jutang

Hi,

Yeh got my police checks done in Nov for convictions, fingerprints and prosecutions, but didnt get my traffic offences done ?? Dont know why, but sent off for those before Xmas, Im gonna send off my police check I have and I will see if that is sufficient enough, cos all they really care about is if you have ever been naughty enough to go to court, Im sure my CO will advise me if they need any other police check - what police check did your hubby do ?
Wow cant believe you are moving back in March!! Bet you cant wait!! Really happy for you both!!
Our wedding is in July @ Rainbow Bay - I assume you know where that is ? cant wait for that!!
How long did it take for your hubbies visa to be processed ?

jutang

To anyone who can answer,

My Aussie Fiance and I are going back to Oz on a prospective marriage visa in June. We are getting married in July and then I will be applying for spouse. I am a bit concerned cos they ask for evidence of living together in the spouse and my fiance and I wil stay with his parents for at least 6 months while we save to buy a house. The only eveidence we will have really is evidence of joint accounts in UK, trying to buy a house and car insurance , which I am sending with PMV, obvioulsy will ask for it all back (can we send photocopies of these, without certifying ) . Does anyone else have the same situation as us or been in the same situation and Immi have been fine with still providing spouse without eveidence of joint household ?

Phoenix

I thought i'd already answered that in your other thread ?

jutang

Hi Phoenix,

I read yours and I thought you were referring to your PMV application not your spouse , Soz if you were referring to your spouse.

smellycat28

Hi, - just found this forum & its brilliant! Me and my family are Scottish and want to go to Australia to live. I'm in the process of applying for my australian passport ( I was born in uk, but lived in tasmania and got citizenship before returning to uk). My husband and 4 children are applying for a spouse visa (we've been married 8 years) & citizenship by descent. Has anyone had any problems with this, and how long does the spouse visa normally take when lodged at the london high commission. I also have a query about the certification of documents. As there are five applicants we would have a lot of documents to certify and the notarial service at the high commission charges £13 each. Can a teacher in the uk sign the documents and what do they write on them? Any advice would be greatly appreciated - Been watching wanted down under and am desperate to get to Oz

Poppydreams

Hi and Welcome!
My OH has lodged his application and we are still waiting to hear the decision. (lodged this about 7 weeks ago). However there are some really lucky people on this forum who got their decision back within days, for others they get their decision in a couple of weeks!! So I guess it is kinda random but compared to the skilled visa situation it is not long at all.

We also applied for citizenship for our daughter and that came back within a week! For my husband's app- they recently wrote to us requesting further info - my daughter's citizenship certificate and her birth certificate.
We got our docs signed by a solicitor (£5 for first doc and then £2.50 for each one after that) for the spouse visa. However, for my daughter's citizenship - we got a teacher to sign her declaration of identity. There is more information on who can sign on the application docs and the booklet that goes with it in the website. http://www.immi.gov.au/migrants/part...w-to-apply.htm
When they are certifying the docs make sure you read the instructions on the applications and also as a general rule when certifying docs - they should sign their name, print their name, date it, (if you use a solicitor or accountant - get them to stamp their business stamp on it with their contact details) and also importantly the words ' I certify this copy as a true copy of the original' or something similar to that. Hope this helps a little and Good luck!!. Are you returning to Tasmania?

scrubbedexpat001

Greetings smellycat28,

I applied on a spouse visa logged in London, wife is Australian I'm English (though I lived in sunny West Lothian for the last 5 years !) and we've been married for 11 years. I've done this twice now (last spouse visa expired when we came back to the UK in 2001 so I've a little experience).

First of all a spouse visa application usually takes 12 weeks for processing (dunno about the ones for the kids but they'd be included on your husbands form as well as on your form which you have to fill out as his sponsor) and my case officer was very understanding as my wife was wanting to return home and she had a job offer in Oz already, however she was still sticking to the rules "I aim to process it as quickly as possible). From sending the application to sending my passport was a little under 10 weeks and I got my passport back with the visa around 29th October 2007 - just as well because we flew out on the 7th November ! (we booked flights once they requested my passport as we knew the visa had been granted).

