I am writing this to get and give more information related to the online application of the Australian Visa. I tried searching for the same, but unfortunately couldn't gather much information for the doubts I had.
I had applied for the Student Visa: Postgraduate Research Sector Temporary Visa (Subclass 574) for my PhD studies in Australia from India. But most of the things mentioned here are in general applicable to all the visa classes.
Depending on which country you are applying from, there are different ways for making the application. In India, one can apply directly to the Australian High Commission, through an agent, through VFS or through ImmiAccount. The last two aren't same though are online methods (I wanted to apply through VFS which I thought earlier to be referring to the ImmiAccount and both being the same thing, but that wasn't the case).
Applying through ImmiAccount, as mentioned on the DIBP website, is handled with top priority while paper based application being the last. The other methods of online application are faster too, that is, through a registered agent or through VFS but it is just that they take some consultation charges. VFS is quite cheap in that sense, while agents can ask for any charges they feel like based on the scale of their organisation/company. ImmiAccount doesn't need any such charges as one handles his application by himself without any third party. The charges being mentioned here are not related to the Visa Fees but just the consultancy charges.
For applying through ImmiAccont, all by yourself, you will be going through these steps:
- Find the exact Visa you will have to apply for your purpose of visit. The tool is available on the official website.
- Register yourself on ImmiAccount and start an application.
- Complete the application and submit it with the corresponding Visa Fees.
- You will be assigned a case officer and he will send you the document checklist.
- Upload the required documents in the ImmiAccount portal under correct heads/categories.
- Complete health requirement test (status for that is directly available in your ImmiAccount).
- Once the checklist is complete, you can press the "Complete Request" button and then confirm.
- It will then show the status of your application as "Assessment in Progress" which earlier would have been showing "Request for Information".
- I am currently at the above step, so I will be updating the post as time passes.
- Now you have to wait for the case officer to respond back or the notification of acceptance of visa.
The average processing time for TU 574 subclass visa is 14 working days through ImmiAccount with Assessment Level 1. It has taken longer than that for me, and might take more than month varying from case to case.
The information I have provided, part of it and details of most of it is available on the official website. But there are certain things which are not known prior like:
- The response time for an email is 7 days for onshore and offshore email addresses for querying about visa and it might take longer than that.
- Sending email to the department in India guided me to connect to the onshore case officer.
- Sending emails to the department (SVCSA offshore) returns with an automatic reply with all the necessary details, and also implying that only thing I can do is wait for them to respond instead of spamming them with query emails.
- Australian High Commission in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi cannot help you with information regarding your visa, so no need to waste time going there. I couldn't also get any of my phone calls received there.
- Making phone calls at onshore (Australia) office also didn't help as no one picked the call.
- The average processing time as experienced by one of the consultant companies is 2-4 weeks for student visas.
The above efforts were made after the average processing time had passed. Querying before that might or might not get entertained.
Things might have been simpler if I would have applied via VFS or an agent, but it was worth exploring. However, I was least interested in throwing away money for agents, but VFS is definitely a good option. Their services as experienced while contacting them initially over phone seemed absolutely fine.
I hope I added some useful information on the www, if there is any suggestion, correction or doubt please do comment. I seek more information and personal experience of applicants.
