Other Family visas: Cutbacks and Delays

[George Lombard]

We received the following information in respect of one of our clients this week. Not good news for "other family" applicants - ie anyone who would have applied using form 47OF.

 

Doing the mathematics leaves me with the conclusion that many remaining relative and aged dependent family applications may be waiting up to six years, if this policy continues, for their visa applications. Carers may be facing lengthy waits as well. Eventually I assume DIAC will introduce a Contributory Family Visa to complement the Contributory Parent Visa. Anyone counting on an "other family" visa should apply immediately, as the waiting periods will just balloon from this point forward.

 

 

 

"I have received the documents you provided for Ms xxxx's

application, however I am unable to process this application further at

this time due to the reduced number of places in the other family visa

class.

 

For the 2010-11 program year the Government has allocated 55,550 places in

the Family Stream, 7.9% fewer places than in the preceding year. Within the

family stream the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship announced on the

11 May 2010 that number of places for the Other Family class (which

includes Aged Dependent Relative, Carer and Remaining Relative) will be

reduced from 2500 places to 750 places globally for the 2010-2011 program

year. Within the global allocation 500 of the 750 Other Family places are

allocated to Carer visas as they have the highest priority within the

category.

 

The Department has a responsibility to ensure that the numbers of visas

granted overall and within each visa category are in accordance with the

agreed planning levels. Departmental resources are allocated to ensure

that the planning levels are met over the course of the program year.

While this means that some cases may not be finalised as quickly as clients

or the Department would want, it does help to ensure that visa grants

within the Family Stream reflect the priorities set by the Government.

 

The Department is currently reviewing the impact on service standards of

the reduction in family stream planning levels. It is anticipated that

there will be substantial increases in the processing times for Other

Family visa categories. More information on processing times will be

published on the Department's website when it becomes available.

 

Given the dramatically reduced number of places in the Other Family visa

categories globally, we are prioritising cases based on their lodgement

date. While Ms xxxx's application was lodged on 8 October 2009

which was almost 1 year ago, we currently have a substantial number of

applications lodged in 2008 that are still being processed and will be

given priority given the age of these applications. I appreciate that you

would like to have Ms xxx's application finalised as soon as

possible and if I have any further information on this in the future I will

contact you as soon as I know something."

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

George Lombard

[Alan Collett]

Is the application lodged offshore or onshore, George?

 

Best regards.

[George Lombard]

Onshore Alan so she has a bridging visa at least, but offshore applicants are going to go through hell when this starts to bite.

 

Cheers,

 

George Lombard

[chrisandelaine]

Hi George,

 

sorry this has nothing to do with your post, but can you help please, when we upload docs for our online visa, do they have to be certified by our solicitor like the docs we sent for the skills assmt, and do the scans need to be colour or black and white.

 

thanks

 

chris and elaine

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi George

 

Trust a Govenment Department to weasel. According to DIAC, Evans has 'only' cut the Family Stream by less than 10%. Not too bad for someone seeking a visa for a non-Aussie Partner. Horrendous for somebody who needs a Carer or for a family which wants to be reunited with their Remaining Relative.

 

Many people would live with the idea of a Contributory Family visa for a Remaining Relly.

 

However it is contradictory to introduce this idea for an Aged Dependent Relative.

The depedence has to be proven, after all, and it has to be financial dependence.

 

Personally I think it is socially divisive and completely unacceptable to tell somebody who needs a Carer, "Either your family must produce a hefty amount of money quickly OR you can continue to put up with the non-appearance of Australia's Social Services people." Social Services do not turn up when they are needed. Like every other Government provided service, there is no shortage of line-managers and senior bosses on fat-cat salaries byt there are not enough foot-sloggers on lousily low salaries to get enough man-power to visit the Aussie residents who need help from Social Services. Therefore immigrants often import a family member to act as the person's Carer instead. Personally I think it says a lot for people from the sub-continent, in particular, that their standards of what constsitutes "care" for a person who is infirm are vastly higherr than the non-assistance that the Australian Government considers is acceptable.

