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Sydney office progress? Partner visas

3K views 12 replies 6 participants last post by  DylanW 
#1 ·
Hi all,

Like many others here I've been keeping tabs on other peoples progress/timelines and experiences. I'm just curious, while I've seen progress and approvals on offshore partner visas and other onshore offices like Perth and Brisbane, I can't say I've seen anything coming out of the Sydney office. My partner and I applied at the beginning of Dec '12 and while I'm not really expecting to see much happen until we hit the 12 month mark, I would have expected by now to see other people, that applied earlier in the year, reporting some kind of progress.
Anyone have any good news? Seems like Sydney is a black hole :s
 
#4 ·
I would personally email them and find out how far your application is. Even though the response is normally the same... in the lines of "your application is in process" it sometimes pushes them to remember me...

I am in Sydney and my sent my 801 paperwork back in Feb and it was approved in May. You should follow up. My personal opinion.

Dylan
 
#5 ·
We applied at Sydney office April 2012 and now 15 months later not even a CO assigned as yet.Due to call them again soonish!!!
Unbelievably slow process .

I don't get it ,we are both in our mid/ late 50's no children involved,no health issues ,partner is from a low risk country ,no criminal history on both sides.
Medicals & police report supplied with application [ all expired now of coarse but we were asked to provide them with application] So whats the holdup?
Another forum member was told waiting times are now 18 months from Sydney office.!!!!!!!
I check VEVO morning & evening in the hope she is approved.
 
#6 ·
Thanks for the advice Dylan :) although I've been getting the impression from most people here that trying to contact DIAC before you have case officer and before 12 months seems to be a futile endeavour. Might be worth a try anyway.

Sanoptic, that's quite frightening to hear, I can't believe it's been so long without any kind of progression :s When we applied we were given 13 months as the average wating period, but now 18 months?!? It's pretty ridiculous :mad:

My partner's itching to get back to Brazil to see her family after 2 1/2 years, but she's on a BVC, so she's stuck until we get this visa approved. It will just break her if it goes beyond another 6 months :(

I just wonder what the hell is going on at the Sydney office...
 
#8 ·
That's interesting news... obviously there's simply a staffing issue in the Sydney office.
Well hopefully that means they can reduce the average waiting time back to 12 months or less as opposed to the 18 months we've been hearing. It just seems a bit silly for some people to be approved in weeks, while others wait the better part of two years simply because they applied in the "wrong" city.
 
#9 ·
FYI DIAC has reported this week to our industry group that onshore partner visa processing (across all offices) is estimated at 13 months.

Am told off-the-record that processing priority for onshore partner visas is what it is because the assumption is that applicants are here on Bridging Visa A's so they're with their partners (not separated) and have full work/study rights. My response to the person I was speaking with was something along the lines of: an entire family's peace of mind and future is hanging in limbo - regardless of the bridging visa situation, there seems to be no recognition of the anxiety that exists when a family's entire future is, essentially, uncertain.

Best,

Mark Northam
 
#10 ·
If they have to delay one group's processing over another, onshore is vastly preferable to offshore for the reasons they mentioned. Better uncertain but together than apart. But.... imagine what it would be like if they, oh, I don't know, hired a few more COs for every office. *Sigh.*
 
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#11 ·
Isn't the federal Government slashing another 800 public service jobs soon to try & bring the budget under control?
Hope DIAC isn't one department to suffer even less staff servicing countless visa applications of all types.

BTW Mark we were told a few days ago Sydney office is now estimating 18 month processing times for 820's. Which is probably true as we are over 15 months now.

cheers
 
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