Kopitetome

Myself and my partner lodged our defacto application in Sydney last week (Tues). We've been told that there is some delay with the processing of apps at the moment, but nobody will give us any idea of how long it could take. We've used an agent who seems pretty on the ball, so we're confident we have a good appo. Anybody any ideas on timescales? I need to let possible employers know and the waiting is killing us!!

thanks


Tom

rpa34

I thought de facto ones were quicker. I sure hope so as we are posting our application today to the London office and we have booked flights for November.

Teliko21

You are offshore, the enquiry is about onshore

We were told i March (in Melb) there was a 6 week wait for interviews. We actually only ended up waiting about a week for it, probably because we had provided evidence for many years living together, hence I think they called us earlier to get it out of the way as it was an easy case. Didn't the office give you any indication at all as to how long you would be waiting?

Kopitetome

Our agent said they'd be giving us a case officer in a week, and then it would probably take another week after that. Just a little worried as we've not had a case officer or been given a file number yet. I'm hoping that we don't have to go for interview - the amount we've submitted our agent feels we shouldnt have to (23 form 888s for example), and I'm waiting on this visa to start work asap. Worried that the job i'm going for might slip away from me if it takes too long (I'm on a non work ETA visa at the moment so am unable to start until i get my visa).

Stressful times!!

Teliko21

Do Sydney not require you to attend for interview then? In Melb everyone has to. In our case we just spent 15 mins talking about the Motor show which happened to be on at the time as our CO had no questions for us. We didn't even get taken off for seperate interviews unlike everyone else we saw there

Kopitetome

As far as i know it's not a requirement. Though i may be wrong.... I've got no qualms about having an interview - especially it that could speed things up a little!!

Teliko21

I didn't mind it either, we have been living together for 7 odd years now so its not like we aren't for real didn't stop me getting nervous about it though, I can't stand interviews!

Kopitetome

I can see that! It's not like it's something trivial either is it!!

Just seems like my life has been on hold for 4 months now getting it all in, and the wait will never end

Teliko21

My boyfriend reckons that the fact he was willing to pay $1800 or whatever it was for the visa should be proof enough of a genuine relationship If only! I'm just glad my life wasn't on hold for that long, it was stressful enough for the few weeks we were waiting for the UK police check to come back. We had thought we would have 6 weeks to gather the last few things we needed so we were caught a bit off guard by an earlier interview

I hope you hear soon!

Kopitetome

I thinlk the fact that anybody goes to such bother to put a full application together should guaruntee you the visa. You see the check list of what you need and it seems pretty easy... then you actually try and get enough evidence and it takes you for ever! I'm glad we've had a decent agent though - i'd be out the country if not most likely :-s

Teliko21

We didn't use an agent, decided to save the money for cars and houses. Didn't have any problems with it luckily, we just sat down and got it done. The hardest part was getting it all certified as some people are only allowed to certify certain things it seems and our JP was never there when he was supposed to be. We got all our evidence back anyway so I'm glad we didn't pay for anything to be certified as it happens as they will all be burnt when we get around to it