Killara

Good advice.

1. Agree with the consensus - apply online. (Or use a registered migration agent who will). 2. You probably do need to get some professional advice about the evidence to submit. The lease in joint names and transfer each month to pay your share of the bills would not be enough, as this can be the case even with friends renting together. Evidence from family such as the joint correspondence and statutory declarations that you mention would help (depending of course on what they say). DIBP need evidence that you are in a relationship that is akin to a married relationship, not just as boyfriend/girlfriend. I would second this concern. For some of the pitfalls and advice against using DIY wills, this Sydney Morning Herald article: http://www.smh.com.au/money/planning/avoid-pitfalls-of-a-diy-will-20120403-1w9vx.html. If you going to do Wills (which I would recommend anyway - as a sensible thing to do), then do it for the right reason - to ensure that your wishes are accurately given effect if anything were to happen to you. It is good that you are looking at this now rather than in a year's time when you plan to move to Australia given the time it has been taking to process partner visa applications lately.

Work in the UK as a lawyer would count towards overseas skilled employment. Work in Australia prior to your admission as an Australian Lawyer most likely would not be counted as skilled employment in the occupation as you were not working as a local lawyer if you had not yet been admitted as such. If the work you did in Australia was in fact practise of UK law (e.g. as an Australian-registered foreign lawyer), then this may count. Time as a trainee lawyer will depend on whether you had been admitted as a lawyer (in the jurisdiction of the traineeship) before the traineeship or only after completing the traineeship. No points for completing the law subjects required by LPAB, unless you were in fact awarded the diploma.. but I am assuming you only did a few subjects to complete requirements for admission rather than enough for diploma to be awarded. If you have academic qualifications from UK though you will most likely be able to claim points for your UK academic qualifications.

No, it will not mention anything about whether you are eligible or not to apply for PR or for any other visa. The Council does not give advice about eligibility for visas. http://www.lawadmissions.vic.gov.au/home/overseas+applicants/information+for+overseas+practitioners/migration+matters/

Hi @summerdaisy. They do not need to have been in the relationship for 2 years. That is incorrect advice. They can apply for a partner visa as they are in a registered relationship. They will of course still need to prove that the relationship is genuine, continuing, and akin to a married relationship.

Another possibility (this is just speculation also) is that invites were done ahead of the specified invitation round date because DIBP staff will be on strike from today to 26 June. http://www.newsroom.immi.gov.au/releases/60879986-528a-4cfe-bbe4-16b879795994

For the academic subjects, studying them at LPC or using the skills in practise is usually not sufficient - an applicant is usually required to have completed the academic subject as part of their undergraduate degree. In addition to administrative law, you will be required to do Australian Constitutional Law as presumably you have not done Australian Constitutional Law, and Legal Ethics if you did not do that as part of your undergraduate degree (doing it in LPC does not count - but they may give you an exemption for this based on the fact that you will be considered to be an experienced practitioner - being more than 7 years in practice.. so you or may not have to do Legal Ethics as an academic subject). You may also be required to do Property Law, even if you have passed that in your undergraduate degree, as they may not consider the course which you completed to be equivalent to the Australian course. For the PLT, you are correct - I would expect that you will be required to do Trust & Office Accounting, and Professional Responsibility, and I think that it would be realistic for you to be hopeful that you will be granted an exemption for the remaining PLT subjects.

