bridging visa and de-facto
 

A mate of mine is in Oz and is currently applying for PR. He is on a bridging visa at the moment. His girlfriend is with him and she is here on a working holiay visa. Her visa runs out in December, so the question is can she stay in the country as his defacto partner on his bridging visa ?

Cheers.

Re: bridging visa and de-facto
 

any takers ?

Re: Re: bridging visa and de-facto
 

Don't think so on a bridging visa. I guess if his PR comes through in enough time before her WHV runs out they could go in and apply for a de-facto visa on-shore, but don't know how long it takes to process in Australia. They must have lived together for 12 months though to apply for de-facto. Otherwise she will have to leave and apply off-shore, then return. Partner visas are not taking as long as they used to so they shouldn't have to be separated for too long - AHC site states "up to 4 months" processing time, but we got our Prospective Marriage Visa back in 3 weeks at the time they were quoting 6 months.

This is a bit of an unusual one, they should give DIMA help line a call and get some anonymous advice over the phone. Or perhaps one of the Migration Agents that post on this forum could help.

Re: Re: Re: bridging visa and de-facto
 

Thanks Moo30.

I rang DIMA and they said she will have to leave the country and return when his PR is approved. There is no way she can be "attached" to his bridging visa. She could get a tourist visa, but she needs to work.

Re: Re: Re: Re: bridging visa and de-facto
 

No probs. Tell them it pays to take the time and effort to prepare a complete and thorough application, with lots of evidence of their relationship included as Certified Copies (ie. phone bills, joint travel, photos etc) plus Statutory Declarations from family/friends on both sides. We included everything we could think of (too much better than too little) together with Police and Medical checks. This made it all very easy for the processing officer to sift through and approve the visa. My fiance applied in the UK and they have really reduced the processing times of family visas now they don't do the skilled migration visas - I presume this would be the same everywhere else.