De Facto visa questions

[morrisde]

Hi everyone,

Myself and my Australian partner are currently living in Ireland and want to move to Australia with the De Facto visa. I was wondering if anyone could answer a few questions for me.

Does anyone know how long it takes to process the visa application?

We have been together for over a year but have only been living together for 10 months, he has to return to Australia in January. Should we apply as soon as possible so we can both go over together? Or should we wait till we've been living together for 12 months, even though we may have to separate then?

Should we hire a migration agent / lawyer / advisor guy? How much do these cost and do they increase your chances of sucess at all?

Any advice would really be appreciated.

Dee

[SYH]

What is a defacto visa?

[morrisde]

It's a De Facto spouse visa, for when you are not married to an Australian citizen but are in a long term spouse-like relationship with them.

[simmy13]

hi morrisde, have you read through the partnership migration booklet(1127), it lets you know what criteria you need to meet. do you have any kids with your partner?this can make a difference to the 12 month relationship rule. no use applying until you have lived together for 12 months otherwise. not sure how long it takes for this visa to come through. i have recently seen on another site a couple having a spouse visa granted in 8 weeks, not using an agent(uk married to an aussie). but if you are going to do it yourself, make sure you understand what you need to do, there is a fair bit of work involved, and alot of it, you have to do, not the agent.eg, statements. have you looked into the perspective marriage visa, same booklet??good luck

[morrisde]

Thanks for your help,

We don't want to get married yet, we only just turned 23. I just hope it doesn't take months to process, so that he'd have to go back to Australia and leave me hereto wait for it.

If anyone else has any advice it'd be much appreciated.

Dee

[aries8228]

Hi, I applied for a defacto visa recentley. My girlfriend of 4 years is a New Zealand citizen. We used an immigration agent, but we might aswell not have bothered!

We got absolutley everything ready in one go before submitting our application to the Australian Consulate in London, England.

1.Police Checks
2.Medicals
3.Signed and certified statutory declarations
4.Evidence of Relationship/Photos/bills/joint bank accounts etc
5.Copies of Birth Certificates
6.Copies of passports
7.Two Passport photos of us both
8.Signed and completed application forms

(few! done)

We submitted the application of a tuesday, I got an email granting my visa 3 days later!!!!

(We had gone to Thailand on holiday and I had to pick the stamp up from the Bangkok embasey!)

Basically, If you do your homework, get everything you need BEFORE you apply, then they will not have to ask you for anything and your application will not et put back in the INCOMPLETE tray.

Biggest think to check is your evidence of relationship, you need to go back AT LEAST 12 months, the longer the better I think.

Hope this helps Dee.

Paul

[sjunaidn]

All I can say is that the Australian government recognises civil partnerships.

As long as you can show that both of you have been living together at the same address and filing taxes together (he shows you as his partner in tax returns and you show him as your partner in tax returns) the Australian gov will accept it as a valid proof of your partnership.

[aries8228]

My partner and I had nothing like that, no tax returns etc. So don't let that put you off.

Don't get me wrong, a tax return would be great evidence (thanks sjunaidn). But it isn't the be all and end all!

[morrisde]

Thanks a million! I hope ours gets sorted out so quickly.

One more question, most of the time we have been together has been spent in Ireland so we don't really know any Australian citizens who can give us statutory declarations. (We know one in Ireland who doesn't know us all that well, and a few people in Australia who knew we got together but we haven't seen them in almost a year.) Is this likely to be held against us in our application do you think? We know plenty of Irish people who will vouch for us.

[aries8228]

Yeah, get 2-3 from Irish people and at least two from Aussies. The best ones you can get are from your partners parents (asuming they are aussies) and someone who has met you both. PM me your email address and I'll send you a copy of ours.

[morrisde]

Thanks everyone,

A couple more questions for you. How do you write the personal statement about how you met, how the relationship developed etc? Do they just want facts or do they want like a story with details and feelings etc? Is there any where you can see a sample statement?

Also, when it says they want certified copies of things, certified by who? Do I order a certified copy of my birth cert from the registrar, or bring my original to the Australian embassy?

Thanks again,

Dee

[simmy13]

hi morrisde, we wrote ours like a story with details, feelings etc. as for verified copies, we had alot of things to send in, and it was going to cost a small fortune to have them all verified from a solicitor,so we only did birth certs, passports etc through one.
On page 23 of the Partner Migration Booklet (1127) it is stated that copies of documentation can be witnessed by a person whose occupation or qualification is comparable to a person included on the prescribed occupations list on page 24. we had someone whos occupation was on that list do verify most of it for us.

[Bratt]

It's best to wait or else they can reject you straight away

[jimmydaz]

Hi
I'm gathering documents (bank statements, bills) to prove we have lived together for 12 months. I have found bank statements dating back to when we first lived together, but the bills I have only go so far back as 10 months - will this suffice?

Thanks