Hi,
When I called DIMIA last time I was told the same. In fact I saw it on their websitethat it is 12 months for low-risk and 15 months for high-risk countries. However when I went to the embbutty to have some certified copies done the woman said to me that it took less then 6 months and I am in a "high-risk country". But looking at the timeline it take less then 6 months for people from Hungary.
If the CO is allocated and you have straightforward application, frontloaded PCCs and Medicals, you are fine. Unless they wanna check your employment references. I talked to an agent and I was told that they usually check employment references if you work for an unknown company with small head count.
In addition, those people at the helpdesk are juniors and sometimes they have no idea about many things. I asked them how long an IELTS test is valid and I got 3 different answers every time. Once the guy told me that it must be not more then 12 months old when the visa was GRANTED. That is nonsense. I think he confused it with the PCCs and Medicals
Cheers Tibor
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