Regarding recently announced delays.......

[Guest Claire-n-tel]

Good Morning!

 

There have been lots of panicing posts on here in the last few days regarding some people receiving emails regarding a delay in visa processing due to yearly ceilings for grants.

 

I just felt it would be a good idea to point some things out.....

 

When you apply for a visa you pay the fees to have the application processed you are not paying for a visa. There are any number of reasons as to why your application may not be successful, failing medical, failing character, lack of documents etc etc.....In these cases you visa application has been processed and you will not get a refund of your fees (this is clearly stated on all applications)

 

If you do not receive a visa grant because of a change in the rules by immi or due to visa ceilings being met, as far as i am aware you would be entitaled to a refund. you have to fill in a form and refunds take 6-8 weeks to process.

 

The time frame which immi give for visa processing times is only a guide

 

When you apply for a visa, no matter how 'good' your application looks there is no guarantee that you will ever receive a visa. Obviously there are a few things you can do to prepare for if your visa is granted, talk to parents/family about your intentions, begin to prepare paperwork which you may need etc.......but.....it is never a good idea to do anything which will be difficult to undo if your visa app is unsuccessful or even just delayed, for example hand in you notice at work, sell your house, ship your belongings etc.

 

Waiting to hear if you have been granted a visa or not can be a stressfull time, just the fact that you have applied shows it is probably a big dream. Pretty much everyone on this forum has either been through or is going through the process and has some understanding of how you feel. Mostly people are happy to answer questions, chat and generally give support, what noone can do is change what immi have told people.

 

Don't rely on things that you have heard second or third hand being the same for you, if there is something you need to know you will be informed. It is probably a good idea to bear in mind that being granted a visa is a privilege not a right

 

Best wishes claire-n- tel:wink:

[Guest Guest75]

Don't rely on things that you have heard second or third hand being the same for you, if there is something you need to know you will be informed. It is probably a good idea to bear in mind that being granted a visa is a privilege not a right

 

Best wishes claire-n- tel:wink:

 

 

Bloody good point is the above.

Then some clowns do little research actually obtain a visa then waste it after returning "home" without giving this fine country a chance.

[Selah]

Well said Claire in tel. To all those who received that delay message, I shall tell you our story (with the hope it doesn't depress but encourages....) We applied in August 2007 with the expectation that we would be granted a visa in March 2008. In December 2007, we received a message that due to a fraud scandal in our visa sub class they were suspending 10,000 applications indefinitely to investigate. We ran our own theatre school and told minimal people because we couldn't afford to lose students who thought we might be leaving.

 

Roll on May 2008 with little communication and suddenly we are asked to have medicals. We think everything's re-opened! We pay a fortune for the five of us - submit and get a note saying - "Sorry, it was a mistake and nothing's changed." Fantastic! I love living in limbo with one child about to start secondary school! Roll on March 2009 and suddenly everything reopens and by April we have a visa and due to their mistake of the medicals 5 weeks to validate. We appealed (as I'm an actress and was under contract until November as were 2 of my children) and got a validation extension of November.

 

During this time the GFC hit and while in 2007 we would have been mortgage free, in 2009 we had lost so much money on house and the exchange rate plummeted from 2.40 to 1.70 that we would have been far better off in the UK. We came anyway.

 

Roll on 4 years - we are citizens, my daughter just started uni having graduated a year early, my sons have sports lives they could never have imagined, I have a job I could never have had in England and the house, puppy and pool we always dreamed of. Has it been easy? No way. Did we write and complain about the fact that immigration were messing with people's lives? Yes we did as well. Was the 2 years in England waiting some of the most stressful we've faced? Definitely. Would I change it? No. In fact, a lot of things that happened during those last 2 years, made us realise that the timing was perfect. My husband's father died a few weeks prior to our departure. If we were there we wouldn't have been able to afford to come back. My perfect job wasn't even in the pipeline in 2008.

