Summary
- Your wait depends on 5 factors: visa subclass, onshore vs offshore location (whether you apply from inside or outside Australia), nationality, application quality, and timing luck
- Offshore is faster: For most visas, applying from outside Australia cuts processing time by 3–8x
- Nationality matters: Tourist visas for UK applicants take ~1 day; Nigerian applicants wait ~33 days
- Don't spam ImmiAccount: Extra messages won't speed things up—focus on submitting a complete application
- Get a personalised estimate: Use our Visa Time Checker based on processing times of 4.5 million visa applications
If you've ever searched Reddit for answers about visa delays, you'll know that processing times dominate the conversation. Last week on Reddit, 247 new Australian visa threads were created, of which 21 were specifically about visa processing times.
It's the single most common question migrants ask. In our experience, applicants are often more anxious about when they'll get their visa than whether it will be approved. And that anxiety is understandable. The Department of Home Affairs is essentially a black box. There's no way to find out where your application sits in the queue. The processing times they publish come with wide ranges and don't account for your individual circumstances. We've seen enormous variation in processing times among our own customers for the same visa subclass. It feels random when you're inside the process. So we decided to make it the topic of our first Tern Visa blog post.
Two applicants with identical documents can have very different visa processing times, simply because one lodged offshore.
Working in the migration industry, we picked up some patterns: onshore applications taking longer than offshore ones and applicants from some countries having to wait longer than applicants from others. Aside from Ministerial Directives, the only official communication by the Department on processing times is to submit a complete and accurate application. We suspected that there had to be more to it and so we submitted an extensive Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Department. The result: processing-time data for over 4.5 million visa applications, broken down by:
- Visa subclass
- Visa stream
- Citizenship
- Location at time of application
- Time period
We've analysed this dataset and made it publicly available through our Visa Time Checker, a free tool that gives you a far more accurate estimate based on your personal situation.
The rest of this article draws on insights from this data to shed light on how the Department processes and prioritises visa applications.
A. What Actually Drives Processing Time?
Processing times vary widely. While there's always some unpredictability, several key indicators help explain how long a decision takes:
- Visa subclass & stream
- Onshore vs offshore location
- Nationality and associated risk profile
- Completeness and consistency of your application
- Seasonal cycles
Visa subclass & stream
Subclass and stream sound obvious, but they shape the evidence required: some visas need little more than identity documents, while others require extensive proof of funds, travel history, or relationship evidence. Certain streams (like schools vs higher-education within Student visas) move at different speeds because they have different verification steps. Generally, the longer the validity of a visa, the more evidence required and the longer the Department will take to make a decision.
Onshore vs offshore location
Location matters! The Department consistently pushes offshore cases to the front of the queue. In our FOI data, Subclass 408 Temporary Activity visas lodged offshore were processed 8.2x faster than comparable onshore applications. Across the board, onshore applications tend to take significantly longer than offshore ones:
Median Processing Time: Onshore vs Offshore by Visa Subclass
Median processing times from FOI data (Jul 2024–Sep 2025). Only subclasses with significant volume in both locations are shown.
For most visa types, onshore applications take 3–8x longer. The Student visa (500) is a striking example: 135 days onshore versus just 18 days offshore. The pattern holds across Temporary Activity (408), Tourist (600), and employer-sponsored visas (186, 482). A few exceptions exist: Skilled Independent (189) and Work and Holiday (462) visas are actually faster onshore, but they're the minority.
Nationality and risk profile
Your nationality has a big impact on processing time. The Department applies a risk framework to source countries. This is largely driven by past overstay rates, fraud risk and document reliability. This risk framework also largely drives refusal rates. You can read more on country risk in our extensive blog post here. In addition, we published a country risk tool (powered by official Department FOI data), to give you insights into how your home country is assessed by the Department. Below are two snapshots pulled straight from our FOI data.
Subclass 600 – Visitor (Tourist) – Offshore
FOI decision data from Jul 2024-Sep 2025 for offshore tourist visas, showing how median days swing based on passport.
The first chart is a classic case of how risk settings drive speed. European tourists are often decided within a day, while applicants from other countries can wait weeks. Same visa, completely different timelines.
Subclass 820 – Onshore Partner
Same FOI window (Jul 2024-Sep 2025), onshore partner medians by nationality—huge spread even inside one subclass.
The Partner visa chart shows the same pattern again for onshore applicants: nationalities move at different speeds.
Completeness and consistency
If the Department needs to request more information, the case always slows down. Mismatched dates, missing translations, or unclear relationship evidence often trigger extra verification and request for information, adding weeks or months to the timeline. This is one of the only things in your control, and the best thing you can do is submit a complete, coherent and accurate application from the beginning. At Tern, our platform automatically checks for inconsistencies and missing documents before you submit, helping you avoid these preventable delays.
Seasonal cycles
There is always a luck factor: when you apply determines which workload wave you land in. Small policy changes or workload shifts can reshape processing timelines within weeks:
Subclass 500 – Student (Higher Education) – Median Processing Time
Quarterly medians drawn from the Department's Student & Temporary Graduate Program Report (June 2025) — not the FOI dataset; spikes align with student intakes and policy tweaks.
Before university terms start, processing times climb. If you're applying during a busy season, expect processing times to take longer.
