Down Under Visa News – October 2022

Greetings to all Down Under Visa clients, old, new and not-signed-up-yet!

A bit of Australian Visa news, in particular about Australian visa applications processing times, and some important facts about biometrics collection.

Life is getting more and more back to normal. The days of lockdowns, border closures and travel ban exemptions fade further into history. The fear of catching something from someone coughing on you? Barely rates a thought these days, thank goodness.

Flights are plentiful. Hotels and resorts in the Philippines are all open and teeming with visitors. And nearly everyone is vaccinated.

So to those of you still hesitant to come visit the lady (or gent) of your dreams? Get on with it and let life move forward! Get on a plane!

And ready for some other good news?

Australian Visa Applications Processing is getting faster in late 2022

From early this year I was quoting 2 month processing time for tourist visas, later blowing out to 3 months! And this was only average. Not maximum! Some were taking longer, and we were getting no joy at all trying to follow these applications up with the Embassy or the Department. So yes, Australian Visa applications were painfully slow and caused a lot of stress.

I’m in no way blaming the Embassy staff. They basically had two years of backlog to deal with, and I suspect little to no additional human resources in their offices to help them with the mountain of applications to work through. I’m sure their level of job-satisfaction was at an all-time low. 

Well? In the last month or so I’ve noticed grants starting to come through a bit faster. So I decided to ask the staff to check the last month or so of grants and see how long they took. Well, yes! Definitely improvement, thank goodness!

Australian Tourist Visa Processing Times – Averages

This is all Subclass 600 tourist visa applications granted recently.

Average processing time of 32 days!

Yes, broad average. Some? 14 and 21 days. Others? 39 or 44 days. However it’s still a whole lot better than 3 months!

Australian OFFSHORE Partner Visa Processing Times – Averages

Reluctant to give an average, because we had one that took a year and a half, and others that took over two years and over three years! These were those poor victims of the dreaded COVID-19 lockdowns and a long period of not-much-happening in the partner visa sections.

So for the Offshore Partner, Prospective Marriage and Onshore Partner? These are averages for those applied-for and granted in 2022

Offshore Partner Visas? Average of 6.5 months

Australian Prospective Marriage Visa Processing Times – Averages

2022 applications around 5 months, so not so bad really.

Australian ONSHORE Partner Visa Processing Times – Averages

2022 lodged applications? Average of 4 months! A bit of a change from taking nearly 2 years a few years back!

So yes, things are looking up!

Biometrics Collection – A Warning

Every application lodged in Manila had required collection of biometrics data since April 2022. That means you make a booking and have an iris scan and fingerprint scan. Fairly simple, but some clients have managed to get it wrong.

1. We have this on your To-Do List, so you can see it clearly as something you need to do.
2. There is an information pages which answers probably any question you could think of.
3. The request(s) are emailed to you.

We don’t get notified when you complete it, and the only time we know that you DIDN’T do it is we will get a visa refusal notice for you!

Important things to note

Every offshore visa application (ie application lodged in Manila) requires Biometrics collection.

That means:

• If you apply for another tourist visa, you get it done again.

• If you apply for a partner visa AND a tourist visa, you get ONE for the tourist visa and ONE for the partner visa.

• Your kids need to do it too if they have visa applications

• You have 14 days after the visa application date to get it done

• And most importantly (and most scary!) is that if you don’t do it you will see a visa refusal notice with your name on it! 

Thought of the day

Heard this gem the other day, and wanted to pass it on.

Don’t compare yourself to other people.

Compare yourself with YOURself yesterday!

Do that every day and life will only get better, right?

Jeff Harvie is a Registered Migration Agent from Australia, but resident in Philippines since 2010 with his Filipina wife Mila and large extended family. Experienced with the Philippines culture, cross-cultural relationships and bureaucracy as well as Australian visas and Australian Migration Law, he writes with authority and fortunately with enough informality and humour that the average Aussie gets it!