 

Thanks for the information, though. Now I understand why it is that, early on in the Election campaign, Tony Abbott said that the Coalition would not try to cut the numbers of Family Stream visas granted each year.

 

I am amazed that a pair of first-generation British immigrants - Gillard and Evans - think that the two of them can march into Australia and start governing the place via shafting every future other immigrant to Australia apart from doctors and nurses - who can forget about the idea of any of their own relatives joining them in Australia, evidently.

 

Training doctors and nurses is an expensive, lengthy process. Poaching them out of the countries which have paid for their training is not acceptable but the British are right bunch of rustlers when it comes to stealing medical personnel from other countries, so these two Britons are running true to form on that one. Australia Wants Medical Skills On The Cheap should be their slogan, both of them. Why aren't they increasing the training opportunities for Aussies who want to become medics?

 

I read an article the other day which suggested that Australia's first female Prime Minister might well also become the shortest-serving Prime Minister in Australia's history. I reckon that it would serve the ALP right if they do get kicked out.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Welshtone]

The off-shore family cases were taking 3-4 months to process by London, London have advised that these cases will now take 5-6 months to process although they will try and process the pre-01 July lodged cases closer to the 3-4 months.

 

Regards

 

 

Tony

[Guest Gollywobbler]

The off-shore family cases were taking 3-4 months to process by London, London have advised that these cases will now take 6-7 months to process although they will try and process the pre-01 July lodged cases closer to the 3-4 months.

 

Regards

 

 

Tony

 

Hi Tony

 

Which visa applications do London say will only take a couple of months extra, please?

 

I believe that Remaining Relative visa applications are processed in London.

 

Migration Program Statistics - Statistics - Publications, Research & Statistics

 

I have a feeling that I saw a figure of 1100 of the 2,500 having been earnarked for Remaining Relatives for 2009/2010. Only 250 visas are going to be granted to Remaining Rellies and Aged Dependent Relatives during 2010-2011. My guess is that the split willl be 200 Remaining Relles and 50 Aged Dependent Relative cisas.

 

The breakdown for the 2008/2009 FY is below:

 

Migration Program Statistics - Statistics - Publications, Research & Statistics

 

There were grants to 1,383 Remaining Relatives and they accounted for 55% of the total of 2,530 visas granted that year. DIAC say that demand for Preferential?Other Family visas rose by just over 25% during 2008/2009. It may have risen by another 25% during 2009/2010.

 

I think that George is right. I think that we will see applicatons for all Preferential/Other Family visas take years to process rather than months. Parents with a child who will soon turn 18 are going to be stuck if the Parents are currently held up in the GSM backlog. If the adult child stays in full time education, in the short term a Child Visa might be possible. However they only last until the child's 25th birthday at most and not all young adults are willing to remain in full-time educuation. The "safety net" of the Rem Relly visa has all-but vanished unless a Contributory Rem Relly visa is introduced.

 

If they introduce a Contributory Remaining Relly visa, what would they use in order to justify demanding a hefty premium? With Contributory Parents, the Actuary can be ordered to discover that Health costs allegedly continue to soar.

 

Publications — Australian Government Actuary

 

What could they use as their excuse (I mean their official hat-peg) for a Contributory Remaining Relative visa?

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest Cakey]

I wonder if anyone can advise me please? Im really worried after reading George Lombards article about the cutbacks in other family visas. We applied for cpv, had confirmation February this year and so are looking to get a case worker early next year. When granted our visa we wanted to claim our son as the last remaining relative.....how long is this now likely to take and would he be better applying onshore or offshore....... any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

Thank You Cakey

[Alan Collett]

Lodging onshore means a Bridging Visa would be available to enable your son to remain in Australia while his visa application is being processed - but (as ever) please exercise caution. Travelling to Australia on a tourist visa with the firm intention of applying for a permanent residency visa might clearly be problematic in the event of DIAC being suspicious at the point of entry to Australia.

