# PMV/PARTNER offshore visa Madrid Embassy Process Time



## Hellblaster (Nov 22, 2016)

Hi everyone !

There are a lot of threads talking about UK/USA/other countries processing time, but non about the Madrid Embassy. This one process the following countries :

-Spain
-Portugal
-France
-Belgium
-Luxembourg
-Andorra
-Monaco

Has anyone recently or in the past year lodged an application ? To see the average process time.

Cheers


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## pineapple88 (Nov 24, 2016)

We lodged on 19 July 2016. Not heard anything yet.


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## Hellblaster (Nov 22, 2016)

Hopefully you'll hear something soon !

Do you have a CO assigned already ? Were you asked to do your medicals ? If so how much does it cost on average ?


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## pineapple88 (Nov 24, 2016)

No CO that I know of, but when I called up, it seemed that our application and docs had been reviewed. Were not requested to do medicals but we did them anyway to ensure nothing was outstanding. Also did police checks. 

Cost (in eur)

Biometrics: 40
Health check (doctor visit): 135
Health check (xray): 50
Health check (blood test): 24

Applied from France


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## Hellblaster (Nov 22, 2016)

ok thanks for the infos. In the end, how long your medicals are valid for ?

We plan to apply for a visitor visa with invitation letter and stuff but a bit scared of a refusal as the wait is a bit of a pain.


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## pineapple88 (Nov 24, 2016)

They are valid for 12 months. I think we probably had them done a week after the application. If we don't have the grant by then, we'll just do them again. It was a risk we were willing to take. We have applied for (and been granted) a 12 month tourist visa for my husband. Only took 3 days to be granted the visa. Perhaps because we'd applied for the partner visa and done the medicals already. So my husband will visit on this visa until the partner visa is approved. He'll then leave Australia prior to the grant.


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## Hellblaster (Nov 22, 2016)

That's good for you !

Since you've done them in France, is there only in Paris or different cities. It has to be Aussie government related I suppose. Bad stuff is I have to go to Paris tomorow for my biometrics, would have been good to do the medicals too.

As for your tourist visa, was it a tourist one or a visitor one ?


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## pineapple88 (Nov 24, 2016)

Yes we did them in Paris (but we live here). I think there is only one doc who does the appointments here. Dr Nancy Salzman. She has great availability. Why don't you quickly ring and see if you can get an appointment for tomorrow? Then again, you do take the risk that the results will be expired before the visa is ready and you'll have lost your money.


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## pineapple88 (Nov 24, 2016)

The visa we applied for (after the partner one) was the visitor 600.


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## Hellblaster (Nov 22, 2016)

Ok I will give her a call.

They just need the medicals when your CO is assigned ? It doesn't have to be valid when the visa is granted ?


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## pineapple88 (Nov 24, 2016)

No the medicals need to be valid when the visa is ready to be granted. I'm fairly sure a CO has been assigned to our case but we've not had any correspondence with the person. We prepared very well, provided ample docs and have a pretty good case (together for 5 years, married for 2, 2 kids).

You'll need your HAP ID letter for the medical appointment. Xray and blood test can be done after the appointment.


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## Hellblaster (Nov 22, 2016)

Ok thank you for your very valuable infos !

Cheers


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## Mania (Sep 7, 2016)

Hellblaster said:


> Ok I will give her a call.
> 
> They just need the medicals when your CO is assigned ? It doesn't have to be valid when the visa is granted ?


Medicals and criminal checks need to be valid at the time of grant - although case officers can use some discretion if they so desire.

Edit didn't see the second page and that this had been answered - post fail


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## Hellblaster (Nov 22, 2016)

One question about your visitor visa, in your letter, what incentive reasons did you give for leaving Australia ?


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## Mania (Sep 7, 2016)

Hellblaster said:


> One question about your visitor visa, in your letter, what incentive reasons did you give for leaving Australia ?


Work
Family
Assets - car, house etc


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## pineapple88 (Nov 24, 2016)

We didn't need to give any reasons (for the type of visa we applied for). Don't think we even needed to provide a letter? The visa does have no further stay attached to it. But given that it is valid for 12 months, I don't think we should have an issue (should have partner visa by then).