DIBP have confirmed the June Invitation Round Dates here: http://skillselect.govspace.gov.au/2015/06/03/june-invitation-round-dates-for-skillselect/

When you apply for the WHV, you will of course need to declare the conviction. Your application will then be flagged for a case officer to review. The case officer will need to decide whether you pass the character test for the grant of the visa. If you had received a term of imprisonment of 12 months or more (even if that term of imprisonment was suspended) then you would have been deemed to not pass the character test. Because you are not in that position, there is not that automatic finding, and a case officer needs to decide taking into account all of the circumstances, whether you do or do not pass the character test. The fine is a substantial fine, and 300 hours of community service is a lot. Was a term of imprisonment indicated if you were to fail to complete the 300 hours? A case officer would also take that in to account. The case officer is also required to consider the liklihood of re-offending in Australia. In this regard, certainly the character references are going to be important, because they provide some evidence that the offence is likely to be a one-off incident and that you have learnt your lesson; also, if you have ever done other voluntary work or given up your time to assist others, then references from them may also be useful as they show good character. Against the character references, on the other hand, the case officer will be considering the risk that you could commit a similar offence while in Australia. As a working holiday maker, you will may be in similar type roles for Australian employers.. Australia is expensive, and if you struggle financially to support yourself in Australia from the work you are getting (a factor which you say led to you offending last time), what is the risk that you might be tempted to commit a similar offence against an unsuspecting Australian employer? I am not asking that question of you - but these are the types of things that a case officer will be considering. In your application for a working holiday visa, you should include your criminal history police certificate, the character references, and also a personal statement / submission to the case officer as to why you should be considered to pass the character test and granted the working holiday visa. You may wish to consider using a registered migration agent to assist you in preparing a character submission, and I would recommend that you do use one that has experience in preparing character submissions (but of course you would probably expect me to say that anyway!).

The occupation lists change very regularly, so no one can guarantee what occupations will or will not be on the list in 6 years time. In terms of changes to occupation lists and Australian immigration rules, 6 years is a very long time; visa classes and eligibility rules change frequently. Having said that, in terms of professions and prospects to migrate to Australia, doctors are engineers are in my opinion likely to remain high in demand in Australia. But these are very challenging courses at university to pursue, and having the academic ability for them is often not enough - the desire to actually be a doctor or engineer is equally important for getting you through the years of long study and difficult exams. I remember from my university days people who were incredibly bright, achieved top marks in school, and went in to these courses simply because they could, without really knowing what they wanted to do in life. They had the academic ability for the courses, sure, but they didn't have the passion for it; university life offered them better ways (in their opinion) to spend their time - through social clubs and societies, the student bar, etc.. and of course then they struggled in the exams, maybe failed and repeated and year, and then ultimately dropped out completely, saying they never wanted to be a doctor (or engineer) anyway. So I wouldn't recommend pursuing a particular university course simply because it might be a good one to get you to Australia. If you want to live in Australia in the longer term, then realistically, you are going to need to complete a university degree. Australia wants skilled migrants, and having a university degree is part of the "points" assessment. Being an electrician is an option, but it is not an easy path for migration to Australia. You will need not just the qualification, but also lots of experience before being able to migrate to Australia.. and even then there is no guarantee that you will be able to get work in Australia as an electrician. You would be competing against those who qualified as an electrician in Australia and perhaps who have Australian experience (this is why you would need to at least have a few years experience post-qualification as an electrician before maybe being able to migrate to Australia and find a job). Have you considered coming out to Australia now, perhaps on a Working Holiday Visa? You could spend up to 2 years in Australia, and that would give you time to see whether it really is a place that you might want to live longer term. That would also give you an opportunity to see for yourself what the job market in Australia is like, maybe get an idea for yourself what occupations are in demand. If at the end of the Working Holiday, you still have the Australian dream - perhaps even more so having spent the time there and checked it out for yourself, then you could go back to the UK, and hopefully by then have a better idea of what career you might be passionate about, and motivated to get through the university course, knowing what you will need to do to qualify in a career, and get back to Australia on a skilled or other visa. Contacts that you would make in Australia - friends that you would make and potentially employers that you would meet, may also help to improve your prospects of finding a longer-term solution for staying in Australia.

