Login / Join
Immigration Daily News Processing times for partner visas are taking longer with many being refused
- Font size: Larger Smaller
- Hits: 55652
- 212 Comments
Processing times for partner visas are taking longer with many being refused
About 40% of the migration Tribunal’s caseload consist of dealing with Partner Visa refusals by the department of immigration, according to the latest figures from the AAT. Has the hike in the partner visa application charge resulted in applicants attempting this complex application on their own?
RMAs have also recently reported that processing times for Partner Visas are going well beyond DIBPs promised standards even with the department announcing that its currently taking up to 15 months to decide on the first stage of a partner visa application.
There have been suggestions that DIBP is “intentionally staggering visa grants across the program year, so as not to exhaust their entire allocation within the first few months. There are also suggestions that staff cutbacks and an increase in the number of low quality applications is increasing processing times.
"I have heard it said many applications prepared by the couple without professional guidance/assistance are manifestly inadequate and lead to refusals. This alone is often why a later professionally prepared appeal is successful… Perhaps the increase in refusals is due to an increase in couples preparing their own applications and I suggest this may well be driven by the increase in Partner Visa Fees,” says Robyn Oyeniyi, a prominent human rights campaigner and author of the book, Love versus Goliath on her website.
According to the statistics from the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) its current caseload consists of 10,626 cases related to migration review (excluding refugee reviews). While it is deciding about a 1000 cases a month, there is an average 1165 new cases being lodge each month.
Partner visa category cases currently on hand with AAT number some 4,270 or about 40% of the tribunal’s caseload. Most of the AAT review applications are generally being lodged in Sydney (40%) and Melbourne (36%).
Of the total cases decided, just under half are being affirmed and over a third being set aside. The others are either withdrawn or discontinued.
Cases are generally taking about a year to finalise.
|
|
Days from lodgement to decision |
|
||
|
Case category |
Decisions |
Average |
Median |
75th percentile |
|
Bridging |
280 |
17 |
9 |
11 |
|
Visitor |
777 |
119 |
113 |
148 |
|
Student refusal |
1023 |
241 |
221 |
317 |
|
Temporary work |
359 |
257 |
228 |
378 |
|
Permanent business |
269 |
304 |
260 |
399 |
|
Skill linked |
254 |
225 |
170 |
241 |
|
Partner |
1939 |
342 |
376 |
432 |
|
Family |
452 |
379 |
387 |
449 |
|
Student cancellation |
255 |
233 |
232 |
297 |
|
Nomination/Sponsor approval |
398 |
303 |
289 |
406 |
|
Protection |
1615 |
405 |
413 |
520 |
|
Other |
31 |
95 |
91 |
119 |
Comments
-
Tuesday, 27 June 2017hi , i have applied 309 partner visa on 8 june 2017, can anyone let know that what is processing time from india.
-
Thursday, 29 June 2017
Does anyone know how long for singapore national to get spouse visa to australia.
-
Wednesday, 05 July 2017
Hi I applied for the partner offshore visa. Once my application was lodged online, I was told to do biometrics and medical checks. Any idea how long it takes to get a CO. And for 2017, new requirement - sponsor must provide police clearance. Thanks
-
Saturday, 08 July 2017
Hi my name is Lyn from Philippines. I came to Australia by fiancee visa subclass 300 last March 2015 got married here.I applied my 1st stage visa subclass 820 last October 23, 2015 and got my visa 5 days only same month Oct. 28 , 2015 . Now im still waiting for my 2nd stage visa 801 which is permanent Resident. Anybody knows how long to wait or months to get it? Im so frustrating waiting.
Thank you....
Regards,
Lyn -
Sunday, 16 July 2017
Hello
I loads 309 , 100 in 21 jun 2016 and after that i didn't here any thing from immi its been 13 month! My wife is Australian we got manage 15 December 2011 and apply in Australia 3 fab 2012 after 2 year got refused couse i have not substantial visa then apply rrt that also refused in 15 jun 2015 and told me apply from outside and i came back india and did not apply straitway then we arrange money and after 10 month June 2016 i apply with all documents and i didn't here any thing any body know about it we are living saprate she in Australia and i m in India any similar case of some one? -
Monday, 17 July 2017
It took 19 months guys for partner visa subclass 300 my fiancé is from California and I'm in Sydney.
