stew

I am an Australian Resident/citizen of some 30 years and about to sponsor a UK citizen as my spouse. What concerns me is the amount of conflicting "advice" I am receiving eg. If you marry here(oz) and then apply the DIMIA react badly to this, they perceive it as having their arm twisted, you should apply from outside the country,

Can this sort of advice have any credence? are there immigration officials just sitting there looking for someone to make their life difficult?

If the application is genuine and there are no impediments then surely there are no problems??

My partner has a 12 month renewable, re-entry visitors visa and we intend to marry here and then apply from within Oz for permenant residency. All this appears to be clearly permissable reading the docs on the subject. We are both in our mid 50's and financial independent.

Does anyone have any experience of this rather than an urban myth?

Thanks to any one that replies

Stew

Jolyn

This sounds fine so long as your fiance doesn't work or breach the rules of their visitor's visa until the change of status comes through. The rules were changed a couple of years ago to make this easier.

If your partner leaves the country and comes back into Oz they should come back in on a fiance visa though rather than the tourist visa. Immigration takes a dim view of people arriving in Oz on a visa that doesn't accurately represent their status.

Ring up immigration and check it out thoroughly over the phone first without giving your name.

johanne

Hi stew...me and my partner also looked at this one before we married in the uk, i could have got him over on a spouse visa as long as we were married in australia within 12 months i think, and we had to give proof that we had booked a date to get married i cant remember the exact name of the visa but im sure you could e-mail alan collett at gomatilda and see what he says, alot of the questions asked of you on the migration forms contradict themselves and you dont know were you stand with half of them, so it may be better to ask a pro about it...
anyway good luck