Australian citizens have the legal entitlement to enter Australia (regardless of passport). If an Australian Citizen can prove that they are an Australian citizen, then they are entitled to be admitted to Australia without presenting an Australian passport to Australian immigration. The main difficulty though would be how the Australian citizen would get to Australia in the first place. An example of where an Australian citizen may enter Australia on a foreign passport is in the case of having an "Australian Declaratory Visa" (which is a misnomer, but it is not really a visa): http://www.immi.gov.au/faqs/Pages/what-is-an-australian-declaratory-visa-1.aspx. To be granted an Australian Declaratory Visa, there must be some emergency or other reason why the holder cannot obtain and travel on an Australian Passport. Australian citizens are not legally eligible to be granted a visa (in the normal sense) for Australia. The eligibility requirements for the grant of these visas include that the applicant is a non-citizen. Therefore, if a visa were to be granted to an Australian citizen, it would be null and void. Persons considering doing this should also be aware that it is a criminal offence in Australia to provide information to a Commonwealth entity which is false or misleading. Invariably this would be done if the Australian citizen sought to enter Australia pretending to be a non-citizen or applying for any class of visa other than the "Australian Declaratory Visa". While the immi website certainly strongly implies that it is a legal requirement for an Australian citizen to leave and enter Australia only on an Australian passport, the true position is better described on the government's smartraveller website: https://www.smartraveller.gov.au/tips/dual-nationals.html :

Also assuming that the residence requirements are not increased before she becomes eligible to apply. The Australian government is currently considering increasing the required period of residence (among many other proposed changes to the Australian Citizenship Act). I expect we will see amendments to the Australian Citizenship Act within the next few months.

Where will you be lodging the 461 application? 461 applications lodged in New Zealand are currently taking more than 6 months in many cases. (Just something to be aware of because processing time appears to be an important factor for you in deciding what visa to apply for). However it would still be longer of course for the 189 as you have not started the process yet and there is quite a bit to be done before you would be ready to lodge the 189 application.

Hopefully your migration agent did provide some advice to you on the risk that your partner might be refused entry on arrival in Australia on a visitor visa. The final decision will rest with the immigration officer when you land in Australia. If that immigration officer decides that your partner is not a genuine visitor, your partner may be refused immigration clearance, have the visitor visa cancelled, and be put back on a plane to the UK. The fact that the preference is to buy a one way ticket "given she wont be returning" suggests that an immigration officer would have grounds to cancel the visitor visa. Earlier you talked about 3 month holiday visa, and in your latest post you talk about applying "onshore for a partner/spouse visa ... after gaining a bridging visa and before her 12 month visitor visa expires". You won't gain a bridging visa before applying onshore for the partner visa - the bridging visa is granted after the a valid application for the onshore visa is lodged (so you seem to have that the wrong way around); your partner is not likely to be granted a 12 month visitor visa - but that may actually be in her best interests that she get a shorter visitor visa as being on a bridging visa awaiting the outcome of a partner visa application would be more beneficial to her than being on a visitor visa... but presumably your migration agent has explained all of this to you.

PR does not get cancelled on application for citizenship. A PR visa will cease upon grant of citizenship (i.e. when you attend the ceremony and make the pledge). If the travel facility on your PR visa has not expired (and is not due to expire before you would return from Bali), then there is no issue with you travelling to Bali for a holiday.. however, you should advise DIBP of any travel so that they are aware that you will be out of the country during that time. If you are unsure whether the travel facility on your PR visa has expired, you should check VEVO.

