MY PR came through yesterday! Just when I was starting to not bother checking the mail every day I poked in to the letter box to find a soggy mashed up A4 envelope.....after peeling away the sodden parts...

Dear Mr ...

*VISA GRANT NOTIFICATION*

This has been a huge ten year roller-coaster journey for me and it really feels like a miracle that I'm now a PR..

so here's the recent details

I got a request for documents a month before my eligibility date December 2008.

*If you change your address using form 929 (I think) make sure you call to confirm it's been updated as it doesn't always happen straight away.

The request was for:

2 stat decs from Aus citizens
Aus Police cert
Relationship statement + evidence in different categories
-that you have continuously lived together
-your domestic situation, which authorities you have declared t he relationship to
-social and cultural shared activities
-financial situation

It had to be signed by both of us but didn't ask for a separate statement from my wife, nor from friends or UK relatives.

Now, I had a bit of a problem getting my mother-in-law's birth certificate, had to send off for it and it took over a month what with the Christmas holidays... it was mid January before I sent it all off to Canberra. Here's the kind of stuff I sent:

Tenancy agreements
Car Rego
Utility bills
Bank statements
Centerlink letters
QLD driver licence showing different addresses
Tax return
Wills
Photos which back up the relationship statements
lots of stat decs
Xmas cards addressed to both
Employent evidence

The idea is to prove beyond doubt that you live together and you have sharing of finances, social activities, living arrangements so I went over my bank statements, including joint account and showed invoices for the things I bought for her or she bought for me, any involvement between the two of us.

I wrote up a table with a description of every bit of evidence, the date, and why it counts as evidence.

So I sent it off, including the acknowledgement card, and waited until I called them a couple of weeks ago.. the girl said my docs had been received mid March! She said the waiting time was now 6-9 months.

My advice to people on a temp spouse visa is to always bear in mind that you will need to provide some evidence. Then again, not everyone gets asked for all this - some people hardly get asked anything but I can't see a pattern in it so best to assume you'll have to.

Good luck to everyone else on their visas and thanks to all the helpful and nutty people on here who have provided me with entertainment through the ups and downs!

Great news

Have personally just started down the road and am awaiting the temp spouse so I can come over with the OH.

so really great to know whats in the pipeline.....

Many many thanks for the info and a huge congratulations on receiving ur PR.......
Now bring on the citizenship eh

Thanks again Kim n Ken x

Thanks!!

Yes I can't believe that only a couple of days before getting it I had posted so pessimistically about things.. strange timing.