Visa Woes With Great Outcome Though

The last time I applied for an Australian visa for Oliver, the passport went in on Monday and I had a visa on Friday. I was not even expecting to be granted one. This time I put the application in on the Monday and still hadn't heard anything till the next week on Wednesday. Seven days I waited and my gut feeling told me there was a problem. The Australian embassy is a fortress in more ways than one. Even contacting them by phone is extremely difficult. Through a friend in Jakarta I managed to obtain the phone number of someone there with authority. He told me he would follow it up and find out what the problem was. Late on Wednesday my whole world came crashing down when I received a phone call from one of the chief migration officers informing me that had he seen the previous application a visa would not have been granted based on the evidence of permission from Oliver's mother that I had supplied. The permission was done through a lawyer in Lombok and Oliver's mother over the phone as she resides in Bali. It was not actually signed by her. She is now married to an Australian and is paranoid about him finding out about Oliver or the fact that she was married to me as well. The Australian embassy insisted that to grant a visa they needed a signed consent from Oliver's mother. I gave them her contact numbers, not knowing whether they were still current or not. I also tried to ring her and explained that someone from the embassy was going to ring her and ask her permission and that she would have to go to the consulate in Bali to sign a permission letter, so I could get the visa. I was completely at her mercy. If she said no there was not much I could do. She had let me down once before when she was phoned by the consulate in Bali and said the wrong thing, which resulted in Oliver's citizenship being revoked. So I was not hopeful of her actually going through with what she needed to do. Given that she was paranoid about her new husband knowing anything about either of us and currently being eight months pregnant as well! I added to the incentive by telling her I would transfer a few million rupiah to her account for her trouble. To cut to the quick - she actually messaged me she was on her way to the consulate, told me when she got there and actually called me when she had done the permission. I was a bit shocked. Her heart is in the right place and I now truly believe that, as she has said before, she does want what is best for Oliver. This morning the Australian embassy phoned me. Considering their lack of feedback every time I have had dealings with them this was amazing. Oliver has been granted a multiple entry visa for twelve months. For the first time in my life I felt like having a party at 9.30 in the morning!!