An Australian resident...finally!

I haven't blogged properly in a while; we have been pretty busy with lots of exciting things happening. My visa was finally approved last week, which involved a four-night trip to New Zealand (more about that in another post), but I now have permanent residency! I originally applied for a temporary partner visa (subclass 309), but ended up being granted a permanent visa (subclass 100). I thought I'd share the timeline of my visa processing for those who are considering making the move down under, or who are already embarking on it.

8th March: submitted application via post.
12th March: email received from case officer confirming receipt of application and informing me that there was currently a 5-6 month wait. I was also asked to attend a medical examination as soon as possible.
27th March: attended medical examination in London.
4th April: received confirmation from my case officer that the medical results had been received and she would be in touch when my visa was ready to be approved. 
9th May: confirmation from case officer that I could travel to Australia on a tourist visa while my partner visa was still being considered.

12th July: we arrived in Sydney with me on a three-month eVisitor visa.

10th August: I received an email from my case officer that said they were ready to grant my partner visa and that I needed to leave Australia for at least three working days in order to do so.
3rd September: we flew to New Zealand for four nights.
7th September: we arrived back in Sydney and confirmed with the border staff that I was now on a permanent residency visa (partner visa subclass 100).

So in all it took almost six months, but that was because I was already in Australia and had to leave so the visa could be formally granted. It was actually five months from submitting the application to receiving the email to say they were ready to grant the visa. We still believe we did the right thing by coming out here before it was granted though, as we wouldn't have got out here until at least October if we had waited for it in the UK.

I would love to hear others' experiences of the visa process - drop me a comment or contact me on Twitter (@hollygalt).

Details

Australian Government, Department of Immigration and Citizenship
Website: www.immi.gov.au/migrants/family/family-visas-partner.htm