Partner Visa (309) SA processing time

[TerryP]

On ‎22‎/‎09‎/‎2017 at 6:28 AM, HermanLJ said:

 

Did you mean the 600 was declined? They will decline it if they feel that the person does not have enough reason to return (eg job, house, family, etc).  

 

For my wife we submitted a document from her employer stating that she is currently employed there but coming to visit me for a month. Is there any way she can get something like that? As RedPanda said, it may be best to talk to an agent.

 

The initial visitor visa application for 12 months was declined.  We have since made a further 600 visitor visa application for a period of three months and included a letter from her employer.  The second visitor visa application was lodged on 31 August 2017 and as of today being 25 September 2017 we are still waiting for a reply.  

[Wolflyle]

5 hours ago, TerryP said:

 

The initial visitor visa application for 12 months was declined.  We have since made a further 600 visitor visa application for a period of three months and included a letter from her employer.  The second visitor visa application was lodged on 31 August 2017 and as of today being 25 September 2017 we are still waiting for a reply.  

Last time I checked the standard waiting time in SA for a visitor visa is 1 month. Over peak periods it can be longer. When I applied for a 600 last year it took a month. You will probably hear from them in the next few days. 

[Dave3519]

Has anyone received any feedback or grants from DIBP?  The wait continues...................................

[Jezica]

Hi All

 

Just received news that my 309 visa has been approved. 

 

Applied in South Africa on the 27th Feb.

Medicals done the following day.

Within a week we got a request for additional documents. 

Received no correspondence up until two weeks ago they requested a police clearance from a country i had travelled to. I provided the police clearance yesterday and today my visa was approved ☺

First entry before 7 feb 2018.

 

Hopefully they start approving more visa's soon.

 

Best of luck

[Dave3519]

Hi All,

 

We went the route of making contact with my wife's local / regional senator in Australia regarding the status of my visa.  The response that we received was similar to the standard response I received from the DIBP in Pretoria - it is still within the normal timelines for assessment. On the positive, the contact at the department went onto mention that they have personally opened my file and that my application is progressing normally and that at this stage they cannot see a reason for any delay. I am hoping that by opening my file and seeing that all required and requested documents, police checks and medicals have been submitted that they might expedite my application process.

 

I am going on 8 months since my submission and hoping for some good news soonest

 

Cheers

Dave

 

 

 

[Dave3519]

any updates?

 

[Dave3519]

Anyone had any good news as of late?

 

I am still waiting.

 

DOL: 09 April 2017

 

Cheers

 

[Me22]

We are also playing the waiting game 

Applied for PMV 300

DOL: 30 June 2017

 

Police checks and medicals completed (but not requested by department)

 

Cheers 

[Dave3519]

10.01.2018 -Received a further request for information - updated relationship history statements. Submitted on the 12.01.2018.

Seems like I have been assigned a case officer. 

 

Hoping for a good result before the month is out.

[Bibliophile]

Hi All,

 

I thought I would finally post in here. We applied for my husbands 309/100 on the 05/12/17 and supplied PCCs and Medicals at the start of the month without request. So far we haven't had any contact and it will probably be another few months before we do.

 

Good luck to everyone waiting, hopefully you get your visa grants soon!

[RYLC]

Here are the processing times for the visa you have applied for so it's going to be quite a wait.

Processing time

                                                75% of applicants                                        90% of applicants

Stream	75 per cent of applications processed	90 per cent of applications processed
309 - Provisional visa	11 months	15 months
100 - Permanent visa	20 months	28 months

Last updated 18 January 2018  (for month ending 31 December 2017)

 

You didn't specify whether you applied for 309 or 100 but as you can see there is quite a difference in processing times. I know it seems unfair but it is unfortunately one of the most abused visa classes so they are extra diligent and the processing times have an element of "relationship longevity" built in it seems.  Hope the time passes quickly for you.

[Bibliophile]

7 hours ago, RYLC said:

Here are the processing times for the visa you have applied for so it's going to be quite a wait.

