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Hi 797 -
I agree - that's too long! That being said, some issues to consider:
** Did you include a letter with your visitor visa explaining the reason you have not lodged a partner visa application (due to sponsorship limitation)? I would not assume the case officer knows that. I'm guessing you explained that at the interview.
** Any health or character issues that could be slowing down the application?
** You didn't mention the country your wife is a citizen of - higher risk countries often take longer because they subject applications to a more rigorous check
** With the subclass 600 visa, the Genuine Visitor policy is used to assess applications. Did you in your application address this policy area and the specific items it includes that DIAC looks at in a visitor visa application of this type? If not, it might be worth a look. We've found that specifically addressing these in a detailed submission to accompany a visitor visa application (especially from a higher risk country) can speed things up.
** Remember that a visitor visa is for a temporary visit to Australia only. DIAC sometimes gets concerned when a spouse lodges a visitor visa, as they assume that a spouse will want to be with her husband permanently, not temporarily. Hence the conflict built-in to every spouse visitor visa for Australia. If a partner visa's been lodged, that solves the question of the long-term intention of the applicant. But if no partner visa has been lodged, DIAC is left to wonder what the long-term intention of the client is and whether that raises a concern with them (ie, overstay, get here & lodge a protection visa application or undertake a series of visa applications/appeals to try to buy time once she's here for as long as possible to get through the sponsorship limitation period, etc)
** If you're going to lodge a complaint, that's of course your choice. If you do choose lodge a complaint, I'd point in the complaint to the DIAC Customer Service Charter at:
Client Service Charter
Which clearly states that even from higher risk countries, 1 month is the typical visitor visa processing time.
Another option to a complaint: Write the case officer, point out the 1 month processing time noted in the link above, and ask if there is a problem with your case or any additional information you can add. Before you do that, however, find the web page for the Australian Embassy, etc in your wife's country and make sure they don't publish an alternate time estimate for visitor visas.
I hope this is of some help -
Best,
Mark Northam
I agree - that's too long! That being said, some issues to consider:
** Did you include a letter with your visitor visa explaining the reason you have not lodged a partner visa application (due to sponsorship limitation)? I would not assume the case officer knows that. I'm guessing you explained that at the interview.
** Any health or character issues that could be slowing down the application?
** You didn't mention the country your wife is a citizen of - higher risk countries often take longer because they subject applications to a more rigorous check
** With the subclass 600 visa, the Genuine Visitor policy is used to assess applications. Did you in your application address this policy area and the specific items it includes that DIAC looks at in a visitor visa application of this type? If not, it might be worth a look. We've found that specifically addressing these in a detailed submission to accompany a visitor visa application (especially from a higher risk country) can speed things up.
** Remember that a visitor visa is for a temporary visit to Australia only. DIAC sometimes gets concerned when a spouse lodges a visitor visa, as they assume that a spouse will want to be with her husband permanently, not temporarily. Hence the conflict built-in to every spouse visitor visa for Australia. If a partner visa's been lodged, that solves the question of the long-term intention of the applicant. But if no partner visa has been lodged, DIAC is left to wonder what the long-term intention of the client is and whether that raises a concern with them (ie, overstay, get here & lodge a protection visa application or undertake a series of visa applications/appeals to try to buy time once she's here for as long as possible to get through the sponsorship limitation period, etc)
** If you're going to lodge a complaint, that's of course your choice. If you do choose lodge a complaint, I'd point in the complaint to the DIAC Customer Service Charter at:
Client Service Charter
Which clearly states that even from higher risk countries, 1 month is the typical visitor visa processing time.
Another option to a complaint: Write the case officer, point out the 1 month processing time noted in the link above, and ask if there is a problem with your case or any additional information you can add. Before you do that, however, find the web page for the Australian Embassy, etc in your wife's country and make sure they don't publish an alternate time estimate for visitor visas.
I hope this is of some help -
Best,
Mark Northam
