Visa Timescales

This seems to be a common frustration for people, but has anybody got any ideas on turnaround times for visas?

We went thru an agency, who submitted our PR visa application under the Investor category in Nov04. We were at that time advised that we could hear back in Feb05 with a decision. Come Feb05 we spoke to the Welllington office and were advised we'd hear something in May or June05.

Another conversation a day ago, and we have been advised that our case will not even be allocated to an agent in the near future and even when it is, it could take 6-9 months to process, which takes us into 2006.

This is a whole year later, than we originally thought and with a 15 year boy if we can't move soon, we may have to cancel because of impacts on school and exams.

My wife is a Nurse and I am in I.T, so we have been discussing moving to a job to get there quicker and waiting for PR visa to come thru.

Should we not panic, is the visa turnaround really so slow?

Should we consider the job option and what timescales does that typically mean?

Any advise gratefully received as we seem to be seeing the dream of a move dissapearing over the horizon!

Not many applications are made under the investor category, and they are not processed as priority applications as the new system is geared purely towards skilled migration.

If you can find jobs, or have plenty of qualifications and experience, you are much better off submitting an EOI under the skilled migrant route. It will be processed much faster that an investors application, especially if you have jobs.

Most people with jobs secure PR within 1 - 4 months of initial application.