louie13

Hi,

I am an Australian Citizen (and therefore Australian Passport Holder). I moved to Australia from the North East of England as a child with my parents. I have now been living in the UK with my British partner for 6 years (we have been together for 7 years). I am looking at moving back to Australia and just had a few questions. We have a nearly four year old daughter and our second child is due in 6 weeks. I know that our children can obtain citizenship and therefore a Aussie passport quite easily but I am concerned about my partner. Will he only be eligible for a temporary visa to start with? and can he work on this? I am also concerned as although we have been together 7 years the mortgage and bills for our house our all in my name as I had a large deposit and am the main income earner? Will this cause a problem?

Any advice appreciated! Thanks for your time.

Pollyana

If you have been together for 2 years with kids (or 3 without) then he will get PR straight away. They won't issue a temporary visa first.
He can work on a Spouse Visa as soon as he arrives here in Aus. (that goes for the temp or the PR Spouse Visas).
Even if the bills are in your name you presumably have proof that you live together, you both earn, wages go into an account, payment of bills comes out, stuff like that? You can use bank statements and annotate them as part of your evidence

louie13

Thanks for your fast response Pollyana.

Have lots of proof in terms of bank statements, payslips,car insurance documents all going to same address for same time period but individual names. However, no joint accounts as all our finances are separate! I had a lot more money coming into the relationship and earn a lot more (he now only works part-time and cares for our child) and after watching my parents go through a messy divorce after 20 years of marriage thought this was safest option at time!

Pollyana

Makes sense to me
Siunds like you both have enough stuff going to the same address even if its in individual names - thats fine, shows you are both at that address at the same time
The fact you have everything in your name won't matter - when you write the statement of your relationship you can explain why thats so - perfectly reasonable as he does the childcare. It'll be fine, nothing to worry about - its proof of a shared life that they look for

roaringmouse

In case you're not sure in regards to your child(ren), here is a link to relevant information on the High Commission website. You'll need to register them as Australian citizens by descent first, and then apply for passports once you've got the citizenship certificates.

JAJ

If you became an Australian citizen before July 2002, and were under 16 at the time, your details were probably printed on one of your parent's citizenship certificates. If that's the case, you need to get your own citizenship certificate.

See details here:
http://www.citizenship.gov.au/curren...f_citizenship/

louie13

Thanks everyone for information and web links.... very much appreciated! I am going to get started on process while on maternity leave. Jaj was just wondering if it necessary to get my own certificate? I became a citizen in the early 80's and am on my parents certificate but when I did some research couldn't find anywhere that said I needed my own to apply for my children's citizenship? Just trying to avoid an unnecessary cost if possible. Thanks again for your time.

JAJ

You need your own certificate because if you lose your passport, you won't be able to prove you are a citizen. At least not without a long delay while they look up archived records.

The cost of getting a certificate of evidence of Australian citizenship is A$60.
Are you telling us you cannot afford that?