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## Hellblaster (Nov 22, 2016)

What type of visa did you apply for? I'll go with the e600 Tourist Stream. My fiancee wrote an invitation letter, stating that she will provide me for accommodation and some other expenses. But for this one, I need to give them reasons that I will come back to my home country. 

Some agents on this forum recommended not to say that I will visit my fiancee to wait for the outcome of my PMV. I must comply with the GTE condition (Genuine temporary Entrant). 

I will apply this week.


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## pineapple88 (Nov 24, 2016)

We got the 600 visitor but didn't do a letter saying my husband would go back to France.


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## pineapple88 (Nov 24, 2016)

Hi Hellblaster,

Just to let you know our visa has been granted (straight to permanent).

Good luck


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## Hellblaster (Nov 22, 2016)

Hi pineapple88,

That's awesome news ! Enjoy your life in Oz !

Cheers


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## marsenal (Sep 9, 2016)

Thanks for starting the thread. And congrats to pineapple88 for the recent grant!

We're also going through Madrid (currently based in Paris). Applied in October 2016 without providing Medicals or PC. Decided to wait for these to be requested. They were requested (along with some other info) mid-January after just over 3 months. We provided this by the end of January and are now waiting.

For exact dates, please see signature below.

For those reading in future, medicals can be booked at short notice in Paris and the Police Check in France (for French citizens) is free and is shipped within a week.


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## Hellblaster (Nov 22, 2016)

Thanks for sharing marsenal ! Good luck to you !

It's the same for me, I'll wait for them to ask for the Medicals and police check. We just reach the 1 months so I guess we have another couple of months before they request them.

Thank you for the infos about the Police checks.


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## Hellblaster (Nov 22, 2016)

Hi !

So I applied for a visitor visa 600 the 10th of Feb and still no news. The status is still received. It has been 15 working days so far, so I guess I'm in the timeframe, although on the immi website, it says 1 working day for low risk country.

Does anyone have a similar case ?

Cheers


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## benb (Mar 10, 2017)

I am in the same boat my partner is in France and we submitted the application on the 19-Jan-2017. 
Medicals & finger prints all completed early Feb 2017. 

States is "Assessment in Progress" Should I worry about anything, no calls or interview or case officer assigned. 

The states changed to that after I paid for the application and all documents have been attached by end of January the only other document I attached last was the sponsor Police check from Australia, they did not ask for it but I did it anyway as there is a note on the website that says needs to be done if you sponsor a partner after 18 November 2016.


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## mamainspain (Oct 6, 2016)

Hi there,

I posted this on another thread last night but as we applied from Madrid thought others would like to know.

I am Australian and my husband is Spanish. He received an email today (March 14th 2017) to state that his grant has been approved after 5 months of waiting. Yay!

We applied for a 309 but were granted a 100 straight up due to being together for 6.5 years, married for 2 years and have a child who is an Australian citizen by descent.

*Applied offshore (via Madrid embassy) on 4 October 2016 for a 309/100.
*Received a request for Police checks and Medicals on 14 January 2017
*Police Check and Medicals submitted on 19 February 2017
*Visa subclass 100 granted on 14 March 2017
*He has until 22 Feb 2018 to enter Australia. 

We are living in Spain and applied via immi online. Medicals were completed in London as we were travelling there and was more convenient as we live in a small city. Police check completed via post to Bilbao police department.

Definitely feel that Madrid embassy are processing grants faster than other embassies. But on the other hand, we have a strong relationship history, we could have also affected the time to approve.

Hope this helps.


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## Hellblaster (Nov 22, 2016)

Hi benb,

Hopefully we will be in the same train for grant !

That is a painful time !



Hi mamainspain, that's a great news ! congratulations ! and thank you for sharing your story, it gives hope to all of us !
Having a strong case must help in the processing time.

Hopefully new people will be granted soon so we can work an average processing time !


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## benb (Mar 10, 2017)

Hi Hellblaster, 

Just wondering if you had any contact regarding the 300 Visa you applied for. I submitted my application around the same time as you and have not heard anything yet. 

It is just been over 3 months for me and no contact or Case officer assigned I am starting to worry.


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## Hellblaster (Nov 22, 2016)

Hi everyone,

I've been asked for my Police checks and medicals the 21st of April. 
It should be a good sign as this is usually the last stage.

