Discuss Partner visa 309, visiting Aus during processing. posted within the Australian Visas and Immigration Advice forum at Getting Down Under

I am an American citizen married to an Australian citizen for 3 years coming in March. I am applying for Partner visa 309 and will be lodging the paperwork next week. I would like to know a few details from anyone who has gone through the process before since i have gotten different answers from the call center people at immigration. We don't have any children, and my spouse and I have never been married to anyone else. He has never sponsored anyone else.

1) We will be applying for the visa in January. We want to visit Europe in May for a month. The processing time currently is 5 - 12 months for this visa. After the trip to Europe we want to move permanently to Aus very shortly thereafter in June or early July. Will it be possible to go ti Aus on a ETA visa while processing is happening. Has anyone done that here? What happens to me if my application is approved while I'm there? The immigration people told me I need to put a cover letter on my application stating that my intentions are to visit Australia and that if I happen to be there when they want to approve it while I am there, then they will tell me to leave Aus. Has this happened to anyone? They are being very vague about the answer.

2) How long did it take anyone on this site to get the visa grant. 5 - 12 months is not specific enough to actually live our lives on. My husband can't go without work for that much time waiting on my visa to come through. He will have a job as soon as he gets there. Anyway, Has it taken anyone 5 months? more? Less? Any help will be GREATLY appreciated. We want to know how to plan for our future.

You will find from reading other questions that time is one thing that can't be counted on. There is a thread here where a Canadian waited 12 months for his security clearances.

The times can vary dramatically. Answers are ALWAYS vague, you have to learn to live with that.

I'm not going to answer about the ETA, as best a RMA answers that question.

Originally Posted by dana.kinny

What happens to me if my application is approved while I'm there? The immigration people told me I need to put a cover letter on my application stating that my intentions are to visit Australia and that if I happen to be there when they want to approve it while I am there, then they will tell me to leave Aus.

This is correct. For example;you might be able to go NZ for the grant of the visa and come straight back once the visa has been granted.

Regards,

Thanks Nick. That puts me at ease a bit. They are really careful there not to give you too much helpful information. Is there anyone out there that this has happened to that could share their experience? Or anyone who could tell me how many months it took them to be accepted?

Thanks!

It is very hard to say anything sensible about processing times, as it varies from processing centre to processing centre. I have had visas approved in 2 months or less, while others took 12 months or more to get a case officer allocated !

I had a client a while ago with a similar scenario to yours. She applied for a tourist visa, after lodging the partner visa and we notified the processing centre, who warned us when grant of the visa was imminent.

Shen then went to NZ, the visa was granted (as it is an "electronic" visa nowadays, no need to go to AHC or Embassy for a label) and she came back to Oz within a few days on her partner visa. Different issues may arise of course if the tourist visa expires before the partner visa is granted.


Best of luck,

I was literally on the phone this morning with the visa information service here in the USA asking similar questions. I have no idea how true this is, but the impression I was given is that one of the reasons a lot of the answers are vague is because each case officer has a certain amount of discretion in how they process the cases that they are assigned.

One of my questions today was about how long it would be until we were noticed if additional documentation was required. The answer was basically it could be anything from 2 weeks to 4 months or more. So not very helpful. It depends on whether the case officer checks your files when they first get them, or waits until they are ready to process your files before looking at them closely etc etc. I think this is an example of the kind of discretion the case officers have.

We too are planning to visit Australia using an ETA while my wife's application is being processed (Partner 309 also). I have been told that it is definitely OK to do this, but you need to make sure the embassy that you applied at (probably Washington) knows where you are and how to to contact you at all times until your visa is granted. There is a form to lodge to achieve this each time your contact details change. What I was told is that your visa cannot be granted if you are in Australia, so basically if they see you are currently in Australia they will contact you to let you know that they are ready to grant the visa, and that you need to leave Australia to have the visa granted while you are outside Australia. If they cannot contact you they may decline your visa application (again, at the discretion of the case officer to a certain degree). I asked how long we would have to get back to the USA once they notified us, before they cancelled the visa application - the person was vague. I asked if 2 weeks would be acceptable and he said he believed that would be fine. Once again, I am assuming this a discretionary thing for the case officer.

Based on Nick's réponse above though, one scenario I didn't ask about was whether we could go to New Zealand to have the visa granted even though we applied in the US. Does anyone know if that is definitely allowed for the Partner 309 visa to do that (ie. have the visa granted in a country other than the one you applied in, as long as it is not Australia)?

Thanks

Originally Posted by craigsdickson

Does anyone know if that is definitely allowed for the Partner 309 visa to do that (ie. have the visa granted in a country other than the one you applied in, as long as it is not Australia)?

Thanks

Yes,see my previous post.

I recently organised this exact process for one of my clients.

We applied for a tourist visa in Paris and a prospective marriage visa in Berlin. She was in Australia on the tourist visa and when visa grant was imminent I was notified by the CO. The applicant went to NZ, was granted her visa and returned to Australia.

Make sure you keep the CO informed at all times during the process.