Expert Tips for Faster Processing of Partner Visa
When you submit a partner visa application, it can two years before the immigration department gets back to you. Unfortunately, it is standard procedure, especially if you consider the thousands of applications that the department must process. Besides, the processing fee of $7,850 you have to part with is a good enough reason to want your application processed fast. Thus, you will be glad to learn that some applications are processed in half the time. Here are expert tips to help shorten a partner visa processing time.
Submit Decision-Ready Application
When you lodge a partner visa application, the documents are assigned to an immigration case officer. Therefore, one case officer can be in charge of hundreds of partner visa applications at any given time. Since case officers have targets they must meet each year, most of them prioritise cases based on decision-readiness, not submission dates. Therefore, just because you submitted your partner visa application on January 1st does not mean that a case officer will prioritise it over an application lodged in June of the same year. In this regard, make your application decision-ready to encourage a case officer to prioritise it over other applicants. It means giving an agent everything they need to process your application and meet their annual targets. It is a win-win situation for both a case officer and an applicant.
Include Useful Information Only
Proving the genuineness of your relationship is vital to a partner visa application. Consequently, most applicants provide a lot of information they believe can help their case. While there is nothing wrong with providing as much information as possible, you should not include useless data. Remember, case officers are legally obliged to look into every bit of evidence in your application, including reviewing your social media profile. Therefore, drowning an officer with loads of information that leads nowhere confuses and frustrates them. For instance, you do not need to submit hundreds of photos if you already included your marriage certificate in the application. Ultimately, the less time your immigration case officer spends on your partner visa application, the faster the processing time.
Time Application Strategically
Often, most partner visa applicants are impatient and want to lodge their applications as soon as possible. While some immigration case officers understand the impatience, it only works against your application. Most importantly, your partner visa application can only be strong if you meet the laid down criteria. For instance, the immigration department considers a long-term relationship if couples have been together for three years. Therefore, if your relationship is 34 months old and you apply for both a temporary and a permanent partner visa, it will be rejected since you do not meet the criteria. However, the chances of success are high if you are patient and wait two more months to lodge your application.