daraghm

Hi folks,

My wife and I are in the process of organising my application for the spouse visa. She is the Australian citizen, I am Irish, and we are living in Ireland. We have been living together for over 9 years now, got married earlier this year and have a 14 month old together, so am not that worried about proving the relationship is genuine. I should have no problem with health/character issues either.

My worry is more about the sponsorship issue. Although she is a qualified nurse, she has been looking after our son full time since he was born. She is supposed to give details of her financial status on the sponsor form for the past few years and her ability to financially support me. When we get to Australia, we expect that she will continue to look after our child, I will be the main breadwinner as such. I am a civil engineer and I have a job offer, and would therefore argue that I will be doing the supporting ideally!

Does anyone have any opinion/experience as to how this should be addressed in our application, or will it be a tough one....

Thanks,

D.

iPom

Hi there
Given the length of time you have been married, plus your child, the spouse visa will essentially be a 'rubber stamp' job, and you'll get Permanent Residence in your passport within days of your application going in. (You should send in your p'port with your application in this case)
As long as you tell the truth and are straight forward, there will be no issues. You can explain all this in your personal statements about how you see your future together in Aus... They're not Nazi's at DIMA and although she's meant to be 'supporting' you, if you write what's happened in your relationship and how your finances work, you'll be absolutely fine. Apart from your individual statements, you can write on the form ' See sheet A attached' where you explain what you're up to - you might add too, that when son goes to school, she will resume her career with the prospect of earning '?K' per year. Having her look after baby whilst you work is entirely normal and happens all the time.

Probably others will have more helpful ideas, but really, put your mind at rest, you'll be absolutely fine.

'PS - Welcome to BE, and there are lots of us spouse visa people here to help, so ask away.

daraghm

Thanks mate,

I'm pretty sure the whole thing will be ok, but now that we are getting the ball rolling, I get these bouts of the "what ifs"! It's natural I suppose, and I guess no-one relaxes until they have that precious visa in the hand!

iPom

Absolutely right, you do feel the stress, but really, you don't need to worry.
Send in as much stuff as poss and it will be a breeze. Mine went in on the Monday, they got it on Tuesday, they posted it Wednesday and I got it on the Thursday!!! Lots of people like that here... We're the lucky ones because other visas can take years to come through.

JAJ

Have you registered your child as an Australian citizen by descent?

Regarding your wife, how long has she lived in Ireland and is she also an Irish citizen?

iPom

Hello JAJ - haven't seen you around for a long time. You gave me some excellent spouse visa help months ago now. Cheers.

daraghm

Hi JAJ,

We are in the process of registering our son as an Australian citizen, and will be lodging those forms with the embassy here in Ireland this week. Once registered we will apply for his passport as we are aware that Aus citizens have to enter Aus on an Aus passport normally. He also has an irish passport.

Yes, my wife is Irish by birth, and holds an Irish passport. She is an Australian citizen by grant, her family emigrated to Aus in the 80's. Does this make a difference to our application?

D.

JAJ

No difference at all. It just means she doesn't have to worry about losing her residence status or going through the naturalisation hoops (which takes ages in Ireland) before leaving.

ElshaUK

Hi,

Have no real advice for you as your situation is a little different from mine and my partner's (in so much, that you are married and have a child). However I sponsored my de-facto spouse for a visa - we've been together nearly 9 years and I am the Aussie citizen (born in the UK, citizenship by grant in the 80's).

Anyway, I did not have to put financial details down (as I remember). I did do a statement saying that my Father was supporting us, we'd live with him and find jobs and if we could not find jobs, then he could employ us as he was self employed. etc etc.)

Anyway just wanted to wish you all the best

daraghm

We received our son's Aus Citizenship Cert in the post last week, so that's one less thing to worry about.

I have been for my medical, have received aus police clearance (I lived there for a few years on a 457 a few years back), have received some 888s from friends we know in aus, so the information required for the spouse application is starting to come together....

Can anyone give me guidance on how long the essay(?) should be regarding the history of our relationship and our plans for the future? We have been together along time, to cover all the bases could extend to a small novel!

Thanks,

D.

soldierblue

Hi
Not sure how much they really wanted so I did mine about a page and a half A4 and my wife's was about 2 pages. We have been together for about 8 years.

Cheers Mark

iPom

I wrote two sides of A4... We've been together 12 years. I think it depends on how you write it... I gave an overall view, my hub did his in detail and got cramp after 4 sides of A4 and cut it short . He waffles.
Don't write them together either, and do it from your own perspective. THey're looking for honesty, the type of person you are, your long term goals... just proof that you're really 'together' which comes across in that sort of writing anyway. Just do it from the heart.

sid_s

Hi,

I also came over on a spouse visa. We knew that OH was planning to return to study and I would be the main breadwinner, but I think we still put on the form that he is a fully qualified engineer with good earning potential and you could put that too. Even if it's not your intention, it's still relevant.

I think our relationship history was about one page. We were advised to give some dates - when we met, when we got engaged, bought a house together etc. - and we put in when we had visited Australia and met all his family and when we decided we wanted to move to Australia.

As people say, it should just be a rubber stamp anyway