I also entered Australia on my 600 Visa the 23rd of April and it feels very good 

Doas anyone else have had few requests ?

Cheers


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## benb (Mar 10, 2017)

I did not get a chance to login and give you guys an update. 

My Fiance also got asked for the Police checks on the 27th of April, and a couple more documents like copy of every page of her passport, Notice of intended marriage which I had already and forgot to upload to the system and also form 1399 which is call declaration of service. 

We might be both in luck and we could get the visa at the same time. Keep me updated.


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## marsenal (Sep 9, 2016)

We provided medicals and PC end of January. No news since then.
Will be interested to see if you guys have quick progress or not.


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## benb (Mar 10, 2017)

Finally got the Visa just under 4 months. 

Here is an update about my Application:
Submitted online on 19/01/2017 (Madrid)
Medicals and fingerprints assessment requested on same day 19/01/2017
Medicals & Fingerprints completed on 03/02/2017 (Paris)
Completed Medicals received 08/02/2017
Request for more Information 27/04/2017 
Visa Grant Notification 17/05/2017


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## Hellblaster (Nov 22, 2016)

That's wonderful news ! 

I received the email saying that my visa is ready to be granted and have to leave the country  I guess I'll spend a week in Bali 

it seems there is a wave of grants from the Madrid Embassy !

I applied the 31st of January and got the email on the 19/05 so under 4 months

Good luck everyone

Cheers


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## marsenal (Sep 9, 2016)

We've now received the grant as well. Straight to Permanent 100.
The wait was 7.5 months. Need to enter by mid January.
We had submitted the requested medical and PC in January and have been waiting ever since. Were debating sending an email for a while and finally did so this week. Within 10 minutes we had the grant. Not sure if the timing was just amazing or they had just forgotten about us. Either way very happy and relieved that the wait is over.


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## bela187 (Aug 7, 2016)

I thought I would share my experience on here as I found a lot of info on this site that was really helpful....My fiance is French and we applied through the Madrid embassy.
We got told that it would take 10-14months to get the visa however we got it in under 4 months!


PMV 300 applied from France: 9 Feb 2017
Police Checks / Biometrics Requested: 26 Apr 2017
Police Checks Submitted: 20 May 2017
300 Grant: 23 May 2017


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## Hellblaster (Nov 22, 2016)

That's it, finally got the grant after going to Bali 

Lots of grants right now, it's good.

Good luck for the ones that are waiting.

cheers


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## Peaches99 (Jan 9, 2018)

*,ml*



pineapple88 said:


> They are valid for 12 months. I think we probably had them done a week after the application. If we don't have the grant by then, we'll just do them again. It was a risk we were willing to take. We have applied for (and been granted) a 12 month tourist visa for my husband. Only took 3 days to be granted the visa. Perhaps because we'd applied for the partner visa and done the medicals already. So my husband will visit on this visa until the partner visa is approved. He'll then leave Australia prior to the grant.


Hi Pineapple88. We're in France like you were, I've just started an application for an offshore partner visa for my husband. I'm Australian by birth, he's British and we've been married a long time.

Just curious: were you asked for the police check in the end? I plan to have the medical done first as you did to speed things up but not sure about the police check.

Also, did you apply for his tourist visa the normal way like any other time you've visited Australia? Or did you have to go through a different process because you'd already submitted a partner application? Many thanks!


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## oam (Feb 23, 2018)

Glad to have finally found some info on the Madrid proccessing times. I am hopefully applying (from Paris) for my partner in the next few weeks, and I was wondering how exactly one goes about getting medical checks here? Can I just go to a regular GP ? And biometrics? Aha really not too good at the whole french paperwork systems (though the police check / extrait de casier judiciare is particularly easy to obtain). 

Congratulations to everyone who had their visa approved!!


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## marsenal (Sep 9, 2016)

oam said:


> Glad to have finally found some info on the Madrid proccessing times. I am hopefully applying (from Paris) for my partner in the next few weeks, and I was wondering how exactly one goes about getting medical checks here? Can I just go to a regular GP ? And biometrics? Aha really not too good at the whole french paperwork systems (though the police check / extrait de casier judiciare is particularly easy to obtain).
> 
> Congratulations to everyone who had their visa approved!!