 

Timelines for visa applications that are in finite supply are contingent on numbers of applicants ahead of you/your son in the queue.

 

Best regards.

[Welshtone]

Hi Gill

 

The child, adoption and partner/prospective spouse visas will now take 5 to 6 in stead of 3 to 4. I think the Aged Dependent and Remaining Relative may go out further than that depending on how many preferential family applications there are during the program year.

 

The budget stated that the family program was to be cut by 9.5% to 54,550 - so it looks like an extra 1000 contingency places could be available.

 

Regards

 

 

Tony

[Guest Gollywobbler]

I wonder if anyone can advise me please? Im really worried after reading George Lombards article about the cutbacks in other family visas. We applied for cpv, had confirmation February this year and so are looking to get a case worker early next year. When granted our visa we wanted to claim our son as the last remaining relative.....how long is this now likely to take and would he be better applying onshore or offshore....... any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

Thank You Cakey

 

Hi Cakey

 

As yet, nobody knows the likely time-lines for sure. George Lombard has reortted that DIAC say thy are still working out how long the processing is likely to take. Apparently DIAC will publish a new Service Standard once they are confident that their modelling is correct and that they can be reasonably sure of how long it is likely to take to process an application, So with that query, it looks like "wait and see" for the time being, unfortunately.

 

Meanwhile, how old is your son and has he ever had a Working Holiday visa, please? This is might be a way round any potential problems for your son but it will depend on the exact facts at the relevant time.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Guest gmac]

Hi All,

 

My confusion on this "other family visas" remains. In other words are family applications made under GSM seperate from the family visa stream?

 

This is also confusing me, whether it is an advantage to remain waiting on-shore, when the application was made off- shore. Would this speed up processing? Applications made off-shore I understand do get looked at quicker.

 

Each day the simple things become more simple and the complex things become more complex.

 

Cheers,

 

Gary

[Welshtone]

Hi Gary

 

The family visa stream is made up of Preferential Family (partner/child/adoption), parents and Other Family (remaining relative, carer, aged dependent relative).

 

This is totally separate to family sponsored visas which come under the skilled visa stream.

 

Regards

 

Tony

[frizzy1]

Hi have just read this thread and am very concerned now about my pending application for the last remaining relative visa.

 

My parents have only just got their CPV and will be moving out to Oz around October/November time so I cannot apply any earlier.

 

The thought of potentially having to wait 6 years to get this visa would kill this for me - I cannot wait that long to put my life on hold.

 

Yes, they could introduce a Contributory Last Remaining Relative Visa but that could take years before they make that decision.

 

I was planning to apply offshore via London however there seems to be some suggestion that visa's via London may only take an extra couple of months but not sure if I have read this correctly.

 

So far the only cases I have heard of being put on hold, or being told of the potential delay are those applying onshore - again I may have missed something here so if anyone has any clarity regarding this it would be very much appreciated.

 

There is a recent post from a girl who applied at the end of April offshore for this visa and got her visa on the 1st July - I dont know if this was just down to vey good timing i.e applied before the visa cuts were agreed.

 

If anyone has any news regarding recent offshore applications for last remaining relative Visas it would be very appreciated as I cannot believe that after 2 years of waiting for my parents visa to come through, the possibility now of me joining my family seems to have been taken away from me at the last hurdle.

 

I understand that things may change in the next 2 - 3 months but as far as I can see they can only get worse, rather than improve. I am trying to be optomistic but wonder if I should just pack this whole idea in and be realistic that its never going to happen.

