Its OK once you get going... its just the thought of doing it!

ok there is this from my migration agent


Template Statutory Declaration

This statutory declaration has to be signed in front of a notary public, magistrate, solicitor or justice of the peace. Please note the witness must sight some form of photo identification of you in order to sign the statutory declaration.

Date

I, Name, of Address, a Profession/Job Title, do solemnly and sincerely declare as follows:

How you first met and how the relationship developed.

Significant things you have done together

Your plans for marriage, if you have any. If you don’t – why not?

That you see your relationship as permanent, and an outline of your future hopes and plans.

Value of your goods, assets and money that you will be transferring to Australia; how you plan to support yourselves when you arrive in Australia.

If you have any further points you wish considered when the decision maker assesses your relationship, add this section here.


and theres also this


http://www.immi.gov.au/migrants/part...lationship.htm


hope this helps!!

good to see you back

Ours wasn't that formal... just wrote the story... none of that I sincerely declare stuff. Didn't even sign ours, let alone have them witnessed.

We put together a timeline starting with when we met and put down anything important like holidays, day trips, social events like weddings and nights out, clubs joined, important purchases like houses etc and then worked from that to put the relationship statement together. Mine ended up about 2000 words, but as you already know I do tend to waffle

Thanks for all the tips guys - you've made me smile on what is not a good day - just had some bad news about my job (or probably lack thereof as it will be). Was reading the thread about 'does your poo smell different in Oz' and cracking up at that too!
I think I'll get down to doing the statement tonight. At least bad news about my job makes the decision making process of whether to go to Oz easier! (That and the fact my OH will die if I say I want to stay here longer than the end of this year!!).
Karma sent to you all for taking the time to reply and sharing your experiences with me.
YOU GUYS ROCK!!!

Bless you - it is a really helpful place isnt it? I have yet to apply but will be doing it in the next month and know I will get the answers to all my questions here!

Going back to RachelH's earlier post-my aunt and cousin in OZ signed and posted me their 888 forms in April. Will these now be invalid? Cant believe Im going to have to get them to do it all & visit JP again? urgh.. can anyone enlighten me?

I would be tempted to plead ignorance.... can it really be that much of a change that they would reject your application on the basis of an out of date form. The form we used for the x-ray was out of date.

Don't shoot me if this advice comes back and bites you on the bum though

What you could do is send it off with the "old" form and put in your covering letter that you are waiting for the "new" forms to come back from oz. I bet you'd have your visa before they arrived anyway. We did a similar thing, we sent off two 888's and said that we are waiting on two more 888's to come back, but we didn't need them in the end.

well the form hardly looks any different! I've also has 2 UK friends write a short piece each on how our relationship is genuine etc. Im going to send these in also but Im unsure if they should have been witnessed by a solicitor (as it says on front of form 888) or not -it seems some people do have witnessed and some dont...

Thats not a bad idea. I have tried (and boy is it trying!) to be super efficient and get things done in stages but things keep changing!! aargh..

The two 888s we sent off were both UK people. We asked them specifically because they worked with people that could witness them. One was witnessed by a teacher and one was witnessed by a building society manager.

Nowe im really confused-as Im sure it says on the 888 cover sheet that it is for Aussies only and if you are getting UK folks to do then dont use the form! Oh well perhaps as long as you send some form of decs in they are ok..

I'll go and have a read of it, but I thought it said something like for foreigners, it isn't actually classed as a Statutory Declaration because they have no jurisdiction outside Australia. I think it actually says somewhere too that outside Australia a similarly qualified person can witness.