# Application Acknowledgement (and approval for bridging visa)



## 14189 (Apr 17, 2011)

I am currently under a prospective marriage visa. Me and my partner are married, etc. My current PMV expires on 1 August. We recently sent my application via express post, on monday, which means it's most likely arrived on wednesday.

This is what I'm worried about:

From looking around online, it looks like the partner visa queue is absolutely _slammed_. To tell you the truth, I'm not really worried about this as long as I remain legal in Australia. I have a job, and I don't want to violate any laws. I'm assuming that once my application is acknowledged, they will have a bridging visa A in place once my PMV expires.

How long does it take for them to acknowledge your application? I found on the website that the official answer is 7 working days, but given the state of the partner stream queue, what happens if they don't? Has anyone gone through this before? I didn't think I got the application in at the last minute, but it has me worried. If it's as simple as a phone call to the DIAC to explain, it won't worry me except for the random phone anxiety, but is there anything special I should know about that I haven't been able to find on the website?


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## CollegeGirl (Nov 10, 2012)

Stop worrying!  As long as they receive your application by the deadline (which it sounds like they did), and it's a valid application, you're fine. It may take them a while to *send you* an acknowledgment but that doesn't matter. Once your PMV expires, you'll be on a bridging visa.


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## 14189 (Apr 17, 2011)

Great! I'll still worry, but maybe just a little less ;-)


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## 18302 (Nov 23, 2011)

You can always check VEVO on or after the 1st of August as well. If you look up your details for the prospective marriage visa and VEVO gives an error like below, it likely means that your bridging visa has been granted and taken effect:

_The following errors have been encountered: Entered details cannot be confirmed as the TRN/Visa Grant number/Evidence number does not match your current visa. _

If you still haven't received an acknowledgement letter, you can call Immigration and ask them for a password to access VEVO. Once you have the password, you can log in and view the full details of the bridging visa.


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## Whitney (Jan 4, 2013)

You can also ring the immigration line after a few days and ask them. I called a few days after I submitted my application to ask a question (I had an after the fact freak about my application being refused for processing) and the girl told me that it had been accepted. haha I didn't get my letter for four or five more days.


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## kiki1689 (Jul 18, 2013)

Hi,

I just submitted my partner visa 309/100 and it has been accepted and i payed my fee. I was unaware of such a long wait for it to granted as i was told just a few months now people are saying up to 9 months.
.I think ill have no issue as im from uk and my partner is from Australia. We are currently in New zealand as our uk and oz working visas ran out. My visa for New zealand also runs out in september. My question is can i go to oz on a holiday visa for 3 months while waiting? Please help as everyone says different things and its driving me banannas!!


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## CollegeGirl (Nov 10, 2012)

Kiki - that 8-9 month wait is for people who are applying from the UK. Did you apply through the UK embassy or the New Zealand embassy? If you applied through the UK embassy you are almost definitely in for a wait of 8-9 months. 

You can go to Oz on a tourist visa (given you're from the UK and staying in NZ, it would probably be approved...unless they don't like you applying for a tourist visa so soon after a WHV. That's the only issue I could see) while your visa is processing, but be aware that you HAVE to be offshore when your visa is granted. You'll have to let your CO know before you leave for Oz that you've gotten a tourist visa and you'll be onshore for a bit, and ask them nicely to please let you know when they're ready to make a decision on your visa so you can get offshore. Most people just make a quick trip to NZ, though, which you obviously can't do - so you'll have to go to Bali or somewhere else. You can go anywhere in the world, as long as you're outside AU . You just have to then let your CO know when you're offshore again so they can grant.


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## kiki1689 (Jul 18, 2013)

Hi,

Thanks so much for getting back to me.I applied through the New zealand embassy, my partner is with me here. Im currently on a student visa. Do you know when your assigned a case officer? how long after sending application? I don't understand why they make these things so complicated and drag out so long. I have a very straightforward case. !! so your advise is that i should go to oz on a tourist visa? should i just ring up the embassy??! i really appreciate you getting back to me.Your wonderfully helpfull
hope ur visa is going well


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## CollegeGirl (Nov 10, 2012)

Hi kiki.  You're welcome.

I actually don't know what average waiting time is for the NZ embassy right now. We don't get a lot of people applying for 309s from NZ here. In fact, I just checked our "timeline" feature here on this forum and absolutely no one has listed that. So you're unique. 

I won't say you _should_ go to Oz on a tourist visa - you're the only one that can make that decision.  But I will say it's a fairly common thing to do these days and DIAC doesn't seem to have an issue with it.


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## kiki1689 (Jul 18, 2013)

Your great! really glad i came on this.You have helped a lot.How do you know all this?


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## CollegeGirl (Nov 10, 2012)

I got engaged back in October and my fiance and I started planning to apply for our prospective marriage visa then. But we had to wait until his Permanent Residency was finalized, which instead of taking six weeks like DIAC had said it would, took MONTHS. So I had quite a lot of time before we could actually apply. So I spent tons of time on here and on other immigration forums reading everything I could get my hands on about partner visas. I tend to the be the kind of person who throws myself into learning about things that are important to me.


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## CollegeGirl (Nov 10, 2012)

And now, reading/helping people on this forum is a way for me to get my energy out regarding this immigration process so I don't go crazy with the waiting.


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## Whitney (Jan 4, 2013)

I'm the same as you CG. The other reason I do it is because I have learned so much about navigating the Australian immigration process I feel like it would be a waste of this knowledge not to share it with other people.


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## CollegeGirl (Nov 10, 2012)

I was so confused when I first started this whole process. If people hadn't answered my questions here I would have had no idea what to do.


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