Hi everyone

[nattie]

Hi there,

I'm new here, just had a few quick questions for you all :-

Me and my Australian partner will be applying in a few months time for a Prospective Marriage Visa, and we just wanted to know people’s experiences with it. We'd like to know anything - cost, how long it takes, other things we will have to go through.

Any information will be of help.


Thanks,

Natalie

[ck10_9]

Hi Natalie,

My wife and I applied for a defacto partner visa (before we got married) which is very similar. (VISA Application cost £475 approx).
As long as you provide everything you can that proves that you are together and for how long.
You shouldn't have any trouble. We sent joint statements, bills, holiday tickets, mortgage deeds ..etc. SEND ANYTHING WHERE BOTH YOUR NAMES ARE INCLUDED!!

Always good to provide old photos of yourselves toger through the years!

We sent the application off with the police check (cost £10) already in it. Along with statutory declarations signed by a solicitor (cost £5-10 a copy) from 2 other australian residents.
I sent the application off on a Saturday morning, it was a bank holiday monday and on Weds i got an e-mail from Australlia house saying that if I passed my medical the visa was mine.
AND that it would be a permanent one straight away as we had proved we had been together for 5 years!!

Needless to say I passed the medical (cost just over £200) with flying colours. We recieved the letter of confirmation asking for my Passport to be sent off around 6 weeks after my medical. Got the Passport back complete with visa a week or so after i sent it.

Hope this helps and Good luck.

Carl

PS Where in Oz are you thinking of heading?

[nattie]

Hi Carl, thanks for your reply, your information has been a great help.

My partner and I have been together for almost 1 1/2 years, although we have been living apart from each other (I'm in the UK, he's in Australia). We have seen each other for periods of time, but we can't have what we want straight away.
Although our situation is slightly different to yours, let's hope it all goes as smooth as yours did. We had been thinking it might take about 3-4 months to go through the approval process.

We have been collecting all our evidence; photographs of our times together, emails back and forth, logs of our online chats, phone bills, ticket stubs, all the things like that. Hope it's enough.

Just hoping all goes well, I'm a bit worried about the medical as am a bit overweight, just don't want that to affect our chances of being together.

With you having lived together for so long and with all your evidence, did you have to go through the interview process?. If so what was it like?.

You saying (approx) how much things will be for us has put me at ease a bit, although we realise it will still be a little longer as we're in a different situation.

To answer to your question, we'll be looking to live in Sydney, where my partner currently lives and where we hope to settle down. Whereabouts did you decide to settle?.

Glad things turned out for you two. Hopefully some other people who have applied for a Prospective Marriage Visa will be able to help us out, as it still feels a bit daunting.


Many thanks,


Natalie & Jeremy

[ali]

Hi Natalie,

My brother also provided some letters that he and his partner (now wife) had sent each other, it does seem rather personal, but it did show that this had been an enduring relationship whilst she was in aus and he was in the UK, they did live with each other in the UK for several months and had joint bills etc.

Ali x

[ck10_9]

Hi Natalie,

I did have a short telephone interview. But not the official one. So I am afraid I can't help you there.

We are heading for Brisbane. We have friends and family in the area.

Good luck with it all and just remember include absolutely everything you can in the application!

Cheers
Carl