Don't see why. George (and the other agents on BE) give their time to the site for free, and if you follow his posts you will see in many places he has given people helpful and realistic advice - which is what he is giving you here. If he was trying to drum up trade he wouldn't be giving you any adice, just telling you to contact him.

COs are people, but they also have to abide by DIAC's policy and guidelines, and if your case doesn't meet the requirements then they won't accept it.

Consider your options, unless you can prove 365 days of de-facto you run the risk of being denied - you may be lucky and get through, but you may not. People have given a couple of options for you to consider if you don't want to risk refusal.

1. Do 3 months regional work and get the second WHV for a further 12 months

2. Go to NZ/Fiji/UK and return on a tourist visa (although Immigration may question why you are returning so soon).

3. At the end of the the WHV enrol on a student visa for a short course (3 months maybe?) these don't cost the earth and you would be allowed to work (20 hours a week) until you had the required 12 months co-habitation and moved to the Spouse visa

4. Apply for a Prospective Marriage Visa at the end of the 12 months and get married!

5. Apply for the defcato at the end of your WHV and cross your fingers - you may very well get lucky.

Good luck. A bit of planning now may well save you some heartache in future months.

Thanks tking, that's what I would call good advice, i.e. actual suggestions rather than just saying "it's unlikely you'll be approved". We are planning now, and have been for months, but people on here assume that we're just blundering our way through without thinking of the future. As I said, I sought advice on this before I arrived in Australia so that we could start collecting evidence of a de facto relationship as soon as possible.

Not sure my contributions are welcome BYG but since others may read this thread, I'd just add to TK's advice that I would certainly be calling IARC since their advice is free and they would have a better insight into current partner visa processing realities in Sydney than most agents in the commercial sphere. Their website URL is www.iarc.asn.au .

Cheers,

George Lombard

Your comments are always welcome, George. They may not be what everyone wants to hear, but you wouldn't be doing your job if you only posted feel good stuff.

geez louise
No disrespect to tking's advice but if I was being given the likely heads up by GL I'd be listening and be bloody thankful.
When you look through the hell some people on here went through for de facto visas tbh your case looks weak.
You asked earlier would a CO "turf" you out and break up a loving relationship...I would say yes if you dont meet DIAC's criteria. Their argument would be that your partner could go to the UK therefore the relationship doesnt need to break up. Finance etc wouldnt come into it.

Seriouly read some of the cases on the link George L posted earlier regarding spouse visas. Also , and its going back a few yrs, there was a poster on here who went through a saga and a half regarding their visa. Maybe polly remembers his name anthony something?

The guy that went to the Sunshine Coast maybe? I'll have a dig around.......


edited....try Anthonykirby

bingo