Visa question please help
 

Hi guys thanks for taking the time to read this.

I met my girlfriend in London in January 2010 and we fell in love, we Facebook officially in a relationship in February so I saved up all my money, quit my job and came over May 10th on a working holiday visa. I stayed with her at her parents place for 2 months while I got settled. Then I moved out and got a place down the road 10 mins walk (she was still at uni so couldn't move in with me), we saw each other at least every other day spent at least one day of every weekend together and do everything together even went on holiday together to Thailand. Now we have moved to another state together and have joint tenancy, shared bills etc it seems that we qualify for a defecto relationship visa for me but the part about not living apart continuously seems ambiguous as we have not always been living in the same household just on and off throughout our relationship but she has never been far since I got here. It is obvious our relationship iS genuine but I'm still not quite sure if I qualify, I struggled to find regional work and I don't think I can get 2nd year extension what do I do, we love each other and I don't want to lose her? :(

Re: Visa question please help
 

Marry her? Then you don't need to meet the "cohabitation for 12 months" rule. It is possible to get exemption for living apart if its due to work or religious reasons etc, but if she is only living down the road DIAC may question whether you are in a relationship. The fact that she was at university didn't stop her moving in with you, so I don't think they'd accept that as an excuse.

Re: Visa question please help
 

Unfortunately you have done this all wrong, ideally you would have used the year on the WHV to build up your cohabitation. You are a genuine boyfriend / girlfriend but you are clearly not a defacto couple. Defacto means married all but for a piece of paper and married couples do not live around the corner from each other.

I guess you have not got time to get the second WHV now, as it requires three months regional work? In which case you need to either get a visa off your own skills eg employer sponsored or you could get married as Polly says or perhaps get the prospective marriage visa, but I think you would need to go offshore to apply for that and then you need to get married within 9 months.

Re: Visa question please help
 

Yep, to get Prospective Marriage he would need to apply offshore and be offshore for the grant.

Re: Visa question please help
 

Yeah I admit we did it wrong with a we'll cross that bridge when we come to it attitude, unfortunately at the time all I could afford was a room in a house share and she could not afford to pay rent, I don't know if we are ready for marriage it feels like such a big step after just one year together. It just feels unfair when there are so many people who abuse the system with fake marriages, id be happy for us to go back to the UK and so would she but she needs to do a year of pre reg here, I tried to do seasonal work but it was terrible as so many other people were looking I even drove 2 hours to another town to someone who promised work and the guy turned out to be a notorious scammer. It should be noted that even though I had a separate residence I still spent more time at my girlfriends house and still had mail delivered there, is there really no way I can apply for a defacto relationship visa?

Re: Visa question please help
 

No. You need to meet the requirement, the same as other defacto applicants.

I very much doubt if the situation you've described would be adequate enough to be considered compassionate & compelling circumstances.

Re: Visa question please help
 

You are not a defacto couple and I think could quite easily waste your money if you did apply.

Your comment about her not being able to afford rent is telling, if my husband lost his job and "couldn't afford rent" then it is my job to pay the rent for both of us. That is how marriages and defacto relationships work. Comments like that, if you did apply, could really go against your argument that you are defacto.

So could comments about "not being ready for marriage". A defacto couple is not a couple that is not ready for marriage, it is a couple that opts not to marry for personal reasons but is married in all but name. It is not boyfriend / girlfriend still getting to know each other.

I think you need to look into other options, student visa, employer sponsored, whilst you build up your 12 months living together.

Re: Visa question please help
 

Okay well I appreciate your help, I may just have to go back to the UK and wait for her to complete her pre reg in 7 months

Re: Visa question please help
 

Hi guys,

Just an update, I called the department of immigration and they said that if you can prove that you spent the majority of your time still living together ie staying at each others house you may still qualify.
Or alternatively you can register as a defacto relationship at the NSW registry office which circumvents the one year requirement. Also while they are processing your application you can get a bridging visa if your current visa allows it which mine does.

I just wanted to pass this on in case anyone else finds themselves in the same boat.

All the best,

Ed

Re: Visa question please help
 

To be honest, if you are thinking of applying whilst spending a lot of time apart it might be worth a chat with an agent first. I know its possible, people have done it, but its usually for work or religious reasons. With the two residences close together you might find it a lot harder to prove the reasons for separation.
Yes, you would get a bridging visa while your applciation is awaiting a decision, BUT you have to be eligible at the time you apply - so you need the 12 months before you apply, you can't use the time in the queue on a bridging visa towards the total.

Re: Visa question please help
 

You do understand that the DIAC helpline is not manned by actual agents, don't you? It's a call centre. If you want definitive answers you need to speak to a MARA registered agent, not a call centre employee.

Re: Visa question please help
 

Nevertheless i've verified that the information I recieved is accurate and i've filled in the forms already, there is no one year requirement when you register with the NSW registry office. I think some of the people in this forum have been helpful but some have been critical of my position without knowing the full story and overly pesemistic. Just because I don't want to marry my girlfriend yet for various reasons including cost doesn't mean we don't live as a married couple, don't love each other and want to be together for the forseable future.

Re: Visa question please help
 

No-one is questioning whether you love each other. That's your business, and no-one will care either way, but you don't live as a married couple if you have been living separately.

You should bear in mind that we're not mind readers. We can only go by what you've told us. So if we "don't know the whole story", that's not our problem.

We've given you the information. You've chosen not to believe it - which is entirely your prerogative. I wish you luck in your application, but I don't think you have much of a chance until you actually fulfil the requirements.

Re: Visa question please help
 

The information I supplied was directly relevant to my question because otherwise my post would have been too long, we lived 3 months seperately because it made logical sense at the time, my parents would have made the same decision whilst married had they been in the same circumstances and we now live in a shared household with shared bills etc. What I take exception to is that some peoples responses seem to be based on the principle that we don't take the relationship seriously because I didn't pay her rent or whatever. As I have said I found a solution which I have verified which it seems you don't believe. Thanks all the same and good luck to you too.

Re: Visa question please help
 

I just tend to go with what I can can verify (i.e. DIAC documentation). Anything other than that is rumour. I always try to link to verifiable official information (hence, the link I supplied earlier).

Still, you can't complain about people "not knowing the whole story" if you haven't provided the details. I'm not interested in the whole story, by the way. I'm just making the point that you can't moan about people making comments without knowing all the facts, when you haven't told them what they are. Again, not mind readers.