8 replies to this topic

[size13shoes]

Hi All

I’m just a normal lad not the sharpest tool in the box but I do ok, preparing and lodging a visa application can be a bit daunting at first and I found myself often over thinking the simplest questions creating problems that only existed in my own head.

Once I started to concentrate and work through one item at a time (instead of looking at everything at once) my confidence grew I and started to make some real progress.

I considered our application to be straight forward as we both have never married before, neither of us has children or dependants and she has been to Australia a couple of times before.

Today being Friday 21st of October my Fiancés Australian Prospective Marriage visa was granted taking 13 weeks in total from being lodged to approval (we were initially told it would take 5 to 10 months).  I must have done well as no interview was required and they only requested one extra document that I had already supplied when the visa was lodged.

Below are the dates, time frames and how the events evolved,

Friday 22nd July 2011
• Australian Prospective Marriage Visa Lodged (in Bangkok)

Friday 23rd Sep 2011
Received email confirming initial assessment has been done and stating the following,

• We now have a case officer for this application
• No interview was required.
• They mentioned that they would like one document sent to them (it was in the original application not sure why they wanted another copy of it), I already had it scanned in PDF format so I just emailed it straight back to them.
• They requested for a medical examination to be under taken and supplied a letter to give to the doctor.(fiancé just printed it and gave it to doctor)

Monday 26th Sep 2011
• Medical examination was completed and I emailed our case officer confirming it had been completed.

(Not required to email them but it was my choice, I did not send any other emails as I did not want to annoy them too much).

Monday 17th October
• Fiancé received phone call informing her everything was completed and Visa was granted.  They asked her to bring her passport to Embassy on Friday 21st Oct 2011 and collect some paperwork.

Friday 21st Oct 2011
• Fiancé attended Australian Embassy received a stamp in her passport and collected the remaining papers, visa was then complete and granted officially.
(I’m not sure what the stamp is as I have not seen her passport yet).



I paid for the Visa here in Australia, scanned and emailed the receipt to Fiancé which she printed and lodged with the visa.  This saves any currency conversion rates and or fees associated with transferring money to another country. It also gave me peace of mind she wasn’t walking around (well in their terms) with a large amount of money.

On her last trip to Australia I prepared all the supporting information and application forms for the Australian Prospective Marriage Visa.  I used simple slide on paper clips to keep the paper work together in order and in sections, placed them in a document bag ready for my fiancé to lodge in Bangkok when she went back home.

I’ve seen questions before asking about the medicals in our case the medical cost around 3,000 baht which was performed at the Bangkok General Hospital. The Embassy has a short list of doctors / hospitals you can choose from depending where you are in Thailand.  In our case the results were sent to the Embassy electronically once the medical was completed we did not have to deliver them.

I must admit preparing all information to support our application took a considerable amount of time but in the end to get an approval was very satisfying.

I used a visa agent for her first Australian Tourist Visa, the experience with the company was great and a visa was granted.  The main reason I used an agent is that I was so far away in another country and felt a little bit helpless, I thought it would all be too much for my girlfriend to organise and I had limited holidays / time. (For me at the time it was money well spent).

What I found is that I had to prepare and supply all the information anyway, so for our second tourist visa I had more confidence, time and holidays so I decided to do it on my own and the money I would have spent using a visa agent almost covered the cost of flying over to Thailand. I flew over there lodged the visa (which was granted in 6 working days) and had another holiday.

If you’ve applied or applying for a visa it can seem like it takes for eternity, be patient because the day it’s granted the time and frustration is some how all forgotten and well worth it (well for me anyway).

I would like to thank all the people for asking and answering all the questions in relation to visas in this forum and other forums as this information helped and guided me with my applications.


Thanking you all




size13shoes

[Elwood]

very good to see mate. all the best and thanks for the time line to that was good

[Scumbag]

That's great news and good to see that they are not forcing people to wait 5 to 10 months.

[rickyt]

Thanks for taking the time to post this,and congrats on your propective marriage visa.
13 weeks , You must of been pretty pleased with that time frame.
5 to 10 months is a long time to be waiting,

[Elwood]

they say the 5-10 months is so they dont get called all the time about it. as most so far have been in the 12-16 weeks

[Aussie Wolf]

Congratulations and well done mate. Thats awesome news.

You have basically reiterated my belief that if you have half a brain,take your time and are in a genuine relationship,there is no real need for an immigration agent especially some of the scumbags in pattaya that bullshit they have connections in the embassy.

The amount of blokes willing to help on this forum and others is priceless and a real credit to all who contribute.

Once again well done and all the best for the future.

[size13shoes]

Elwood, on 21 October 2011 - 09:22 AM, said:

very good to see mate. all the best and thanks for the time line to that was good

Thank you Elwood,

I thought some people might like the current time line as it may give some hope etc… as there is a lot technical info out there already about visas

[size13shoes]

rickyt, on 21 October 2011 - 10:15 AM, said:

Thanks for taking the time to post this,and congrats on your propective marriage visa.
13 weeks , You must of been pretty pleased with that time frame.
5 to 10 months is a long time to be waiting,

Thanks rickyt

Yes I was horrified when I first got told it could take up to 10 months.  

Bringing the girls out here on a tourist visa can be very limiting in what they can do. Sitting home all day waiting for you to finish work can be a boring for them, I was lucky because started work each day at 6am and I finish work at 1.30pm so we still had enough time to do things together before she got bored.

Now she can come here and work a little bit! Perhaps save up and buy a new buffalo 

[size13shoes]

Aussie Wolf, on 21 October 2011 - 10:32 AM, said:

Congratulations and well done mate. Thats awesome news.

You have basically reiterated my belief that if you have half a brain,take your time and are in a genuine relationship,there is no real need for an immigration agent especially some of the scumbags in pattaya that bullshit they have connections in the embassy.

The amount of blokes willing to help on this forum and others is priceless and a real credit to all who contribute.

Once again well done and all the best for the future.

Cheers

I’ve noticed you’ve helped a few people with good info also.