[chrislane99]

My fiance is here on a 600 visitor visa expiring 31/10/18. This was granted in three days (yes 3! including a medical required) when we were in Thailand in July.
It has been heaven on Earth (Nirvana) to be together for 3 months and of course we want more! A PMV 300 is in progress

On 16/10 I applied for a new 600 onshore for 3 to 9 months but now the waiting time is 75% in 17 days and up to 31 days for 90%.
She has been granted a Bridging Visa A effective from 1/11/18. I believe this will only take effect if a decision has not been made by 31/10 and will give another 35 days.

1. Am I right about the BVA conditions and time?
2. If 600 decision is made before 31/10 must she leave by 31/10?
3. Will the BVA apply even if the decision is made before 31/10 and the 600 is not granted? or only if the decision occurs from 1/11.
4. Is it likely that a decision will be made in the next 5 working days and am I wasting my time ringing and asking about the progress?

My problem is she has a return ticket for 29/10 at 20:20 and I need to move it or lose it.
I set the date early as I know some people have overstayed because they chose a flight on the last day and the flight was delayed.

I am happy to change the date and pay the fee but I need a date to move to and don't want to move it if she must leave by 31/10.
Please help!

 

[Mania]

1 - a bridging visa is granted to bridge between your expiring current visa and a decision being made on your applied visa. I dont know where you got the 35 days idea from.. it will only come into effect when your current substansive visa expires.
2 - depends what the decision is
3 - if a decision is made prior to the 31 then the bva will be irrelevant (clarification you will get a grace period to leave).
4 - thats like asking if it will rain on September 6th 2019. Ring by all means just dont expect it to have any effect on your visa processing time.

 

[chrislane99]

Thanks for the prompt reply Mania!

1. I understand the BV concept. My question was if a decision is made before the VV expires must she leave before 31/10 or can the BVA be used to extend only if 31/10 has passed without decision.
This is the page from BVA queries on DHA
https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/trav.../010/If-your-BVA-was-granted-on-or-after.aspx
It definitely suggests 35 days applies

2. So she has to be ready to depart if a No decision is made by 31/10?
3. This then answers Q1 - the BVA has not activated. Tough if the decision is in the last three days!
4. My intention was not to expedite just to discover where the application is in the queue.
Will they be able to answer this or just give the stock answer - see the website for processing times? In other words will it be a waste of time?
It would be nice if DHA had a - You are number 25 in the queue - message
I suggest it would be more efficient than answering phone calls - the Q for which has exactly this message while waiting!

 

[LadyRogueRayne]

If she is refused the visa, she will be given a BVA that grants her 28 days to depart. Therefore, either way, she will have a BVA and does not need to depart by 31/10. If it were me, I'd change the flight to sometime in November (about the 2nd or 3rd week) if you don't get a decision in the next few days.

At least that's what happened to me when I applied for a 600 visa to extend my ETA visa (from the US). I was granted a BVA that gave me 28 days to depart or apply for another visa (the Partner visa). I got the refusal before my ETA stay expired. For me, I was waiting for an invitation to apply for the 189 visa and needed just one extra week here for the invitation. However, as they didn't consider me a "true tourist" (I was honest about my reason for applying for the 600), my visa was refused and I was given a BVA. Then, we applied for the 820 visa, as I couldn't apply for the 189 due to having a visa refusal. And THAT is a LONG story.

Anyway, from my understanding since she is applying onshore for the visa, she'll be granted a BVA for 28 days should it be refused. Hopefully someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[LadyRogueRayne]

Duplicate post.

 

[chrislane99]

Rang and spoke to a lovely lady at DHA. I was answered in 5 minutes after being number 3 in queue.
She confirmed that if a negative decision occurs before 31/10 my fiancé would have to leave the country - maybe not immediately by 31/10 but better to do so.

She was unable to tell me how my application is progressing as I expected. However she did confirm they were busy at the moment and carefully hinted that it was less than likely that a decision would occur in the remaining four working days of this month when the current Visa ends.

She also stated that the person processing the visa would not set the decision date in the last day or two of the current visa. This would allow the Bridging Visa to be activated in the event the decision was not to grant the Visitor Visa.

We can (almost) sleep easy for the next week

 

[paulhand]

My fiance is here on a 600 visitor visa expiring 31/10/18. This was granted in three days (yes 3! including a medical required) when we were in Thailand in July.
It has been heaven on Earth (Nirvana) to be together for 3 months and of course we want more! A PMV 300 is in progress

On 16/10 I applied for a new 600 onshore for 3 to 9 months but now the waiting time is 75% in 17 days and up to 31 days for 90%.
She has been granted a Bridging Visa A effective from 1/11/18. I believe this will only take effect if a decision has not been made by 31/10 and will give another 35 days.

1. Am I right about the BVA conditions and time?
2. If 600 decision is made before 31/10 must she leave by 31/10?
3. Will the BVA apply even if the decision is made before 31/10 and the 600 is not granted? or only if the decision occurs from 1/11.
4. Is it likely that a decision will be made in the next 5 working days and am I wasting my time ringing and asking about the progress?

My problem is she has a return ticket for 29/10 at 20:20 and I need to move it or lose it.
I set the date early as I know some people have overstayed because they chose a flight on the last day and the flight was delayed.

I am happy to change the date and pay the fee but I need a date to move to and don't want to move it if she must leave by 31/10.
Please help!

1. If the visitor visa is refused, the BVA will allow her to remain for 35 days from the refusal date
2. No
3. BVA starts when the current visa expires, regardless of the decision
4. Yes you are wasting your time

 

[ampk]

4. Yes you are wasting your time

But it is only a few hours of your life to try!

Just don't believe what they tell you.

*** OP I pushed out our tickets to the maximum think 365 days and paid the fee. After we sorted our visa stuff I then changed to the required dates.

Yes it was 2 fee charges but we had no fare increases and we could then pick the best flights after the visas were granted.

 

[chrislane99]

I have a happy outcome to report

My fiancé was granted a new Visitor Visa for six months at 12:05 29/10/2018
Oh happy days of summer fun ahead!

I changed the plane ticket on Sunday to 30 Jan after being advised I would lose it if not varied by Monday morning - the flight was 20:20 that night

WRONG the cutoff is checkin time 3 hours before the flight.
Could have saved myself $129 but I guess it's cheaper than another visa in 3 months!