Wil_n_Marie

Hi,

Can anyone help us?

My partner has been offered a job in Perth, WA with his current company. The company have lodged their part of the visa and we are waiting a response from them before we can submit our part.

We are not currently married but can prove we have been living together for 9 months at the moment but have been together longer. We are aware that they like 12 months minimum. We have lots of evidence, such as both on Land Registry for our house, joint mortgage, both on each others car insurance, bills in joint names, bank statements showing transfer of money each month for bills etc.

We have been advised by an immigration agent that they would not advise putting in an application under the 12 month point for a de facto couple and have said that we would stand a much better chance if we were married. Myself and partner had plans anyway to get married in Australia but are now considering getting married in the UK.

I was wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation and what you decided to do? Do we stand a chance of getting our visa approved as a de facto couple with the above evidence that we have?

We are very committed to each other and getting married in the UK is good with us but obviously we would prefer to do it in our own time and how we wanted to if possible.

Many thanks for any advice you can offer.

Pollyana

Is it a permanent visa or a 457 (temp visa) that they are sponsoring you for? DIAC do usually want 12 months for a PR visa, but for a 457 they are happy with 6 months cohabitation, and with that amount of evidence I wouldn't have though you'd have a problem.

Wil_n_Marie

Thank you for your reply.

It is a temporary 457 visa we are being sponsored for. Never heard of the 6 months cohabitation recommendation before. I could not see anything like that in the government paperwork. That sounds positive. Do you know that through previous experience or advice from the DIAC?

Bermudashorts

They are very strict on the 12 month rule with PR applications, but I don't think you will have a problem with a temporary visa application. Have seen people get a 457 as a defacto with less history than yourself, although I can't find the threads now, but definitely they have been there.

Pollyana

George Lombard has advised often in the past that 6 months is fine for a 457

nutatouille

My partner and I have been in a long distance relationship for 1.5 years and we've only lived together for 5 months prior to lodging our 457 application and we didn't have any problems.

We just included a few key photos that showed that we have been together for a longer time (i.e. changes in hairstyle, major events we've been to together (such as concerts) indicating the dates, screenshot of all the emails that we've sent back and forth, etc.)

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Wil_n_Marie

Thanks everyone for your replies, you have all been really helpful. We had no idea that less than 12 months co habitation would work, so that is really positive. Looks like we will have enough evidence to submit our application.

Would anyone recommend going through an immigration agent to prove our de facto evidence or should we try and do it ourselves. We have been quoted £1000 for an agent and are weighing it up at the moment. Not sure if that is an average quote or not.

Deutschmaster

I got my gf in as a defacto. We hadn't lived together before Aus so she came on a Working Holiday Visa, we lived together for a year then I had her put on the next 457 of mine. That was relatively easy.

My company paid for a visa agent to sort the paperwork out which included answering any questions of mine - are you sure your sponsor doesn't have somebody for you to talk to?

Proof we used: Joint rental contract, naming her as the beneficiary for my super, filing joint tax returns and having a couple of locals here sign stat decs that we were in a relationship.