Julie,
This is the worst part because processing timescales definitely do change and, at the moment, timescales on 138 are longer than they were earlier in the year. Just before we lodged our visa application in May, it seemed DIMIA were turning around applications within six months but I would say 8-9 months from acknowledgement to visa grant is more realistic at the moment.
We didn't front load our application as we had decided to wait until DIMIA requested them, but we ended up sending the stuff in unrequested at the beginning of September.
We know that we didn't get a Case Officer buttigned to our application until end Sep-start Oct, and we received our AoS request-final info request on 7th October.
When we checked with DIMIA in September about our application, we were told that they were currently processing April 2005 applications and ours would be looked at shortly - based on that you can work out it's actually taking nearly 6 months to get the application reviewed.
We expect to have our visa granted (fingers crossed) by the end of this year - which will be eight months after lodging!
Nicky
Rgds,
Nicky
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