LizzieTYK

Thanks Mazza and Moneypenny! That's very reassuring to hear. I'm sure I'll be back on the board again very soon with another stupid question!

Green Grass

My partner applied for de facto visa last week and has already received the dreaded not enough evidence statement.

"To date, the evidence you have supplied is not sufficient to demonstrate that you satisfy the relationship requirement with your sponsor. Therefore, you are required to provide further information to substantiate your claims in this regard. Please provide further relationship evidence for:
- January to March 2011 (for sponsor)
- January (if available) and March 2011 (for applicant)

Documents that are often provided to substantiate a person’s claim that they are in a genuine relationship include, but are not limited to:
 Individual financial or legal documents or any official correspondence showing the same address"


My partner provided a lot of evidence for our year together pre application, but not a great deal for these first few months. My partner came to the UK from overseas and had no history here, i.e. no friends, bank account, job, medical record etc and it was April onwards before she received much official correspondence.

It appears they want address verification covering every month, i.e. she gave them something for February 2011 and they want someting for Janaury and March. She has something for January (private health cover quote) but not for March. Do you think they will take into account her lack of UK history as we cannot find anything for March?

I, as sponsor have found a couple of invoices from an airline and will get copy credit card statements for January to March, so my evidence should be ok, I hope

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated.

SillyOldBag

It's good that she found something for January but obviously disappointing that nothing can be found for March - to my way of thinking the January one was probably more important anyway in terms of longevity of the relationship. If there are no letters, there are none - I would suggest if you can't think of anything else that you/she basically writes explaining what you have here as it sounds perfectly reasonable not to have official letters etc as soon as you move to another country. Perhaps think if anyone else can write a personal statement in addition to your other Stat Decs confirming the length of time you have lived together.

Did your OH join any clubs? gyms? did she register with a doctor in the first months she was there? If so, you could ask them to write a statement confirming when she joined/registered and at what address. Have a good old think and try thinking outside the box as they say.

Good luck with it all

moneypenny20

Does she have any letters from family and friends addressed to her at your address? Can you get friends/relatives to do a Stat Dec confirming she was living with you? Do you have old emails or text messages to each other confirming an ongoing relationship? Not proof of address obviously but still proof you were together. How about dated photos of you both? Anything, however small and seemingly unimportant could help.

Green Grass

Many thanks to you both.

She has no letters etc from March 2011 as her overseas family always speak to her on Skype. All texts were deleted from phones to create memory space ages ago and we don't email because we live together and text each other during the day.

I've already given them 8 photos (undated but annotated with dates matching trips made together) and more importantly, 4 friend and family statements which all state we lived together from January 2011. We are offering to get additional statements if they wish and stating these friends and family should confirm we lived together in Janaury 2011 if they were contacted.

SOB, we will tell them about the reasons for lack of correpondence during my partners early months in Scotland, and hope they accept it. They have asked for 3 months of evidence from me which we are providing and 2 months for my partner for which we have only satisfied one. As you say, better to provide the January evidence as proof we were immediately living together than the March one.

She couldn't register with a doctor during her early months here as she was initially not permitted to work and therefore had no national insurance number which is required to join a medical practice.

We will keep scratching our heads for other ideas and hope what we provide is accepted.

Thanks for your wishes.

Rljacobs

Hiya, my fiancé and I are applying for his de facto visa and are in the process of collecting docs. We lived in our rented place (parents house) just us two for just under two years but now we live together at his parents house. Will they see this as an issue as we aren't living on our own anymore yet we are still together? We moved home to save money for our wedding etc so we can't move out again...help!

Pollyana

No its not an issue at all, they just want confirmation that you are living together in a de facto relationship. You can get Stat Decs from his parents to say that you share their house, and include the reason why

Rljacobs

Thanks pollyanna, stat decs can be from anyone we know then regardless of occupation and whether or not they live in oz ? I'm concerned we don't have enough to send formal docs wise but have lots of pics!

Pollyana

Yep, stat decs can be from anyone, but if they are Aussie PR or citizens they need to include proof of visa, passport, or birth cert.

Little tip, don't send ALL your evidence straight away, keep some back. DIAC have a habit now of asking for more info, so keep some back just in case

Rljacobs

That sounds like a useful tip, thanks. I'm sure I will be on here again pestering for answers!

Pollyana

Thats what we're here for, pester away!!

Rljacobs

Another question: I haven't read through all 68 pages of this thread so I wanted to get an idea of our evidence for a partner visa and whether what we have is enough. We set up a joint account today but as we are hoping to put the application in in August, we wouldn't have had the account for long, would this still be acceptable?
We have certificates showing that we studied on the same college course at the same time which date back to 2009, and also we can prove we are doing the same uni course at the moment,
we have a few council tax statements with both our names on, a few pictures but none are dated, loads of engagement cards, no date,
Tickets for a holiday we took in December 2011
Then statements from non oz citizens
I get the feeling THIS ISN'T ENOUGH!! It can't be!
Any ideas? Thanks in advance

SillyOldBag

Part of what you are trying to establish with your evidence is that you have both been resident at the same address for over 12 months so it doesn't have to be limited to things that you have joint names on. For example if you both have your bank statements sent to the same address but in individual names but over a period of time, then that would be evidence of being at the same address. The same would apply to any insurance you might have or any letters really, some addressed to you, some to him. I don't think my OH and I had a single joint bill or letter in our evidence.

Put your thinking cap on, I'm sure you'll think of something!

moneypenny20

Studying at the same college means nothing, it's irrelevant in the eyes of DIAC unless you can provide paperwork from the College showing your home address to be the same. Council Tax statements are good, as are engagement cards, tickets, statements from friends and family. You will need way more proof of cohabitation for at least 12 months. Letters addressed to either one of you at the same address, bills to one or other using the same address, phone bills etc. If you're struggling to come up with stuff, get your wills drawn up in favour of each other - that's always excellent proof of your relationship.

Do you need to apply now? Could well be worth your while to wait a few months in order to build up more history before thinking about applying. Either that or you could consider getting the Prospective Marriage Visa which means you will have to get married within 9 months of getting the visa. You don't need to provide nearly so much proof with that one. If you're engaged and planning on getting married anyway, could be a quicker route if speed is important.

Rljacobs

I was going to send off the college certificates to prove that we had met each other well before the application. I know it's not long compared to some people's relationship, but we have been together 4 years in April. I was going to apply in August so that we can travel August 2013 just after we get married. The prospective marriage sounds ok but we have to pay again then for a partner visa anyway so I figure we may as well try for the partner one. I'm sure I can dig out more stuff what about gym membership and stuff?
Am I right in thinking then that they don't need statements with both our names on but any doc that is adressed to us individually but at the same address around the time we say we were living together?
If anyone remembers what they sent off as proof please let me know!
Thanks