The great Australian partner visa.
This week we wanted to dedicate our newsletter to the Partner Visa.
That is the one where you spend hours on Bumble or Tinder, and realise that instead of wanting to be with an Aussie for the rest of your life, you quite fancy a foreign accent or a different look. We get it, it's noice, its different.
Apart from being one of the most expensive visas in Australia to apply for (low low price of $9,900AUD - wowzers!), it is possibly one of the ones that requires the most amount of work to get the outcome you are looking for.
So, what are our top tips for trying to get it right the first time? See below:
Top Tips for Partner Visas
1. Don't get cocky
Sure, you have come to Australia and had to do a couple of visas. Don't think that just because you went on a couple of dates, you have a joint back account and that you registered your relationship that you are going to meet the criteria.
If you were to lodge a strong partner visa application and it was all paper documents it should be able two inches thick. That is how lodge them.
2. Define your relationship against the migration criteria
You either need to be a relationship for 12 months as defacto partners, married or be in a registered relationship. Whichever option suits you best, you should still have evidence to meet all the criteria to provide you are in a relationship.
3. Meet the other criteria too
The Department of Home Affairs expects that when you are in relationship you are sharing the household, financial and social aspects of your relationship. So, you both contribute to the relationship in some way and the relationship is not a secret to your family and friends.
4. Everyone's story is different, you just tell your version
You might be the couple that own an adult entertainment business together and only get paid in cash (yes, that happened); or, the arranged marriage in Iran; or, the couple that kept meeting over the years and finally made the leap in their 60s to be in a relationship. Whatever your story is you want to tell it in a way that is authentic to you.
5. The processing times are a guideline only
If you lodge a strong visa application with all of the supporting documents, the lower end of the processing times will apply to you. You should only lodge where you can lodge a decision ready application - that is, but for health and character checks, you have done everything you can to show that you are in a genuine and continuing relationship to the exclusion of all others.
6. Don't pay someone millions to help you
We get that this is a big decision, but realistically you should be paying someone an arm and a leg to do this for you. A reasonable cost might $5000 - $6000 in professional fees - under that and there may be a concern on quality, over that and there may be a concern on how much you are being charged unless the supplier is offering you other services too (eg. translations etc).
Recommended by LinkedIn
7. Documents will make or break the application
Most Australian visas will live and die by the documents. So, bring your A-game when preparing the supporting documents for your application.
8. Work together
Teamwork makes the dreamwork. If you are working together with your partner on this that it will easier to have all of the information and documents prepared, more efficiently and in greater detail. The process can be stressful though - so, setting expectations at the beginning of the process for who is responsible for what is your best way of still being in a relationship at the tail end of the process.
9. If there is anything curly, consult a lawyer
If something comes up that cannot fit the partner visa criteria box, perfectly - consult a lawyer. We have seen two applications come undone recently (where we asked for help afterwards) where someone tried to do the application themselves and did not provide the required documents which caused a refusal; and, another that lodged an application from a bridging visa that activated additional criteria that could not be met. If you think a lawyers fees are a lot to help with the application, we can guarantee they are even more to fix the problems that are caused when things are not done properly.
10. As much as they might appear to be helping, people on Facebook are usually NOT immigration lawyers, migration agents or helpful people
We constantly see terrible advice being given to people about Australian visas via Facebook. Our position is this - you wouldn't go to Facebook and ask how to perform brain surgery, or how to fly a plane and just do it... so, why leave it up to the randoms on Facebook to support you in the biggest decision of your life?
That is our hot tips for this week! Thanks for reading!
#passageco
For more information on Partner Visas you can check our Youtube videos here: