6TH APRIL 2017
Australia partner visa applications allow an Australian citizen or permanent resident to sponsor a partner from overseas or a partner on a temporary visa in Australia. Partner visas can be lodged offshore (the applicant is not in Australia at the time of application) or onshore (applicant is in Australia at the time of application).
The Director for the Onshore Partner Migration management team has issued a letter announcing new processing arrangements for onshore partner visa application (subclass 820 / 801 /100). The letter states:
This year the Department is facing a particularly difficult resourcing environment with pressure to decrease staff numbers in line with the Government’s wider plans to reduce public sector expenditure. In the Partner Migration programme this is occurring in an environment of continued high application rates, growing pipelines onshore, and significant fraudulent activity.
More importantly the letter mentions:
· onshore partner visa application will no longer be processed in chronological order (first in first out)
· instead low-risk and fully front-end loaded applications will be processed first
The letter also indicates a 16-23 month timeframe (from date of lodgement or eligibility) for onshore partner visa applications to be processed currently. We previously discussed the slowing processing times for partner visa applications here.
What does the DIBP mean by “low-risk” and “fully front-end loaded” applications?
While no clear definition was given “low-risk” applications are probably deduced from a risk assessment matrix which includes reference to the nationality of the applicant where the country has a high fraudulent visa application or non-visa compliance record. “Fully front-end loaded” applications would mean that the application is “decision-ready” with all forms, documents, health and character requirements all fully demonstrated and supplied.
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