Before the partner visa is granted – Part Two

We’ve just had a series on things to do to make life easier after the Australian partner visa is granted. We thought that maybe we should do one on what to do to make life easier before the visa is granted too? So here it is. Part Two of things you can do while preparing for the partner visa for your lady from the Philippines!

Patience

Every time I say “Be patient” to a client, I picture them probably wanting to hit me! You would like to hear something definitive, and all I can say to you is “Be patient”. I am telling the truth, though. Because there is really nothing you can do but wait. Visa applications are processed in the Australian Embassy when they are processed, and not before. They don’t give updates, and they don’t hurry things along (as I explained HERE). So there’s nothing left except to be patient and wait for the application to run its course. So please:

• Don’t book flights
• Don’t make plans around specific dates
• Don’t let stress get the better of you
• Don’t assume that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. We can’t hurry things along, and the Australian Embassy in Manila WON’T hurry things along.
• Keep yourselves busy. Don’t sit around all day thinking about how long its taking!
• Consider a multiple-entry tourist visa during the process
• And don’t ask us to “chase up” applications. They won’t go any faster if we email them.

Don’t try to contact the Case Officer

There’s one great myth that gets around saying “You will be contacted once a Case Officer has been appointed”. It’s not true! The only time we know who the Case Officer is is when:

• The visa is granted, and the Case Officer has their name at the bottom of the Visa Grant Notice.
• The Case Officer emails us during the process because they need something.

To those who don’t know, a “case officer” (aka “CO”) is the person in the Aussie Embassy who processes the visa application. Yes, the received visa applications are allocated out to individual case officers, but no they don’t find it necessary to let you know when this happens. And I don’t see a problem with that. Nothing is gained by you knowing that Maria or Marilou is your CO.

You engaged our services to manage your visa application from start to finish. It’s our job to deal directly with the Embassy, and not yours. This is in our Migration Agents Representation Agreement (Clauses 5.19 and 5.20) which we both signed, and we need you to stick to this as long as you still require our services.

Why shouldn’t you?

Firstly, there needs to be one person in charge of the application. That’s me! Cars only have one steering wheel, and in the same way there needs to be only one person steering this application. You have to let Down Under Visa do their job. We’re actually really good at it, and even if you think we’re not doing anything, by “not doing anything” we’re actually doing exactly what the application needs.

Secondly? Case Officers have a stack of applications to process. My guesstimate is that each CO has around 250 applications each to do every year. They are trying to work. I’ve known of visa applicants (who’ve done the applications by themselves) who’ve called the Case Officer once a week to get an update. Can you imagine how badly this must go over? We do our jobs, and we trust them to do theirs. They’re not the bad guys. Overall, from our years of dealing with them I think they generally do a good job. We lodge good applications, and they grant them. We do our job, and we let them do theirs. As our clients, you need to let us as well as them do our jobs too.