The indicated processing time of your visa application depends on many factors.
The following general comments can be made:
- ‘Processing time’ means the time after the lodgement of the application and excludes the period of gathering all documentation, completing skills assessments, and preparing the application forms;
- Processing time will vary from visa to visa, from post to post (DIAC department) and from time to time depending on how busy the post is;
- Permanent visas take longer than temporary visas;
- Skills assessments can take up to 3 months;
- Visas that require skills assessments (at least all permanent visas) take longer;
- Visas that require police and medical checks (at least all permanent visas) take longer. These checks can take up to 6 months, depending on the countries they need to be acquired from;
- A temporary employer sponsored 457-visa can be processed within 2-4 weeks;
- Visa applications from less sophisticated source countries can take longer;
- Parent visas and dependent relative visas work on a quota basis. This generally means long waiting periods, in the case of parent visas sometimes more than 10 years.