I’m sure all of you are aware of the looming date of 1 July 2015, which is when the price of Australian partner visas being lodged offshore* rises considerably.

(*ie. outside of Australia, in our case in Manila)

We have to set a realistic cut-off date, or applications will not be lodged in time. The way it works is that we need to lodge:

• A “valid” application, which means complete with SIGNED FORMS and PAYMENT PROOF (ie. payment receipt from the Department of Immigration)
• Before 1 July 2015

If the application doesn’t have the signed forms and payment receipt, and if it doesn’t arrive at the Embassy before 1 July, it will be subject to the new visa application charge.

Our final date for receiving:

• Completed forms
• Payment in our account (which means you need to deposit in the MORNING at the latest)

Is Monday 22 June 2015.

And I’m talking about otherwise completed applications. If we haven’t received everything that we need from you before that date, then sorry we won’t be able to lodge the application in time. It takes time to check documents thoroughly, and we will never rush this through or the outcome could be tragic.

The reason for this date is that we still have to do the following:

• Get the completed application collected by a courier and taken to VFS (the delivery-partner who receive applications on the part of the Embassy). They normally pick up the next day, but have been known to keep us waiting.
• Pay the Department and wait for a receipt. It will be a busy time, and this may take 3 – 4 days to come through to us!

If anything arrives after this date? Of COURSE we will try our absolute best. Next week will most certainly be a very busy week for us. But we cannot be confident that your application will get there in time, and if it arrives late then they will ask for further payment and there will be nothing we can do about it.

Please try to get everything finalised as soon as you can, IF you think you can. And please email Jeremy about this if you’re not sure. And please be realistic about what can be done. And finally please don’t shoot the messenger. We have been trying our very best, and we’ve already managed to get a mountain of applications finalised and out (over 20 so far in June alone, with a lot more still to come). We’re on the same side here.