[antobogdan]

Hi, i applied for an eVisitor 651 visa on 5.05, they requested more information and documents which i sent on 10.05.
After that it says "Further assesment".
Looking at the published processing times, it says "90% are processed in 6 days". Mine has already 14 days.
Reading facebook groups and forums i'm beggining to get worried. Lots of people complain that they are waiting for this visa for months. It seems that, if you are already past their "90% processing time" you could wait forever... What's happening?
I really taked that 6 days as a certain thing, and made plans and bought plane tickets for 21 June. I mean, i thought the risk is low, they say 6 days but i had 7 more weeks until the flight at the time of application!
Now things seem to not be running smooth at all with these visas.
I don't get why it's taking them so long and why do they say 6 days when it can take months...

Oh, and another issue: do the processing officers or staff call you during the visa assessment?
I received two phone calls on private number, today and exactly one week ago, at exactly the same time. Weird... i didn't answer them, the one last week i ignored (because i don;t answer private numbers) and the one received today, it was so short i didn;t even notice it...i was away from the phone.
Why should they call me? And certainly the call was eitherr from a robot or outside Australia because at that hour in Aus was midnight.
Have you heard about such calls with private numbers?
Oh, and i heard that they discriminate the Eastern European EU countries such as Romania, Bulgaria etc.
Application with passports from these countries take much more, and sometimes the result never comes...That is ridiculous...why do they mislead people with that 6 days processing time? Can't they be honest and say "ok you're a romanian we label you as high risk and you may wait a month or two, forget about 6 days"... so people know what to do and not make plans and not buy tickets.
Very weird system... compared to this, the US visa was very very easy...
And do you know any ways to speed up the processing?
I've heard of two cases of Romanians who were waiting and waiting for the visa (more than a month), but they called Department of internal affairs number(not the number showed on Immi account, at that number all you get is "keep waiting, we don;t care, we can't help you"), and after one hour of waiting on the line, they got the visa during the phone call!

 

[Aussie83]

Yes they can call and it will likely be a unknown number. Could be sometime from any of the processing centres not necessarily from Australia. Generally if you have something offical you are waiting on its a good idea to answer unknown numbers.

 

[JandE]

I don't get why it's taking them so long and why do they say 6 days when it can take months...

They said 6 days, as that is how long it actually took for 90% of applications in that month. 10% took over 6 days.

Unfortunately these times get longer when they get more applications, which is possibly happening at the moment.

Oh, and another issue: do the processing officers or staff call you during the visa assessment?
I received two phone calls on private number, today and exactly one week ago, at exactly the same time. Weird... i didn't answer them, the one last week i ignored (because i don;t answer private numbers) and the one received today, it was so short i didn;t even notice it...i was away from the phone.
Why should they call me?

Yes, they do sometimes call during an application.
They might be calling you to clarify certain issues with your application, so they can finalise it. We had a call once, and the visa was finalised the next day, based on our answer.

All calls that I have received from government departments have been private numbers. It is very important to answer these while waiting.

 

[Shaun2301]

No Australia doesn't discriminate, stop hearing fake news about Australia discriminate eastern Europe,

 

[JandE]

No Australia doesn't discriminate, stop hearing fake news about Australia discriminate eastern Europe,

Some eastern European countries have a higher grant rate than some Western European countries.

e651 visa Grant Rates for Qtr 4 2021.

Estonia 100.0%
Hungary 100.0%
Lithuania 100.0%
Slovakia 100.0%
Slovenia 100.0%
France 99.4%
Germany 99.3%

Romanian citizens have a higher visa overstay rate, based on US reported figures, and this may affect checking times.

Some eastern European Nationalities have low visa overstay rates, and faster and higher grant times.

 

[antobogdan]

Yes, they do sometimes call during an application.
They might be calling you to clarify certain issues with your application, so they can finalise it. We had a call once, and the visa was finalised the next day, based on our answer.

All calls that I have received from government departments have been private numbers. It is very important to answer these while waiting.

But that is just weird... they can send an email if they want to clarify something , or at least notice you they will call you and at what hour...how am i supposed to answer if it is once a week call, and very short, like a couple of seconds? And private number, so i can't call back?Who answers private numbers? In Europe nobody does, they are largely used for scams, harrasment or other nasty things, they shouldn't exist!
Omg, sorry to say this, but i never imagined that they could behave in such a ridiculous way if , not say, stupid... who on earth uses phone calls like this , like we are in the pre-internet era?

