toogie

hi
i am married to an aussie las here in the uk, we have been married 4 and half years and have decided to finally move to Aus in march 2007, i have worked out the form i need to do and it seems pretty simple. visa is £560 and it says i have to do a health check myself (anyone know what this might cost and how to get it done?). im 33 so age should be ok. does anyone know of any other little bits of info that i might need to know??

is there a certain amount of money i need in the bank before i do the visa?

do i still need to go to the aussie embassy in london or is it all done via forms nowadays?

Thanks for any help in advance
toogie

ElshaUK

Hi Toogie,

I presume you are going for the spouse visa then? Filling in forms 47SP and 40SP? I just sponsored my partner on a spouse visa and he received it through on Wednesday

You don't go to the High Commission in London to lodge it, they do not accept lodgements in person. You send it there using special delivery post from the post office.

If you are doing the spouse visa then you can do what many people do and that is front load everything. Basically by front loading, it means you provide the UK police clearance and medicals before your Case Office (CO) asks for them.

We live in West London so my other half went to a panel dr in Ealing for his medical and had his chest x-ray done at Ealing hospital. It cost £40 for x-rays and £110 for his medical. It was then about £10 for the panel dr to courier it across to the Aussie High Commission.

I sponsored my partner as a defacto (as we have been living together for over 5 years as married but are not legally married). We needed to provide lots of proof of our relationship in the way of joint bills, bank statements, a statement about our relationship and how we divide household chores etc, photo's, stat decs from Aussie friends/family and letters of support from British friends/family. We had over 100 pages in the application itself....

If you have spent any time in Australia and it adds up to 12 months in total, then you will need an Australian Police clearance - I'd not even thought of this and my OH's CO requested it. It delayed us by a good month.

Oooh and to your last question. No one asked us how much we had in our bank, so I don't think it's a requirement

If you have any other Q's then feel free to PM me.

christinabell

Hi Toogie,

Here is a link that will show u what panel doctors u can go to in ur area. Best of luck with ur application

http://www.immi.gov.au/contacts/over...el-doctors.htm

NIGENABBY

Hi
I know that our visa was done late last year, but it was pretty quick and simple. If you can prove 5 years together (or 2 with kids) which shoudl be easy enough if you have been married 4 years, you should get PR straight away.
We front loaded my husbands medicals and got a huge amount of documentation together and Nigel got his visa in two days (london).
This might help as a check list, I apologise if you have already got all your information and it is overkill, but (I think this is their call sign) BertnStella helped a great deal with thier list


Covering Letter to Australian High Commission
Form 47SP
Form 40SP
3 Certified copies of our Birth Certificates
3 certified copies of our Passports
2 certified copies of our Divorce certificates
1 certified copy of our Marriage certificate
1 Australian citizenship by Descent certificate for my daughter
4 photos of applicant
4 photos of my daughter
2 photos of my wife (Sponsor)
Form 80
Police Clearance Certificate for applicant only (Original as required)
4 * Form 888- Statutory Declarations (Asked four different Australian Friends and Family expecting to only get two back, got them all back so sending them all off, can't hurt can it?)
Form 886 settlement Details
16 deferent photos to form part of the evidence
Copy of sponsors last P60 to prove her income over last two years (She is off on maternity leave at present)
2 relationship statements, witnessed by our Solicitor from applicant and my wife (sponsor)
11 different statements,bills and documents proving that we reside together at the same address and that we have a continuing relationship.
Document detailing the how the household chores are are distributed and carried out.
Copies of Travel documents for the last couple of years
Medicals and the results have been sent direct to the High Commission in London (cost about £200)
Debit/Credit card mandate in GBP

What took the longest is the relationship statements from family & freinds. Our statements were also basically copies of one anothers with the appropriate details changed, bit soppy they were but hey.

We front loaded the medical for him. The police check takes about 30 days to come through and costs about £10. You will need to send the original.

The confirmation we had received the visa took 24 hours. The longest I have noticed for a legal spouse (not defacto) via this site is about a week. Nigel received PR straight away because we have children (now two) and we had been toghther over two years.

Anwyay I hope this helps. We paid for immigration assistance, but propbably did not need to in the end, although it gave us some peace of mind when we first started. If you need anything or I have not made it clear just PM me. (OH the visa needs to be validated 12 months after the medicals or police check - which ever is earlier)

Regards
Abby

JAJ

Other things you need to know:

- if you have been together for 5 years *at time of application* you get a permanent visa. Otherwise you get a 2 year temporary visa. The 5 year requirement is reduced to 2 years if you have got children.

- If you've got children, they should be registered as Australians by descent.

- Has your Aussie lass also got British citizenship? If not, has she thought about naturalisation before leaving the UK?

No.

It's done via forms. Spouse visas are still dealt with in London (and it's a High Commission, not an Embassy).

They will call you if they need to interview you.

Have you downloaded and read the Partner migration booklet at http://www.immi.gov.au ?