slatdb

That is true. It takes longer to process applications from high risk countries. But issue is allocation of CO is delayed for HR countries. May be DIAC officers' performance is based on number of applications processed, therefore they try to process LR applications first.

Santorini

I think everybody here is agreeing and ok with longer checks for HR countries. The issue is about CO allocation for doing these checks.

Pollyana

I don't see any logical reason for delaying allocation though. Its accepted that the checks take longer, and often it won't be known that checks are even needed until the CO has looked at the file - the person could be curently in the UK, but with a long history in a High Risk country for instance. We have had those on BE and they take ages too.
Its far more likely that the CO will start th checks off and then return to the file months later when hopefully the results are back. Having read many agent's opinions on this it really does seem that the mean issue is that the countries themselves take so long to answer, and its that which causes the delays.

Remember, your CO may have started checks on your file many months before you realise that you even have a CO. They won't necessarily contact you, only if they need something. The usual trigger for contact is to ask for Meds/PCC - these only have a life of a year as I'm sure most of you know, so the CO may hold off on the request until the background checks are well underway.

Santorini

Thank you very much for the detailed answer. I would be happy to know that there is an honest queue with CO allocations.

I applied online and I'm using documents status as an indicator of existence of CO. All my documents are still showing "Required" status which means nobody has had a look at them. Some documents like IELTS definitely don't require any long checks. Moreover, this is my third long-term Australian visa and I can tell from my previous experience that checks don't take that long for my country, unless something changed recently.

slatdb

check http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sh...8abolition.htm and facts/ history http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets you can get some idea.

caliburn

Pollyana, you do have a point here. However, in the absence of any concrete information, its only normal that people will keep guessing. We don't know for sure if a pre-CO check is done for high risk country applicants which supposedly delays CO allocation, but what we know for sure is that there are lots of people waiting for their visa for many many months. Lack of transperancy in the process is what sucks and makes people anxious of whats really happening. Worse yet, there is perhaps nothing we can do about it, except perhaps for letting some steam off here.

sylviaeffendi

Hi Mrt,

Sorry that it took me awhile to get back to the forum.

No kidding, im also a 475 to South Australia
If u apply in Feb 08, October will be your 7th month (processing time) i'll make you my benchmark from now on...

Thank you & Best regards,
Sylvia.

sylviaeffendi

Yes you are right, just the same old story...

sylviaeffendi

Hi Livein,

i guess i was just trying to show broomechick which countries are considered low risk, high risk or even very high risk...

nothing to do with the timeline at all. hope i did not confuse anyone if i did i apologize..

thanks,
Sylvia

Liz F

Thought I'd join you guys on here to discuss the long wait for a CO, I'm a LR country and have been waiting for 11 months now. My agent contacted DIAC a couple of weeks ago but got a standard reply saying 'you don't have a CO yet and it will be some time yet before you do'. I applied paperbased but if visas were done in date order that shouldn't matter. Really pleased for people who are getting visas really quickly but also feel sickened for myself.

caliburn

Liz, your delay is likely due to being paper-based. Which visa category are you?

Liz F

I'm a 175 modl, my point is that its still not fair.

caliburn

I am sorry that yours is delayed, despite being modl. Yours is well past the CO allocation date as published in aspc weekly update. You are entitled to make a complain. I suggest calling them over phone.

barbiedoll

will any complain or phone call delay the processing time even more?well that's what my agent told me.feel very depressed here.it's more than 14 months now.my agent to emailed diac few day's ago but no reply yet.i guess we will still get the standard reply

volvox

Thanks a lot for clarifying. I agree to the person commented above also, that transparency to an extend would 've prevented these frustrations from arising.