Hi all

It's been a long while since I posted on here. Hope anyone who remembers me is well and happy and loving life!.

I have a question and as I'm not 100% sure, wanted to ask politely for the brains trust to help (if you can).

A friend of mine has gotten into a bit of a muddle. I think I have given him the correct information but wanted to check. He experiences issues processing information from time to time so I'm wanting to be patient with him and give him correct advice.

He is an Australian citizen who met his girlfriend (now wife) in Wales back in 2005. They married in the UK, had children and applied for an Australian spouse visa. The visa was granted and his wife received PR immediately. The kids are duial citizens. They moved to Australia and spent six years there. They never applied for citizenship for the wife mainly because she was not settled in Australia and said she saw no point (don't ask) and eventually she and the kids moved back to Wales. My friend finished work a few months later and joined them. It's been very difficult for my friend and his family but thankfully things seem to be more on an even footing now and they all seem happy.

That's the context. My friend said yesterday he's never really given up the dream of moving back one day, even if it was in retirement and all being well with the marriage over the years he would like his wife to return with him if she wanted to, which apparently she may consider (there must be private discussions that I'm not privy to nor will I get involved to that point). . He asked me what happens to his wife's spouse visa / PR status. Obviously her RRV will expire (apparently she was granted the five year one but my friend said he thinks that expires in 2028, I haven't seen this so can't be sure).

He also asked me what she needs to apply for when they intend to return for a holiday in 2029. He thinks another RRV but if she's not resident, has no immediate plans to be resident again (lives in Wales) and only visiting I'm fairly sure this isn't right. The PR doesn't expire (in my limited knowledge) but the travel facility does. Is it simply just applying for a tourist visa once the travel facility visa expires?

I've advised my friend to read the original visa decision paperwork in depth and referred him to read through BE and the homeaffairs website but I think he's in a muddle and not fully understanding the conditions.

I think I have the right information which I've passed to him, but I wanted to check. Could one of you wise people please advise. Thank you.

Hiya

Ok, so to have RRV expiring in 2028, she must've been grated the 5 year one in 2023, and would have got 5 years on the basis that she had lived in Aus for 2 of the previous 5 years (so between 2018 & 2023).

Best thing to do would be to apply for a new RRV for the visit. She has strong grounds for it with an Aus spouse & children, but it is discretionary and she would only get 1 year, or possibly just 3 months. The only way to know is to apply.

If she applies for a tourist ETA then it may be more difficult to then apply for another RRV if she does want to live there again.

The longer she stays outside of Aus without even visiting, the harder it will be to get a new RRV. If that happens she would need a new Spouse visa in order to move back.

Hope that all makes sense!

Thank you Pollyana I hoped you might know the answer. I don't know the full details of their dates back and forth, and I'm not even sure my pal has the date right on the visa documentation (haven't seen it myself), so dates may possibly be out.

I think I understand and I obviously was wrong, I thought if you had left Australia with no (immediate or possibly ever!) plans to move back you couldn't use nor apply for a RRV as you clearly weren't resident any more. See what I know! I'll let him know that his wife can use her unexpired RRV if they go back for a holiday before the expiry. in 2028 or that she'll need to apply for a new one once it's expired.

Thanks very much ...as always!

You can apply for a RRV offshore, many people do when they want to move back, but like I said above, the longer out of Aus, the harder it is to get one. The rest of the family being Aussies would go in her favour, but there's no guarantee she'd get another.
She can definitely use the current one to holiday in Aus up to the expiry date.