tiiapiia

Hi everyone,

[First of all, apologies if this has been asked before. I have searched the forum but not without getting confused and therefore, I would appreciate if someone can reply to my specific case].

Key points:

• I am a Finnish Citizen and my fiancé is naturalized Australian Citizen.
  
• We intend to live in Australia and therefore it would be best if we married in Australia.
  
• Currently, I am completing my internship in Finland and my fiancé works in Australia.
  
• We want to be together as early as possible (Feb 2017) and would also like to have a registered marriage ASAP in Australia.
  
• Our relationship is absolutely genuine (not a case of convenience marriage as some might think).
  
• We are in the relationship for 2 years now. It originally started online.
  

After going through the border.gov.au, we understand there are a few routes we can take. Our priority is to be able to live together in Australia as soon as possible, which means a visa for me (Finnish Citizen).

Route #1
Prospective Marriage Visa (300) then eventually Partner visa (temporary 820) and finally Partner visa (permanent 801)

Route #2
I am not sure if this is valid.
Partner (provisional) visa (309) - temporary, then Partner (migrant) visa (100) - permanent.
Can someone also tell if this route also requires one to hold Prospective Marriage Visa beforehand?

Route #3
Simply get a Visitor visa (600), requesting 12 months, which gives us ability to stay together and worry about partner visa later. Question is, can one marry while on this visa while in Australia? What's the next step towards partner visa?

Route #4
Get a working holiday visa (I am 27) and then worry about partner visa later. Does working holiday visa prevent us from getting married while in Australia? What's the next step towards partner visa?

Please, any information setting us in the right direction and one that would not cause issues later would be highly appreciated.

Which route is better? Is there any other route we can take?

If we choose route 3 or 4, which documents should I get from Finland before leaving the country for our eventual Partner visa?

Please note, we have not spent too much time together (in-person) but I have spent few months in Sydney with my fiancé and he has visited me once which we also converted into a European holiday. Unfortunately, we will probably struggle finding evidences apart from visa/entry stamps as we haven't yet shared the bills. Of course we maintain daily internet calls and chats.

Please feel free to ask any information that will help you answer our case better.

Thanks heaps!

Dorothy

If it was me I would suggest the WHV to partner visa option. If you haven't really spent much time together this will give you the opportunity to live together for up to 24 months (second WHV if you do the regional work).and see whether the 2 of you are truly compatible before rushing into a marriage.

Yes, you can marry on the visa and no prospective marriage visa required. It's a matter of marrying then applying for an onshore spouse visa.

teza

Hi TiiaPiia, a fellow Finn, I arrived to australia nearly 20yrs ago on holiday visa, followed by spouse visa as we were already married with a kid. It wasn't a route encouraged those days but we didn't plan it, came to visit dying relative, hubby got a job etc

I highly recommend that if you're planning to get married anyway, arrive on WHV, get married and apply for spouse visa. Before getting married, you have a year to do this anyway, get a joint bank account, add you to his car insurance, phone bills, utility accounts etc. good luck with the move!

In regards to your internship, what will be your profession? Just so we can help in how it can convert to Australian qualifications � ����