You need to complete the medical examination and provide police check. After 12 months
You need to do them again because they got expired! Once they
Asked to complete them again you will know the visa will be in your hand soon so 3 months
After the second police check my fiancé got the visa within a week. We lodged the application 13 November 2015 and we got the visa 4th of July 2017.
Good luck for all of you guys. -
Saturday, 22 July 2017
Dear all,
I really need some with partner visa application. I received my PR (visa 189) for AUS in March 2017. For some personal reason, I didnt include my family in the migrating dependents. Now, I ffel that I made a big mistake. I am currently outside AUS and family is also outside AUS. I plan to apply for Visa 309 for my family but since the amount is huge, I need to check if I can apply from outside Aus ( as am currently working outside AUS and also not living in AUS). My spouse and I am married for more than 10 years and have 3 kids....
Any suggestion will be helpful.
Thanks and God bless you....
Regards,
SRK -
Tuesday, 25 July 2017
Hi All,
I applied for my wife's visa (309) online on Mar 16, my wife is currently off shore in Bangladesh and I am here in AUS. I have seen several changes in the global processing time over the past 17months. At first it was 6-8months, then 10-12 months and now its 15-18months. Isn't this unfair for those who have applied long time ago that they have keep on waiting and let the DIP change the time frame. It's unbearable. I had applied for her Visitors visa(family sponsored) which got rejected today !!!...anyone waiting for their spouse visa for more than 16months ?? -
Friday, 28 July 2017
Hi All,
I feel I should shed some light on a few points raised on this. I am from England my fiancé is Australian. We met in England, got engaged in England and moved to Australia in August 2014. I came over on a working holiday visa.
I applied for a Partnership visa in August 2015 onshore. I uploaded all information requested, medical, police check, bonds, bank statements, photos, messages, witness statements the whole works. I moved into the pending stage in December 2016 and received an email stating a decision would be made within 7 days. I gave them the benefit of the doubt as it was Christmas time and waited until February. At this time I replied to the email (the one that stated it would be 7 days) asking what was going on with my application. I received a response telling me that I had to provide more information and re-do my police check as it had expired. So i completed this, re-subbmitted and once again I went back in to pending. Yesterday my visa was refused due to them not believing at the time of us moving to Australia they did not believe we was in a de-facto relationship. It is hard to swallow someone who doesn't even know you questioning your relationship., but it is what it is, I will appeal and I will get my visa (thats my positive thinking).
So what did I learn from all of this?
Lawyer - I spoke to a few lawyers before deciding to go it alone. I regret this now! not for 1 second do I believe an agent could get the process done any quicker. What they will do though is make sure all your paper work is up to to standard. I will be completely honest in saying i struggled to prove our time together in England. We did not officially live together nor did we have a joint bank account. All I could do was upload photos. emails and messages, but according to my IMMI agent's refusal letter "these carry little weight". Maybe an lawyer could have pointed me in a different direction with these things. You have to write statements and fill in forms that a lawyer could ensure they are done correctly. Yes they are not cheap, yes they will cost a few thousand $/£'s but now I have to pay for a lawyer anyway and the appeal costs.
Contact - It says on emails received from IMMI "do not respond to this email" I was in the pending stage for nearly 3 months. I replied to the email telling me not to reply to and got a response asking for more info. If I had not replied to it I could still be sitting here in the pending stage. Yes it could have just been good timing but knowing now how bad the IMMI are at communication I believe Me emailing them helped with my process.
Working holiday visa - I am lucky enough to be sitting here with my fiancé. Reading the posts on here about people being apart for years is truly heartbreaking. If you are reading this before applying, get yourself a working holiday visa stay for the year and just before it expires lodge your partner visa. Straight away I was put on a bridging visa with unlimited working rights and was able to stay with my fiancé during the process.
