I’m outside of Australia. Where’s my visa?

Frequent questions received by Down Under Visa involve what happens when the visa is ready to be granted and the applicant is in Australia at the time. Will they grant it?

What I'm referring to is offshore partner visa (Subclass 309) and fiancée visa (Subclass 300) applications lodged in Manila. We frequently organise tourist visas for our partner visa clients to make the waiting time more bearable.

Anyway, back to the question. What happens when the processing is finalised, and the applicant is in Australia at that time? Does this cause a problem? What happens? Will they grant it, and can the applicant just stay in Australia? How long before they grant it? I’ll answer all of these.

What happens?

Firstly, they can’t grant an offshore visa unless the applicant is “offshore”, which is migration-speak for “outside Australia”. No exception to that, because it’s written into law.

What happens is that they will send us an email telling us that the application is ready to be finalised. No, they won’t say “granted”, because it must be finalised before they can say that. And they will ask us to tell them when the applicant will be “offshore”, ie outside Australia. At this point we will email you and ask you when.

Does this cause a problem?

No, not at all. All perfectly within the rules. And no pressure to hurry back. Although of course you could reasonably expect an earlier grant if you come back earlier, but no need to cut your stay short if you don’t want to.

Can the applicant just stay in Australia?

Again, no. Must be offshore. No exceptions.

How long before they grant the visa?

Our advice to clients is: Anything from a day or two to 6 – 8 weeks!

Most of them are granted within a week. However some take longer. Why? No idea. But sometimes they take longer, and there’s nothing we can do about it.

During the processing of the visas, I have to say our clients are getting more patient and more understanding. We used to get sometimes several per week "spitting the dummy” and lashing out at us. We understand the frustration, but it doesn’t make it any easier to cope with. I think that regular BLOG posts are making clients feel they have not been forgotten about, and this was part of the reasoning behind increasing their number and regularity.

However some of our wonderfully-patient clients tend to “lose it” when they get to the final stage, and we end up bearing the wrath.

To those clients at the final stage? Please be patient. You really are at the light-at-end-of-tunnel point, and whilst it may take a few weeks longer than you would like it to, your visa is about to be finalised. You are almost there, and it could happen at any day. Be sure to plan the last step for a possible stay of 6 – 8 weeks. The applicant should visit her family, because she won’t see them for probably a long time. Take advantage of that time.

CFO (Commission for Filipinos Overseas)

When the visa is granted, you need to:

• Attend the CFO pre-departure seminar in either Manila or Cebu City
• Get a sticker in your passport

Use the waiting-time to attend the seminar. You can do that before the visa is granted. Then come back for the sticker once the visa IS granted. That last part is really quick.