As for getting your documents certified - do you know any Scottish Police Officers ? I did as we both worked for Lothian & Borders Police (my wife was the cop) so she got one of her Sgt's to certify that they were "true copies of the original documents", stamped each copy with the Station Stamp (every police station should have one) and finally wrote their full name, rank and collar/shoulder number on each and every copy so it was clear. In my particular case my case officer in London didn't seem to have any problems with it and I guess that's because Police Officers in Oz can sign these if there lodged there (you can take this option but it takes 6 months). I only had a few docs such as birth cert, marriage cert and some other things but it would still have cost a fortune getting a notary to do them and we were trying to save money not spend it .

One thing you've got to watch (dunno if it's been said here before as I'm new to the forum) if you have lived in the England & Scotland then that's 2 different Police Areas as far as the Embassy is concerned (different laws north & south of the border) so you have to apply through your local Scottish Police Force and and state that you want English PNC checks as well (yep, even working for the Police I still had to pay even though one of the cops in the office could've done it), the English checks are done by the National Identification Service at New Scotland Yard and they quote 40 days - mine took 32 but I know other people here who's checks took longer and were the last document I needed to send. Your friendly Scottish Police Forces (such as L&P) aim to do their SCRO checks within 7 - 14 days.

I hope this helps, if you need any further info don't hesitate to ask and good luck with your application

jutang

To anyone,

Nobody has had a prob with their application cos their Aussie sponsor is working in UK and wil be emigrating with them and wil be looking for work whe he gets there ? I cant see it being a prob as we have proof of wages and work for last two years and have savings. I have been informed it shouldnt be a prob, just wondering who else is in same situation.

Poppydreams

We GOT IT!!!!!!:

Oh my god. We have been nervous wrecks up until now -am so glad this part is over. Now to the flight booking, packing etc....

Thanks to everyone for your massive help!

Brisbane - here we come!!! YAYYYYYYY!!!!

Bernieboy

Thats great news break out the bubbly

Poppydreams

Thanks, will do - We are soo excited and can't wait to get there!!

sloane46

Congrats

smellycat28

Congratulations poppydreams! Good luck for your new start it's so exciting Thanks to you and everyone else for all your advice - its great to hear that the process is do-able. There is just so much paperwork and documents to gather together. We have 4 kids so we have 4 citizenship by descents, 3 of them need new UK passports, I need my Australian passport and of course the spouse visa forms which are like a novel. Think I need a PA!!! We're not going back to Tassie I don't think, my husband works on an oil rig so he's hoping to get similar work off WA. He works 2 weeks on 3 weeks off so if he can't get work before we go, he'll fly back to the UK to work for a couple of trips at most. This isn't ideal but a lot of the companies seem to require we have residencyor at least his visa first. He has applied for another which was advertised in UK with a relocation package which would be great - they would sponsor him too so might not have to get spouse visa, however I think now we've started the process its worth continuing anyway. Theres also jobs in Brisbane and Adelaide hes interested in but again he needs his visa first to apply for these. Fingers crossed!

smellycat28

Thanks! I take it if I haven't lived in England I don't have to get the English PNC check do I? Husband went to police station yesterday and as far as I'm aware he just asked for subject access request.

Phoned solicitor today and they will certify as much documents as we need for £30+VAT so think we'll do that to get it done properly just in case. Unfortunately don't know any police, we know plenty of teachers as my mum is one and I work as a learning assistant but don't know if the high commision will allow this. I know if you're an Australian teacher you can but not sure about a UK one. I can handle £30 but we have so much paperwork for 6 of us that £13 a document might be quite costly!!!

Does your wife have a permanent visa now? I was under the impression that if you'd been married for a while they did grant this. Hope so - it would be better for us. Thanks again for all your help filcomm

Poppydreams

Thankyou!!

Thankyou! I must say - you have what will seem like a mammoth task ahead of you with all your forms!! But you will have no problems I'm sure and, when you are in the middle of doing the apps, if you have any questions don't hesitate and spend days wondering what is the right answer - just ask on here! Everyone is really helpful. Also sounds like your husbands job situation is really positive. Well I'll have my fingers crossed for you and just shout if you have any questions.