makido

Hello, everybody!
I'm new to this forum. I would appreciate any help I can get.
I am planning to apply for Australian Skilled Sponsored Visa as a teacher and include my de facto partner, but we started living together only a month ago, but we also have been in a relationship for four years. We have a lot of photos, he has authorization of my bank savings account, a lot of letters to each other while I was in Germany as a student, we can get declarations from a lot of neighbours, family etc. and we also have letters and invitations sent to both of us together.
Since it is not a custom in my country to have joint bank accounts, we can not have them as a proof. And we live in a house of my parents, but separate from them.
Is the fact that we have just started living together a problem? And are all other evidence enough to prove that we are in genuine relationship?

Thanks for any help!

daraghm

Our situation was different as we were married etc, but the advice I got here was just to be honest, don't over exaggerate your relationship. State the facts, include all the evidence you described above, state that joint bank accounts aren't common in your country and hope for the best! If you are paying any rent to your parents, maybe you could get them to state that also, helping with utility bills etc?

Not much help I'm afraid, but best of luck anyway! There might be others here that were in a similar situation.

D.

lewandkate

if it helps we done a letter
saying the date we first meet, what we have done together over the years
also added a copy of bank account form a few ago.etc
may have a copy on computer if needed
also added info on what we was going to do when we get to oz.

hope it helps

lew

WS

We were told to remember you have to prove living together and as a 'married couple' for 12 months, not just a relationship together.

For the last year, have you been in the same country together staying in your parents house?

makido

Thanks for yur replies!
We werein the same country, but not living together. We started living together a month ago. I still haven't applied for a visa.I think I might do it in four or five months, after my assessmnet, I hope it will be positive. By that time it will have been five months that we have been living together. Would it be sufficient?

WS

Nope, you need to show evidence of living together (or not apart on a permanent basis) for at least 12 months.

chris96

A constant 12 months have to be proved, i went through this with my partner, we sent off 12 months of council tax receipts, joint bank statements, joint bond, all joint general mail to the house, photos, matching plane tickets, insurances (car and travel) phone bills, gas, electric - god i could go on and on!!!!

esperanza

We didn't send 12 months worth of bills/statements, we sent about two or three of each kind - some council tax, some utility, some bank accounts.
However we also sent paperwork to show that we had bought our house together 2 years previously.
Your case might be stronger if you could show some sort of shared finances - like transferring money to each other, or sharing the cost of bills?

Without meaning to be negative though, if you only started living together 2 months ago then you clearly have not been living together for 12 months as if you were married.... so in truth you don't meet the criteria.

Maybe if you waited six months before beginning all the applications, then by the time your forms got to a CO it might be 12 months? Not sure if that would be acceptable or not - does it have to be 12 months at the time of application or 12 months by the time that the application is assessed? Sure someone will know!

Good luck getting something sorted out though, hope it works out for you.

esperanza

OR, new idea now, what if you applied for your own visa independently, then go to Australia with bf on a different visa, eg working holiday. Then wait until you can sponsor him for a de facto visa, by which point you would have built up lots more evidence of your relationship? Probably quite a complicated way of doing things, but might be worth looking in to if your other plans don't work out.

WS

It has to be 12 months before the application is lodged (from the date it arrives at DIAC).