Help needed please.. get married or not??

[kimsdu]

Hey guys, Im new to this forum so please bear with me.

Myself and BF are planning to go to Oz he is a carpenter so will qualify on the skilled visa. Even though i am college educated nothing on the skills list matches for me! So it looks like i will have to do the spouse/defacto visa.
We have been together over a year and living together but have no joint accounts and only his name on the lease of our house.
We know its a job proving the relationship but my question is ....
Should we just get married? Does this clarify we are together for real? Does it benefit our application process?
We plan on marrying in the future anyway but if it means helping with the paperwork we will do it sooner.
Anyone have any info on this?
Thanks so much xx

[kimsdu]

Open a joint bank account - pay bills from that account. Put your name on the lease if not - make sure its on the council tax, electrol register.

Get the gas/electric in your name or both names if can not get your name on the lease.

Get joint credit card - show that you have jointly bought things together.

Even being married you would still have to prove you have been together over a year.

Ok great thanks for that. Will do the joint accounts asap.. Would the marriage thing still help though?

[TrishP]

get married for the 'right' reason....not for a visa application. I have previously gone to Oz on a sponsored 457 visa, and included my BF on the application - we weren't asked for much evidence of our relationship - I seem to think all we had was a joint property rental agreement. However, the almost 2 years of emails that had gone between myself and the oz recruitment lady had frequently mentioned our relationship (just in general chit chat like what we'd been up to, holidays we were going on etc) so I think that was also counted as evidence... Good luck!! x

[kimsdu]

We plan on getting married anyway its just now we are starting the visa application so maybe sooner rather than later would work in our favour. Have a meeting with the immigration specialist next week so will know more then.
My friends have just moved to oz and were approved last year.. they were not married but together 9 years, owned house together and still they said it was tough proving the relationship was valid !!

[GeorgeD]

Even being married you would still have to prove you have been together over a year.

No you don't.

If you are married, there is no requirement to have lived together or even prove you have been in a relationship for any specific length of time...but yes, you do need to prove you are in and intend to continue being in a genuine relationship. Much of the evidence you suggest helps prove that, but for the sake of clarity, there is absolutely no requirement to prove how long you have been together if you are married. If you are in a de-facto relationshiop then absolutely, you need to prove 12 months co-habitation, but this requirement is dropped once married.

Get married if you want to get married! Do it because you want to get married, not because you want a visa easier.

Try and find more evidence to support a de-facto application. Official letters/bills in each of your names individually to the same address prove you live together. Think long and hard about any other evidence you may have which can prove a relationship...are you named drivers on each other's car insurance. Are you named as benficiaries in each other's wills (and if you don't have wills, get them, couples make provision for each other in the event of death, so do it anyway). Are there any insurance policies where one is named as a benficiary of the other, etc. You will no doubt have statutory declarations from friends and family who will confirm that you have lived together in a relationship, so it can be done without joint loans, etc...you just need to dig out as much evidence as possible. For example, I sent a print out of the last 20 IP address logins to my wife's Oz bank account showing her IP address in Oz and mine in the UK. We were living apart (and never lived together, see comment above about no co-habitation requirement for married couples!). I suggested this showed a joint financial commitment as I had access to her bank account. The evidence DIAC suggests for de-facto relationship proof is just that - a suggestion. You may have other evidence which helps you. The more different and varied sources, the better.

[Paul1Perth]

We plan on getting married anyway its just now we are starting the visa application so maybe sooner rather than later would work in our favour. Have a meeting with the immigration specialist next week so will know more then.
My friends have just moved to oz and were approved last year.. they were not married but together 9 years, owned house together and still they said it was tough proving the relationship was valid !!

If you are planning to get married anyway then it would make the application process easier. Only one of you has to be accpted if you are married and as long as you travel together and get your visas stamped you are in.

[kimsdu]

Thanks George + Paul for all that info, Like i said before we are going to marry anyway so its really is for the right reasons, but as we are applying for visas we will now just go to a registry office and have a ceremony later down the line.. .. Just seems like it will save a ton of extra paperwork if we marry then.

[guest32487]

Only one of you has to be accpted if you are married and as long as you travel together and get your visas stamped you are in.

The same fact is true for an unmarried couple who have lived together for 12 months (pretty certain it is 6 months for a skilled visa).. Defacto relationships are recognised by DIAC and treated the same under equal opporunities legislation.


(and these days couples don't normally need to travel to Australia together. Vision Condition 8502 is seldom applied: http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/guides_act...uide-8502.html)