If I understand this new process correctly it’s definitely an improvement.
Old process (from biometrics onwards):
- You were suddenly assigned a biometrics date which in some cases were only days into the future, though usually at least a few weeks.
- You scrambled to get your documents refreshed before this appointment.
- If you didn’t manage to get them all refreshed, you would need to submit retrospectively, leading to further delays.
- Then wait for months at best or several years at worst for final approval and a request for payment.
- Then finally wait a couple of weeks to several months for the residence card.
New process:
- You refresh the documents in advance, with no assigned biometrics date yet (so no extreme rush), send the legalized originals to your lawyer who certifies that they are valid at the time of submission.
- Hopefully not too long after this you’ll receive an appointment date (some sources seem to say it’s now likely that the full family is invited together, though let’s see how this works in practice), 30-90 days into the future. No need to renew the documents at this stage.
- You attend biometrics, and you would only need to show any documents if they weren’t legalized and certified by your lawyer prior to submitting online. If you follow the procedure, no physical documents need to be presented. During the biometrics appointment you already receive approval and pay the final issuance fee.
- Then finally wait a couple of weeks to several months for the residence card.
And it gets even better when you consider that for new applicants, the new step 1 is really step 1 (meaning it’s the initial submission of their application). That means only getting documents once and AIMA will accept them still at biometrics, even if they have expired in the meantime.
It seems AIMA will hold a meeting with the immigration lawyer community on Thursday to clarify things, so my interpretation could soon be proven wrong. But at least how I interpret things at the moment it seems like a huge improvement.
Although I will grant that it would be better if you could select your appointment yourself 30-90 days into the future instead of just being assigned one. But I assume that at least while trying to catch up they do it like that for organizational reasons.