Well sadly there is a very boring answer to this question and that is "it depends". It is dependent on a number of factors:

• Firstly the type of visa; For example Skilled Visas can take any thing from months to possibly years. An employment visa anything from days to months and a parent visa anything from a couple of years to 18 years.
  
• Secondly there is the time for you to get all the information and documentation required together. Don't underestimate how long this can take, especially if you are relying on others for say references.
  
• Thirdly it also depends on the workload of the assessing centre at the time you submit your
  application. Obviously if they have a great number of applications to process then you can expect to wait longer for a response. Alternatively if they only have a small amount then you can probably expect an answer quicker. 

Like "How Long Does it Take?" it "depends". We are so sorry to use this word again, but it really does. Mainly it is down to the type of visa you are applying for and also whether you choose an agent to help you. Agents fees will vary depending on the visa. The best thing to do is see what visa you qualify for and then find out the associated costs. If you undertake a free visa assessment with us we will break down all the costs involved with this visa.

Other fees you may need to pay are the Australian Department of Immigration Fees to Process your visa. Current fees can be found at: www.immi.gov.au and for most visas you will need to undertake a medical and obtain police checks from every country you have lived in for 12 months or more in the last 10 years. Both of these cost money and vary in cost depending on the country you obtain these from.

Also you may need to pay skill assessment fees. You would need to contact the relevant skill assessing authority related to your occupation in order see the latest costs. Other costs may include translations of documents into English, Payment of Bonds or Assurance of Support.

Once you have been granted your skilled visa, on the letter it will state a date by which you need to make your first entry into Australia on your new visa. This date is set by the Australian Department of Immigration’s Assessing Officer and Cannot be Moved under any circumstance. If you do not make this trip by this date, your visa will be cancelled.

So how is this date set?
It is set by the Assessing Officer, but it is usually 12 months from the date of your medicals and police checks. So if you completed your medicals and police checks on 14th June 2009 and your visa was granted on the 1st July, the chances are that the date by which you need to make your first trip to Australia would be the 14th June 2010.

So do I have to move to Australia by this date?
The simple answer is no you don’t. If you want you, could use this trip to take a holiday in Australia and return to Australia at a later date. I even know of one person who because of work commitments flew to Australia, made his initial entry and was on a plane back to the UK within 24 hours, this is a bit extreme, but at least this way he did not lose his visa. As long as you pass through immigration in Australia by the date on your grant letter you will not lose your visa.
Once you have made your initial trip, the purpose of your visa then changes and it becomes a travel document that allows you to travel in and out of Australia up to the date it expires, which is usually 5 years from the date is was granted. So using our previous example if your visa was granted on the 1st July 2009 then your visa will expire on the 30th June 2014. “I thought this was a permanent residency visa”, I hear you say – yes it is. If you move to Australia and never leave you will never need another visa again, because you have been granted permanent residency, so you can live in Australia indefinitely. You will need a visa though, and that is why I said that your visa then changes to a travel document, if you want to leave Australia at any time, even for a holiday. Your visa then allows you to travel in and out of Australia for a set period until it expires. Now this period is something you should consider if you decide to make your initial entry as a holiday and then move to Australia at a later date. The reason is that once your current visa expires you need to be living in Australia or you may lose your permanent residency visa. Once you are in Australia, you then have 3 options if you wish to continue travelling in and out of Australia once your current visa expires. These options may help you decide by which date you need to make your final move to Australia:
1) The first option is that you can apply for Australian Citizenship, which allows you to have an Australian Passport and so you will never need to obtain another visa again to travel in or out of Australia. In order to meet the criteria for Australian citizenship you need to be resident in Australia for 4 years. So if your visa was granted on the 1st July 2009 and you then moved to Australia on the 1st August 2009, you could then look to apply for Australian citizenship from the 1st August 2013. So if you wanted to obtain citizenship before your current visa expires, then based on my previous example, you would need to be resident in Australia before 30th June 2010.
2) The second option is a 5 year resident return visa. This visa is granted to those who have been a permanent resident in Australia for 2 years in the last 5 years and allows you to travel in and out of Australia for another 5 years. This can be renewed every time it runs out providing you meet the residency criteria of 2 years in the last 5 years. So if you didn’t want to obtain Australian citizenship, but you did want to have the freedom of travelling in and out of Australia then this is the ideal visa. So based on our previous example, if you wanted to be able to apply for this visa once your current visa expires you would be need to be resident in Australia before the 30th June 2012.
3) The third option is a 3 month resident return visa. This is granted to those who have been a permanent resident in Australia and have spent less than 2 years in Australia in the last 5 years. This will then allow you to travel in and out of Australia for up to 3 months. So based on our previous example, if you wanted to be able to apply for this visa, once your current visa expires you would need to be resident in Australia before the 29th June 2014 – Although I wouldn’t recommend leaving it this late if you are looking to apply for a resident return visa straight away.

We believe in giving the best possible service, so we do limit the number of clients that we take on at any one time. We believe that if you have too many clients you spread yourself too thinly and cannot give the care and attention that is needed. So sadly we may not always be able to take you on as a client straight away, as we may have reached our quota, but we do operate a waiting list service at these times and as soon as places become available we will contact you.