jet

Hi all, got a worrying phone call today from Australian House today asking me to arrange collection of all my documents, "why there a problem?"I asked, I had only returned my medicals to them on the 18th March and was sure I must have had some incurable illness and was being turned down, only to be told everything was fine and my pre acceptance letter was in the post to me. Still on a high and have a smile a mile long stuck to my face, only down side is my passport is somewhere at the passport office getting my children removed from it so as long as they get a move on and I can get it sent into AHC asap I am hoping to get a flight sometime during the week of the 20th May.

Can I take this opportunity to thank every single person on this forum, without your support dont think many of us would have been able to stand the waiting.

Thanks again and good luck everyone

Debs xxoxox

yvsie

Well done Debs!!!!

Which visa class did you go for and how long has it taken???


Yvonne

jet

thanks for your reply, I applied for a Prospective Spouse Visa on December 12th 2001 and it seemed to take ages for things to start moving but once they did although it seemed to take ages it has only been 19 weeks. Hope things go as well for you.

Moo30

Debs,

Congrats! This is so encouraging. My fiance is English and he's just about to lodge our Prospective Marriage application in London. We were hoping to lodge it in March, but have waited for Medicals & Police checks to arrive so we can front-end load the application. We were hoping this might help speed up the process a bit. Looks like they're moving quicker anyway, which is a relief for those of us having to be separated from our fiances for long periods of time. 19 weeks is so much better than the 24-29 range being quoted by DIMA. Thankfully I'm heading over to the UK in June for 5 weeks to make the wait a bit more bearable!

All the best for your trip out here and for the wedding, which I presume will be taking place shortly.

You've made my day!

Best wishes,
Amanda.

Cobber

Jet,

Firstly congratulations on your success. My fiance actually hand delivered hers to AHC in London today. We are applying for the prospective spouse visa. I'll be going back to Australia in a couple of weeks so will be apart for it looks like 17 weeks or so.

Jet, did you send in your character checks and medicals in advance or did you wait until DIMA requested them off you. I was thinking about getting my fiance to do the medical in a month or two to have it ready for when they were requested. Also thinking about getting the character checks as well and then posting them when I receive a case number. Do you know if this can be done for this sort of visa.

Thanks in advance.

Cobber

jet

Hi cobber, I waited till they requested my medicals but only because I had emailed them requesting the forms and didnt get a reply and didnt want to upset them by bombarding them with mail. I had sent in a police check that i already had (have to have one for my job) but as it was due to expire in June they recommended I get a new one done just in case although it didnt really matter because I have been given an entry date of 03 09 02 on the old one but I didnt want to risk anything and spent the £10 to be on the safe side.

Went to the travel agents today and booked my flight so will be arriving in Brisbane on 21st May, now it is getting scary!!! so much to do, such little time... Good luck everyone, the waiting seems endless but it really doesnt seem that bad once you have THE letter in your hand, bit like childbirth really but you fella's wont understand that...lol

catch ya soon

Debs

bsftaylorm

Jet

Don't you underestimate us fellas and childbirth!

We will be in Brissie (holiday only this time I'm afraid) from 11 May til 3 June. Are you settling there? If so, where abouts? My wife is a Brisbanite - we will probably settle on the Northside (more family there).

Do you have a job sorted yet?

Let us know how you get on - I will be logging on when I'm over there!

Congrats on the visa, and enjoy!

Mark & Kelly

Moo30

Jet,

Wondering if you'd mind telling us how you presented your application? Did you include everything? We've put in all our personal mail to each other, photos, Stat Dec's from both sets of parents as well as friends on both sides, phone bills etc. etc. All indexed in a lever-arch file. We're also going to put medicals/police checks in with the hope this will speed things up a little, although UK police check seems to be taking ages to come back but should be in next day or two. We're putting the application in next week, so any tips would be appreciated!

Also, you mentioned children .... are they dependants of the relationship and going with you? It seems DIMA try and process quicker when this is the case. Don't want to get my hopes up for a quicker processing time if there's factors that apply to your case that don't apply for ours. We've just got the standard application unfortunately ... nothing to tug at their heartstings!

Would be VERY happy if it only takes 19 weeks.

Thanks,
Amanda.

jet

Hi Amanda

You asked about how I set out my application and it sounds quite similar to yours, I used 2 folders with the plastic wallets in them, in folder 1 I put the application form, our personal decs, stat decs from my father and friend in England and 2 friends from Australia, all of which know we are in a genuine and loving relationship. Also in this folder I put birth certificates, previous marriage certificates (2nd marriage for both of us) and previous divorce certificates. We also put in a letter from the Celebrant who is performing our wedding service in August and a copy of the receipt for the wedding reception. I did an index at the from of the folder to make everything easy to find.

In folder 2 I put about 12 photos of us taken together in both England and Australia, copies of phonebills, letters, emails, engagement cards, receipt for my engagement ring and anything else I could think of to prove that it is a proper relationship, again I paid special attention to presentation and ease of reading.

As for my children no they didnt have any bearing on my visa, both are in their late teens and are not moving over with me, they want to continue their education in England although when it came to the time for me to take my medicals they also had to undergo it as they are classed as my family unit and although it meant even more money being paid out by me they passed it all ok.

I wasnt able to send my medicals with my application because I couldnt get hold of the relevant application forms so had to wait for them to send for me but I think that if you have them done already this should speed up your application because when I got my letter to go for them I had to wait 3 weeks for an appointment then a further week for them to arrive, I sent them straight to AHC and heard 5 days later that my visa had been approved. My passport arrived there today so now just waiting on it being returned.

All the very best, hope you arent waiting to long
Debs

blower

Hi Debs,great news very quick after medicals
This will sound a daft question.
Can you tell me the address you sent your medicals to was it the normal address for AHC, were you asked to indicate on the envelope your file no or anything else to identify it?

We applied Nov 2000 independent, were recently asked to do medicals and told to send to AHC but to mark for attention of skilled team and put file no on envelope.
Unfortunately the hospital did not send medicals out to us as requested and did not put the extra info on envelope.
We are now woried the medical may lost in the back log of mail and could ruin chancesof getting the visa before June 30th.

Thanks if you can help.

Steve

jet

Hi Steve, I was really lucky because the hospital sent everything to me so I put a letter in with my documents stating my case officer and file number then on the envelope I addressed it to the person concerned but again wrote my file number on the back of the envelope.

I think yours should be ok because the file number is written on the medical forms and I am sure yours wont be the first to be returned without all the details on the envelope. I think I heard so quick because of the type of visa I was applying for so if I was you I wouldnt panic yet. Hope everything goes well ...Debs

Moo30

Debs,

Thank you so much for the info., really appreciate it. Sounds like we're on the right track ... thank goodness after all that hard work!

All the best for the move to Australia. I will keep posting to let everyone know how our application progresses. So glad I found this forum as it gives us a real indication of how things work.

Amanda.

L Ballard

Hi there,

A quick question about getting the visa put into the passport - As far as I can see
from what's been posted, you have to go to australia house in person, give your
passport and letter and then go in person a few days later to collect it. This seems
like quite a convoluted process - does anyone know if its possible to just send the
passports, or at least get them to send them back - if possible I don't want to have
to take 2 day's holiday to get this done!

Thanks in advance,

Luke.

LeeW

Hi Luke,

I'm pretty certain you can post your passports to AHC, no need to take them in person. My partners brother-in-law posted his earlier this year when his visa came through.

Hope this helps

heading downunder 2002

Hi Luke,

We posted ours a week gone wednesday to London and got them back last Tuesday, under a week not bad eh!!

Susan