Let’s get in touch after 50 years!
Truth, they say, is stranger than fiction. Ask Lidiumila Nikitenko if you need any attestation to this. After having fought the Australian immigration department over denial of visa for subclass 114 (Aged Dependent Relative) in 2015, the Russian widow filed a case in AAT and won in February 2017.
So far so good. But the waiting time for this visa as mentioned on the DIBP website is close to 50 years. Once you have digested this be ready to gulp the fact that she is 69!
This bizarre case relating to Ms Nikitenko points to how out of sync visa processing times have become. Now I want to ask, did this waiting time become 50 years overnight?
Did it not reach 10 years first, 20 years later and so on?
Why was something not done before it spiralled out of control?
These are the questions that people want to ask from authorities but sadly no answers are forthcoming.
As for Ms Nikitenko, she has no one beside at this age to look after her and despite securing a victory in the Tribunal, it is she and her Australia-based son who are the real losers.