Spousal Visas through Sydney, Australia - How long did yours take?

[razza]

Hi all, I'm wondering if it really takes 7 months like the website states, or if it can happen faster than that.

My fiancee was approved as my sponsor last week and I'm hoping I am approved in a short amount of time. I'd like to hear stories of anyone applying through this office in 2011 and 2012 so I can get an idea of time.

Thanks

 

[rachiy]

Hey razza,

I am sending our application at the end of this week, and once approved it will be forwarded to the Sydney office too.
I am interested in keeping track of others who are being processed in Sydney, so.... BUMP. lol.

Good luck!


By the way, I can't remember if it was 90 or 95%, but Sydney has a pretty high approval rate, and is very rare for interview requests. The 7 months is how long it takes to get 80% of the applications processed, so if your case is simple then your chances of getting to before the 7 months are relatively high.

 

[Canstralian/Oznadian]

Hi Razza, I just got sponsorship approval yesterday and we are going through Sydney. I've had many people on the March Outland forum tell me that Sydney is one of the fastest visa offices. In fact on person said that their relative who sponsored through Sydney had PR visa 30 days after sponsorship approval! Let's hope it really is that quick.

 

[rachiy]

In fact on person said that their relative who sponsored through Sydney had PR visa 30 days after sponsorship approval! Let's hope it really is that quick.

that would be freaking amazing!!! Fingers crossed.

 

[plee]

I just sent off my application last week, so hopefully it's true that sydney is the fastest.

does anyone know how long they hold onto your passport for? I saw another thread mentioning that the consulate has had their passport for 4 months I travel a lot for work and would definitely not be able to manage that if that is the case.

 

[rachiy]

Some VOs request passports as soon as the file is transferred to them, even though they are no where near processing yet (it may have been someone going through New Dehli that had been four months already).
Most only request it when they are actually processing, so will not have it for anywhere near that amount of time.

For countries that are visa exempt (i.e New Zealand and Australia) they do not even request your passport anymore - just photocopies of the id page and maybe a few other relevant pages (which are submitted with the application anyway, so not sure why they need to request what they already have). I don't know the full details, as I am no where near that stage yet, but there is another thread which explains it pretty clearly - look for a title about PPR, COPR or something about visa exempt countries in the last couple of days.