Sub-class 309 to sub-class 100 is a MYSTERY!
I consider myself a reasonably intelligent woman. I do think I can navigate my way around a website to find information. This time I am flummoxed. The time is drawing near-ish when we go through the process of evaluation to grant Mr O his sub-class 100 visa – permanent residency. If one was to read the information available on www.immi.gov.au one could think this is just going to happen automatically.
The booklet says:
If you:
• lodged your Partner visa application outside Australia; and
• were outside Australia at the time you applied,
you can be either in or outside Australia when the permanent Partner visa (subclass 100)
is granted.
. . . . . . . .
In most cases, permanent residence cannot be granted less than 2 years from when you
lodge your application.
There is no mention of any process at all!
I scrounged around a bit further and finally found this:
Shortly before you are eligible to be assessed for the Partner (permanent) visa (subclass 100) visa (usually two years after application lodgement), you will receive a letter from the department asking you to provide information relating to your application.
http://www.immi.gov.au/migrants/partners/partner/309-100/after-lodgement.htm
Oh, so there is an assessment? Assessment of what exactly? WHAT information? What exactly are we supposed to have accumulated as far as documentation is concerned? Yes, I know – I have a lawyer and lawyers and migration agents know this stuff backwards – but the whole system is SUPPOSED to be set up so that lawyers and migration agents are NOT needed. Suitable information, easily found, would be nice. In fact, it really is a requirement.
Speaking to others who have their 100 visa, I gather the information may even include yet another police clearance. Our lawyer already warned us about needing copies of bills in both names and evidence Mr O has integrated into Australian society. I cannot actually find ANY official information about the process or the requirements for the poor people doing this on their own.
I spent considerable time searching the website and found nothing that I considered at all helpful. I find this amazing.
As far as the bills go, for MONTHS I have been trying to get Telstra to put our phone bill in joint names. Every month they say yes, it is done. Every month the phone bill arrives in only my name. I do not have time to sit waiting on hold or being passed from department to department within Telstra. I tried again twice last week and both times I hung up after waiting interminably to speak to someone, anyone. I have a family, a job and a home – sitting on hold for Telstra is just not something I have time for. One phone call is all it should have taken.
The gas bill? Well, they have to speak to both of us at the same time, but I don’t get home before their office closes. Now, the gas people did offer to have me on one phone call, then they would call Mr O on a different line and we could organise it that way. Mr O had lectures, I have work – who can organise this stuff in a busy day? What happens is real life intervenes and before you know it, the gas company office has closed – again!
Anything we have set up together is not a problem, such as all the school enrolments and so on. I have lived in this house for five years now, it is not as if we set up a NEW home when my family arrived – trying to get these companies to CHANGE the names is driving me nuts! Plus, it achieves absolutely nothing. What, exactly, does changing the gas bill into two names prove? Nothing! My husband has, after all, been a full-time student and is now job hunting. I was paying the bills anyway!
Not to mention I have health issues my husband and I are a lot more concerned about than the damn names on our gas bill. Job hunting for him is also way more important. His study was more important. Getting in the necessary driving practice in readiness for the licence test was important. I don’t have time to be chasing utility companies endlessly: there are much, much more important daily concerns in our lives.
Bureaucracy will be the death of me. I am really disappointed there are not clear guidelines. Even if it is a case of “every case is different”, the web site should say that! I am also not going to let it worry us: we have enough on our plate at the moment. When we’ve been through the sub-class 100 process, I’ll write an article to help those who come after us. What happened to the ideal of transparency, I wonder?
Related articles:
-
The 309 visa: here, but not here? (teamoyeniyi.com)
-
All that was for a TEMPORARY visa! (teamoyeniyi.com)
-
It all started with losing my glasses (teamoyeniyi.com)
-
So the chickens come home to roost – scoliosis (teamoyeniyi.com)
-
Teaching my husband to drive (teamoyeniyi.com)
-
See also Partner/Spouse Visa Menu
Agree with you 100% bureaucrats are driving us nuts! Here`s our time line:
July 2009 apply for partner residency, Nov 2009 application rejected , Nov 2009 make MRT application for review , June 2012 win MRT appeal, Aug 2012 DIAC say Police clearances and Health assessment done in 2009 now expired- need new ones.
Why on earth for the need of new checks? I haven`t even left Australia. Perhaps they think I`ve been tried and convicted in my absence in my country of origin or developed an expensive disease in the time we have been waiting – Ye Gods!
I`m also thinking that if the appeal process hadn`t taken 31 months, that the original documents would still be valid . God save us from fools and bureaucrats.
Heavens, Heidi – it is never ending for you guys, isn’t it? Yes, the police clearances here expire, but I thought the ones from your other countries did not expire if you haven’t been back. Might be worth checking with them just to make sure.
The appeal process timeline is horrendous right now, SUCH a backlog.
I hate the bureaucracy… Sheesh!
Always amazes me. Of course, if nothing is prescribed it is easier to say the requirements haven’t been met. Or is that being overly cynical?
It has always amazed me why things that are life changing to families and should be without a doubt straight forward, make no sense at all. Why is there no information? Why is it muddy…you would think in our day and age there should be access to everything you need to make it go smoothly. Good luck getting it all straightened out my friend. xox
Thanks RNP. I wrote this article now because I want others going through the same thing to know they aren’t stupid, the information really just isn’t there to find! Or, if it IS there, it is too damn hard to find! The article I wrote on the Form 888 gets very few comments, but it get between 10 and 20 views a day, so presumably it is helpful to people.
Doesn’t seem easy at all. Sounds a little like the Italian way of doing things, difficult. I hope this process smooths itself out for you and the family.
Who knows – MAYBE it is easy – but that information is not available! It is so frustrating. I like to be organised and plan ahead – how can I under such circumstances? How could anyone?
I hope yours was smooth! Or maybe it wasn’t?
Oh, the joys of cross-border love!
The government doesn’t give a damn about what’s important or convenient for you. They do, however, love making everything a hundred times more difficult than necessary and ensure this happens by using vague language and faulty logic (and parentheses, apparently.)
Good luck.
Lots of parentheses!
I just thought I should appraise myself of the requirements for this next stage. What a shock I got! I hear through the grapevine this second stage isn’t supposed to be too difficult, but for goodness sake, at least let us know what we are supposed to have! I think we still only have about four photos of us together since my fmaily came home – I just HATE having my photo taken! Maybe a few more than four – but not a lot!
Bureaucrats are the same everywhere. Did you read about the German/Finnish entrepreneur who gained residency in New Zealand, even though he had previous convictions for fraud, after purchasing $10,000000 ( Ten Million ) worth of New Zealand Government Bonds and making a sizeable donation to the Christ Church Earthquake Fund?
Goes to show you, money can buy you ANYTHING!!!!
Mr. Kim Dotcom ( yes that is the name he’s known by ) has now been arrested and awaiting extradition to the USA. Wonder if he can buy his way out of this trouble??
We as ordinary people have to jump through all the hoops with immigration and then with NO guarantee of success.
No Heidi, I didn’t read about that case, but there was a case I took note of when we were fighting for Mr O’s visa. It was an American who wasn’t checked out properly by the Australian authorities before he came and he had a record as an abuser of children, if I recall correctly. I can’t find the details now, but I had them at the time and I know I’ve got them on file somewhere still. White American so he was OK? I remember it riled me at the time.