 This is actually pretty straight forward in Paris (at least it was a gear ago).
After applying we got an email pretty quickly asking to come in for biometrics. The address is on the website somewhere. 
Then there's a couple of doctors in Paris that you can see (also listed on website somewhere). Once we were asked to go in for medical getting an appointment with them was easy.


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## maersk_guy (Feb 10, 2018)

Congrats everyone who got there visas , I am in my preliminary stages and just collecting documents for a PMV , we would be applying for a offshore visa from Spain , my girlfriend lives in Barcelona , Has anyone gone through medicals and police checks from this city , also if there are any specific paperwork to be attached from Spain ...any help will be appreciated


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## gregos (Jan 25, 2018)

Hi everyone,

I lodged my application via Madrid embassy (as I'm French) on the 24th of January, finished uploading all the documents by the end of february.

If anyone has some feedback on recent processing times, I'll take it 

Thanks !


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## longdistance (Apr 19, 2018)

so happy to find info on the Madrid processing times.

My finance also applied through the Madrid embassy in April, 2018. Hope this takes less than 11 months! If others are going through the same thing, please post


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## Peaches99 (Jan 9, 2018)

longdistance said:


> so happy to find info on the Madrid processing times.
> 
> My finance also applied through the Madrid embassy in April, 2018. Hope this takes less than 11 months! If others are going through the same thing, please post


My partner applied via Madrid in Feb 2018. He was sent an instant request for biometrics and he did that within 2 weeks. Just waiting now....


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## longdistance (Apr 19, 2018)

Peaches99 said:


> My partner applied via Madrid in Feb 2018. He was sent an instant request for biometrics and he did that within 2 weeks. Just waiting now....


Yes same. Mine was asked for his medical straight away. Have you been assigned a case officer yet?


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## Peaches99 (Jan 9, 2018)

No case officer assigned yet...


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## gregos (Jan 25, 2018)

longdistance said:


> Yes same. Mine was asked for his medical straight away. Have you been assigned a case officer yet?


When you say he was asked for his medical straight away, did he received an email specifically asking for it ?


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## longdistance (Apr 19, 2018)

gregos said:


> When you say he was asked for his medical straight away, did he received an email specifically asking for it ?


No, when you log into the immi account, under 'actions', 'health assessment', it asked him for it.


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## gregos (Jan 25, 2018)

longdistance said:


> No, when you log into the immi account, under 'actions', 'health assessment', it asked him for it.


Thank you, I have the same call for action in My ImmiAccount. But I've read several times that it's not necessary to do these checks unless CO is asking for it (confirmed by an immi agent we had on phone).

So I'm not sure what to do.


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## longdistance (Apr 19, 2018)

gregos said:


> Thank you, I have the same call for action in My ImmiAccount. But I've read several times that it's not necessary to do these checks unless CO is asking for it (confirmed by an immi agent we had on phone).
> 
> So I'm not sure what to do.


Really? That's interesting. After we did it, this message appeared:

"All health examinations required for the specified visa subclass have been finalised. Processing of this person's visa application can now continue. This will not occur until a case officer investigates the case in line with published processing times for the visa that has been applied for. Do not contact the department about health examinations in the meantime."

But then we are not using an agent so not sure when the right time is to do it. In the end, i think it won't matter - if they ask for it again, we'll just do it again.


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## gregos (Jan 25, 2018)

longdistance said:


> Really? That's interesting. After we did it, this message appeared:
> 
> "All health examinations required for the specified visa subclass have been finalised. Processing of this person's visa application can now continue. This will not occur until a case officer investigates the case in line with published processing times for the visa that has been applied for. Do not contact the department about health examinations in the meantime."
> 
> But then we are not using an agent so not sure when the right time is to do it. In the end, i think it won't matter - if they ask for it again, we'll just do it again.


Oh that's interesting too... I hope that I've not waited for anything. Finally took an apointment by the end of may, we'll see ;-)


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## gregos (Jan 25, 2018)

Still no news from Madrid anyone ? Any recent experience to share ?


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## 6436436 (May 11, 2018)

Answer no longer needed


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## Peaches99 (Jan 9, 2018)

Hi Gregos. Sorry for the late reply, I haven’t logged in for a while. My husband’s application was submitted the same time as you (end of Feb). We got an automated email requesting health checks so we did that immediately and it was accepted. 

