jubri

Hi THere,

Great site - this is my first post , but have gained a wealth of knowledge from reading others.
My Q is this. I am seven months pregnant & have been in a relationship with my now husband for just on 2 yrs. We were married in Nov 2003 & i fell pregnant on our honeymoon. Baby is due end of August. Are we best to wait for applying for Spouse Visa until after baby is born so that we may possibly get a permanent visa granted straight up, or should we just apply now & go with a Temp visa & get the perm in 2 yrs time. I'm not sure because we just skim in to the trwo year relationship band with child involved. Also baby will be eligible for Aus passport through descent so we don't need to apply for immigration for baby???? is this correct.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Jubri & Bump

JAJ

There are a number of disadvantages of the temp spouse visa compared to PR straight away:

- finding career-orientated jobs may be harder as employers often look for PR (even though you have work rights on the temp visa).
- you need to wait a lot longer for citizenship
- if you want to study, it will cost a lot more
- you can't sponsor relatives for PR on a temp visa
- you have more security in Australia on the PR visa.

The criteria for 'long term relationship' is assessed at time of application - not later. With only a couple of months involved, you may prefer to wait until the baby is born unless you're desperate to get the visa as soon as possible. It's a personal decision.

Even with a baby, you must evidence a 2 year spousal relationship (normally cohabitation) to get the PR visa straight away.

Whether the child is eligible to be registered as an Australian citizen depends on how your husband got his Australian citizenship. Was he born or naturalised in Australia - or did he become Australian because of his own parents?

Form 118 has the details:
http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/118.pdf

The child needs to be registered before becoming Australian. Once it's registered as a citizen, there is no need for it to be included in any visa application. You should just declare the child as a non-applicant and get it an Australian passport instead (if it's eligible for citizenship).

Jeremy

jubri

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for that - looks like it might be worthwhile waiting. We were not going to move until my husbands job transfer came through, but even still, if it was to fall through for any reason it looks like it would be a hard slog for him to gain work.
I am the Australian one in the relationship & i was born there so baby should be then citizen by descent?? Eligible for passport etc.
As to the two years co habitation - we can prove that, but only from Sept 2002 - so all up i think we will wait till baby is a couple of months old - from what i gather from the Timeline website spousal visa's do not take too long in any case!!! Just so long as we are there by Xmas!!!
Thanks again for the reply - very useful.

JAJ

If you're an Australian born citizen then the baby will be eligible for citizenship by descent, but *must* be registered before it becomes an Australian. The AHC London can do the registration - I suggest getting on with it asap once the child is born. Your child will get a citizenship certificate.

AHC London are fairly quick to process spouse visas, but no guarantees can ever be given on precise timescales. You may be able to speed things up by having your husband do medicals and police checks before applying.

Jeremy

jubri

Thanks Jeremy,

Husband is actually in London picking up Medicals as we speak & Police checks were received last week.
I will register the baby ASAP after birth & apply for passport as well.
We will probably front end load now in Sept & take it from there.

Thanks again

Jubri & Bump