BM615

I won't go into the ins and outs of our visa application refusal by Dimia, but, having appointed an Immigration Lawyer, he submitted our appeal to MRT in Feb 04.

In May, he made the full submission. Does anuybody know how long it is currently taking for MRT to address appeals? I know it takes a fair while, but we need to know roughly how long it will take to consider us.

We don't have any priority, I think, unless anyone can suggest something that may work for us?

George Lombard

Hi BM615,

Up to 18 months but some overseas spouse cases are now taking less time.

MRT appeals are heard according to where you stand in one of four priority groups. Being overseas it is highly likely you're in the lowest group, and also highly likely that you would have had a better chance of a quick response if lodging a new application, unless there is an age or queue issue.

That being said, you can research this on the MRT database and they in fact will normally be happy to answer enquiries, go to www.mrt.gov.au .

This is from the April 2004 community consultation meeting report on the MRT website:


4. Caseloads and Statistics

Caseload reports for March 2004 were circulated at the outset of the meeting (and are included as attachments to these notes).

For the period 1 July 2003 to 31 March 2004, the MRT finalised 7109 cases and received 6149 cases. 6314 cases remained on hand (of which 3303 had been allocated to members).


In March 2004 the MRT finalised 977 cases, a 14% improvement on the previous month and the best figure so far this financial year.


During March 2004, the average elapsed time taken to process MRT cases from lodgement to finalisation was 46 weeks and the average elapsed time taken to process RRT cases from lodgement to finalisation was 40 weeks.



The Senior Member, MRT Melbourne, advised that lodgements of applications were down 4.9% compared to this time last year and total numbers of finalised cases were up 5.4% compared to the same period last year.

As additional MRT Members had been appointed 10 months ago, and there had also been some increases in the numbers of support staff, the MRT was now able to deal with overseas partner cases more quickly than it was six months ago. The timelines are now the same as onshore applications. In response to a question as to how long would it take to deal with a partner application, the estimate was an average of 3 months from constitution. Most partner cases are now being constituted just under a year from lodgement of the review but priority can be granted in cases that involve children, medical conditions etc. where they were usually constituted much more quickly.

Cheers,

George Lombard

www.austimmigration.com.au

BM615

Hi George,

thank you for your response - quite a lot of info there.

Due to age/business visa, I have to appeal rather than re-apply - so basically, we have to wait for the process. The whole immi process is one massive waiting game anyway!!

I suppose we were expecting 6 months or so, maybe 9 months is not so bad!! - but tell me, if you know, is that from date of lodgement of the appeal, or is it from date of the full submission?

Re the MRT website - it isn't possible to enquire where we are in the queue is it?

cheers,

BM615

George Lombard

Dear BM,

Your agent should be able to do this for you by calling the Tribunal registry. Waiting periods can be as long as 18 months and are calculated from the date of lodgment.

Cheers,

George Lombard

www.austimmigration.com.au

BM615

God - 18 months - maybe I need to work again whilst I'm waiting.

Thanks for the info.