A few weeks ago (mid June) I noticed the application said “further assessment”. So I clicked on the application and it said “your application is currently being processed”. Also, the estimated processing time of 12- 16months disappeared! Great! 

Unfortunately. I checked again last week and the processing time is back on the application! I’m so disappointed and I don’t know what it means. 

What does it say on your application?


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## gregos (Jan 25, 2018)

Peaches99 said:


> Hi Gregos. Sorry for the late reply, I haven't logged in for a while. My husband's application was submitted the same time as you (end of Feb). We got an automated email requesting health checks so we did that immediately and it was accepted.
> 
> A few weeks ago (mid June) I noticed the application said "further assessment". So I clicked on the application and it said "your application is currently being processed". Also, the estimated processing time of 12- 16months disappeared! Great!
> 
> ...


Hi Peaches99,

I'm exactly in the same situation as yours, status is "further assessment".

I dit my medical checks by the end of may, and I got the same message you mentionned, saying that the processing of the visa can continue.

From what I read, don't give too much importance to the status and the processing times message appearing/disappering. I think that's the next step is having a CO assigned to our application, and I think that we will be notified when it will be the case.

But yes, absolutely no news since the lodgement of the application.


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## Peaches99 (Jan 9, 2018)

Thanks for the update. I have looked at processing times for people on this forum last year (2017) and it was all around 4 months for Madrid for their visa to be approved. Or 4 months for police checks to be requested. It seems there is a long delay for us this year!


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## gregos (Jan 25, 2018)

Yes I was very optimistic too when I read the 2017 processing times ! 
But Indeed when I read other threads in this forum, it seems that they are not many grants recently. 
Waiting without any news is so frustrating...!


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## maersk_guy (Feb 10, 2018)

How do you guys know that your application is being processed by Madrid without any correspondence from a case officer ? I have also applied for my gf and her nearest embassy would be Madrid , but since i am going through an agent in Oz , i have been told rhe only way to know the processing embassy would be if we recieve a contact from the case officer . Please correct me if i am wrong


gregos said:


> Yes I was very optimistic too when I read the 2017 processing times !
> But Indeed when I read other threads in this forum, it seems that they are not many grants recently.
> Waiting without any news is so frustrating...!


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## gregos (Jan 25, 2018)

maersk_guy said:


> How do you guys know that your application is being processed by Madrid without any correspondence from a case officer ? I have also applied for my gf and her nearest embassy would be Madrid , but since i am going through an agent in Oz , i have been told rhe only way to know the processing embassy would be if we recieve a contact from the case officer . Please correct me if i am wrong


Hi maersk_guy;

before lodging our application, my wife called the home affairs department in London to get some informations. They told her that french applications are assessed by Madrid embassy (in our case, they even told her that we wouldn't need to translate our documents as they have french speaking agents). Reading that thread confirmed that all french people were dealing with Madrid embassy.

And finally, I found this information on the Madrid embassy website : "Welcome to the website of the Migration Branch of the Australian Embassy in Madrid. We are an overseas office of the Department of Home Affairs. We service clients who are usually resident in Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Andorra and Monaco"

link: Visas and Migration

Hope this helps.

Greg


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## Rachyp (Jul 18, 2018)

Hi guys, 

I’ve just joined this forum and looking for any Madrid embassy experiences/ current wait times/ visa grants! 

We applied online through an Australian agent from Madrid, Spain on the 28th of March, completed police checks and medical in April, so we are roughly 4 months in. 

I am an Aussie citizen and my husband is Spanish, have been together for 3.5 years, married for 1.5 and have a 1 year old daughter ( Australian citizen). 

We were wishfully thinking we might be granted the visa by the end of the year, but I just looked at the current wait times for July and it has jumped to 21-26 MONTHS!!! It’s so disheartening I want to cry! 

I still don’t quite understand the processing times? Does it go off when you apply? For example it was minimum 11months when we applied, or does it literally change month to month for everyone? 

Cheers 
Rach


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## maersk_guy (Feb 10, 2018)

Any news from the applicants for Madrid embassy ?


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## oam (Feb 23, 2018)

maersk_guy said:


> Any news from the applicants for Madrid embassy ?