 

[Assured]

i

 

[antobogdan]

No Australia doesn't discriminate, stop hearing fake news about Australia discriminate eastern Europe,

It seems they really do it
Ok, i can understand there is some overstay rate 0for Romania ( but come on, if a poor unemployed Romanian would intend to go somewhere to work ilegally on a tourist visa, Australia would be the last place on earth, it is too far, very high living cost, and just the plane tickets to get there cost " a fortune"). And if he really really wants to stay ilegally at " the end of the world" he can chose New Zealand in that area, which does not require visa for Romanians.
I said, there is also an overstay rate for romanians in the USA, maybe even greater than in Aus but i got the US visa very easy and they didn't request ANY document!
For Australia i uploaded the documents which strongly prove that i am a genuine tourist and do not intend to overstay: stable job, the same for 15 years for god's sake, enough funds, letter with the approved leave, 6 or 7 bank ststements, everything and i don' t get why it is taking so long.
I even showed them the US VISA and the us stamp in the passport from last month, they can check on the i96 database and see its legit, so that proves i travel a lot as stated and do not intend to oversta anywhere. I really dont get what they need to check more.

Oh, and if theyy would be honest they could say: ok, Romania has higher overstay rates, so the processing time is greater, forget about 6 days, it can take months.
Because when applying and making plans i really thought they are serious with that 6 day time. They are simply misleading people...if i knew it could take months for my country i would have never applied and made plans.( for god's sake, they say 6 days, and i made plans for after 7 weeks! And now it seems there is a great likekihood to not receive the visa in 7weeks ). This situation is just ridiculous. i have been travelling to more than 30 countries on 5 continents, but this...this is the most frustrating situation i have ever dealt with, in all my life, travel and authorities related. This simply can't be done at an authority level, for such a developed first world country, speaking about that timeframe of 6 days vs actually taking months. Maybe if i requested visa for ...Somalia i would have expected this, to not respect the declared time and exceed it by 7-10 times, but for Australia...

 

[JandE]

... when applying and making plans i really thought they are serious with that 6 day time. They are simply misleading people...

Australian Immigration do not say that all 651 visas will take under 6 days.

But they do say: "You should not book flights or make travel commitments until you have a visa to travel to Australia".

The fact is that in March 2022;
75% took within 1 day.
15% took between 2 and 6 days.
10% took over 6 days.
Other months have taken longer, some much longer.

 

[antobogdan]

Previous months took longer, before border reopening.
Yes not all are processed in 6 days and i know they advise to not make travel plans, but still, from 6 days to 7 weeks ( my needed time) it is an " astronomic" difference.
How possibly could it take more than 7 weeks? It is not understandable, only if they simply choose to deliberately not process it seeing the passport country. Or place it in some queue deliberately. Like they look on the requests and say : ahh Romania, let's postpone this.
This system does not make any sense.
Or please tell me: am i unreasonable? Am i asking too much if i want them to process my visa in a month or 6 weeks? Because the 6 days are long gone, i have 16 days already.
And even if 10% take longer, how much longer could they take, provided they are only 10%, so we can't speak about a very high number of cases . And 75% take less than one day...pffff...so it doesn't seem to be a problem with the total volume of cases or hard analysis work to be done.
Oh and i am wondering: what do they really verify , I heard they first make some checks in the Aus databases for you and family unit: history of previous travel, debts etc Zero in my case, never been there, so this should take 5 minutes at most .
What checks could be taking so long.
And another thing: after the application , they sent the request for more info in just 2 days, this somehow shows that there isn't really a high number of cases in the waiting list before me.
Another thing: when they request documents, they ask you to provide them in 7 days, that means that after 7 days most probably someone looks on them and analyses the case. Otherwisr they wouldn't impose this 7 day term So why is the processing taking weeks after that, again not understandable .

 

[antobogdan]

Yes, they do sometimes call during an application.
They might be calling you to clarify certain issues with your application, so they can finalise it. We had a call once, and the visa was finalised the next day, based on our answer

Doing more research i haven't Heard of a single case of applicants being called for this 651 visa. Maybe You had a more complex visa? What did they ask You about?

 

[antobogdan]

Yes they can call and it will likely be a unknown number. Could be sometime from any of the processing centres not necessarily from Australia.

Yes but IT seems that 651's are all all processed at their global centre in Hobart, and it was midnight there at the time of the call and IT was certainly out of any governmental working hours even in Europe.

 

[Brook2250]

You are right ...

 

[JandE]

Yes but IT seems that 651's are all all processed at their global centre in Hobart, and it was midnight there at the time of the call and IT was certainly out of any governmental working hours even in Europe.

I had to contact Europe myself last night and remembered this post. It was 3pm in the UK at midnight here.

