Invalid Australian visa applications should be processed more quickly

July 28 2009 by Mark Johnstone

Getting an Australia visa should be child's play

The Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship has been criticised for taking far too long to process Australian visa applications deemed invalid.

The Immigration Ombudsman found that visa applications that were invalid or incomplete took as long as two years to be processed as such in some cases. The average time it took to process an Australia visa application as invalid was 38 days.

The Ombudsman, Professor John McMillan, is concerned that the delay in informing people who want to move to Australia that their applications are invalid or incomplete may be seriously detrimental to them applying successfully in the future. The Ombudsman added that the delay could lead to more applications being declared unlawful.

More than 200 cases were eventually identified as being invalid between 2006 and 2008, according to the Invalid Visa Application Report. The Ombudsman stated, “Processing delays and inconsistencies could have serious consequences for the immigration status of applicants.”

McMillan has now made an official recommendation that applications to live and work in Australia should be assessed in terms of their validity in a “timely manner.”