New policy with Police checks for 309 visa

[Guest LJJ]

Hi All

 

im in the process of getting my defacto spouse visa, the application was submitted last week and the case officer has come back requesting an Australian police check for my partner (the sponsor) for his time in Australia which was 6 days to activate the visa.

 

I receieved the following which is being asked of all sponsors for 309 visa

 

X The Australian Government considers the safety of children is paramount and is strengthening the policies around the sponsorship of minors for visas. In particular it wishes to ensure that children migrating to Australia are protected from high risk situations, such as when the sponsor has convictions or outstanding charges for offences of a sexual or violent nature and it is likely the child will be residing with that sponsor. Consequently the Australian Government has introduced a requirement that when an applicant under the age of 18 is included in an application for a Child or Partner category visa, the sponsor is to provide an Australian National Police Check (NPC). The information contained in the NPC will assist the Department to determine whether there is any compelling reason to believe that the grant of the visa would not be in the best interests of the visa applicant.

 

As you are the sponsor of [insert name of child applicant/s] for a [insert visa name], I request that you forward to me an NPC. An NPC may be obtained from the Australian Federal Police (AFP). Information on obtaining the check is available from the AFP website at http://www.afp.gov.au/business/national_police_checks or by telephoning the AFP on (02) 6202 3333.

 

When completing the NPC application form please use Code 33 at Question 1 on the form and include details of any, and all, names you have been known by. If an AFP certificate is provided based on incorrect information, the department may request another certificate. Please note fingerprints are not required for the NPC.

 

This came in the day my application was lodged.. typical!! We booked our flights for the 1st of Jan as our agent thought we had ample time to get visa and had been preparing the visa for last few months and had everything needed, I have read on this forum that Australian police checks were taking 2 - 3 months to get back to Ireland but those threads were dated 2007 and just wondered if anyone has applied and recieved theres recently and how long this took?

We have emailed our friends in Brisbane the application form and they are posting it with the australian cheque asap for us as we have been given a 28 day time frame but the afp website mentions 15 days processing time before even sending back to the UK so this is very tight already even if they can process it that quickly..

 

let me know how long your Australian Police Check took to process and arrive in the UK

 

LJJ

[Guest darling number 1]

Just come unstuck by this rule myself - we lodged onshore though, so I guess we'll get ours sooner. Seems ridiculous that your partner would have to submit a check for just 6 days. Child protection though I guess, and you can't argue with that.

 

All the best, hope its not too long a wait.

 

Darling