Another lurker finally posts...

[Dill]

Hi everyone

Greetings from Dubai, where I live with my husband and son, who both have Australian citizenship.

To cut a long story short, we've decided to move to Perth (where we have many relatives and friends) in time for our son to start high school at the beginning of 2015. I submitted my partner visa application in October 2013 (VFS Dubai), but we've been told that these visas are taking 12 to 18 months to process, regardless of how much evidence of a "genuine and continuing" relationship you may have!

To be honest, it's not too much of a problem but we're hoping for a visa grant before the end of the year. If not, I'll be in and out on a visit visa which I've just been granted. I can't complain when I read about all the hoops people have to jump through and am holding thumbs for everyone.

The information on here has been incredibly helpful and the air bnb website was a particularly good find for a very short school and housing research visit next month.

I actually signed up to respond to a post in the education forum, so let me get onto that before I start waffling to much!

All the best,

Dill

[Mara]

Welcome Dill, hope that visa of yours makes an early appearance!

[AndreaL]

Hi Dill

Welcome to the forum. I checked on processing times for partner visas (Iscah migration do a monthly newsletter) and time also depends on if it was lodged in or outside Australia, and from a high risk or low risk country, according to that you are looking at between 6 and 8 months. http://www.iscah.com/wp_files/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/newsletter_188.pdf

[HadEnoughofJuju]

Welcome Dill to the forum and good luck with the visa application, hopefully it will get granted soon. I would jump through all those hoops a thousand times again if I had to. Was worth every penny.

Just a pity there was no weight loss jumping through them hoops.

[Dill]

Thanks everyone!

6-8 months would be fabulous but will definitely not be the case as

1) I lodged off shore (Dubai)

2) South Africa is a high risk country

3) The 309 partner visa needs to be processed before the 100, although 100 (PR) should be granted automatically as we are married with a child

This takes me to 12 months as per the newsletter/DIBP, but my acknowledgement letter from the Australian Consulate in Dubai says 12-18 months or longer! I think the problem in Dubai is sheer volume and the fact that most partner applications are from high risk South Asian or war-torn Middle Eastern countries, with complicated circumstances (multiple wives, arranged marriages, not actually meeting or living with a spouse, refugee situations etc.) It's not uncommon for a partner visa to take over 2 years due to security checks, lack of evidence, unacceptable evidence etc. It's just along queue and I have to be patient.

Again, I can't complain as I have a roof over my head and live safely and happily with my husband and son, which is more than can be said for many applicants in this part of the world.

Luckily I can travel on a visit visa and am really looking forward to having a nosey around with a view to actually living in Perth, rather than just visiting. If push comes to shove, I can go over with my husband and son but make sure I am off shore for the actual visa grant. It seems most CO's will give warning and accommodate this but I don't have a CO yet and the Dubai office is not inspiring a lot of confidence at the moment!

Thanks again and best of luck to those in the process.

[McCabes]

Hi Dill,

Welcome and good luck with everything