Hi there,

I am an Australian Citizen currently going through the US residency process (E3 visa to resident), but unfortunately it now looks like we will be heading down to Australia at the end of the year and so will need to kiss those moneys goodbye and most likely need to abandon the US residency

Having jumped through almost every US immigration hurdle, we now must look in the other direction and I am very low on information and/or where to begin.

I am a Aus citizen and we are looking to go down in August. My wife is attempting to get into a grad school program in a Sydney uni. What is the best process. Should she apply for a student visa, or can she apply directly as a Aus resident from here?

Any information would be greatly helpful. I will check back here frequently.

Thanks

What do you mean by your wife being an 'Aus resident'? What is her current Australian immigration status?

From your previous posts it looks like you've just recently married your wife and she has no Australian immigration status.

In order for her to come to Australia to live she will need a visa. She can apply for a spouse visa which would be temporary for the first 2 years (leading to permanent residence) or a student visa (doesn't necessarily lead to anything). IMO a spouse visa is the way to go. Australian Government Department of Immigration and Border Protection is where to look.

Oh, and get your application in now as it's taking a while for spouse visas to be granted these days.

In one of the OP's first few posts he mentioned that his wife was born in Australia? I think trying to see if she is an Australian citizen would be something to investigate.

Yeah looking at a previous post he says she may be eligible for an Aus pssport. In which case, OP, you need to investigate that first as if she is Australian thts the way to go, she can't hold a visa as an Aus citizen.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/marri.../#post11597899

If she was born in Australia before 20 August 1986 or one of her parents (her father in this case) was a permanent resident or citizen of Australia at the time of her birth then she would be an Australian citizen.

She just needs to apply for her Australian passport. She should have been travelling in and out of Australia on an Australian passport in any case.

Thanks everybody for your responses. We looked into her eligibility as an Aus Citizen though she was born after 1988 and both her parents were only on work visas. She is a US citizen only then



^^ thank you! will take a look at this option, if she is able to work and/or study under the spouse visa then this is easily the best option

Yes she can work and/or study on a spouse visa.

There seems to be quite a few visas, Im thinking the 'Partner (Provisional) visa (subclass 309) and Partner (Migrant) visa (subclass 100)' is the relevant one. Does it save us money/time to have her enter under a 90 day visa and apply from within Australia or would applying from the US be the same experience?

Costs the same and the timeline is about the same these days. If she enters as a tourist intending to stay and brining all her worldly goods with her she may be OK, but she may get refused entry. The 'correct' way to do it is to apply offshore (from the US in her case).
If you've been together for more than 3 years she'll get the PR visa straightaway, otherwise she'll get the temporary (309) first and then PR after 2 years.

Thanks for that information.

Sidetone: Woah. I've only been away from home 2 years and it seems I forgot how expensive everything was.

In your first thread you mentioned her father was a Permanent Resident at the time of her birth - was that incorrrect?

Yes it is incorrect. we since found out that he was on consecutive work visas with his companies. Pity!

No worries - just crack on with her partner application. Processing times for subclass 309/100s overseas are falling fast whilst onshore applications are piling up so an overseas application is likely to be processed quicker.

Cost wise would it be cheaper for her to enter under a student visa (we are beginning applying for schools) or would it be better just to go for the PR off the bat? $6800 is probably the priciest visa I've seen.