jwt

I am married to an australian citizen. Does anyone have any experience with getting a spousal visa? other than the 7000 AUD application fee (ouch) seems straight forward. Does anyone know timeframes etc? also is there a bridging one that you can work while waiting for the spousal?

BritInParis

If you are married and there are no health or character concerns then the process is relatively straightforward.

If you are applying from within Australia then the current processing time is several years. Applications lodged in the UK are being assessed almost immediately so I would recommend lodging in the UK if at all possible.

jwt

wow. ok i knew they were saying it was on average 11-16 months, hopefully not several years. thanks for the reply.

quoll

Someone on here got theirs in around 2 months offshore in London. Much the better option, otherwise are you proposing to lie to Immigration by trying to enter on a visitor visa, having no intention of just being a visitor? (That’s a risk which could see you sent home) Get your application in now and you could be gone in a few months with full working rights and full Medicare cover.

Pollyana

Onshore processing times have recently gone up a lot, whilst offshore UK has come down. This is based on actual cases,not on official estimated figures.

jwt

I was not planning on lying to immigration. it states pretty clearly on the immigration website that you can apply from Australia.

Pollyana

The issue is that you need to get into Australia in order to apply onshore. If you do that using a tourist visa with the INTENT of applying onshore, then yes you are lying to Immigration.
If you arrive on a tourist visa with the intent of having a holiday, then change your mind and apply for a Partner Visa onshore, that's different.
Its all about the INTENT

TBH though I can't see why anyone would apply onshore at present - spending years on a bridging visa would not be fun

giri26

When we applied for Child Visa for my daughter, we informed the immigration that we will be applying for tourist visa in parallel, since we did not have much time to enter Australia. We were told that we will have to exit Australia once the Child Visa was about to be granted and we would have to enter back on PR visa for the child. As long as you communicate your intent to the immigration you should be fine. Luckily for us the CO processed our child visa in time for us to enter Australia before our visa expired, so we just cancelled the tourist visa application.

jwt

likely I will apply from overseas as soon as it becomes almost definite that I am going there. thanks for your help.

ABCD......

Hi Polly...

I did an 820 recently, (got married again) and after the 820 application is submitted, from the date that the previous visa expires (often a visitor visa), full working rights and Medicare became available.
Unable to travel outside Australia without getting a BVB, but that wasn't needed, as the 820 only took 3 months.
It is not easy to find work, with some employers, until at least the 820 is granted.

I've seen a few offshore 309's from the UK recently with grants in 2-3 months.

A few recent onshore 820 grants from UK applicants:
21 Feb after 16 months
6 Feb after 11 months
3 Feb after 13 months

and for comparison:
13th Feb after 12 months (from Philippines)
12th Feb after 9 months (from Netherlands)
9th Feb after 21 months (from Vietnam)

Pollyana

I'm not talking about any offshore except the UK - I have no info on any of those, nor any real interest, but there are several recent grants reported from the UK in only 2-3 months I even saw one recently in under 2 months.
If you want to take issue with the now extremely long onshore timeline quoted, take it up with BritinParis he has far more access to data than I do and has his finger well on the pulse. Many are now taking 24 months and upwards, maybe you were lucky, who knows?
I certainly wouldn't be recommending a UK applicant go for an 820 over a 309 (not that I ever have, but expecially not now)

bakedbean

I'm currently visiting Australia and was chatting with a Russian lady today married to an Australian and she has been waiting 22 months so far and counting.

Ankur Gupta

Hello Everyone,

I need a bit of Information, I'm a Permanent Resident and had applied for my wife's Spouse Visa (309/100) in Sep 2017. In December I had applied for my wife's Tourist Visa so that she can come and join me here in Australia until DIAC takes a decision on her 309 (TR) visa. She was granted a Tourist Visa within 3 weeks and she joined me in Jan,2018. Now couple of days ago I received an email from the Department stating that they wish to take a decision on her 309 visa and that she needs to leave the country within 28 days so that they can take a decision on her 309 Partner application as she had applied it from off-shore.

They have said in their email that "We will check at the end of the 28th day whether the applicant" is outside of the country and in case if she's still not outside of Australia it may adversely effect the outcome of her application.
Also they have mentioned that they need minimum 5 working days to take a decision and have not mentioned an upper limit.

Now I want to understand that if we book a holiday trip to Bali/some other place for say 7-8 days before the expiry period of the 28 day and notify them that my wife has exited, will they take a decision before expiry of the 28 day period or will they compulsorily wait for the 28 day period and only at the end of the 28 day period take decision.

We don't want to be stuck in a situation where we have exhausted our holiday in Bali/other destination and they have still not taken a decision. We'll be stuck and she'll be left with no option to stay back or return to India until they take a decision.

I want to understand that firstly will they take decision before 28 days if my wife leaves the country?
Secondly how much time do they usually take to make a decision if all documentation is complete and finalized and they just need to take a decision.

Any guidance, help will be highly appreciated.

Kind Regards
Ankur Gupta

BritInParis

Email them with your flight details once you have booked. Your wife's visa will be granted as soon as her case officer gets to it. It could be a couple of hours or a couple of days but it's usually sooner rather than later. The five day minimum is a precaution against a system outage.