Hi All, I am new here as I was told about this forum from another member. It seems to be a friendly forum and not one who judges people or acts like they know it all and you know nothing. Anyway I was just wondering how much authority a Principal Migration Officer has with regards to applying for compassionate and compelling circumstances. If they asked ASIO to allocate a higher priority does ASIO have to act on this and how long would it take if the security checks had already been processing 5 months. Thanks in advance.
Welcome to the Migration Help forum AladdinsHeart and thanks for your kind words.
Principal Migration Officers (PMOs) can alert ASIO to a particular applicant's situation and can ask to have the clearances expedited wherever possible but at the end of the day they have no discretion or input in the security checking process. It is entirely up to ASIO.
It is impossible to say whether 5 months for a security check is a long time or not as these checks can take 12 months or more depending on the person's background, where they have lived and travelled, the amount of information available to ASIO etc etc.
It would be a good idea to check every 4 weeks or so from now on with the case officer handling your application - just to ask if there has been any news.
Thanks, we are at the 8.5 month mark of our application and have had alot of problems with our case officer not replying so after various complaints to the GFU we have now had contact from the PMO and we have applied for compassionate and compelling circumstances as we have been apart for 16 months as well as it has started affecting our health and causing alot of problems. We were originally told the application was sent off to ASIO in june/July but then the PMO said it wasnt sent until sept. We are really hoping the 2 page letter we sent explaining our situation helped as he was going to apply to ASIO for us to get it hurried up, hopefully something will come soon as now its just unbearable. Thank you for the reply
We are so sorry to hear of your situation. Unfortunately your case is not out of the ordinary. At least you have now involved the PMO of the post at which you lodged your application. Often these A-based officers (as they are known) are not aware of what their locally-engaged staff get up to. Whether they are able to get ASIO to fast-track your security clearance is another story - I do hope it comes through soon for your sake. It is difficult enough starting out a married life without this kind of drama.
Take heart in that it is not personal - just a bureaucratic process done by simple, bureaucratic people. They handle so many thousands of applications that the officers lose sight of the real people behind the applications they handle. Please keep us posted on what happens. Our thoughts are with you.
Yea I really hope we hear something soon, March 8 is the 6 months since the security check was sent off so we are keeping our fingers crossed. Will let you know when we hear something.
How much authority?
Will let you know when we hear something.
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