 

Any comments or thoughts appreciated :smile:

[Welshtone]

Hi Frizzy

 

London would be the quickest post for such visas but they will not speculate on the likely processing times for the remaining relative visa until after the election. If Costello gets in, the quota for family visas may increase. There is the question of the extra 1000 family visas compared to what was announced in the budget. Applying on-shore keeps you with your family but is likely to draw out the process which is never a good thing especially if you meet someone in the mean-time as you must be single throughout the process. Applying through London and going out on a working holiday is often the best compromise. Your parents must also be "settled" to sponsor you which can mean up to two years in Australia before they sponsor you - claims that they are "settled" well before the 2 years mark are entertained by DIAC, but it depends on the individual case.

 

Regards

 

 

Tony

[Alan Collett]

Frizzy,

 

I am afraid you are going to have to be patient - the days of permanent residency visas being granted quickly appear to be disappearing over the horizon.

 

The Australian Government (of whichever persuasion has power after Saturday's election) knows that demand comfortably exceeds whatever supply of visas is politically or electorally acceptable - strategy has therefore to be to lodge applications as soon as it is prudent to do so, and then await your case being assessed months later.

 

The comments here re a settled sponsor might also be useful:

Go Matilda - Your Gateway to Australia - News

 

Best regards.

[frizzy1]

Hi Tony,

 

Thanks for the response. So basically I really need to wait until after the election before understanding the impact on the LRR visa.

 

I have considered applying onshore but for the exact reasons you have outlined below, I cannot remain single forever - 38 years young and not getting any younger!!! Also I am not prepared to give my job etc until I know for sure that I will get this visa so offshore is really the only route for me.

 

As you can see, I cant apply for the working holiday visa either due to my age.

 

My Sisters husband will be sponsoring me, not my parents, so I understand that I dont need to wait until my parents are "settled" but just be able to prove that they have made the move via tenancy agreements, bills, drivng licence etc etc. My sister alone sponsored my parents so there are no issues there as I know that one person can only sponsor up to 2 people. Both my Sister and her husband are PR and have been living in Oz now for over 4 years and both individually meet the income requirements.

 

When are the election results due out?

 

IF the visa cuts do remain in place and the timelines increases upwards significantly then that is really the end of the line for me but fingers crossed that Costello gets in! I have to admit I havent really been following the election etc and wish now that I had paid more attention!

 

Hi Frizzy

 

London would be the quickest post for such visas but they will not speculate on the likely processing times for the remaining relative visa until after the election. If Costello gets in, the quota for family visas may increase. There is the question of the extra 1000 family visas compared to what was announced in the budget. Applying on-shore keeps you with your family but is likely to draw out the process which is never a good thing especially if you meet someone in the mean-time as you must be single throughout the process. Applying through London and going out on a working holiday is often the best compromise. Your parents must also be "settled" to sponsor you which can mean up to two years in Australia before they sponsor you - claims that they are "settled" well before the 2 years mark are entertained by DIAC, but it depends on the individual case.

 

Regards

 

 

Tony

[Alan Collett]

* Peter Costello is retiring from Government ... do you mean Tony Abbott, leader of the Coalition?

 

* Coalition policy is (I believe) for at least 75% of the total intake to comprise skilled visa applicants (presumably including accompanying family).

 

Best regards.

[frizzy1]

Alan,

 

Thanks - I know but its so hard to do :arghh:. You may have seen my post above but my sisters husband will be sponsoring me, not my parents so at least I dont need to wait for my parents to be settled.

 

I shall put in my application as soon as possible after my parents arrive in Oz and keep my fingers crossed.

 

In the meantime, any updates or comments are appreciated

 

 

 

Frizzy,

 

I am afraid you are going to have to be patient - the days of permanent residency visas being granted quickly appear to be disappearing over the horizon.

 

The Australian Government (of whichever persuasion has power after Saturday's election) knows that demand comfortably exceeds whatever supply of visas is politically or electorally acceptable - strategy has therefore to be to lodge applications as soon as it is prudent to do so, and then await your case being assessed months later.

 

The comments here re a settled sponsor might also be useful:

Go Matilda - Your Gateway to Australia - News

 

Best regards.