A long wait - Let me put it bluntly if you are approved within 15months (as stated on the website) you are very very lucky. I have waited 23months and 2 weeks to be refused. I come from a low risk country, no criminal record, no medical problems, and all my information requested was uploaded and done within weeks of lodgement. I also have 2 other friends in similar situations both have been waiting 20months.
Evidence - You have to prove to someone who doesn't know you that you are a genuine couple. Ensure you have enough, if your like me and do not take many photos start taking them. Save cinema stubs, plane tickets, wedding invites, anything with both your names on, ensure you have a joint bank account, joint bills, call logs, text messages, emails, Facebook messages absolutely anything and everything. You can never have enough.
I hope this helps and good luck to everyone for the long and depressing journey of applying for a partner visa. -
Tuesday, 10 October 2017
Hello all,
My husband and I are currently married. We have been together for 6 years and married for a year and a half of that. I lodged my application in June 2017. Does anyone know if married couples get processed faster? -
Wednesday, 11 October 2017
Hey! My husband and I where married when we applied for the visa, even though he was a low risk country it still took 18.5 months before we received the grant. So I don’t think it processes
Faster I think it depends on the evidence and information you provided. -
Thursday, 19 October 2017
Wow 18.5 months. That's such a long time. I'm in the same boat, already married. What sort of evidence did you end up providing??
-
Thursday, 12 October 2017
I lodged my application from Nov 2014 and still waiting for my 801 to be finalized.
-
Friday, 13 October 2017
Hello good day
Im applying may spouse visa 309/100 last year august 10 2016 im finish my medical as while last aug 2 my officer call me and ask my identity. I send my birth certificate and other id and my secondary record etc when i send my papers in vfs here in the Philippines last year. I send them what they ask, i send my elementary record because thats they ask for, and until now there is no news or update about my application it been 14months since i apply a partner visa. Just want to ask all of you guys if.
Can i ask my officer for my visa update?
Or just wait until they call me or send me a email?
After this long long waiting is there a warranty that myvisa well granted or we just waiting for nothing.
My parents in law always asking me what happen for my visa because they know we know that its only take 1 year but until now.. nothing happen. -
Thursday, 19 October 2017
Hi,
I applied for a Prospective Marriage Visa offshore in the US on March 12, 2017. I am still waiting and have not heard a word from a CO. My husband and I are actually married but I accidentally applied for a Prospective Marriage Visa instead of the Partner Visa.
I've been reading and it's different for anybody, I know, but can anyone tell me if 1) they have been/are currently in a similar situation and 2) how long it took for their Prospective Marriage Visa to be approved?
Living offshore and AWAY from my husband for this long is killing me. We love each other too much and it gets more and more difficult each day without an end in sight. We just want to be back together! Zero communication from Immigration is a really terrible feeling to add to this. So much stress, so much anxiety.
Anything helps.
Thanks,
Casey -
Friday, 24 November 2017
My daughter applied in the US in March 2017 also. She lives in the US and her fiancee lives in Australia. They plan to marry in US once their PMV is granted. She has heard nothing other than acknowledgment of receipt of the application. No Case Officer assignment yet. It is killing her to wait so long too and hear nothing. She is going for her medical exam next week. We are praying it won't take much longer.
Would also be interested to hear from anyone in a similar situation. Good luck to you. Thanks. -
Friday, 20 October 2017
i lodged my offshore 309 visa in may 2016 and now its been 16 months and still waiting and they increase the processing time every month. now its 17 months i hope they not going to say its increase again . i feel very upset had waste so much money on tourists visa already. very bad service Indian Australian high commission.
-
Thursday, 02 November 2017
How long does it take for case to be allocated to AAT MBER?
Lodged a partner 820 in Nov 2016 and still waiting.., -
Thursday, 02 November 2017
Lodged a partner 820 visa nov 2016 and still waiting.
Anyone still waiting over a year? AAT have updated their waiting times online but doesn't mention previous cases?
Immigration blog
hello guys, am ZEE I came to Australia on partner visa subclass 309 I wanna know how much it takes to gain sub-class 100 visa from 309 and after that Australian nationality....