beck_wanderer

Hi All

I don't post very often, but when I first came over to Oz this site was my bible. I therefore wanted to share some information about what I discovered when I tried to get my partner on my 457 visa.

First of all immigration - grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr - don't trust what they say. My lawyer said "as long as you can prove you have lived together for 6 months my partner would have no problems coming on my 457". They told me that it's so easy they recommended we do it myself, so I don't have pay their fees. "Excellent!!!!", I said with a big smile . Phone immigration, first person nope you have to live to together for 12 months - my partner is currently on a 12 month working holiday visa and they said he has to leave the country before he can even apply. My partner goes to immigration, same story. Both of us go to immigration, same story - they even recommend I apply for residency.

I was now fuming with my lawyer, so phone him up. He then tells me he doesn't know who I've been talking to but definitely you only have to have lived together 6 months for a 457. But if I am residency you have to live together for 12 months. Phone immigration a fourth time and finally, finally (hallulah) agreed with lawyer.

Grrrrr!!!!! I no longer trust immigration and I am paying the lawyer to sort it out for me. It will be worth every penny. There is still no guarantee my partner will get on my visa, but at least we've got a chance now. It is in my lawyers hand - so I will keep you posted

Becks

tonyk38

OK I'm worried now. I was under the impression that you could get a provisional spouse visa so long as you proved you'd met someone and the 6 month/1 year rule didn't apply. The one condition of the PSV being that you marry within 9 months of it being granted. The other partner would I understand, have to have PR.

If what you say is true, then it's back to the drawing board for me. Oh God........

madsad

Good luck to you both x Hope it all works out.

Donna.

hippymike

Hi folks.

I am beck_wanderers aforementioned *partner*, and I just want to add my $0.02.

I have been fretting about this restriction for the last 6 or 7 months since I started looking into it properly and immigration may not have given us the best advice. When I contacted them (on numerous occasions), I was told that you could *only* apply for de facto if the current visa holder was a permanent resident or a citizen. The 6 month/temporary option was never mentioned once, and I have found absolutely no reference to it on the DIMIA website at all. In fact, I found hardly any third-party visa-aid sites that mention it. This led me to believe that it may have been a possibility in the past, but that these third-party sites have not been updating their sites properly.

I am still a bit dubious about whether it will work or not. Hope it does

Cheers,
Mike

tonyk38

Well good luck to you both, that's what I say!

You've also put my mind at rest a bit, as I think now that the difference in terms of the time spent living together is that the PSV has the restriction on you having to marry. Slightly odd that this may not apply with other spouse visas, though I could still be wrong.

CasG

sorry, I'm confused - can someone spell it out please?

JAJ

Total confusion here I think, 457 holders can't even sponsor for provisional spouse. Different visas, different rules.

Jeremy

JAJ

Generally speaking, it's not a good idea to rely on advice from public enquiry lines, and DIMIA is no exception. Front line officers simply do not have the depth of understanding of the very complex rules necessary to advise in anything other than the simplest cases.

The supervisors and managers generally do, but you don't get to speak to them unless you know exactly what questions to ask (and if you knew that, you wouldn't be on the phone in the first place).

Jeremy

CasG

Got that, but once someone has got PR then ok.
What about time spent together - that is the bit we all seem confused about.
Cas

JAJ

Time spent together for what?

There are different rules for de-facto on temporary visa, de-facto on a permanent visa, legal spouse for a permanent visa, and fiance visas.

Jeremy

hippymike

*Apparently* where the current visa holder has permanent residence, you need to show 12 months of living together to aplpy for de facto. If the visa holder has temporary residence, you only have to show 6.

Don't know anything about legal spouse or fiance visas. Not something I've looked into

Mike

tonyk38

What Cas is getting at is that there have been more than a few unofficial sources saying that you have to be together for a certain length of time before you qualify for a spouse visa. Now I know there are different categories of spouse visa and you reassured me about a lot of stuff on an earlier thread. It's just that we want so much to get this right, because if we are committed to a long term relationship, we just want to make sure we don't make any silly mistakes or miss a vital point from any official source, especially since I find what DIMIA says about this on their website very confusing.

Sorry to harp on about it, I just don't want to screw things up by going for the wrong visa and having to be separated from Cas as a result.

JAJ

For a regular spouse visa, if you are legally married, there is *definitely* no specific cohabitation requirement. Unlike de-facto, where there is.

The problem is that many people, including many less-experienced agents, think that the 12 month cohabitation requirement applies if legally married. It does not.

That said, you still need to prove a genuine marriage.

If you need assistance in detail, you really have got to hire a good agent to handle your case.

Jeremy

tonyk38

Thanks Jeremy, you've been very helpful as always. I hope it works out for us, as it would be the perfect outcome to the wonderful time Cas and I have already spent together.

CasG

Thanks to both of you; Tony I feel quite overcome for you to say it here!
Sorry folks!

Cas