Migration advice..

[Rhilee]

Hey guys...

Hope your all well!

I have a few quick questions for anyone who has applied for the de facto visa here in Australia…
I am Australian and my partner is from the UK, his holiday/working visa is to run out in April this year and he hasn’t done the fruit picking to extend to a two year visa.
Roughly how long does it take for an application to be lodged then granted or denied?
We have all the requirements that are listed on the checklist e.g. been together for nearly 2 ˝ years, live together, joint accounts etc. He is a carpenter/joiner but has lost his academic transcripts a few years back while he was still in the UK.
We are a bit unsure if we should get a migration agent or just lodge it all ourselves and take the risk of the application being denied in case we don’t have the correct or enough “relationship evidence”.
I have had a look on the MARA website and it really is quite expensive to hire a migration agent (which is also an issue) not too mention a lot of money wasted if the visa is denied.
If anyone can give any sort of info/advice from your own experience with something simular please let me know as we would love to hear about it!!

Cheers,
Rhilee

[SD_MOA]

Hello Rhilee,
As long as you lodge a 'valid' application for an onshore spouse visa before your partners current visa expires he will be granted a bridging visa. This visa will allow him to remain legally in Australia whilst his spouse visa application is being processed. Spouse visa applications do not take too long to lodge (as it sounds like you have started gathering documents etc already). Typically they do not take too long for a decision either (from a few weeks to a couple of months).

Feel free to contact me if you would like any more advice.

[Rhilee]

Thank you thats great... With the bridging visa does that allow him to still work?

[SD_MOA]

Hello Rhilee,
A bridging visa only becomes active once the applicants current visa expires (April?), if you lodged soon he may not even need one. Normally a bridging visa 'inherits' the conditions on the last substantive visa (in his case the WHV) so he should get work rights automatically. Even if he didn't he is able to apply for work rights.