The chances depend on your individual compelling circumstances. You will have to prove it with supporting documents.
For example:
Pregnant wife is not allowed to travel - You can submit a doctor report which clearly mentions that she cannot travel before a specific date or before the child is born.
Kid exams in your home country - If your kids have to appear for important exams that fall around the IED (Initial entry date), you can submit the exams calendar duly signed by school principal as a proof.
Important medical condition/surgery - Letter from the doctor explaining the medical requirement.
Note that the final decision rests with the Australian immigration department and if they do not find your documents and reason good enough, they may reject your extension request.
Australian Immigration DIBP IED extension policy
DIBP is usually pretty strict with the Initial Entry Date (IED) and clearly, mentions that cannot be changed or extended once the visa is granted.
The visa holder must enter Australia before the date specified.**
Your visa can be canceled if you do not enter by initial entry date unless exceptional and compelling reasons have prevented them you from traveling.
Do all applicants have to enter before IED?
Yes, all applicants in the family have to comply with their Initial entry date requirement individually.
Is Australia Visa canceled if IED extension request is made?
No, the visa is not canceled simply on your IED extension request.
In the worst case scenario, they will just reject your IED extension request.
IED extended as wife expecting, Child born - Does child need PR visa too?
Yes, your newly born child also needs his/her separate visa before you can take him to Australia with you for your ‘Initial Entry Date’.
IED extension facilitation letter
Once your IED extension is approved by Australia DHA (Department of Home Affairs), they will issue you a ‘Facilitation letter’.
Keep this letter with you to prove your extended date when you travel to Australia.
Hi Anil,
My US visa is under decision and therefore I just checked DHA to let me know if there are any chances for me to extend IED as I will not be allowed to enter US without stamping (which cannot be done untill I get US visa approval).
To this they have replied with some letter which I am kind of not understanding completely but on cover letter it says
Thank you for your email. I have sent a Facilitation letter to you separately, and attach it here for reference. This letter authorises ‘xyxyxyxy’ to make your first entry to Australia after the Initial entry date ‘yyyyyyyy’ shown on your Visa Grant Notice has passed. Effectively, as long as the visa has not been cancelled for any other reason, you are authorised to make your first entry at any time prior to the Must Not Arrive After date of ‘xxxxxx’.
The letter can be used individually or together. Please note the Initial Entry date on VEVO cannot be changed, but the letter authorises you to travel after that date.
Regards,
with this I understand what is the context of letter received separately, but because I am not understanding that content completely and cant share here, pasting above.
question is: – is that it. and does that mean we can travel anytime before ‘xxxxxx’ mentioned.
I know its silly but they sent this when i was just checking so surprised and want to make sure that I am understanding it correctly.
Thanks for confirmation.
Yes I sent them email explaining the situation I am in and they responded.
I called them also but that time the system was down so the agent was not able to confirm this over phone.
Hi @Vik, we have the same case as you. We had received the visa grant yesterday, August 5, 2019, and our IED is August 20, 2019, which is 15 days from receipt of the grant. We already sent a request for extension of initial entry date, the most compelling reason for this request is due to our current work, which requires to render at least 1 month of mandatory service after filing a resignation letter.
I just want to know, how long did it take for the immigration to respond to your inquiry, or received your facilitation letter? Since we just have less than 2 weeks to wait for their response, as Aug 20 is very very near approaching. I’m looking forward to your response. Thank you
I followed the same steps mentioned above and manage to get it extended within 3 days.
Additional thing I did is, I called them and explained everything again.
thanks Anil for the help.
@Anil_Gupta- Thanks for the explanation. I’ve a question - Is it possible to get IED extension for offshore partner visa. My wife got the first stage of offshore partner visa but due to covid -19 unable to make the Initial Entry. If it is possible to make extension can you please help in providing the email address to contact with immigration dept for IED extension.
@Anil_Gupta. Thanks for your reply. I got the response from the below email id correspondence@homeaffairs.gov.au. So as per your response I need to get in touch with them through this email id. Please confirm
Thanks Dude for the info, but the only confusion here is my wife is looking for IED extension for her partner visa ( visa 309) not skilled visa ( 189 or 190). So the ask is will the mentioned emaild works ?
I did sent email to skilled.support@homeaffairs.gov.au and correspondence@homeaffairs.gov.au. Upon sending I got an automated email from skilled support like below along with attachment.
Unable to travel to Australia (Initial Entry Date)
If you have been granted one of the below visas and you are unable to make your first entry into Australia by the date specified in your Grant Notification letter due to the travel restrictions currently in place due to COVID-19, please refer to the attached Information for First Entry to Australia.
Generally you will be able to arrive in Australia after the initial entry date, as long as it is before the “Must not arrive after date” specified in your visa Grant Notification letter. You do not need to be granted an “extension” to your initial entry date or visa.
The attached notice should be sufficient evidence for a travel provider to be satisfied that the visa holder can enter Australia as the holder of a Skilled visa. Visa holder(s) may wish to carry a copy of this notice to present to the airline when checking in at the airport and on arrival into Australia. Please note that some delays may be encountered upon arrival into Australia while visa validity is verified.
§ Skilled Independent (subclass 189)
§ Skilled Nominated (subclass 190)
§ Skilled Regional (subclass 489)
§ Skilled Work Regional (subclass 491)
We cannot extend the validity period of your visa. If your Skilled Migration visa ceases and you have not entered Australia you will need to apply for another visa.
Here the issue is they clearly mentioned it is applicable only for the above mentioned visa class. So I’m a bit worried where to contact. Waiting for a reply from correspondence@homeaffairs.gov.au and planning to call them.
Thanks for sharing this.I have similar situation where my wife and kids need to make first entry (Visa 489 Subsequent )before 26 Sep.2020 and visa expires in July 2021.
I will also try to send them query on the same mail id,will see what response i get.