Spouse Visa

[myauq]

Hi all,

To quote Vinnie Jones in 'Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' about our Australian spouse visa application.... 'It's been emotional'.

Let me explain...

My fiance applied for an Australian Spouse Visa (309) over a year ago. Due to the TB screening process, and a couple of communication screw-ups with the Thai hospital and DIAC, we have waited for over a year on this one. Yes, WE HAVE WAITED OVER A YEAR for this Spouse Visa, and still haven't got it yet...

Then about three weeks ago I got an email from the Embassy saying that my fiance satisfied the health criteria. Hurray! The major barrier was out of the way. All we needed to do now, they said, was give the Embassy a couple of extra documents, such as a police clearance and letters showing my financial/employment status, and voila, we'd get the visa. Great! So we went about getting this stuff, and handed it in to the Embassy about two weeks later. I checked with the CO again(!) to make sure there wasn't anything missing, being the overly cautious type that I am. They said 'no, visa shouldn't be too long now'. That's what they said anyway...

OK, now this is where it gets infuriatingly annoying. Last week I got another letter from the Embassy asking us for one more fuc_king peice of paper before granting the visa. And because my fiance is from Myanmar they - of course - asked her for a certified copy of her house registration, which is obviously in Myanmar.

So now we have to contact the relatives and friends in Myanmar and try to get this form to the Embassy in Yangon. But the problem is that my fiance's mum does not have any fixed abode. She is travelling, and we're never sure where she is at any one time. Last time we asked them for some documents for the visa it took them about 8 months to get back to us. I explained this to the Embassy (then and now), but they were unmoved. So despite providing everything else for the Embassy over the course of a year, they will not give us the visa without this document from Myanmar.

What is most frustrating is that I have explicitly asked the Embassy every time I've contact them - FOR A WHOLE YEAR NOW - if anything else wsa needed for the visa. And everytime I've asked, the answer has always been 'no, we're just waiting for the health clearance'. So they could have asked for this peice of paper a dam_n whole year ago, and we could have hunted it down then, but no - do they just want to piss us off, or do they really need this peice of paper? Are they toying with us?

For instance, I note that on the application checklist where it clearly states:

Documents to prove your identity – a certified copy of your birth registration showing both parents’ names. If you do not have a birth certificate and are unable to get one, you must provide a certified copy of the identification pages of at least one of the following documents:

• passport

• family book showing both parents’ names

• identification document issued by the government

• document issued by a court that verifies your identity.

If you are unable to provide one of these documents, you must provide other acceptable evidence that you are who you claim to be.

We have already given them certified copies of her passport and ID card.

What is going on here?

Anyone.....?

Earth to Embassy...?

Can anyone else enlighten me on this...?

Edited June 25, 2010 by myauq

[rick75]

Dude I feel for ya, my wifes application had a few issues in regards to TB as well, the screening process the immigration use are not that great, there are many forms of TB testing apart from chest x-ray and sputum tests which are far more reliable and quickly carried out as apossed to the 3+ months for a sputum test, in the end Hers came back negative and She travelled Two weeks later. I felt that the immigration do as they please and in regards to health issues they have the trump card, you have to bite your tounge and grin and bear it.

When I started to pull my hair out I was put in contact with a freind of a friend who works Aust immigration, He told me the department is well under staffed and sometimes these can take 1 year to process thankfully it did not drag on anywhere near that time in our case, I think Thailand processes these fairly quickly as apposed to Aust embassies in other countries This process is an emotional roller coaster and nobody knows how hard it is until you go through it, do as they say and it will eventually happen.

Best of luck

Edited June 25, 2010 by rick75

[jayinoz]

I have sponsored several to Aussie in the last decade. One on a defacto spouse and I will never ever do that again. You are only experiencing the very start of the issues you will ego through. I think they semi do this on purpose to really test your relationship. What pisses me off the most is that it is usually us whom needs to arrange absolutely everything and then tiny peices of irrelevant docs are then asked for... I wish the girls could take care of most the items themselves, yet most are very dependant with the pretense of wishing to be independant. As they do not even have a word for it in their dictionary- but we will not go into all that. Some guys are fine with having girls totally dependant on them.

You will really be pissed if she cannot adapt to your culture or your way of life after all the crap. Like what has happened with myself for the last decade with a half a dozen girls.

Independance is a very difficult thing for them to get used too. But naturally you will say your girl is a 1 from 1000, like everyone does. Hope she worth the hassle mate. You have a lot more to go through yet... If u get a great long term relationship from it then it will all be worth. For my money it was not, yet that is life. Chok Dee buddy.

:jap:

[norrona]

look on the brightside, at least you're getting some kind of communication out of them, most of them tell you to go sit in a corner till they are ready to deal with you and certainly don't encourage phone calls to them, it says on the UK website to email them and they will answer in 20 working days:blink: ...a year is very harsh though, putting your lives on hold and waiting for someone to do a job they've been paid to do:(

good luck with finding the long lost mum in myanmar, until I read your post I thought I had issues with my appeal

Edited June 25, 2010 by norrona

[fishhooks]

"Posted 2010-06-25 22:13

I have sponsored several to Aussie in the last decade"

I thought there is in place a very strict limitation on this. Particularly concerning "Spouse Visas"

Edited June 27, 2010 by fishhooks

[Will27]

"Posted 2010-06-25 22:13

I have sponsored several to Aussie in the last decade"

I thought there is in place a very strict limitation on this. Particularly concerning "Spouse Visas"

There is a restiction on spouse visa's

but not tourist visa's.

OP may have been alluding to one or

both types.

Regards

Will

[myauq]

ok - i can see i need to simplify things...

- we've been waiting for a spouse visa for over a year.

- we gave the oz embassy all the id documents in the original application, and i've been phoning/emailing them every month and explicitly asking if they needed anything else whilst we waited for the medical clearance (medical clearance delays being a separate issue).

- after my fiance was finally granted her medical clearance the embassy sent us a letter asking for some more documents to finalise the application (about a month ago). i again phoned them to ask if that was all they needed, and they said 'yes'.

- we sent all the requested documents mentioned in the letter, hoping that the visa would be granted - just like they said - asap.

- a week later we get another fuc_king letter, this time asking for a certified copy and translation of her house registration from her mum, who - as they know from reading the application and my emails over the past year - has no fixed abode in myanmar.

- after explaining again(!) how difficult it has been getting documents from her family in myanmar, the embassy insisted that they couldn't grant the visa without this document. the least they could was waive the requirement, but only after they were first satisfied we'd made every attempt to find her mum and get the house registration papers to the embassy in yangon. our co said he'd be happy to wait another month to see if anything came up, but his supervisor mentioned a few months - nothing declared in writing, everything said over the phone.

[myauq]

this spouse visa application has clearly become so much of a farce that i'm thinking of just applying for a tourist visa and then wait the rest of the time out australia.

i'm fed up with putting my life on hold and waiting in this dam_n country for them.

will there be any negative consequences to applying for a tourist visa whilst the spouse visa is still pending, or will it prompt them to realise how stupid and unreasonable their requests have become this far down the track?