australia for 3 business days for the grant to process. We found New Zealand to be the cheapest option (Bali is set to execute some Australian citizens so we didn't care to give them any tourist money anyway). At this very moment, I am writing from my iPad while sitting in a lovely garden of a house we rented near Auckland close to shops, restaurants, train, bus, beaches, supermarket and a short walk to the top of Mt Hobson which is one of many high volcanic cones in the Remuera area. We just stumbled onto this place on line and would highly recommend it.

 

Thankfully we were able to do this over the Easter holidays so as not to disrupt the children's schooling (it hasn't been an easy road for them having been to 3 schools in less than a year). Received the grant notice last night at 8pm our time. Had a bit of a scare as they issued the grant on the wrong passports. We are dual citizens, USA and UK. It was supposed to be issued on the U.S. passports but the grant letter had them on the UK ones. After emails and expensive phone calls and much fretting about how to get the UK passports from our bedroom in Sydney to us in NZ in 3 days, they changed them back to the U.S. ones at nearly 1am our time (ugh the time zone thing is crazy). Relief!! The wait is over. For now.