If you are married to an Australian or are in a de facto partner relationship, then the most suitable visa for you is the Partner visa. This visa is sometimes called the Spouse visa. There are two types of Partner visas:
- The first is the offshore visa and
- the second is the onshore visa
The offshore visa is when you are outside Australia and the onshore visa is when you are in Australia at the time when you submit your partner Visa application. If you apply for the offshore visa then you must be outside Australia when your visa is granted and if you are in Australia and the time when make your application, then you must be also in Australia when your visa is granted. The Partner visa is divided into two stages:
- the temporary stage or as it’s called provisional and
- the second stage which is the permanent or the migrant.
When you apply for this visa you apply for both stages at the same time and only pay one application fee to the Department of immigration. If you apply from outside Australia you will be applying for the subclass 309 and the subclass 100. If you apply for your partner Visa from within Australia you will apply for the Partner visa subclass 820 and a subclass 801. We will now go over some of the criteria for the Partner visa. The criteria is the same for both the offshore and the onshore pathways.
- Your partner must be willing to sponsor you
- You must be married to your Australian partner
- You must be both in a genuine relationship exclusive to all others
- You must meet the criteria for health and character
In your statements it is good to write:
- How when and where you both first met
- How your relationship involved from just knowing each other to boyfriend and girlfriend then fiancées and then the married stage
- All about each other like things you both like or dislike like foods, movies, music, habits and so on…
If at any point you were separated or not living together explain how you maintain your relationship Your future plans like moving to Australia, having children, buying a house and more It is also good to have declarations from other people so that you can prove that you have been socially recognised. When you apply for this visa, get ready for a long way. In most cases depending on the Australian embassy or the immigration office at the time before the decision is made could be even one year. So we recommend just hang in there and if you have any change of circumstances which would benefit your application just sent the documents through to the case officer. In some cases, if you are outside Australia, you could even apply for some type of tourist visa to come to Australia and be with your partner until your decision is made on your visa. Apart from the normal identity documents and the immigration forms you’ll need to provide some other documents that are as evidence of your genuine relationship. This may be:
- Mutual photographs
- Statutory Declarations
- Holiday bookings
- Airplane tickets and more
If you are not married to an Australian you must be in a de facto relationship. You will not need to supply a marriage certificate but you must fulfil some other criteria such as:
- You must not be related by family
- You must be both aged at least 18 years of age
- You must be in a genuine relationship exclusive to all others
- You must have been in your de facto relationship for more than 12 months
- You must prove that you been living together for over 12 months
- You must meet the requirements for health and character
In any case, whatever you circumstances might be, GOOD LUCK!!!
PS. When we write Australian in this case, we mean an Australian citizen, an Australian permanent resident and a New Zealand eligible citizen
