Aussiecat

OK, this is my 1st time & I'm quite pleased I've got this far.

I am an Aussie living in the UK for nearly 16 yrs now (don't ask why) with my British husband & British born, Aussie passport holding daughters.
We have decided to back to Melbourne & wanted to be there for the start of the new school year. The house is on the market, & the leaving party is booked, BUT my husband has not completed his spouse visa application, & time is running out.
Can anyone offer info on whether it would be possible for him to enter Australia on another type of visa (& which one) & submit the application form once we are settled in Melbourne???

mlbonner

Hi - welcome to the forum.

How much time do you have? London AHC can be very quick at processing spouse visas (one was posted on the immigration forum tonight having been processed in under a week.) Having children and being together for more than 2 years willl not only mean your husband will get automatic PR, but also that the process should be straight-forward. On average they seem to take 2-4 weeks at London. Mine took seven, this was held up with medicals though, I also went for a de facto visa, which requires extra evidence.

My advice to you would be to get the application sorted asap. Get the meds and PCC's started/booked today!! That way the visa should be through before January 27th (schools start) and you can all leave together, or if for some reason they weren't I'm sure hubby wouldn't be far behind.

There are other options which you may wish to consider - this just seems the most straight forward to me!

OzTennis

G'day and welcome to the forum. I'm in a very similar situation to you. I'm also an Aussie, from Melbourne (Williamstown, 'carn the 'Dogs), met my Scottish wife there, married there, we both then lived there for a while (and in Bendigo), moved to Scotland, been here longer than you, wanted to reverse the 'brain drain' (that's a joke Joyce).

We are moving back to Melbourne at some point in the future (but we have mother-in-law to look after at the moment). My wife regrets now not taking out dual citizenship at the time so we will have to get a spouse visa for her (that's how I originally found this site, looking for information on that).

As mlbonner said, my understanding is that the spouse visa is straightforward and is being processed quickly now. What helps your application is if you 'front end load' the application. This basically means you arrange your husband's police check/clearance and the medical yourself, put in the application forms and the visa should come soon after. The immigration forum is better for this type of thing - do a search in this forum and there on 'spouse visa' and probably every question you could ask will be answered already.

Being new to the forum you may not know that you send other users a private message (PM) if you don't want anything in the public domain. I'd be interested to know which part of Melbourne you are from and what you and your family are doing here. 'PM' me if you want or post here.

Welcome again,

OzTennis

Here's another forum, recently started up, more specifically Melbourne and Victoria:
http://s7.invisionfree.com/BritVics/...php?act=SC&c=1

MrsDagboy

Michelle, pretty sure that the being together thing is 5 years, not 2. Although the point is probably anyway moot since it seems they have been together for quite a while .

Aussiecat, I agree with Michelle, they normally dont take long, get it in & theres a good chance it will be back very quickly.

Ohhh & welcome to the forum .

Ushas

Hubby's spouse visa (Granted PR) took 1 month and 2 days...and ths was delayed because he needed to make a trip to Oz about his new job so they didn't grant it when they could but left it till he came back.

mlbonner

Hi Mrs DB, its actually 2 years with children & 5 years without them


Aussiecat, here's some good places to start looking

http://dima.cardgate.net/Partner_Migration/1127.pdf

http://www.immi.gov.au/migration/family/sponsor.htm
http://www.immi.gov.au/migration/family/health.htm
http://www.immi.gov.au/migration/family/character.htm
http://www.immi.gov.au/facts/30partners.htm
http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/40sp.pdf
http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/47sp.pdf
http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/888.pdf

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...ighlight=forms

MrsDagboy

Ahhh *doh* , yes you're right, brains on holiday, sorry!

mlbonner

Won't mention this on the other thread thats going on tonight then hey....

MrsDagboy

LOL too late, I already have .

moneypenny20

Me and hubby been together forever and married for 13 yrs - two children. Frontloaded a few weeks ago - got passport and visa back exactly seven days after posting it.

Feel free to ask anything (relevant preferably )

JAJ

As others have noted, well prepared spouse visa applications normally get processed fairly quickly at the AHC London.

There is no specific visa to go to Australia to make the application onshore - if you try it on an ETA (tourist status) then there are a range of problems and risks. Not least the possibility of being refused entry on arrival, and being stuck with tourist conditions (no work) until a spouse visa is granted.

If you've not got British citizenship yourself you should make a point of applying for naturalisation before leaving the UK - the opportunity will close after that. Visit http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk

Jeremy

OzTennis

Excellent advice, take out dual citizenship aussiecat if you haven't done so already. For much of the time you have been in the UK, Australian law did not permit dual citizenship 'if you knowingly applied for the citizenship of a country other than Australia' you lost your Australian citizenship. This came in with Hawkey in 1983 but Australian law changed a few years ago (2002?)and it now allows any Australian to apply for UK citizenship without having to give up the precious blue passport. As Jeremy says, if you haven't already, do it before you leave these shores.

OzTennis

PommieLeague

Anyone know how quick they are in Perth at processing?

JAJ

I'm sorry OzTennis but this is completely wrong - the restriction on dual citizenship dates right back to when Australian citizenship was created in 1949 (when Ben Chifley was Prime Minister).

If you want to visit http://scaleplus.law.gov.au and look up historical versions of the Australian Citizenship Act going back to 1973, you'll see section 17 (the dual citizenship restriction) was there long before Hawke. It's in the original Act from 1948 if you want to visit any major library in Australia and have a look.

And this restriction simply carried on something out of the old British law - in the late 1940s, the UK and New Zealand decided to drop restrictions on dual citizenship, but Canada and Australia kept them and only changed the law later on.

Jeremy

Aussiecat

Thanks for the info, but as my mum was born in Britain & I have a 'Right of Abode' visa I guess that doesn't apply to me. However I shall check.

Thanks
Aussiecat