Visa Application Again!!
 

Hi all first posting!

My girlfriend and I (she’s the Aussie) are looking at visa options as we want to hit Sydney next November, currently in London. De Facto looks the best route (we’ve been living together for 3 years) but financial evidence is a bit thin (the house, bills etc. in my name plus we only have separate bank accounts). Anybody have experience of similar situation?

Second point is trying to give enough but not too much (aka Mills & Boon!) details on a relationship. This is tough! I found the link below to a “Partner Visa Application checklist�

http://www.australia.org.uk/VTI/FORM...checklist.pdf.

The extract below indicates photos , letters etc. are not required any body have any experiences on this?

“We also ask that, in providing evidence of the genuine and continuing nature of your relationship with your sponsor, you do NOT include such items as videos, cassette tapes, compact discs, photographs and personal correspondence between you and your sponsor. Instead, you should read Part 3 (Proving your relationship is genuine) of the Partner Migration Booklet No. 1 carefully and provide the types of documentation listed there.�

Finally! I like the idea of a well presented binder, nice index’s, plastic sleeves etc. but this also appear to be a no no! – any comments??

“ Finally, we ask that when you lodge your front-end loaded visa application, please simply provide the application form, the Visa Application Charge, your passport/s and the supporting documentation in one envelope. Please do NOT "compile" this information into a ring-binder folder with plastic sleeves or similar, as this information needs to be placed on a Departmental file and the time it takes to re-organise your paperwork on file unnecessarily delays the processing of all applications.�

Cheers all,

Dinky

P.S. Before you experienced posters tell me to search all previous posts in the archives it appears the links are broken so hopefully I’m not being too dumb!!

Re: Visa Application Again!!
 

[QUOTE][SIZE=1]Originally posted by Dinky
Hi all first posting!

My girlfriend and I (she’s the Aussie) are looking at visa options as we want to hit Sydney next November, currently in London. De Facto looks the best route (we’ve been living together for 3 years) but financial evidence is a bit thin (the house, bills etc. in my name plus we only have separate bank accounts). Anybody have experience of similar situation?


Hi Dinky,

We were in a similar situation with the De Facto thing, we scratched our heads for a little while - and then got married! - problem solved

good luck

Mark

Hi Doub,

Not linked at all to this thread....but I like your avatar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


sorry but ive had a few vodkakaka's................where did ya find it???????

Hiya Yvonne,

You will find loads at http://www.animfactory.com but dont forget to edit them so they fit before you download .....
Cheers

Doub

thanks Doub...check out the new me!!!!...now an eskimo skiing....been on the toilet far too long!!!!!!!

Thanks guys, your helpa nd assitance is proving invaluble............

Dinky

Your not lookin' too steady on those things Yvsie, good job its Australia and not Austria your heading for!

Doub:p

Defacto visa
 

We had a very simular situation to yours - I am an aussie, my partner and I had been in the UK together for 3 years, but evidence lacking as we didint premeditate coming here so we had separate bank accounts, bills etc.

We ended up coming into Oz with a return ticket and the view to check it out (on my partners behalf - and as I had been away for 5 years to see if I liked it) we decided to go ahead and put in the onshore defacto visa application. We put that in in March 2002 - and were granted the defacto visa in August 2002.

The limitations with applying within the country meant that my partner could not work for the period while waiting (unless genuine hardship could be shown) and we could not leave the country (unless for a short period of time). We had all our "evidence" sent out to us in Oz and we put the application together there.

With a defacto the main thing they are trying to prove is that you are not being dodgy. The case officer was promoting defacto visas to us for people in our situation - and if you are legitimate you should have no problem.

The evidence of our relationship was the most difficult bit. (please forgive my memory but I think these are the main sections):

1) Evidence of financial committment
We lived together but the bills and morgage was all in his name (like who changes that when you meet someone) so I provided lots of bills that I had recieved over the 3 years at his address
We also had a couple of things like an insurance document that I had been put on.
Things like poll tax etc would be great.

