Perth16122010

Hi all, I've been reading posts here since I've started putting my spouse visa application together back in june (finally lodged 13th december lol), but never actually posted anything. My Partner (Subclass 820) visa was granted last week and I thought I'd share some things, which I retrospectively wish I'd known beforehand :

-> it's definitely worth spending a whole evening just on reading every possible link on the immi website to compile a list of every document/form needed; took me about three bottles of wine and a whiteboard lol; make sure you don't just mark down police check, for example, but make sure you also write down that you'll need additional passport pics; etc. so you can present a front-loaded application without any further delays, having to wait on forms, documents etc.

-> i handed in my application with my partner at the perth office; personally, i found this to be very helpful, as i could ask questions; received some immediate feedback on the application and was able to clarify, for example, that whereas i'd been with my de-facto partner for over 3 years, we'd rather go for a temp visa, as we lived apart in december 2007 and due to relocating didn't keep any relationship evidence. also passed the question on to my spouse as to why we're not married yet lol.

-> make sure you include anything you think could be helpful; my boyfriend taught me how to drive and i attached the driving log, loan history of the library, which had cook books on it, as i do a lot of the cooking in the household. every relationship is different, but i think it's worth digging out anything that can help proof your relationship to be genuine. eg we also got one of our friends, who stayed with us during some time, writing a statement; also mentioned that we're each other's emergency contacts at work and i included some letters his mum had sent mine.

i'm obviously not an agent and every application is different, but wished i'd known beforehand that it would take me heaps longer than expected to put the application together; also if i'd known the appointment at immigration would be as relaxed and helpful as it was, i'd not have stressed as much about it as i did after all it is a lot easier proofing eligibility with for example a relevant skills assessment than something intangible as a relationship

good luck to everyone

mitchelley

hi i am getting very worried as i thought i had all the info ready etc for applying for the de-facto visa. but found out that the nurse who 'certified' my birth certs for the stat decs hasnt done it properly so have asked them all to do them again with police etc. But the same nurse also signed my statutory declarations. is this going to be valid. she is a qualified nurse and she signed it and also did stat dec herself. but didnt have stamp so just wrote her address on when certifying stat decs. will this be ok?? wanting to apply in 3 weeks approx xxxxx

Voyager 3

Sent my defacto visa today-feel like doing star jumps all day!! A long 6 months of tender loving care sent away in one big envelope! Now the waiting begins!

mitchelley

good luck! i am applying for mine in a few weeks. Nervous time.

Kamie26

Trying to document a relationship of 11 years should be easy right? Unfortunately, I seem to have shredded anything that even had the trace of a name on it. My mum scared me to death a few years ago about id theft and bought me a shredder, everything that touched the door mat got shredded.

So far to document our relationship I have
Three email itineraries from airlines for different trips that we took (06,07,10).
A plane ticket with our names on it from another holiday in 2010
A wedding certificate
Our latest mortgage statement
A direct debit letter from the bank (dated December 10)
A letter from the people that did our double glazing (07)
A copy of my husbands temp UK visa with my name on it, also his UK PR.

And well thats it, thats all we have to show for eleven years together.
We are getting stat decs from his (Australian) Sister, brother in law and if we have to his Mum, Dad and cousin. From my side, my two best friends, one of their partners and my nephew and niece in law (who were also wittnesses at our wedding).

I have got loads of ticket receipts for shows that we have attended and hotel receipts but they all only have my name on them because if I didn't book stuff, we would do sod all! Would it be worth including these and explaining where we went and what we did?
We have a butt load of photos that we can throw in, but I have a really bad feeling that there is no way that they are only going to accept just this.

Any advice on what I can do to beef this up?

I have my medicals on Monday and I am just applying for my police cert as I want to get this in in the next couple of weeks (thats if I can ever get the OH to do his stat dec, its like I'm asking him to chew his arm off)

SillyOldBag

I think what we all do or have done is worry ourselves silly thinking we will never have enough to prove our relationships. I found it best to just remember that you are in a genuine ongoing relationship and therefore you will be able to prove it. Don't panic!

You have obviously been together a long time and so should qualify for PR straightaway subject to being able to prove this. Your statements will document the history, your friends/family stat decs will back you up, your marriage cert, your mortgage docs are all good bits of evidence. If you are worrying that you might need more, do you have joint insurance for car, life, house etc with both your names on? or joint bank account? wills naming the other as the beneficiary?

Another thing to remember is that the CO is human and it isn't their intention to try and trip you up or catch you out, they just need to be satisfied that it is a genuine relationship. If when you send your application in, you feel that it is a bit lacking then put in your covering letter that your mum got you a tad paranoid about identity theft etc and you had a manic fit of craziness with the shredder!

Finally, with regards to your OH and his statement. I wrote a basic list for my OH of things he needed to include e.g. when/how we met, how long dated, when got married, moved into house. I even wrote a long list of my best qualities in case he had forgotten why he loved me In all seriousness though, he felt that having a hint sheet to give him some clues got him off to a great start. We both wrote our statements in very different styles but tried to let the CO have some insight into our lives and the sort of people we are.

Good luck with it all and if you have any more questions, just shout out!

lou1003

Sorry I can't really help with your query Kamie26...
I think that even if you have limited documents over the last eleven years, and can explain a lack of certain documentation, with stat decs and a marriage certificate, that surely should be ok? Obviously try and find as much as possible - I think there's always more to find if you have a bit of a think... Even if it's small. I found my other half was named as my next of kin on my employment documents at the last minute, and threw that in as well!