 

[antobogdan]

UPDATE 6 JUNE 2022:
I finally received my VISA today, so it took exactly 1 month and 1 day (5 may-6 june).
However in the last 2 weeks i was sending complaints to IMMI almost daily, and in the last week i even send mails to a couple of MP's and even ministers.
Maybe they're just very very busy after all...
So if any other of you are still waiting, try sending complaints to IMMI on their online form on the DoHA site.
If they don;t reply in 2-3 days to acknowledge the complaint sent another one and so on. I sent 10+ complaints until finally someone replied acknoledging it and telling me that the Processing office has been notified of my long waiting time. And in 2 days the visa was granted.
It seems that they receive hundreds of complaints daily, so it is easy to discard yours, you have to insist.
This seems the only working solution now, calling them is of no use, you just waste money on expensive transcontinental calls.
And it could help sending emails to Jim Chalmers, the new treasurer who is in charge with the ministry of home affairs. I even send an email to the new prime-minister, that is how pissed i was becoming haha, but, happy ending, after all

 

[JandE]

UPDATE 6 JUNE 2022:
I finally received my VISA today, so it took exactly 1 month and 1 day (5 may-6 june).
However in the last 2 weeks i was sending complaints to IMMI almost daily, and in the last week i even send mails to a couple of MP's and even ministers.
Maybe they're just very very busy after all...
So if any other of you are still waiting, try sending complaints to IMMI on their online form on the DoHA site.
If they don;t reply in 2-3 days to acknowledge the complaint sent another one and so on. I sent 10+ complaints until finally someone replied acknoledging it and telling me that the Processing office has been notified of my long waiting time. And in 2 days the visa was granted.
It seems that they receive hundreds of complaints daily, so it is easy to discard yours, you have to insist.
This seems the only working solution now, calling them is of no use, you just waste money on expensive transcontinental calls.
And it could help sending emails to Jim Chalmers, the new treasurer who is in charge with the ministry of home affairs. I even send an email to the new prime-minister, that is how pissed i was becoming haha, but, happy ending, after all

Recent change to to the Minister for Home Affairs.

The Home Affairs portfolio reports to the Minister for Home Affairs, currently held by Clare O'Neil, and is led by the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, Mike Pezzullo. The Hon Clare O'Neil MP was sworn in as the Minister for Home Affairs on 1 June 2022.

Hon Clare O'Neil MP
Minister for Home Affairs from 1 June 2022.

Hon Clare O'Neil MP

Parliamentarian

www.aph.gov.au

Mike Pezzullo
Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, previously Secretary of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, since 2014.

https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about-us/who-we-are/our-senior-staff/michael-pezzullo

 

[sharonjaneangelaazzo]

Hi, i applied for an eVisitor 651 visa on 5.05, they requested more information and documents which i sent on 10.05.
After that it says "Further assesment".
Looking at the published processing times, it says "90% are processed in 6 days". Mine has already 14 days.
Reading facebook groups and forums i'm beggining to get worried. Lots of people complain that they are waiting for this visa for months. It seems that, if you are already past their "90% processing time" you could wait forever... What's happening?
I really taked that 6 days as a certain thing, and made plans and bought plane tickets for 21 June. I mean, i thought the risk is low, they say 6 days but i had 7 more weeks until the flight at the time of application!
Now things seem to not be running smooth at all with these visas.
I don't get why it's taking them so long and why do they say 6 days when it can take months...

Oh, and another issue: do the processing officers or staff call you during the visa assessment?
I received two phone calls on private number, today and exactly one week ago, at exactly the same time. Weird... i didn't answer them, the one last week i ignored (because i don;t answer private numbers) and the one received today, it was so short i didn;t even notice it...i was away from the phone.
Why should they call me? And certainly the call was eitherr from a robot or outside Australia because at that hour in Aus was midnight.
Have you heard about such calls with private numbers?
Oh, and i heard that they discriminate the Eastern European EU countries such as Romania, Bulgaria etc.
Application with passports from these countries take much more, and sometimes the result never comes...That is ridiculous...why do they mislead people with that 6 days processing time? Can't they be honest and say "ok you're a romanian we label you as high risk and you may wait a month or two, forget about 6 days"... so people know what to do and not make plans and not buy tickets.
Very weird system... compared to this, the US visa was very very easy...
And do you know any ways to speed up the processing?
I've heard of two cases of Romanians who were waiting and waiting for the visa (more than a month), but they called Department of internal affairs number(not the number showed on Immi account, at that number all you get is "keep waiting, we don;t care, we can't help you"), and after one hour of waiting on the line, they got the visa during the phone call!

Hi did you eventually get your visa pls?

 

[antobogdan]

Yes, i received it on 6 th of June.

 

[EvaAva]

Yes, i received it on 6 th of June.

Hey there !

Im so sorry to bother you, I saw the thread about your australian tourist visa, almost the exact same thing happened to my partner, he is waiting over a 5 weeks now and still no answer and status of the application is initial assessment, so they even did not check the documents we have send (!!!),
it is same for him, we made travel arrangements before and he had to postpone flight ticket for 2 times now!
Its incredibly frustrating when considering our situation and other conditions I will not bother you with...

So for that please, what was the online form you spoke about ? This one ?

Compliments, complaints and suggestions

We welcome your compliments, complaints and suggestions. The purpose of this form is to collect feedback from clients about their interaction with the Department.

www.homeaffairs.gov.au

If you have any other tip what we can do please tell me, we are desperate.

Thanks a lot !

 

[antobogdan]

Yes that is the form,but i send almost 10 complaints along aprox 2 weeks until they answered