2) Evidence of joint lives
As my partner was on a EC passport and I on an Aussie one - every time we travelled within the EC for the past 3 years - he had one stamp (and me about 20). I ended up putting photos in of the places we travelled - my passport stamp - and any flight/travel/accomodation receipt we had. I ended up gettting a ferry company to send me all the bookings we had made over the 3 years as I had thrown it all away.
I also put in heaps of photos of us at social occasions, with my family, with his family etc.

3) ongoing committments
We had to write statements to this effect - anything joint put down etc.

The main hints I have are:
1) Read the booklet that they give you with the application - and I mean read it - it is one of the most complex things but you have to follow it to the letter. Use the guidelines and sections as the sections of your application.
2) get your police check from the UK before you go - we did this as a precaution and being able to put everythning in at once made it easier.
3) Do your medical first (I think they call it front loading) and put the details in with the application.
4) presentation - make it well presented and organised. We had an index, all sections noted, all photos and evidence numbered and linked to the questions. The comments we got back were that the presentation and layout assisted us in our application. We ended up with a A4 ring binder with 50 pages of evidence.
5) Dont hesitate to use photos - ours ended up looking like "this is your life" but the feedback we had was that this was good - you cant make this up"
6) Find out how long they estimate - then near the end of that time - call in/write to check how it is going or to provide more evidence (cos now you know how it works - you do EVERYTHING joint.
7) get lots of stat decs - you can use the form they have in the system or get a lawyer to set one up (luckily I had a relative do it) and get them put into your application.

The other thing (that may cause contraversy here ) is that unless you dont have the time or energy to put this together yourselves, or you dont meet the requirements (of 12 months together) then I dont see the need for a migration agent - they dont speed the process up - and will end up costing you an arm and a leg (they usually dont take you on unless they know you will get in)

Good luck and I hope it all works out for you

Re: Visa Application Again!!
 

Hi - just went on and checked out the links on the migration website - in relation to my hints from the above posting.

The case officer we had in australia made the comments about the photographs and the binder and the presentation - I cannot believe that the new partner checklist stated all this (dated the actual day that we got our visa actually) thats a bit rough then for you.

I would try to speak to someone at the Department of immigration regarding this then - it is biased against anyone who didnt premeditate applying for a visa in the future then.

Good luck and let us know how it goes



------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi all first posting!

My girlfriend and I (she’s the Aussie) are looking at visa options as we want to hit Sydney next November, currently in London. De Facto looks the best route (we’ve been living together for 3 years) but financial evidence is a bit thin (the house, bills etc. in my name plus we only have separate bank accounts). Anybody have experience of similar situation?

Second point is trying to give enough but not too much (aka Mills & Boon!) details on a relationship. This is tough! I found the link below to a “Partner Visa Application checklist�

http://www.australia.org.uk/VTI/FORM...checklist.pdf.

The extract below indicates photos , letters etc. are not required any body have any experiences on this?

“We also ask that, in providing evidence of the genuine and continuing nature of your relationship with your sponsor, you do NOT include such items as videos, cassette tapes, compact discs, photographs and personal correspondence between you and your sponsor. Instead, you should read Part 3 (Proving your relationship is genuine) of the Partner Migration Booklet No. 1 carefully and provide the types of documentation listed there.�

Finally! I like the idea of a well presented binder, nice index’s, plastic sleeves etc. but this also appear to be a no no! – any comments??

“ Finally, we ask that when you lodge your front-end loaded visa application, please simply provide the application form, the Visa Application Charge, your passport/s and the supporting documentation in one envelope. Please do NOT "compile" this information into a ring-binder folder with plastic sleeves or similar, as this information needs to be placed on a Departmental file and the time it takes to re-organise your paperwork on file unnecessarily delays the processing of all applications.�

Cheers all,

Dinky

P.S. Before you experienced posters tell me to search all previous posts in the archives it appears the links are broken so hopefully I’m not being too dumb!! [/SIZE][/QUOTE]