Ok so the visa went and the money was taken!!
British & going through the High Commission in the UK.
On the confirmation it says current timescales are 5-6 months!! Was hoping for much sooner as my partner is heading out to start a new job next month. Is it worth updating them of this? Will it make a difference or will I just be a whinging Pom??

Is the timing accurate or is that a worst case thing they are quoting. Anybody got any recent experience of this Visa

We are hoping our application is straight forward as we have lived together for 6 years now.

When I spoke to the enquiries desk they advised not to get the ACPO check done until asked and I couldn't do the medical until the application was in. They have replied today with the confirmation asking for the Medical & the ACPO check!! I would have done it weeks ago had I known!!.

Will this hold up the processing or will they do the other bits in parallel??

Any help gratefully accepted

The time taken is what it is. Telling them your partner has a job to go to is completely irrelevant. She can go, nothing's stopping her - DIAC's viewpoint

They are 'generally' taking the time period you've been given. Had you had your PCC and Meds done when you thought about it, you could have faced the possibility of your application taking much longer, who knows. It wouldn't speed anything up though, they don't stop dealing with a file.

Just get the PCC and Meds done and be patient.

Moneypenny,

Thanks for that. Every step leads to more actions/questions!! Chasing the docs now.

The Enquiries desk are only there to give generic advice anyway and more often than not they get that wrong. The only people who can say when you should get the PCC and Meds done is the relevant CO so if the Enquiry Desk had said to get them done they would have been completely out of order.

Just to add that if your OH does go next month and the processing time is still taking the 5/6 months quoted then you can if you wish visit whilst the visa is being processed on a tourist visa, you just have to keep your CO notified of your travel plans and make sure you are offshore for the visa being granted. You probably know this already though!

Good luck with the application

When we got our visa last year, the time it took was the time they quoted. Frontloading/not frontloading doesn't appear to affect processing time.

Your reasons for hoping to skip the queue are not a valid reason to queue jump, i.e. you don't want to be separated but your partner is choosing to fly to Oz now rather than wait with you for your visa.

If you do not want to be separated, then your partner can wait with you rather than leave you. Or as others have mentioned, you could consider spending a few months in Oz with your partner while you are on a holiday visa.

It's nothing to do with Immigration that you didn't apply 6 months ago for the visa or that your partner is not choosing to wait for you. It's not like the processing time has changed lately .. it's been quoted as 5 to 6 months since June 2010.

Many, many people (myself included) have to apply offshore while their partner is onshore, and Immigration don't process the visas any quicker because they are separated.

Why is it taking so much longer at the London office than it used to? My wife's 100/309 application was done in about 3 weeks (frontloaded) back in 2008.

Mine took just under a week in 2004 so it's been increasing ever since.

Thanks for the replies (though some not that helpful)

Just playing the waiting game now....

For the record I'm not trying to jump the queue or get special treatment just wondering what the timescales would be.

I though I had read everything there was to read on all the websites and never came across the estimated 5-6 months until they had my money. Maybe I missed it or maybe it wasn't there. Hence I was asking for recent experience - there is a lot of older posts on here talking about 1-3months.

Having spoken to a couple of consultants at the recent Expo there understanding is that the process is on a go slow to reduce the numbers coming in (Only their opinion of course but from 2 different companies) and that most of the applications go through a "resting period" on some shelves somewhere.

Mike

No-one can tell you what the timescale will be either on a Spouse visa or on any other one. Some people get visas a lot quicker than others due to a multitude of reasons, and no-one either on here, or at an agency, or in DIAC itself can give you an exact timeline.

I applied on May 18th this year (CO assigned 23rd May) from the UK and was quoted 5-6 months too. I spent a lot of time monitoring other people's situations on the spouse visa circle thread http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...704602&page=60 and kept reading that many were being granted between 4-5 months.

I finally received mine on Sep 22nd, so 1 day shy of 4 months. So I was happy I hadn't frontloaded either and PC were submitted late June and my Medical was June 29th from memory. I was also given subclass 100 straight off as I'd been married for 4.5 years.

Been back in Aus for 7 weeks already and the entire process seems like a lifetime ago but I know at the time it was a very different and painstaking story where each day felt like weeks. Fingers crossed it comes through soon and you can get on with your life here. Keep an eye on the above thread though - lots of people in the same boat and you will be able to get an idea of current grant times.

Thanks Tieve

Was finding it hard to find the recent applicants. Everything is in now so just wait and see!!

Ah ok, your initial post did say that by letting immigration know your partner wanted to go to Oz now that you might have some chance of getting the visa sooner, which of course would mean skipping the queue. But glad that you now realise that it is not a valid reason, so you are not now looking to skip the queue. Good.

As timelines haven't changed since we got our visa last year, which is pretty recent to us(!!!), I thought that my going to the trouble of replying to your question would help you, but it appears it was not "recent" enough for you.

So for your own sake (and everyone else's) rather than complaining that some posts are "not that helpful", perhaps you could clarify your query. So if your defintion of recent is say last 4 months, and you have no interest in experience longer than 4 months ago, then put that in your query. Or novel idea here, try paying an agent like we did. That way you won't get annoyed at people giving you information that is not what you want to hear, and I won't get annoyed by your ungrateful response.

Grr, rant over. Hope you get your visa soon.