Hi,
I am english and still live in the Uk but I have australian residency. My wife is also English and is now going to apply with a spouse visa and we hope to move out to oz at christmas this year. We are looking at booking our flights now but want to check what happens if the spouse visa isn't through in time. Can we still go to oz and wait over there for it or do we need to get a temporary visa whilst we wait????? PLEASE HELP AS WE ARE STUCK AND FLIGHTS ARE RARE FOR THE DATES WE WANT!!!!

Also does anyone know how long the spouse visa's are roughly taking at the moment??


PLEASE HELP!



Dan and Bex

Spouse visas are pretty quick. Some people have had them back within a week. Just make sure you provide as much information as possible, so they dont come back with any questions. If you apply now, you should be fine for a Christmas move. (dont quote me on that )

Mine took a month, but it was delayed because I didnt provide them with some information.

If all your paperwork is in order, it should take no more than a couple of weeks. Most of them take less but as AB says, they "might" want more info depending on your situation.

Can't imagine it won't come though before Christmas

Stay calm

Ours (defacto spouse) took just over two weeks but I know other people who applied at a similar time and took 3 days so you should be ok for Christmas so long as all your documentation is in order.

Hi - my husbands spouse visa took five weeks - it took a week from the date they received the police check which was the last bit of paperwork needed. Would definately encourage you to send off for the police check asap as this takes 28 days, also had the medicals done before we sent off the visa application.
hope that helps - good luck
Sara

You may want to seek professional assistance as a non-citizen is expected to be "usually resident" in Australia in order to sponsor for a spouse visa. Anecdotally London are more flexible on this than other DIMA posts.

Try Ian Harrop : http://www.ianharrop.co.uk

Good point - I should have mentioned that we front loaded out application which means we did the medicals and police checks in advance of the application. The police checks took ages to come through so I suggest you apply for them asap as I beleive they are valid fro 3 months after you receive them.

Ours took 6 days for approval (would have been quicker if I hadn't forgotten to include some of the paperwork - d'oh!), and 13 in total from submission to getting the stamped passport back. Get your police checks, meds done ASAP and you should be right timewise.

Ive just had a reply from immigration

Dear Client

"Thank you for your enquiry.

Statistically, London currently takes from 3 to 10 weeks to grant Spouse visa. However, it is not possible to anticipate the exact processing time in advance. Issues can and do arise in the course of processing which must be resolved before a decision can be made. Each application is considered on its merits and against legal and policy requirements. As a general principle, the better you prepare your application the faster we can reach decision stage.



We hope this information has been of assistance."

But from whats been said here it does seem to be faster than this

Better, I suppose, to say it will take 3-10 weeks and have some people find that it takes 3-10 days, rather than the other way around!

In Bangkok, a spouse visa can take up to 9 months they say. :scared: Which i can understand. But usually its a lot less. The wifes took 3 months 3 weeks. I am also an Ozzie resident and it wasnt a problem that i wasn't living there. Good luck on your application. Sorry i cant help. I just wanted to show how lucky you are.