Rainydaze

Forgive me forumers, it's been a few years since my last post.

Quick backstory, I was granted PR (spouse visa) and entered Australia September 2008, and have resided here since, with the exception of 4 brief overseas holidays. the last in early 2013. Now married to my Australian DH with an Australian daughter.

The travel component of my PR visa expired in August 2013, and I am belatedly sorting out its renewal now. (Just an aside, I know I am eligible for citizenship, and will be pursuing that later this year).

I have a few queries about the application form, which admittedly is 100% less onerous than the original visa application process several years ago. Forgive me if these questions have been asked before, I had a quick squiz at related threads for the past couple of years, however I am also conscious of how many changes in the system there have been so thought it best to ask anew.

Anyway, sorry for the preamble.

My queries are:

1) Confirmation that this application is indeed for a subclass 155 visa? I'm assuming I'm eligible as I've been resident for more than 2 of the previous 5 years as a PR.

2) Re Qs 3 and 4, your full name and any previous names. This is a bit complicated. My original visa was granted in my maiden name. I am still using the British passport with my maiden name as it doesn't expire until Jan 2019. Do I need to make the RRV application as Rainydaze Maiden Name, or Rainydaze Married Name? When I renew my British passport in 2019, I will get my married name registered on it. I also expect that I'll have Australian citizenship by then so this whole issue will be laid to rest hopefully.

3) Re Q18 'Do you currently hold a permanent visa INCLUDING a RRV?' I am assuming that although I remain a permanent resident, my visa itself has technically expired? In which case I enter the expiry date of the travel component i.e. August 2013?

3) Re Q22 on any travel outside Australia in the past 5 years...Bizarrely, I have discovered after investigating my passport to clarify dates that the Dept of Immigration did not stamp my last departure date from the country, although my return date is stamped. I suspect this may be because I was whirling through with an eight month old baby at the time. Anyway, it means I am hazarding a guess as to my exact departure date from the country for that holiday. Hoping this won't cause any problems if my date is wrong?

4) Re Fees in Q44. Assuming as I'm doing the application online, and it relates to myself only, that I won't incur the 'non-internet application charge' or 'subsequent temporary application charge', just the base application charge.

5) At what point do I submit certified copies of supporting paperwork such as passport and marriage cert - assuming these are either uploaded as part of online application process, or posted on afterwards?

6 Last query! What is the likely processing time for the RRV application? Days, weeks or months? We are tentatively planning an overseas trip in May.


Many, many thanks for your patience in reading this epic. Thanks also for humouring me because I know some of these queries seem ridiculously obvious, and thank you greatly for any advice or help you can offer :-)

Pollyana

Yes its a 155
The application needs to be in the name on your current passport as that has to match your visa.
So your married name would come under 'other names'

No, your visa is still current. Its only the travel authority which has expired. The visa itself will remin in place till you get citizenship.

JUst put the best you can remember

Correct
Can't help with the others I'm afraid, but thats a start

Rainydaze

Thanks Pollyanna, I really appreciate your help :-)

Pollyana

No probs
Just thinking about the documents, I suspect that its the same as an online visa application -once you have paid they give you the ability to upload the documents online.

Rainydaze

https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Visa/Atta

Hmm, I'll update when I make the application later this week, and let know re the docs. In the meantime, I did find info on the Immigration Dept website on that issue, link posted above.

Rainydaze

Hello all

Finally, I'm updating. Real Life got in the way, so didn't actually submit the application until yesterday at 5pm. And it was approved at 3pm today.

Apologies in advance for the waffling!


So, I got my copies of my passport page, visa stamp page, marriage cert and daughter's birth cert certified. The first two were essential, and the others I threw in for good measure.

I registered with the Dept of Immigration and Border Protection's ImmiAccount, which was quite straightforward. This entailed providing answers to 5 secret questions to verify your identity each time you're online, but bizarrely, I was never once asked in the several times I signed in.

The part I really want to flag up: I downloaded form 1085, 'Application for a Resident Return Visa', the form discussed upthread. I diligently completed all questions and thought it would be a matter of straightforwardly transferring the answers online. However, the online application is completely different! It did solicit basically the same information, but not in the same order. At no point online did I have to answer any questions from 'Part B - Visa Details' on the paper form. So nothing about date of visa, dates of travel in past 5 years, etc. I'm assuming that is because they verified this electronically from their own records of my passport use.

The other thing to flag, is that one of the very first questions online is to give your Visa Number and Visa Grant Number (this second term I don't precisely recall, sorry. The application wouldn't allow me to copy or save any of the questions, I'm relying on my shoddy memory). I was was a bit floored at the time, because I had no clue what and where these numbers where, and the help bubble told me I could find my visa grant number (?) on the correspondence I received when I was given the original visa. Only 8 years and another hemisphere ago! I did manage to turn up a hotmail email from the migration agent who processed my original visa application, however there was no record of this second, 11-digit number. The 13-digit visa number is the number on the bottom left hand side of the visa stamp in your passport, the digits immediately prior to your name; in the machine-readable part of the label.

After answering the questions, all straightforward apart from the visa numbers, you pay the cost (it was $360 base application charge). You are then invited to upload any docs to support your application. These must be according to an approved list of file types and no bigger than 5mb. I think there was a limit to the number of files you could submit for this visa type, but again, sorry I can't recall as I doing it online, I couldn't save the form, and the first message when I signed in was 'try and do it all in one take, because we're having technical problems and your application may not save' to paraphrase...so I was a bit stressed.

Anyhow, it listed several documents are recommended. A copy of your full birth cert, a police character certificate, and then 3 categories of evidence for business, cultural and personal ties to Australia. Working on the assumption that these didn't apply to me as I've been in the country for 2 out of the last 5 years as a PR, I just supplied the docs I listed above.

And it must have worked, because the visa was approved in the 1 working day they promised!

I just wanted to update for the benefit of anyone else coming along behind me, and because I do truly appreciate the advice given to me from Pollyana above.

Cheers!

Pollyana

Glad it was granted! And thanks for updating, helps those who come along later