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Immigration Daily News Processing times for partner visas are taking longer with many being refused
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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 The others are either withdrawn or discontinued.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
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Wednesday, 04 January 2017How long did end up taking for you to get the second stage result?
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Friday, 06 January 2017
I am a 18 months and waiting on The Australian Embassy in Ottawa to process my off shore partner visa and they have said 15 months. Can believe the wait.
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Thursday, 14 July 2016
I am a Canadian and married an Australian woman in Melbourne, we filed an off shore partner visa on June 26th 2015 when I was in New Zealand and it is now 13 months and we are both hoping to be together soon. We were originally told 8 to 12 months to process so this is very upsetting to hear such a longer wait. It is also very frustrating trying to get a status update on your application and reading above we now hope were not in that one third that are set aside. As everyone on here knows it is extremely frustrating to be apart form the one you love. If anyone knows more please let us know. Thank you
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Thursday, 22 June 2017
my visa took 2 years after lodgment of application and even after that i got 309 visa
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Thursday, 10 November 2016
#2015 did it again!
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Saturday, 07 January 2017
Sym, did you end up getting it? or you are still waiting?
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Sunday, 02 April 2017
Hi Ash,
I'm still waiting. Can you believe that? However, One day my husband rang them in mid-Jan 2017, and they said that their junior staff have already reviewed all my documents, and it's all good, but they have to wait for senior staff to re-check it again. They also said that they would contact me soon. I assumed that soon means they are going to contact me in Feb because Feb is the 15th month. Nope! They did not contact me or anything at all. I was very frustrated and very upset, but now I just don't know what to think anymore. Yes, I wait and wait, and nothing has happened, but hey, at least I'm with my husband. Yes, It hurts me and my husband's financially but compares to a lot of couples here. They have to be away from each other for more than a year. I'm happy to wait if that means some couples could see each other sooner. I promised I would lets u know if it has been approved.
All the best guys! -
Tuesday, 09 May 2017
Hi Ash,
As I promised. I've just got my visa(stage 1) last Friday. It's about 18months all together. I and my partner are very happy about it. We very appreciated it.
All the best! -
Thursday, 10 November 2016
#November 9th 2016. Whoops!
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Thursday, 10 November 2016
Same here. I launched my application on November 9th, 2016. So frustrating - on shore.
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Thursday, 04 August 2016
Hi all from case to case is different i applied on 8/10/2014 for partner visa onshore visa granted on 24/04/2016 and im still waiting for my 801 and i do have a child 2 years old some cases faster than the other good luck to everyone
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Wednesday, 10 August 2016
Hi all. I understand the partner visa and the prospective marriage visa is different.
I applied for the prospective marriage visa in July 2016 from England. I'm expecting a long wait but I was just wondering if anyone knew what the current processing time was for prospective marriage visas?
I feel all your pain. This is such a painful process to go through. -
Thursday, 16 February 2017
have you been granted : we applied May 2016 nothing as yet
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Thursday, 19 January 2017
any progress on yours
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Thursday, 10 November 2016
I have emailed to immigration and they keeps
On changing time 1st they said 11 later 12
Months. This sucks. Those people who work in iimmigration they think we are here to listen their bulshit story. -
Friday, 30 September 2016
Hi there, we applied in same month and year for PMV and nothing change still in immi account.. All i get was acknowledgement email and nothing else till now.. Waiting is stressing me
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Monday, 05 September 2016
My Fiancé applied for the same visa in April 2016 and we've just received an email asking us to be patient because the visa might take up to 18 months. I don't know what to do to get him faster to Australia. It's so annoying and the wait is killing us .
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Friday, 14 October 2016
Just wandering which country is your partner in? I only ask because there are high risk and low risk countries
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Thursday, 11 August 2016
I lodged partner visa in December 2013.
December 2014 got 820
December 2015 apply for 801
Still waiting now ?
Immigration blog
We called DIBP about my partner's second stage partner visa, which was supposed to take 6 to 9 months to process. We were told the wait time for this stage has blown out to 15 months.