Visa processing times – the hard facts
Dear clients,
At the moment we have two major sources of delays:
1. Tourist visas
2. Partner visas, where the applicant has been asked to leave Australia so that they can finalise the application
Right now I get 5 or 6 emails a day with people telling me that they are taking too long, and looking to us to rectify this situation. Some are polite. Some are angry. Some blame us, and some don't. Some are very emotional.
Please understand we are NOT unsympathetic. Not at all. Delays are awful. I'm not a particularly patient person myself, yet I have to tell people every day again and again to please be patient. You email me for help, and I send you a reply which I know is disappointing. I wish sincerely that I didn't have to do that, but I do.
If you haven't read the previous recent BLOG articles on this topic, please do:
The reality is just as I explained. A large pile of applications and a limited number of staff, and things take longer. We probably have 50 or more applications in the system (late tourist visas and late partner visas where the applicant has had to return) taking longer than usual, thus the 5 or 6 emails per day I get. My sending 5 or 6 chase-up emails every day to the Embassy, this is not going to make anything happen. I don't have special contacts there who will push things through because I ask. I have no authority there. All that 5 or 6 nagging emails a day to the Embassy will do is to add to their workload and make the whole thing take longer.
We are not lazy or uncaring here at Down Under Visa. Not at all. We go above and beyond the call of duty all the time. But sometimes we simply know from experience that sending emails or making phone calls will not achieve anything, and in some cases may just make Down Under Visa AND our clients very unpopular. We've learned a lot from experience, believe me!
To those who are waiting, I wish I could fix this for you. But I can't. I can only ask you to remain patient. It's not because they lost your application, and it's not because there is something wrong with your application. You are just caught in a backlog, which will hopefully clear sometime soon.
Who are Down Under Visa? Who is Jeff Harvie?
Jeff Harvie and the Down Under Visa team have been doing this for a lot of years! Down Under Visa have brought thousands of couples to Australia from South East Asia over the years. Mostly from the Philippines, but we help increasing numbers of couples where the visa applicant is from China, Thailand, Vietnam or Cambodia. And what this means is we see a lot of success....and we also see failures when people go it alone after talking to their mate, or their relative, or that minimal-care-no-responsibility Facebook group run by Steve and Maribeth based on their own visa application! One application, and they feel qualified to advise others! It's not even LEGAL to do that!
Want to bring your sweetheart to Australia from The Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia or Southeast Asia? Get a FREE VISA ASSESSMENT today! It will take you five minutes.