Common misconceptions
Many applicants believe that providing a large number of documents will speed things up. It won't. Packing your application with unnecessary documents won't accelerate processing. Supplying the right documents to cover all the evidence required to support your application is much more important than the number of documents uploaded. That said, keeping your application updated matters. We recommend submitting any new information every 3 months.
Similarly, sending messages or queries through ImmiAccount does not make the case move faster. The Department processes applications in order, regardless of how many times you check in.
Think of the system like a deli counter with numbered tickets: you can wave at the server, but your number still needs to be called. Focus your energy on completeness and consistency instead of frequent nudges.
B. Inside the Department
Understanding official timeframes
The Department publishes monthly averages on their Global Visa Processing Times page. These figures can be misleading because they don't reflect your citizenship, don't consider onshore/offshore location, don't include risk settings, and come with large variation. Two applicants with the same visa may have completely different experiences.
The Department presents processing times using two percentiles: 50% and 90%. The 50th percentile (median) means half of all applications were decided faster than this time, and half took longer. The 90th percentile means 9 out of 10 applications were decided within this timeframe—but 1 in 10 took even longer. If you're in that unlucky 10%, there's no published guidance on how much longer you might wait. For complex cases or high-risk nationalities, the 90th percentile figure is often more realistic than the median.
Your application might exceed the published timeframe for several reasons: longer verification of employment, finances, relationships, or security checks; requests for further information (RFIs); seasonal peaks around December–January and student intake periods; or ministerial direction that reorders processing priorities.
Think of published times as a general guide, not a personalised forecast.
Auto-grants
Not every visa application is reviewed by a human. For certain low-risk visa subclasses, the Department operates an automated decision system that can grant visas in minutes from lodgement.
Auto-grants apply to a limited set of visas, primarily Visitor visas but also Student visa applications. If your application meets a predefined set of rules—typically involving nationality, travel history, and a clean immigration record—the system approves it without case officer intervention. Importantly, auto-grants only apply to applicants from countries the Department deems low-risk; applications from all other countries will go through manual processing regardless of individual circumstances.
This explains why you might see someone granted a tourist visa in 5 minutes while another applicant waits weeks. The first application triggered an auto-grant; the second was flagged for manual review. Once an application exits the automated pathway, it joins the regular queue and processing times increase substantially.
There's no way to guarantee your application will be auto-granted, but submitting a complete, straightforward application with no red flags gives you the best chance.
Processing centres
Not all visa applications are processed in a single location. The Department operates multiple processing centres across Australia and overseas. Applications lodged offshore are often handled by overseas posts rather than onshore teams. According to FOI data, the Department employs the equivalent of approximately 2,200 full-time staff for visa processing, with 44% posted offshore.
This matters because staffing levels, workloads, and expertise vary significantly between centres. Two applicants with identical circumstances—same visa subclass, same nationality—can experience very different processing times depending on which centre handles their case. A well-staffed centre might clear applications in weeks, while an understaffed one takes months.
Unfortunately, applicants have no control over which centre processes their application, and the Department doesn't disclose this information. It's another source of variance that official timeframes don't capture. Neither we nor any migration agent or immigration lawyer can accelerate this.
The limits of transparency
The Department does not reveal queue position, internal notes, or application status. There's no mechanism to obtain an exact decision date. What we can offer is statistically grounded guidance.
C. Avoiding Self-Inflicted Delays
The best way to avoid delays is to submit a strong application from the start. A strong application is complete (nothing missing), coherent (information aligns logically), consistent (no contradictions), and properly translated (all non-English documents translated by a NAATI-certified translator).
Many delays arise because information doesn't match and an officer must cross-check. Taking the time to review your application before lodging can save weeks of waiting. This is exactly what Tern is built for: our platform guides you through exactly what evidence is required for your visa type, flags potential issues before submission, and every application receives immigration lawyer oversight.
Adding new evidence after lodgement won't reset your processing time—so don't hesitate to update your file. We recommend submitting any new relevant information every 3 months.
If you receive a Request for Further Information (RFI), respond immediately. Your case is paused until the Department receives your response, so every day you wait is a day added to your processing time.
D. When Processing Takes Longer Than Expected
Putting your wait in context
If your application has exceeded the published timeframe, don't panic. The Department's "standard" timeline is often not relevant for your specific nationality and location.
Take the Student visa (Higher Education) as an example. The government website states that anything longer than 190 days is outside standard processing. But for Nepalese nationals applying onshore, the median processing time is 180 days and the 75th percentile is 210 days. That means almost half of Nepalese onshore applicants will exceed the "standard" timeframe, and that's completely normal for their situation.
A better benchmark is your personalised estimate based on detailed data. If the personalised range shows your wait is normal, there's no cause for concern. If it appears unusually long, you can contact the Department to enquire about your case.
Frequently Asked Questions
Final Thoughts
Visa processing isn't random, even though it often feels that way. Subclass, nationality, location, evidence, and timing all play a role in how long your case takes. While the system is confusing, real data can provide clarity. Our review of 4.5 million processed visas gives you insights that the published processing times simply cannot.
Use our Visa Time Checker to get a personalised estimate based on your specific circumstances. And when you're ready to apply, start your application with Tern—our platform is designed to help you submit a complete, consistent application with immigration lawyer oversight, giving you the best chance of a smooth process.