[Welshtone]

OOPS - my bad - when I was in Australia Tony Abbott and Peter Costello were the Liberal double act of the time - so whenever one of their names come up it's impossible, for me, to distinguish between the two - yes, Tony Abbott I meant - AKA the Mad Monk. Monk coming from his surname - abbot(t) and the fact that he did train as a priest, I think - I wont comment on the Mad bit.

 

Regards

 

 

Tony

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Alan

 

The comments here re a settled sponsor might also be useful:

Go Matilda - Your Gateway to Australia - News

 

I go into your News section at least once a fortnight to fish out the article above, so that I can give someone the link to it. In the past, I have typed "settled sponsor" into the search box and the article has come up. The last 6 times or so - over about 2 or 3 months, I guess - a message has appeared telling me that there is a problem with the internal search tool.

 

It is not a huge deal because I know that you wrote the article in March 2008, so I just skim through the pages till I get to the one that I want. If I were worried about the time that this snail method takes, I would not help out with Poms in Oz etc so it is NOT a big deal. However if you feel computer-minded one day, you might wish to investigate why this is happening.

 

The Go Matilda forum logs me on automatically when I go into the site so that is not the reason for the message but beyond that bit, my own understanding of cyber wizardry is zero.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[Alan Collett]

Hi Gill.

 

I noted this a week or so ago, and believe the search function error has now been resolved.

 

Please let me know if you are still having problems.

 

Best regards.

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Frizzy

 

I believe that you are now above the age for a WH visa? We have already discussed the fact that your Parents would not be the Sponsor for a Rem Relly visa for you.

 

Alan Collett is right, though. It is now too close to the Election to predict what will happen after next Monday or so, by when the outcome of the Election ought to be known. From vague memory of 2007 (when I was not following it closely and I have never followed an Aussie Election prior to that) I think it was obvious that the ALP had won it within the first 24 hours of the polls closing. I imagine that if it is necessary to count the votes from the constituency called Backofbeyondup - which I believe can take up to 3 days before the result gets to Canberra - the pundits would be talking about a hung parliament ages before anything else really happened.

 

Tony Abbott has insisted that he does not intend to clobber Family Stream visas. How much can you trust a pollie who wants to win an Election, though? The British bunch have proven themselves to be a right little mob of two-faced weasels during their first 100 days. The only thing that I can say for the British lot is that anybody is better than Brown & Co - and especially the equally god-awful Mandy.

 

I believe that your occupation would not support the idea of skilled immigration to Oz for you? How old are you, what do you do and would you consider re-training as a Nurse?

 

If Nursing would not be a viable option for you then would teaching ESOL in the Far East be a worthwhile stop-gap for you? Please see my reply to Cath Wotherspoon on the thread below this morning:

 

http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/migration-issues/77756-brand-new-pio-parents-visa-thread-47.html

 

On this thread, either Alan Collett or Welshtone has said today that the risk with a Rem Relly visa application taking forever is that the visa applicant would meet and fall in love with a Partner, which would almost certainly kill the Rem Relly visa application stone dead. That said, if you were in Australia, the Partner would probably be an Aussie, opening the door to a Partner visa instead. In that event, Nursing in Oz via a Student visa might seem to be a sensible option?

 

The Minister must be a prize mutt if he didn't work out that people would take 5 minutes to start sorting out strategies that would overcome His Ghastliness's activities.

 

When I was a young solicitor, one of my main mentors was a man called Derrick Bretherton, who was about 57. Derrick told me that in 1974, the Government suddenly announced a rent-freeze on commercial property in E&W. Darrick was a Partner in a very important City of London firm of solicitors. He went into a huddle with some of this own solicitors and half a dozen barristers. He told me that the freeze had been announced at 11am and by 3pm Derrick and his team had worked out 6 watertight methods of getting round it. I draw inspiration from his example now.