Processing time

                                                75% of applicants                                        90% of applicants

Stream	75 per cent of applications processed	90 per cent of applications processed
309 - Provisional visa	11 months	15 months
100 - Permanent visa	20 months	28 months

Last updated 18 January 2018  (for month ending 31 December 2017)

 

You didn't specify whether you applied for 309 or 100 but as you can see there is quite a difference in processing times. I know it seems unfair but it is unfortunately one of the most abused visa classes so they are extra diligent and the processing times have an element of "relationship longevity" built in it seems.  Hope the time passes quickly for you.

 

Hi RYLC,

 

We've applied for the 309 but as per the website:

Long term relationship

If, at the time you apply, you have been in a long term relationship with your partner, your permanent Partner visa (subclass 100) may be granted immediately after the temporary Partner visa (subclass 309).

 

Considering we'll be celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary this year and have two children together I don't foresee any difficulty in getting the 100 granted immediately. The health assessment also listed the visa subclass as the 100. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll have no more applications till citizenship time.

 

I do think it's unfortunate that thanks to the abuse of the system it's made the process more challenging and expensive for genuine couples. But as someone who grew up in Australia I also understand why they so closely regulate these things.

 

Only 9.5 months until we hopefully hear something!

[Dave3519]

At long last, visa approved - 25th of January 2018 or according to my timeline 26th January (Australia Day). Enter before 23 March 2018. Initial submission- 09 April 2017 -   

Source: http://www.australianvisaforum.com/topic/9385-partner-visa-309-south-africa/page-2#entry45795

[Mara]

@Dave3519 Congratulations, now to start your new future!

[Bibliophile]

8 hours ago, Dave3519 said:

At long last, visa approved - 25th of January 2018 or according to my timeline 26th January (Australia Day). Enter before 23 March 2018. Initial submission- 09 April 2017 -   

Source: http://www.australianvisaforum.com/topic/9385-partner-visa-309-south-africa/page-2#entry45795

 Congratulations Dave, that's fabulous news! Whereabouts in Aus will you be settling?

[Dave3519]

On 10/26/2017 at 11:35 AM, Jezica said:

Hi All

 

Just received news that my 309 visa has been approved. 

 

Applied in South Africa on the 27th Feb.

Medicals done the following day.

Within a week we got a request for additional documents. 

Received no correspondence up until two weeks ago they requested a police clearance from a country i had travelled to. I provided the police clearance yesterday and today my visa was approved ☺

First entry before 7 feb 2018.

 

Hopefully they start approving more visa's soon.

 

Best of luck

3 hours ago, Bibliophile said:

 Congratulations Dave, that's fabulous news! Whereabouts in Aus will you be settling?

 

Moving to Melbourne. Wife is already there. All the best.

[Dave3519]

Hi All, 

 

Does anyone know whether I qualify for medicare on 309 visa?

 

If not, any suggestion on private medical aid providers and the associated costs and benefits would be greatly appreciated. 

 

 

Edited January 27, 2018 by Dave3519

[Dave3519]

I am also looking at opening up a bank account.
Can this be done before I arrive?

[Bibliophile]

On 26 January 2018 at 10:44 AM, Dave3519 said:

 

Moving to Melbourne. Wife is already there. All the best.

 

Enjoy! Melbourne in my completely biased opinion is the best Australian city to live in despite what the detractors say about the weather. 

 

As for your other questions re Medicare and bank accounts, you can do both. There are some discussions on this forum about banks in Aus you might want to look at. Medicare you can enrol in once you arrive but a lot of people opt to have private health insurance as well because of shorter wait times and the tax benefits. The two restrictions I know of on the 309 are studying (you have to pay out of pocket) and government benefits (not allowed to claim for two years).

 

Happy travels

[Me22]

Got our

[RedRover103]

On 2/9/2018 at 2:16 PM, Me22 said:

Got our

 

Hi Me22,

 

Did you get your visa grant?

