Business Visas Australia

I thought I would write about a visa evidencing issue (which could have become very costly and stressful situation)t that one of my UK business visa clients had this morning – yes this morning as it’s an interesting story and has a happy ending.

My client was was granted his subclass 163 business owner visa last Friday, was going to the Australia High Commission in London today to get the visa labels evidenced into passports for him and his accompanying family members AND all going well they are all booked to fly from London to Brisbane tonight!

Anyway, at around 11am this morning I receive a call from my client saying that he is in the Australian High Commission in London but they can’t seem to connect to the Australian computer network so can’t print out his new subclass 163 business visas.  He was very worried and I checked his visa approval letter again while he was on the phone which did say that that the file had been transferred from the Perth Business Centre to the Australian High Commission within 48 hours of grant.  I told my client that I was going to call his case officer to see if she could help in any way, I checked the world clock on my iphone and it said 5:03pm, thank goodness that WA is 2 hours behind the east coast.  I called the case officer’s direct line, it rang through for a while, I was worried and then by a stroke of luck, the case officer’s supervisor answered.  I breathed a sigh of relief ! She was so helpful, and explained that the file was probably still in electronic transference given it had only been approved on Friday and we then discussed 3 options:-

1. My client ask the Australian High Commission officer to do a manual grant of the visa (which no longer a common practise) but just on the off chance, the immigration supervisor recommended he asked anyway

2. My client wait around for the day to see if the electronic file came through and get the visas evidenced

3. Worse case scenario,my client leave the Australian Hig Commission without visas being evidenced but take with him on the flight a copy of the visa approval letter as proof of his new visa status.  The DIAC supervisor advised that she had put a note in the system for the airport immigration official stating that it was a possibility that my client could be travelling with a letter of visa approval so he would not have any issues in the airport.

I spoke to my client again after I hung up the phone with the immigration supervisor.  In the end, he tried option 1..it  didn’t work, I got another call from my worried client, we discussed the worse case scenario and amidst this discussion in the background he was told by the High commission staff that the electronic file had come through at last from the Perth Business Centre and that the visas were being evidenced into the passports.

He was then on his way back to his home to Leicester to collect his family to then travel to Heathrow airport for their flight to Brisbane tonight!  They are going to make Brisbane their new home.

Phew – It’s great when everything works out right down to the last moment.  I’m certainly going to have a glass of wine tonight to toast to my client’s success because he’s got himself through the visa process and visa evidencing stage (also helps to have a brilliant migration agent:)

Happy Days,

Mege Dalton