And who knows, the Spouse visa may keep increasing in price, better to pay now and get it over with.

More likely to go up than go down you would say?

the way it has jumped over the last few years, woth several big increases, i can't honestly expect it to drop.

Rumour has it that all the Australian family visas are going to have a big overhaul come the summer and I'm betting it's not going to make things easier or less expensive.

I'm sure there must be something coming. The last Remaining Relative and some of the parental visas take so long to get that I can't bellieve they still exist!

Can someone walk me through the difference between a Subclass 820/801 application and Subclass 820/801 application by Subclass 300 holder?

If the permanent residency wasn't granted by August 2016, is she still able to enter? Could she technically enter on a ESTA visa and we apply on shore?

After 2 years and her residency is permanent, is there a seperate application for citizenship? how long does this take?

Sorry for all the questions

A subclass 300 is a Prospective Marriage Visa. You apply for that if you intend to move here and marry an Aussie PR or citizen. Once granted you have 9 months to move here, get married, and apply onshore for a Spouse Visa (820/801).

The 820/801 when holding a 300 is cheaper cos you have already paid for the 300, if thats what you are looking at.

---------
If she applies for a Spouse Visa offshore and its not granted when you wish to move, she can apply for an evisitor/ETA ( NOT ESTA - very different!) and travel here as a tourist. She will then be advised when they are ready to grant the Spouse visa and will have to leave for a few days, then re-enter, thus validating the Spouse visa. She needs to advise her Case Officer that she is applying to visit Australia so they can make a note to advise her when they are ready to grant.
Always keep DIBP updated with contact details.

If you have been married/de facto for over three years she will get PR straight away. if not she will get a temp spouse visa (820) then PR (801) 2 years later.

For citizenship she needs to have resided in Australia for 4years, one of those must be as a PR.

There are also rules on Australian citizenship about the amount of time she can spend out of the country in that time. Sorry I can't give you a direct link, phone is playing up!

Hi all, about to begin the process of applying. We are on shore now.

A question about a health check. Is this necessary for this visa?

On the requirements is says;

Health and character documents
If you are required to undergo health examinations, you must organise your health examinations upfront before lodging a visa application and include your health identifier (HAP ID) when completing your visa application form.
If you have confirmed that you do not need to undergo health examinations by using My Health Declarations, please indicate on your online application form that you have organised your health examinations when lodging your visa application (as you are considered to have met this requirement).

It states "if you are required". I am guessing she IS required, but by virtue of it being a visa application or because it states so otherwise?

All applicants for a permanent residency visa require a full medical.

My wife is nearing the end of her 3 month ETA stay. (November 5th)

We are just about ready to send in our 820. We are just awaiting fingerprints to be sent fro the USA. Provided we mail the application before November 5th, would we need to leave the country and re-enter?

If we haven't got the application in we would obviously plan a small trip to New zealand or somewhere other.

Any ideas would be great

If you're waiting on a FBI check from the United States then don't bother. Given the length of onshore processing times any police checks you have done now in order to 'frontload' an application will likely expire before the visa is granted and you'll have to do them again. Same goes for the health assessment. Better to wait until your case officer requests them.

Really appreciate your response. I don't think I fully understood what you were saying however, do you think you could re-phrase it? So far we have not sent the Australian government any info or any part of our application. We have just been preparing our package (getting proof of marriage, joint finances, witness responses etc.). We have had a NSW police check, but I don't think at this point Australia has any indication of our proposal to get permanent residency. So our concern is that if we don't leave by the end of her 90 day visa, it could work against us later on by being proof that she has not honoured previous visas in Australia.

Should we leave and re enter the country just to be safe? My thoughts were once we get the application in then they are quite quick at sending a bridging visa back, so we'd only need to do this once, in theory..

I think what BiP is saying is that you don't need to wait for the FBI check before lodging the application. You can always add it to the application later.

Oh, I see. I get it.

I think at this point all we really need is the FBI check, and apparently now we may also need to get her mother to send a certified copy of her birth certificate. (Can we not just use a birth certificate or does it really need to be notarised?)

Would we be able to send in the application without these two pieces of evidence? and granted we send this in, say, this week, would we receive the 'bridging visa' before the 5th of November. And then we can just send in the extra evidence as we receive it?

Many thanks in advance to everyones assistance and taking the time to help out

Is it an online application? If so no need to get documents notarised, just get her mother to email you a colour scanned copy for upload. It isn't normallly advised to do police checks or medicals at this stage as the processing time is so long you might have to do them again.

I would just get the application in now.