 

We're looking at submitting my PMV300 application within the next month. I'm not the most patient as far as waiting for application processing, but I'll just have to learn to vasbyt!!!

[Me22]

Sorry the webpage kept freezing on me! 

 

Yes we received our golden email on Feb 8th 2018 that our PMV300 had been granted. So a shorter than expected wait of just over 7 months! 

 

Good luck to those still waiting 

[RedRover103]

On 24/02/2018 at 8:58 AM, Me22 said:

Sorry the webpage kept freezing on me! 

 

Yes we received our golden email on Feb 8th 2018 that our PMV300 had been granted. So a shorter than expected wait of just over 7 months! 

 

Good luck to those still waiting 

Hi Me22,

 

Thanks for the feedback and congratulations. You must be so excited!!!

 

I am really nervous about getting my application in....

 

I am trying to compile every piece of evidence I can think of. On the one hand, I want to ensure that I give enough information to prove our relationship, but on the other hand, I don't want to give too much that it annoys the CO.

 

I've visited my fiancee in Australia 3 times during our relationship and she has come once to South Africa. So, I feel we have enough evidence on the photographs and travel documents to cover those times.

 

Because we live apart mostly (with me in SA), I want to provide enough evidence that the relationship is ongoing even when we aren't together. We communicate predominately on Viber, which can be exported into Excel but it's over 100,000 lines of messages/calls over a period of 18 months. (Yes, we chat a lot... like all day.) I am wondering whether I should include the full 1200+ pages (showing only the first 5 characters of each message for our privacy, if acceptable) and a few messages or maybe just randomly select a few days of messages from each month. How has everyone else presented your online messaging? I have also taken screenshots of some of our phone video calls showing her and/or children together with my video window.

 

We really want to put an end to this long distance, so are wanting to at least get the application rolling.

 

Our biggest obstacle is that she is only now getting her divorce application in for her previous relationship (there were delays because she came out of a DV situation). They have finally agreed to submit a joint divorce application, so shouldn't take longer than 3 months to finalize as custody and property have already been sorted during last year. We plan to make it clear in the application that her status at present is "separated" but that the divorce application is in (file no. ####), and requesting that the CO not make a final decision until such time that her divorce certificate is uploaded.

Is there anyone that has been in a similar situation at the time of the application?

 

We are really hoping that everything will be quick nonetheless as we want to get married in September!!!

 

Thanks to everyone for their posts. It all helps to think clearly through the process.

[MrsB]

Hi All,

 

Just wanted to find out if anyone has received a 309/100 visa grant recently from the Pretoria office?

 

We applied for my husbands 309/100 on the 10th March 2018 and front loaded all documents. We have contacted the Pretoria office as we wanted to find out if we could apply for a tourist visa and to ask how long we could expect to wait but unfortunately we got the standard "within the processing times" response. It's just frustrating that the processing times are increasing so much each month and now sitting at 21-26 months as just can't make any set plans about a move.

 

Would love to hear if anyone had been successful recently with their grant as it seems to have gone very quiet lately.

[natk]

On 8/8/2018 at 2:25 PM, MrsB said:

Hi All,

 

Just wanted to find out if anyone has received a 309/100 visa grant recently from the Pretoria office?

 

We applied for my husbands 309/100 on the 10th March 2018 and front loaded all documents. We have contacted the Pretoria office as we wanted to find out if we could apply for a tourist visa and to ask how long we could expect to wait but unfortunately we got the standard "within the processing times" response. It's just frustrating that the processing times are increasing so much each month and now sitting at 21-26 months as just can't make any set plans about a move.

 

Would love to hear if anyone had been successful recently with their grant as it seems to have gone very quiet lately.

Hi Mrs B, have you received any news regarding your application?

 

We applied for the 309/100 visa on 30 March 2018 (front loaded all our documents) and have not heard anything yet. We were in a relationship for just over 3 years when I applied, we got married and had a baby since my application. Our daughter has duel citizenship.