Partner visa - stat decs from friends/family

Hi all

I have read the guidance book but cannot work this out;

• Form 888 - to be completed by Australian acquaintances or friends - this needs to be signed by the person who wrote the statement and a notary/JP.
  

• Statutory declarations from friends and family - does this need to be signed by notary/JP or just by the person who wrote the statement?
  

Thanks!!

VP

Form 888 is a stat dec. Only Aussies can fill one out. If you have friends or family at home, I would just have them write a statement and have that witnessed by a solicitor instead. We did that with my mum and it was fine.

Form 888 is a stat dec. Only Aussies can fill one out. If you have friends or family at home, I would just have them write a statement and have that witnessed by a solicitor instead. We did that with my mum and it was fine.

They can also have it witnessed at a cop shop, that's what our family did

 

 

• Statutory declarations from friends and family - does this need to be signed by notary/JP or just by the person who wrote the statement?

 

 

Thanks!!

 

VP

Yes, it should. You can use the form 888 if you want even in the UK, its just that it doesn't hold the same legal significance as ...you should get them to use the same format for their statement anyway (have a bit on each section it asks for.) Someone has to witness them to say they are the statement of the person writing it. It's just a check to make it a little more difficult for you to write them yourself. You don't need your own witnessed as DIAC know you are making a statement about yourself and you are submitting the application, rather than making a statement about someone else.

If you have lots of documentary evidence then the the statements really aren't that important. If you are evidence light, then please make sure you cross every t and dot every i and get teh right people to witness signatures, etc, otherwise your statements may carry less weight.

Can they? I thought they only recognised certified from JP, NP, and a solicitor? I may be wrong but I thought the list was very short.

Can they? I thought they only recognised certified from JP, NP, and a solicitor? I may be wrong but I thought the list was very short.

Depends where you are...on Oz yes Police Officers can do it. In the UK, no (unless they also happen to be a JP, Commissioner of Oaths, etc)

Others may have got someone else to witness theirs and not had a problem...why take the chance though? I'd do it properly. If you have loads of documentary evidence then it really isn't as important who witnesses it. If you have had a joint mortgage and lots of other joint bills and you send a copy of each of them for the last 10 years, then frankly you are not going to be declined a visa because your Autie Mary's statement was witnessed by an accountant not a solicitor. If your evidence is a bit thin on the ground, make the effort and get people to go to solicitors. I found this to be really difficult.

My wife's best friend in the UK just never got round to going to a solicitor to witness hers. I had to go to her house (40 min drive each way) with the forms as she didn't have a printer, then go back to get the completed one only to find she hadn't got it witnessed...she said to me, just you get them to witness it for me! Erm, doesn't work like that unfortunately...the whole point of witnessing is that they see you signing it. I got someone else to write a statement instead, it was too hard. My Best Man took over a month to write his statement. We played football every week with six solicitors, so the witnessing part was really easy for him....just writing the thing in the first place took ages!

A statement signed outside Australia is not a statutory declaration for DIAC purposes regardless of who witnesses it. I had my friends' statements countersigned by professionals who are acceptable for witnessing photos for UK passports - i.e. nurses, teachers, etc. This didn't seem to cause DIAC any problems. Most were typed on plain paper - one at least was handwritten on file paper. It is really just part of building up a picture of your relationship: do other people know you are partners?

From Form 888:

If you are not an Australian citizen or permanent resident and

you reside outside Australia, your statement cannot be

considered a statutory declaration under Australian law, even if

it is made using this form or the template provided by the

Attorney-General’s Department. However, under policy, your

statement should be witnessed or certified according to the

legal practices of the country in which you make the

statement.

It does go on to say failing those occupations you can get other people to sign it...but isn't it a little strange that you got all your official stuff signed by a JP solicitor, but not statements? There are plenty of lawyers around. Call any number of them to get a price for signing it...In the grand scheme of things 20-25 quid for knowing it was done right is a drop in the ocean when it come to the rest of the cost of the migration process.

Info about Stat Decs in the UK http://www.findlaw.co.uk/law/government/other_law_and_government_topics/500499.html

Who can witness a statutory declaration?

Not anybody can administer a statutory declaration as it is an important legal document and must therefore be verified. It will usually have to be administered by a commissioner for oaths (usually a court officer), a solicitor, or a notary public.

