Migrant review timelines under pressure
Being as buried as I am in my own case on a day-to-day basis, this particular article escaped my attention until today: Migrant tribunals under resource pressure (see related articles below).
I have written before about the length of time it can take for a partner visa appeal to be heard, noting it could take three years for a family or couple to be reunited. Reading this article, it would seem it could possibly be longer. After all, the length of time to even have the original application processed can be twelve months alone, depending on the country of origin of the applicant. Then add the appeal timeline to that.
It is my contention that a partner visa should be considered a humanitarian visa, not lumped in with all the other visa classes. There is a huge difference between a student appealing a student visa decision and a family trying desperately to be reunited. Even without the complications of our particular case, it takes too long for families. I recall the case of the couple from Canada with three children: it was over twelve months before the father could join his family. Fortunately in their case there was no appeal required, that twelve months was just the initial visa application processing.
Living in a Abbott and Costello sketch
Some of my husband’s trials and tribulations read a little like an Abbott and Costello script.
I met him by accident…
… I stayed on purpose.
I saw that phrase this morning and thought it fitted our situation very well.
I referred to my husband’s dark days as an asylum seeker yesterday. I’ve not given much detail about either visa denial to date. There are reasons for that. I was hoping Australia would finally “do the right thing” and we could simply get on with our lives. I had faith in my country to uphold the ICCPR. I didn’t want to publicly show how badly Australia had handled both situations. As that has yet to happen, I’m going to delve into the dark days while we wait.
