Australia's Visitor visa (subclass 600) has an unpredictable reputation: some applications clear in a week, others sit for two months, and the difference rarely looks random once you've seen enough files. The Department of Home Affairs processes everything online through ImmiAccount, and the single biggest factor in your timeline is whether your application is 'decision-ready' — complete enough to approve without a single follow-up request.
What 'decision-ready' means in practice
- Every form question answered — 'see attached' counts as unanswered
- Financial evidence upfront: statements, ITRs, salary slips, all legible
- A clear purpose statement: who you're visiting, why now, for how long
- Health insurance evidence for applicants over 70, arranged before lodging
- Certified translations for any document not in English
Each request-for-information cycle adds two to four weeks, because your file leaves the queue and re-enters it when you respond. One missing salary slip can therefore cost a month. The applicants who clear in a week are almost always the ones whose case officer never had to write to them.
The genuine-visitor question
Australia applies a 'genuine temporary entrant' lens to every visitor application: is this person actually coming back? If you're visiting children or siblings who've migrated — the most common Indian 600-class profile — address it head-on rather than hoping it goes unnoticed. A short statement acknowledging the family connection, alongside strong evidence of your own life in India (employment, property, other dependents), reads far better than silence. Officers see the migration-pathway pattern daily; what they reward is candour plus evidence.
Two final timing notes. First, don't book non-refundable travel before the grant — the Department explicitly warns against it and won't expedite to match your tickets. Second, if you're travelling for a specific event like a graduation or wedding, say so and attach the invitation with dates: case officers do take fixed dates into account when triaging queues, but only if the file tells them. A decision-ready application lodged eight weeks out makes the whole process boring — which is exactly what you want a visa process to be.