Interestingly, as far as who can do what for a British Passport...a number of people can sign the back of a photo...but if you need to write a Statutory Declaration for a passport for example if you change your name, etc, then guess who needs to sign that Stat Dec in regard to a UK passport:

Passport policy - Statutory Declarations

Staff guidance

A Statutory Declaration is a written statement of

fact that is signed in the

presence of a:

•

a Solicitor

•

a Notary of the Public

•

a Justice of the Peace

•

a Commissioner for Oaths

•

a Councillor (

Scotland

only

. Documents on or after 10/12/07)

•

any other qualified person.

Under the provisions of section 81 of

the Solicitors Act 1974, solicitors in

England and Wales holding a current pr

actising certificate have the same

powers as a Commissioner for Oaths

for the purpose of authenticating a

Statutory Declaration

From https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/118551/statutory-declarations.pdf (the 'any other qualified person' means military officers above the rank of Major or equivalent, or overseas consular staff)

Like I said, if you have plenty other evidence, then it is a really small piece of the jigsaw puzzle that goes to make up your application. It won't matter a hoot who signs it. If you don't have much evidence, then do everything the most official, correct way...

It does go on to say failing those occupations you can get other people to sign it...but isn't it a little strange that you got all your official stuff signed by a JP solicitor, but not statements? There are plenty of lawyers around.

The difference is that copies of documents are done by the applicant and it is the applicant who will get them certified and pay for that certification (actually, on my application the only document that had to be notarized was the copy of my passport details page - everything else it was OK to just get signed by ordinary professional people). But if you are asking a friend or family member to write a statement and get it witnessed, it's a bit much to ask them to stump up to pay for a lawyer - they're not the ones emigrating.

The difference is that copies of documents are done by the applicant and it is the applicant who will get them certified and pay for that certification (actually, on my application the only document that had to be notarized was the copy of my passport details page - everything else it was OK to just get signed by ordinary professional people). But if you are asking a friend or family member to write a statement and get it witnessed, it's a bit much to ask them to stump up to pay for a lawyer - they're not the ones emigrating.

Which is why I made an appointment with a solicitor and paid for my sister in law to get hers done in her home town. She lives over an hour away from us. She then posted it to us.

We had people who just didn't bother...one of my wife's friends in Oz said she had done hers but not given it to us...so we kept pestering for it from her. She never got round to giving it to my wife and then my wife came back to the UK for us to get married...she was meant to have all the Oz documentation with her, which she did except for that declaration. She then decided she would post it to me in the UK, so we gave her my address...and she posted it to my wife's sister's house instead...but for some reason it never arrived. She still to this day swears she sent it. So she said she'd send another one....and we're still waiting. I got someone else to write a statement. I got my visa almost 3 years ago now! As I mentioned before...my Best Man took a month to do his. His brother, my other best mate, lived up the road from me and was living with a lawyer...it took him even longer to write his, and when he did it was three sentences long...I've said before elsewhere that the most difficult thing about the whole process was getting people to write stuff down to help our application. It's not that we were asking them to lie...just that when push came to shove we discovered that friends we thought we could count on really couldn't be bothered lifting a finger! It was a real eye opener.

If you have lots of documentary evidence then the the statements really aren't that important. If you are evidence light, then please make sure you cross every t and dot every i and get teh right people to witness signatures, etc, otherwise your statements may carry less weight.

Agree with this. We provided 4 stat decs from family and friends in Aus and plenty of other supporting evidence, covering about 7 years all up. We didn't bother with a supporting statement from anyone in the UK.

I've said before elsewhere that the most difficult thing about the whole process was getting people to write stuff down to help our application. It's not that we were asking them to lie...just that when push came to shove we discovered that friends we thought we could count on really couldn't be bothered lifting a finger! It was a real eye opener.

I agree that it was a big ask to go to friends for statements. That's why it seems wrong to impose your own belt and braces rules on them, getting stuff witnessed by lawyers when DIAC doesn't require it. DIAC doesn't make that requirement of people in Australia and the guidance is clear that you can get statements witnessed by the same categories of people overseas as you can in Australia. Even if this were going to be a problem for DIAC (which it isn't), they would just ask you for more statements. They wouldn't refuse you a visa based on incorrectly processed statements.