Couple Visa combinations & what they allow?...
 

Hi everyone,

I can't seem to find the answers I'm looking for on Australia's immi.gov website so hoping someone here can shed some light for me?

We (Myself, hubby and two children) are hoping to visit Oz next Christmas.
I'd like to stay for a couple of months as I'd like to see as much as I can and I have friends both sides to visit.

I'm 29 in Feb, and conscious that my time to utilise a working holiday visa is running out. I'm wondering if;
I can apply alone for a working holiday visa, and my husband (who will be 33 at the time) apply for a tourist visa for himself and the kids.
This way if we need to subsidise our stay I can work to do so.
Are we allowed to have two different visas between us?

In addition to this, if we were to stay for 2-3 months it would be ideal for the kids to be able to continue their education uninterrupted - would we be able to enrol them in a school for a short time on a tourist visa?
A friend of mine in Perth mentioned at some point that schools break up for 3 months over Christmas - does this depend on the region/school or is this a national thing? Is this break period on the same dates every year?

Any advice greatly appreciated!

KAO

Re: Couple Visa combinations & what they allow?...
 

From what I understand you can not get a WHV if you have children.

Re: Couple Visa combinations & what they allow?...
 

I understand that to be the case, which is why I'm wondering if it is a possible workaround, by having the children on my hubby's tourist visa, and effectively applying alone for a whv.
You can't apply if you are planning on taking children with you -however this way my husband would be taking the children with him, as if he were travelling alone with them.
Depending on how things work out we may not be there on the same dates anyway, so if I were to travel out seperately it would essentially be the same as leaving the uk alone and being in oz alone.

Re: Couple Visa combinations & what they allow?...
 

A WHV visa is definitely not an option as you have kids (it doesn't matter whether they come with you or not). It will probably be difficult to find any visa that you can work on for a short period of time and to be honest probably difficult to find a casual job at that time of year anyway.

You could all just come with a eVisitor visa which allows visits of up to 3 months at a time for holiday purposes.

Schools here shut just before Christmas until the end of January for the summer holidays, I can't imagine any school would be willing to take kids for just a few weeks and even if you did they would be likely to be following a different curriculum/timing to the UK school anyway.

HTH

Re: Couple Visa combinations & what they allow?...
 

That used to be the case - but not any more. See http://www.immi.gov.au/visitors/work...lity-first.htm.

To the OP - I don't know the answer to your question, but I would have thought your children would be considered to be accompanying you.... although if you arrive on a different flight maybe not....

Re: Couple Visa combinations & what they allow?...
 

The children will almost certainly be counted as accompanying the OP if they are in Australia because even though they would be on a different visa they are still dependent on the OP. The idea of a WHV is that its only likely to produce enough income to support the visa holder - not to support dependents as well.

Re: Couple Visa combinations & what they allow?...
 

The children will not be able to be enrolled in schools whilst holding a tourist visa. They need to be permanent or temporary resident visa holders.

Re: Couple Visa combinations & what they allow?...
 

Thank you for all of your answers everyone, you've all been very helpful.
I suppose we'll all be arriving as tourists then!

Cheers :thumbup:
KAO