# Anyone posted their E3 renewal through Australia Post?



## Axoman (Jun 5, 2012)

Hi there, I am having to renew my E3 visa for myself and family in the coming months. The Sydney consulate said I was eligible to post my renewal in through Australia Post. They even said I could just fly to Australia and do it without my family coming as outlined below:

_"It is not a requirement that you must all be in Australia to post in your applications.

If your family will not be re-entering the U.S. from Australia when you return, they will still need to adjust their status after the visas have been issued. They may do this by departing the U.S to Canada or Mexico for example, and then re-entering on the updated visas, or by contacting the nearest United States Immigration and Citizenship (USCSIS) for an adjustment of status"_


Firstly, what is stopping me mailing the passports to a family member and them doing it for me and posting back? We could then pop into Canada as suggested by the consulate.

Anyone been down this road?

Alternatively, my wife would like a trip home. If anyone has been to Australia Post to do this, do they require the primary E3 applicant to be present??

Thanks in advance


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## chocohunny (Jun 3, 2013)

Hi there,

We are going thru the renewal process ourselves right now. We decided to all come back to Australia to renew it via Australia Post.

First in regards to the questions you had:


> Firstly, what is stopping me mailing the passports to a family member and them doing it for me and posting back? We could then pop into Canada as suggested by the consulate.
> 
> Anyone been down this road?


Not sure why the consulate would suggest that you renew by yourself without your family. If for example you had done this and your application was denied then your family has no way of leaving the US as the passports are with you/your family member. You would not be able to re-enter the US unless you applied for the Visa Waiver program and came in as a tourist. But you risk being denied for that as well if they can see that your E3 renewal was denied. 

Also the Australia post method is no guarantee that you won't be called for an interview or that the visa will be issued. If you end up getting called for an interview then you wouldn't be able to show up if you mailed the passports to a family member. If your family gets called for an interview then they wouldn't be able to show up either.

Also this likely all depends on the timing - whether you expect to do this process 
way in advance of your visa expiry or not. Your family can only stay in the US up til the date on the I-94 card. So you would need to get all this done and be in to the US by the I-94 date. And then your family would need to go outside and re-enter on the new visas and get a new I-94 issued. I'm not personally familiar with the USCIS extension of status to comment on it. 



> Alternatively, my wife would like a trip home. If anyone has been to Australia Post to do this, do they require the primary E3 applicant to be present??


I believe they don't require the primary applicant present, just that the primary applicant's application has already been previously approved. However it just doesn't make sense that you're not able to do it together, i.e. that your wife plans to renew later than you, and still not overstay the original visa. 

My family and I are going down this route at the moment. This is our first renewal and we decided to all come to Australia to do it. We opted for the mail-in method thinking that it would be less hassle (since we a toddler and baby to deal with) than going to the interview. We submitted the applications at an Aust Post branch on 20 May. We're still (as of 3 Jun) waiting for our passport or any word of our application. We originally booked a 2 week holiday here, now it's been extended to 3 weeks. If we had to do it over I would just book the visa interview since it gives you an idea if you're already approved or not at least. Also the Aust Post people didn't really know what to do with the application. They didn't check it for us either. Just asked us to pop it all in the envelope. Also we dropped the envelope in with them and it didn't arrive at the consulate til 5pm the next day.

You can renew in Canada though - not sure if airfares would be cheaper that way. But you do avoid jetlag


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