Jase
When I started my relationship with Ming, the Aussie dollar was at 47 cents to the greenback....a trip to China then was a seriously expensive deal !!! Thank goodness that we now are over parity, which gets it all back into reality.
As regards the Immig fees...what other organisation can simply put up its prices, without telling anyone, without giving a damm anyway...and to top it all, all the fees we pay are non-refundable if we get rejected.
When you consider that last year, 2.7 MILLION applications for various visas were received by the Immig Dept....that represents an income of about 3 BILLION dollars...and for this we get crap service.......but we dont have any choices do we...pay up and grin and bear it !!!!
John...I am sure that you are both better prepared for the Consulate questions this time...wish you good luck and success.
Pete...the appeals process is always available to you in Aus...but dont get your hopes up if you decide to try it !!!! It is a miserable, long-winded, gut wrenching process that will leave you poorer, sadder and exhausted...without any guarantee of success !!! I have an Aussie friend who's girlfriend they rejected for a fiance visa......he is 1 year into the appeals process, has spent $12,000 on Lawyers and aint got nowhere yet !!!!