Need Speedy Processing of 136 SI

Beenz

Hi Beenz

Slow down a little, my friend. Let us unravel your several queries one at a time, I suggest.

1. You cannot pay an additional fee in order to expedite any part of the process, regrettably - we would all pay up if there were!

2. You have to validate the visa by physically entering Australia within a year of the earlier of the PCCs or the meds . Since you have not even begun with either, you've got till the end of August 2007 at least in order to validate, I should think.

3. The effect of frontloading PCCs and meds is that it avoids unnecessary delays once the CO who will actually grant your visa is ready to start processing it to finality for you. It does NOT have the effect of making them appoint the CO any sooner than they otherwise would have done. So if you jump the gun, the risk of maybe having to redo them lies with you.

4. If you are expecting to sail through the meds and the PCCs with no trouble, and you are reasonably sure that your application is complete, accurate and can be finalised quickly once the CO contacts you, personally I support what I call "semi-frontloading" regardless of what the professionals say. If you are reasonably sure of a CO in (say) December, then in your shoes I would consider doing your meds and PCCs unrequested between about mid-October and mid-November.

5. If you want to go to Australia in December and you hold an ETA-eligible pbuttport, you would be able to obtain a subclbutt 976 ETA (tourist) within about 20 minutes via an on-line application. It would not permit you to work in Australia, but it would enable you go go there, and you need NOT return to your country of origin in order for your 136 visa to be granted. You merely need to ensure that DIMA has new, up-to-date contact details for you.

You would have to leave Australia and be offshore in order for your 136 visa to be granted, but Bali-Singaport-NZ-Fiji are all "offshore" for this purpose and the staff in all of them (plus the COs in Australia) are very familiar with the drills. The get the visa all-but ready - ie do everything short of actually granting it - until they can see via the DIMA computer that you have departed from Australia. With you gone, the CO grants the visa and asks his-her offshore colleagues in the relevant office to evidence it quickly for you. Once it has been evidenced, you catch the next flight back to Australia, validating your new permanent visa on the way in. (The grant of a 136 visa automatically cancels an ETA.)

Sure, it involves extra expense - extra flights and accommodation for a few days - but it is your money and how you choose to spend it is your business, since paying an expedition fee is not an available option.

Good luck & best wishes

Gill