Steve2009

Hi,

I'm in the middle of relocating to QLD permanently at the moment to live with my girlfriend. We have rented our house and everything is set except that I am commuting to work in Sydney 5 days a week. This is proving to be expensive, stressful and a little lonely. This is also making it difficult to interview for jobs in Brisbane and I think my 457 might put potential employers off hiring me.

We have been together for 15 months but only started our lease together in mid-july. In the previous 15 months we would have spent the vast majority of time in each other's residences but didn't move in together. I had been placed with a Brisbane client during those 15 months.

Is a De-Facto visa an option for us? What timescale would we be looking at to get the de-facto visa? I'm also trying to get together a PR (Independent) application at the moment, will this affect a subsequent PR application?

I'm not actively pursuing this option at the moment but my patience is wearing thin with the travelling. I'm basically working to cover my expenses at the moment and this option may become more attractive over time.

Thanks in advance,

Steve.

lou1003

Hi Steve,

You have to have been living fully together for at least 12 months before applying. Living together as a defacto couple, as man and wife - so spending a lot of time at each other's houses doesn't really qualify.
You need to be able to provide a lot of evidence - joint lease is one example, but also mail going to each of you (or both of you) at the same address, joint bills, bank accounts etc.
You won't be able to provide this evidence if you haven't been living as defacto.

Sorry to be negative, and I can't really help with your other queries, hopefully someone else can soon
Not sure about onshore grant times, but it generally takes longer tha applying for the visa offshore.

You could get married as this eliminates the 12 month defacto period (I believe). But you still have to provide a lot of evidence.

Good Luck with everything.
I'll be hopefully putting my own defacto application in around Xmas time

Steve2009

Thanks for the response. I've been looking at a lot of options today and it seems that the De-Facto one is not really an option for us yet. The joint lease and joint bank account was actually supposed to be in pursuit of a de-facto application in the EU in the future for my girlfriend. I thought we might be able to frog leap the process due to my current predicament but it looks like a non-runner. Luckily I've found some other options that might open up some more windows of opportunity.

lou1003

That's good!
Hope you get things sorted

JAJ

Have you considered getting married?

Although it's still a good idea to pursue permanent residence through employment, if eligible, even in parallel with a spouse visa,
http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Perman...Visa-Australia

Steve2009

Hasn't come up yet and I don't think it will for a while yet. :-)

JAJ

I have never understood why Australia allows people to obtain a migration outcome on the basis of a relationship without making a marriage commitment to each other.

Steve2009

The EU has similar arrangements for de-facto relationships. Regardless of those provisions, the common law provisions in many jurisdictions would seem to take a marriage commitment as implicit for de-facto relationships anyway after a certain period of time for the pruposes of property ownership etc.

I don't personally write the rules, I'm glad they favour my circumstances, or at least soon will. I'm not going to be rushed into marriage for a visa even if that may be the most likely outcome in the medium term.

James516

Some people aren't allowed to be married - this is a bit of an election issue.

Pollyana

and many people consider a de facto relationship to be as solid as a marriage.

Steve2009

Which isn't necessarily that solid?

Pollyana

some marriages aren't that solid, some are, same with de facto relationships.I just don't see personally why people whe are committed to each other should be penalised for not wanting to get "married".

Steve2009

I'm not personally against marriage but I agree people should have a choice. I know people who have very good reason to have a big problem with marriage, having grown up on the wrong end of bad ones. Some of them have come to terms with that and are marrying themselves, others will never commit.

There are others who refuse to marry for selfish reasons and there is a publicised case of a couple in Ireland where the wealthy male asked his female partner to change her surname to his by deed poll rather than marrying. Cases where people refuse to marry to protect their wealth are now impossible in Ireland due to the laws regarding de-facto relationships.

lou1003

I agree.
Me and my partner's back up plan is prospective marriage visa. Although we know we want to be together forever, and may very well end up getting married (or not) in the future. Over the next 12 months we would be doing it purely for the ease of a visa.

Our relationship is completely genuine and we are completely commited to each other for life, but may not want to get married in the future. Bit sad that even in todays society we could be expected to be married if we want to stay together.