Partner Visa Processing Times

Sponsor ai2

Australian Partner Visa Processing Times.

Australian visa processing times are produced monthly by the Immigration Department, to give an idea of how long a visa application might take, assuming things do not change.  They are NOT guarantees of how long Current or Future applications will take.

Many people are confused by these figures, due to the way that the Immigration Department show the figures. Something like this example: 15 months – 19 months.

Some people logically think it means the visa will take between 15 and 19 months, but only a few actually take that long.

The average processing time is often a lot less than the first figure quoted, with that particular example being:

  • 75% were processed in under 15 months.
  • 15% were processed between 15 and 19 months.
  • 10% were processed in over 19 months.

I have used 15-19 as an example, as that was the actual figure for the 11,702 subclass 309 visas that were granted in 2019-20, according to: Department of Home Affairs FOI request FA 20/08/00333

75% took under 15 months, and 90% took under 19 months, BUT… half, 50%, actually took under 11 months.

The actual times, broken down further were:

  • 25% took under 9 months.
  • 25% took between 9 and 11 months.
  • 25% took between 11 and 15 months.
  • 15% took between 15 and 19 months.
  • 10% took over 19 months.

These times will vary month to month based on many factors, and may be very different to the actual times that an applicant experiences, especially those applications that take many months or years.

Individual processing times can be affected by the numbers of complex cases and incomplete applications, locations of processing offices for offshore applications, together with changes in application volumes, seasonal peaks, etc.