 

Cheers

 

Gill

[frizzy1]

Hi Gill,

 

Thanks for responding. I am 38 and have exhausted the skill visa route, I dont have a degree and tryng to shoehorn my occupation (relationship manager for an insurance company) into one of the occupations is near impossible. And of course too old for the WHV.

 

I could of course retrain but to be honest I am getting past this now and actually want to be thinking about settling down and having kids at some point pending Mr Right. Yes, I could of course chance going to Oz and applying for an onshore visa but I just dont feel ready to risk everything I have in the UK in case this doesnt happen.

 

Dont get me wrong, I deparately want to join my family but not at the risk of losing everything.

 

I did wonder if I could convince my parents to fly out a.s.a.p to allow me to get my application in. But I know this would cause them a lot of upheaval an they would need to return back to the uk within 3 months to sort stuff out. Do you think its worth going down this route to try and get my application in now rather than waiting until October when they were originally planning to get their application in?

 

If there is a general feeling that IF i can get my application in within the next xx weeks it would make a difference, I would go all out to try and get my parents to do the move next week.

 

But on the other hand if actually its not going to make a blind bit of difference if I were to apply in the next couple of weeks or in Mid October, I dont want to pressure them unncessarily.

 

What are your/everyones thoughts on this?

[Guest Gollywobbler]

Hi Gill,

 

Thanks for responding. I am 38 and have exhausted the skill visa route, I dont have a degree and tryng to shoehorn my occupation (relationship manager for an insurance company) into one of the occupations is near impossible. And of course too old for the WHV.

 

I could of course retrain but to be honest I am getting past this now and actually want to be thinking about settling down and having kids at some point pending Mr Right. Yes, I could of course chance going to Oz and applying for an onshore visa but I just dont feel ready to risk everything I have in the UK in case this doesnt happen.

 

Dont get me wrong, I deparately want to join my family but not at the risk of losing everything.

 

I did wonder if I could convince my parents to fly out a.s.a.p to allow me to get my application in. But I know this would cause them a lot of upheaval an they would need to return back to the uk within 3 months to sort stuff out. Do you think its worth going down this route to try and get my application in now rather than waiting until October when they were originally planning to get their application in?

 

If there is a general feeling that IF i can get my application in within the next xx weeks it would make a difference, I would go all out to try and get my parents to do the move next week.

 

But on the other hand if actually its not going to make a blind bit of difference if I were to apply in the next couple of weeks or in Mid October, I dont want to pressure them unncessarily.

 

What are your/everyones thoughts on this?

 

Hi Frizzy

 

The reduction in numbers applies from 1st July 2010. Therefore you would be stuck with the processing delays, no matter what you might do.

 

In that scenario, I can't see any point in hustling your Parents around.

 

It might all change after the Election as well. Abbott claims that he would undo a lot of Evans' xenophobia. Even if the ALP win, it might occur to La Gillard that the vascillating Evans has made Australia so unpopular world wide that getting rid of him might be a brainy idea. (The Minister Assisting the Minister in Charge of Golfing in the Outback sounds suitable to me......)

 

If you want an intro to an old bloke who is an entirely unsuitable Hubby in every possible way according to both of his ex-wives but who does nevertheless have an Aussie passport, please gimme a shout. My sister's F-i-L Eric must be about 80, is going spare and propositioned a nubile lady from Korea about a year ago. Eric was in hospital recently and whatever was wrong with him, the family thought he might cark it, I was told. He's too bloody minded to cark it that easily. He recovered enough to be released from hozzy, apparently. However bromide in his tea would calm him down and arsenic in his coffee would probably send him to Valhalla fairly soon. He is Swedish by birth, so Valhalla seems like a suitable resting place for him to me.

 

I'm not desperate enough to move to Oz to risk the idea that Eric might get a new lease of life, so he's yours if you want him. I suspect that better models can be obtained via the internet, though......

 

Cheers

 

Gill