 

The reality is that you go with the flow. if you are worried about the ages of your children - don't. You can't predict who will struggle and who won't. I assumed the oldest (13) and in fact it was the youngest (5) who did. You've got to look at it as an adventure because trust me - the process you are going through is the easy part. The hard part is once you get here. One thing I've learned over the past 4 months of citizen applications and changing passports and visa's is that the immigration team in Adelaide are really lovely people. There is a real person behind that case officer note. And they are really pleasant, nice people. In fact I've watched them working with migrants who can't speak English or are struggling to cope with assimilation and have been so impressed by their care and concern. Many are migrants themselves. I personally am on my 4th country and I have to say they are the nicest immigration I've met.

 

Best wishes to you all. Forget the disappointment and take the time to do the fun things back home that you will miss. Good luck to you all!

Selah

[Blossom]

Yes, when I applied for my 485 visa the advertised wait time was 6 months. I got mine after 18 months. They were still advertising six months until close to when I got my visa when they changed it to 12...

[Lazy Cow]

Selah. Great post with lots of thought-provoking points.

 

This thread will hopefully remind people to stop focussing so much on the future and enjoy the present.

 

LC

[srg73]

I can only speak from my own experience however I would strongly recommend reading and learning the application process prior to submitting your visa application and fees. As originally mentioned it is an application and therefore can fail for many reasons. Always read the visa requirements at least twice, ensure what you are submitting is exactly what is being asked for, don't flower things up as you will be found out and if the submission is 100% correct then it should be a simple rubber stamping job.

 

If Australia want you then the process should be made easy, if they are hesitant then I guess you need to ask yourself why.

 

Personally my 189 completed within 11 months and now selling/packing ready for departure hopefully this year.

 

S

[Rabeah]

There is no guarantee of getting a visa. Visa grants for Australia undergoes cycles of delays, rejections and fast processing applications. That's a normal process for every immigration country, because they adjust the demand in several occupations from time to time. Now it seems to be again the time of delaying visa applications like it was many times before.

 

If only prospective migrants would read at least older threads on the mothersite pomsinoz! Many disappointments would be moderated.

 

I remember a time, 2009/2010 I suppose, when my husband's job was removed from the sol without warning. Luckily, it came back on the sol in the new financial year 2010.

Also all applicants in the last category of pr applications (family sponsored ones) were cancelled after years of waiting and refunded their application fees. In 2010 all other applications were on hold without any announcement because they've already reached the ceiling.

 

We applied as fast as we could, knowing there are many factors we couldn't influence like waiting times for the skill assessment, the IELTS outcomes, unannounced changes of mind from the government etc.. We learned that international mail services can be unpredictable and we were nearly running out of time twice. The first time our state sponsorship application in 2011 arrived on the last day though we sent it weeks before. The TRA results from Canberra took a while, too, also due to the long international mailing route.

[Guest wen66]

Thank you for all the words of wisdom. :biggrin:We are happy to wait in this strange kind of limbo and hoping the outcome is positive.

 

Sometimes, when you have your heart set on such a big decision, you mentally plan ahead, prepare for what might be, exciting life changes.....then along come delays and disappointment, bringing out the worst in us all. I am hoping it will all work out but in the back of my mind, I know I must prepare a back up plan for the unforeseen...and stop holding my breath..lol....

 

Good luck everyone, what will be, will be.......

[Guest TK-421]

Thank you for all the words of wisdom. :biggrin:We are happy to wait in this strange kind of limbo and hoping the outcome is positive.

 

Sometimes, when you have your heart set on such a big decision, you mentally plan ahead, prepare for what might be, exciting life changes.....then along come delays and disappointment, bringing out the worst in us all. I am hoping it will all work out but in the back of my mind, I know I must prepare a back up plan for the unforeseen...and stop holding my breath..lol....

 

Good luck everyone, what will be, will be.......

 

Thinking positive thoughts Wen

[Guest wen66]

Thinking positive thoughts Wen 

Trying to..lol..although it has been a good weekend, sun was out and Ireland won the 6 nations:jiggy: