Managing expectations is one of the key roles I play in a visa application.

I cannot begin to imagine how many times I have told clients at initial consultation and throughout the processing of a visa application or appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal that time lines are indicative only and cannot be enforced.

The reason I am prompted to write on this subject as I have just come off a phone call with a client involved in a complex tourist visa application seeking travel to Australia for their partner while awaiting the outcome of a similarly complex offshore subclass 309 partner visa application. The conversation went something along the lines of, …” it’s been 3 months now, you promised there would be a positive visa outcome and that my partner would be travelling to Australia by now.”

I pointed out that never in either my or Ray, my business partner’s, extensive careers have we given a promise of a positive outcome nor guaranteed a time frame of decision making. We don’t throw in a set of steak knives either. What we do promise is to prepare and fight the case with all or our skills and know how and to be accurate and correct as to the law and its application to the matter and to keep you up to date on developments as they arise or on strategies that ‘may’ help a decision come more quickly or see the application process more smoothly.

Partner visas, where partners are separated due to being outside of Australia during the processing of the partner visa application, are a case in point where management of expectation is key. Advised processing is currently 2-3 years and can be longer than that if there are character issues due to a criminal record of sponsor applicant, heath issues requiring a health waiver application or identity issues which may lead to the case officer wanting to make further and deeper enquiries on this issue.

Therefore, when looking to work with an Australian migration lawyer or agent, or even do the application on your own, note that an agent or lawyer cannot and must not guarantee a positive outcome and can give only at best an indication of standard processing time frames and should point out clearly that each application will turn on its own circumstances and that there is no power or leverage to force a case officer to make a decision within advised or other time frames.

So if you are seeking advice on any Australian visa application then give us a call at Turner Coulson on +61 (0)2 9222 1545  for a preliminary chat at no cost to you and then if we think we can help, and you want us to, we can look to make a consultation to give full and proper advice