I have finally got myself a YouTube channel and have added a how to apply for a Partner Visa to Australia video to help others going through the stressful process.
While I was going through the application process, I found it incredibly difficult to find any video’s regarding how to actually present the application or even how to get started. I am very much a visual learner and once I can visualise how I could apply for the visa then it would have made it way more easier for me to put all the documents together. Unfortunately I found nothing whatsoever so I decided to make a quick video to help others for the future.
I’ve already written a post about what you need to include in the application here as I’m sure for those of you reading this right now are frantically trying to work out what on earth you need to do (let’s face it, immigration aren’t exactly that helpful and it’s incredibly confusing because I know I was told completely opposite advice from every agent I spoke to). I am here to help you all because we all know it’s frustrating when you are waiting for at least 30 minutes on hold before you get through to immigration to ask them that one question I know only too well because I rang them a thousand times.
A bit of back story if you are reading my blog for the first time – I am a British woman who met my boyfriend Steve whilst travelling through India back in 2011. We moved to Sydney a few months later and lived with his mum for 1 year in Australia.
With no intention of moving to Australia permanently at the time we didn’t have bills stating that we were actually living together for that year. We had always planned to live in Sydney for one year and then travel to move to who-knows-where.
We left Sydney in Feb 2013 and embarked on a year travelling the world and we then spontaneously moved back to Australia in Feb 2014. I found out from immigration that I could come into Aus on a Tourist visa for 3 months and then apply for defacto partner visa.
During the 3 months on a tourist visa, I couldn’t work so I prepared to submit my application during that time. It was certainly full on and I’m sure you will understand that you want to make sure you submit everything that is needed with the hope that you won’t get kicked out of the country because you’ve forgotten to include something (which won’t happen btw!).
My biggest worry was to prove that we had actually lived together for at least one year. Even though we had been together over 2 years and the majority of that time was spent travelling, I was told that I could submit the application as long as I could prove that we had spent a year together through submitting flight details, hostel bookings etc.
So here’s a quick bit of advice if you are going to go down the partner route:
1. Make a start on the application as soon as you are sure you are going to apply for the visa. Do not wait until the last minute as it will take you way way longer to get all the documents together than you think. It took me 3 whole months and I wasn’t working at the time to get mine altogether.
2. Make sure you do the following straight away:
- Book your medical as you could be waiting a few months to get an appointment
- Get your relationship certified as that takes a good 4 weeks before you get the certificate
- Apply for police clearance in the countries you have lived in as well as Australia, can take a good 4 weeks
- Apply for birth certificate from home country as that can take a food 5 weeks for delivery to Australian address (I had no idea where mine was back in England)
- Ask family and friends to fill out the 888 forms (which they need signed by a JP too) and make sure you get them back in time to submit. I included six, that was 4 of my Australian boyfriend’s family, one of his family friend’s and one of my school friend’s who is now an Australian resident.
3. Find a JP who will happily sign all your stat decs and any forms needed signing. We found one on the net that lived nearby who came round twice to sign everything for us.
If you guys have any questions please comment below or email me directly here.
Thanks and good luck! I feel for you all going through this stressful time but it’s worth it in the end!
You can watch my video below.