Still nothing on our end ... (Applied on April 2nd 2018 from Paris). We did however supply biometrics and medical checks, and now it is written "further assessment" as a few others mentioned for the status. 
Super disappointing for the 21 to 26 months but I'm hoping that being "lower risk" countries in the eyes of Immi we might just get through a little quicker. If I had known we would have done the visa application for the 820 instead !

Quick question - do you think that a migration officier would accept to look through our documents and give advice on what to add etc ? (Obviously paid but keeping in mind that we lodged the application without?). Just a peace of mind kinda thing


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## yojo (Dec 21, 2015)

oam said:


> Still nothing on our end ... (Applied on April 2nd 2018 from Paris). We did however supply biometrics and medical checks, and now it is written "further assessment" as a few others mentioned for the status.
> Super disappointing for the 21 to 26 months but I'm hoping that being "lower risk" countries in the eyes of Immi we might just get through a little quicker. If I had known we would have done the visa application for the 820 instead !
> 
> Quick question - do you think that a migration officier would accept to look through our documents and give advice on what to add etc ? (Obviously paid but keeping in mind that we lodged the application without?). Just a peace of mind kinda thing


I personally wouldn't waste your money if you've already submitted your application. I basically did all of my partner's application and we got approved so as long as you've provided evidence of your relationship and how it's continuing it should be fine. 
To give you some background, I was living in AU and he had gone back to Spain to see family which turned into a 2 year separation. I did all of the application and he basically showed up in Madrid when he needed to do the medical. Applied stage 1: July 2015, granted: Feb 2016. He had to enter AU by June 2016. Applied for stage 2: Aug 2017...and still waiting for PR. Am hoping it will be approved soon but every month it's getting worse. Last month it was a max of 30 month wait and now it's 32 months. I think anyone waiting for stage 1 to be approved by Madrid probably won't have to wait too long but stage 2 is the killer. Good luck everyone!


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## maersk_guy (Feb 10, 2018)

oam said:


> maersk_guy said:
> 
> 
> > Any news from the applicants for Madrid embassy ?
> ...


Hi Sorry to have replied late , i am presently in Spain with my girl , My personal opinion would be to spend a few extra bucks just to have the peace of mind . I went through an agent in Perth ,even after knowing what documents to attach as it gave me peace of mind . Hope your visa comes soon &#128077;


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## gregos (Jan 25, 2018)

FYI

My wife had an apointment this morning at the Australian embassy in Paris for my daughter passports.

She took the opportunity to ask some informations about the recent raise in visa processing times and she was told that the Madrid office had closed by the end of June (seems to be processed by London now, nothing sure)


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## maersk_guy (Feb 10, 2018)

Any news yet for the applicants ? I dont see any new PMV grants , hope someone gives the good news soon ☺


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## maersk_guy (Feb 10, 2018)

PMV Visa Granted ☺☺

We have been granted our visa on 12/11 , it is belox 6 months mark ... wish all of you waiting a speedy grant 👍


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## gregos (Jan 25, 2018)

maersk_guy said:


> PMV Visa Granted ☺☺
> 
> We have been granted our visa on 12/11 , it is belox 6 months mark ... wish all of you waiting a speedy grant &#128077;


Congrats maersk_guy ! That's a very good news 

On our side still waiting, no news since we applied in January.


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## gregos (Jan 25, 2018)

Just to let you know that my Visa was just granted, straight to permanent ! So happy today ! 

Processed by Berlin embassy. 

Good luck to you all !

FYI Timeline: 
- Applied on 24th of january 2018
- Uploaded Police checks and medical assessment by the end of May 2018
- CO asked for more information on 8th of december 2018
- Visa 309 and 100 granted on 10th of decembre 2018


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## maersk_guy (Feb 10, 2018)

gregos said:


> Just to let you know that my Visa was just granted, straight to permanent ! So happy today !
> 
> Processed by Berlin embassy.
> 
> ...


Great news Mate &#128077;
Hope you guys are celebrating ☺


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## gregos (Jan 25, 2018)

maersk_guy said:


> Great news Mate &#128077;
> Hope you guys are celebrating ☺


Thanks Mate !

And for sure the bottle of wine is ready for tonight


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