Just wanted to nip by and say that I finally submitted my visa
Submitted in Darwin, and told up to 6 month wait, and they assigned me a CO on the spot which was reassuring.

However, now panicking that I have submitted a load of useless rubbish, as the lady I gave my application to was very shocked at the amount we had....
She was like "as long as it's not all photos" - it's not, there were about 14 photos - I tried to get one from each month.
But yeah, panicking I've just given a load of irrelevant stuff...!

Argh.... the waiting begins! I'm not sure which bit is more stressful - putting the thing together, or the waiting!

Good luck to everyone else.

And thank you to all the advice people have given over the last few months, I've read a lot of useful info on this site!

Mazza12

Good Luck Voyager! It's a great feeling when you finally get it finished and sent off. Please let us know what the current timescales are when you receive an acknowledgment of your application.

Mazza12

Good Luck with your application Lou!

Kamie26

Thank you so much for your advice. Bag, when I told my husband about the what you did with yours for the stat dec, he was made up. Apparently the problem has been that he hasnt known where to start, so this is perfect.

If I aint got any more evidence, I aint got it and theres no point in worrying about it at this point. I might see if we can get a stat dec from his uncle, hes an Admiral or somthing in the Australian navy so that should hold some weight. I think as long as we can explain things then, we should be OK.

Ravvers

Big thank you to everyone who has posted on here. I've read ALL of this thread over the past few days and I've gathered loads of tips and info. on applying for spouse visa, which I plan to do this month.

I'm a Brit married to an Aussie and we have a 1 year old son. We've been together for 5 years and will be married for 3 years come this August. Our son already had Aussie citizenship as we registered him as a Brit and an Aussie as soon as he was born, so I'm the only one who needs a visa.

What has been worrying me is all the evidence needed, but after reading this thread I'm a bit more clued up on what I need to send, thanks to the people who have been gratned visas and have posted what they submitted. This gives me a good starting point!

I've also sent our requests to 4 of my friends to do stat decs for us and 3 of OH's Aussie friends to do the official 888 ones. I've also sent off for the police certificate last week, so hopefully that will land on my doormat soon.

Do you think it is worth doing my medical in advance?

We're hoping to have a visa granted so that we can go to Oz in September

Good luck to everyone else currently applying for a visa and thanks in advance to people who give advice to any (probably stupid panicking) questions I post.

Rav. xx

xzibit

Hello to everyone in here. I'm new to the thread, but you'll get to know my name soon enough as me and my fiance are going to be applying for a defacto visa in the next coming months.

I'm on a 176 PR visa, which I applied for before I met my now fiance. I met her around the time it was granted, and we've now been together over 2 years, and recently got engaged. We've lived together since November 2009, and I recently left my job here in the UK, due to there being no work and I decided to go visit family in oz for 8 weeks, unfortunately my fiance (then girlfriend) couldn't get that much time off work and was only out there for 2 and a half weeks, but that was long enough for her to fall in love with the country, and actually wants to move out there now!!

So as I don't have a job in the UK, and things aren't looking great in getting one here due to there being none in my profession advertised, we're going in March.

We have decided for her to go out on a WHV, as being on holiday and living somewhere are completely different. If after 2 months or so, we really decide we want to stay, we will apply for a defacto. We're hoping that it'll be granted before the WHV expires though.

Anyway, I'm currently just scanning in evidence of our relationship, and realised that we don't have too much, but we have council tax bills from 2009/2010 but all the utility bills are in my finace's name (we actually asked the utility companies to add my name, but they never did, but at the time it didn't matter). I have bank statements proving that I make a monthly payment to her (although in my hilarious wisdom I put the reference down as 'lap dancing' opposed to something sensible), and we also have two car insurance certificates with both of our names on.
I'm also scanning in christmas and engagement cards with both our names on to show that we are recognised as a couple.
I can only find 1 photo of us together!! When we go on hol, one of us has always been behind the camera as I refuse to pass it to anyone just incase they steal it lol. But I'm going to be asking family if they have any of us.

Anyway, sorry to bore you all. Hopefully will be posting a bit more in here shortly.

Leigh

pink13

Good luck to you guys just joining the thread,
We did things a little unconventionally and it still worked out so just stay positive keep ploughing through and you will get there in the end.

we didn't have loads of pics together as my OH lived in OZ and me in England, we were together on and off long distance for 5yrs, then 2yrs ago decided to finally get our act together and go for it, see if it would work
In total we had only spent 4 months together in person but over the 5yrs believe me we went through some stuff and got to know each other pretty bloody well .

We got married in the UK then i came over here on a visitors visa while waiting for my spouse visa to come through, a huge risk i know but we just asked the universe to help and it came up trumps

now the real work begins funny living with someone as man and wife, but plenty of arranged marriages start a similar way and work so we just go with the flow and take on anything that comes our way together.

Just tell the truth, nothing to hide then in the end they will realise that it is genuine xxxx

mitchelley

hi everyone! Just realised not all of my stat decs are in block letters. Have been told it doesnt really matter. Is that right? X

SillyOldBag

I've just checked back in my files and mine weren't all done in capital letters and they were accepted no problems. As long as they are legible I'm sure yours will be fine too!