British Expats - Processing Times

    >On Thu, 03 Oct 2002 12:02:21 +0000, Louise100 wrote:
    >Has anyone applied for a 4 temporary visa for the spouse of a New
    >Zealand citizen in London? The website says these applications take 6
    >months but the form is only 2 pages long - please somebody make my day
    >and tell me its a typo.

Do you mean the subclass 461 visa for Australia where one spouse is a
NZ citizen (who can't get PR rights in Australia) and the other spouse
is a non-NZ citizen?

That visa is not very suitable if you plan to live in Australia a long
time. The main difficulty is that if your NZ citizen spouse were to
die or you were to break up, your rights in Australia would be quite
limited and you'd have no right at all to go to New Zealand.

Going to New Zealand, and becoming a permanent resident there (and a
citizen after 2 years) is IMO a more suitable option than the 461 visa
for most people. If you really want to spend some time in Australia
later on, you could do that as a New Zealand citizen in your own
right.

    >Does anybody now how long such a visa takes from inside Australia. Can
    >you apply whilst you are on a visitors visa - what about a working
    >holiday visa?

Applying onshore is possible for some people. But there are plenty of
problems that can be encountered:
- possibly longer processing time
- different rules and regulations
- issues with bridging visas
- limited or no work rights on the visa you've entered Australia with
- risk of being refused entry if they think on arrival you're planning
to stay

and so on. Talk to a migration agent if you're contemplating this
kind of strategy.

Jeremy