The application will be assessed to determine whether you are a genuine tourist (not going to work in breach of the conditions) and evidence of financial means to support yourself for the entire period that you will be in Australia. Therefore, evidence of financial savings, and of the existence of financial support from both your mother in Canada and your uncle in Australia would assist your application. As to the family home in AUS - it helps to the extent that you have a place to live and therefore reducing the amount of money which you will need to support yourself in Australia (presuming it is rent free?), but on the other hand will be a factor that DIBP will consider as to whether or not you are a genuine tourist. A 6-month visa would be more likely than the 12 (a case officer will decide what period to grant). If you only get 3 or 6 months, the question of whether you will be able to apply for another visa while in Australia will depend on whether the visa is granted with a "no further stay" condition or not. If you are granted only 3 or 6 months and your visa does not include a "no further stay" condition, then you may be able to apply for another visa while in Australia. Requests for longer stay visitor visas receive more scrutiny from case officers, so if you want to achieve the longest possible stay, you may wish to consult a registered migration agent to prepare the application; also a registered migration agent will be able to advise you as to whether you may be eligible for other classes of visa.

DIBP recommend that you submit the request at least 2 weeks prior to expiration of the 6 months, not that they will look at it within 2 weeks if you submit it; subtle difference! Also, in any event, DIBP never bind themselves to any time frames which they may indicate for processing any application or request. Nothing to freak out about (yet), but it will require following up with DIBP to get the written authorisation to make sure that it isn't forgotten about. I've had it where the request was submitted 5 weeks before the expiration of the 6 months and in the end the written authorisation came through just 2 days before the end. As @Quinkla has pointed out, if you do not receive the written permission from DIBP in time, then you must cease working for the employer. The last thing that you want to do is to jeopardise your permanent residence visa application (or any other future application for a visa or citizenship) by breaching your current visa conditions. In any event, you mentioned that you have a lawyer acting for you, so no doubt your lawyer has provided all of this same advice to you already.

For OP, it would also be good to be aware (just in case OP is planning on coming to Australia on a temporary visa and buying a property here) that non-residents and temporary residents of Australia must obtain approval from the government's Foreign Investment Review Board before purchasing a property, and there are restrictions as to the type of property that can be purchased. http://www.firb.gov.au/content/real_estate/real_estate.asp.

Follow the links which @Ozmaniac has provided in the post above and read the material. That is the best place to start. The only thing that I would add is that if you are in Australia and living together for less than a year, then you may still be able to apply for a partner visa if: (a) you have registered your relationship; OR (b) you can demonstrate compelling and compassionate circumstances. Having an Australian-citizen child of the relationship is relevant to the consideration of whether compelling and compassionate circumstances exist, and a partner visa can be granted even where the de facto relationship has existed for less than 12 months and is not a registered relationship, if DIBP are satisfied that compelling and compassionate circumstances exist. Australia has the obligation to consider the best interests of the child. Please note that pregnancy however does not of itself amount to compelling and compassionate circumstances. You should consider discussing your case with a registered migration agent so that you can get advice tailored to your particular circumstances.

Have you tried asking the court to adjourn the trial as your wife is an essential defence witness? You really should consult a solicitor. If you cannot afford a solicitor, try contacting legal aid in your State or a community legal centre near you. You may get some assistance there even if they do not take on your case and appear for you at trial. They can guide you about what you should be doing when representing yourself. Bring along whatever documents you have received from the police. What you should not be doing is asking people on a public forum who know nothing about you or the circumstances of the alleged offending whether you should plead guilty. Please don't post a reply to this post with further questions about your case or what you should do; I certainly will not reply. For the very reason that I have mentioned in this post, it is not possible for me or anyone else on this forum to sensibly advise you about your case or what you should do. This post is not legal advice. It is simply a recommendation that you go and obtain legal advice in person from a solicitor.

No need for immi to come knocking for this. If you apply for the 189, immi will have the passport details for each of you. At the push of a button or two it will tell them if one of you is onshore and the other offshore. They will have the movement records in and out of Australia of each of you. However, as others have said, the genuineness of the relationship checks are done before visa grant so unless there is reason after grant to suspect that the visas were obtained by fraud or materially incorrect information, one would not expect a visit from immi after grant.

The 60 days would count towards the year as permanent resident. You would not add the 60 to 365 days from grant of the 186. There is a residence eligibility calculator on the citizenship website which can be useful to calculate residence eligibility. http://www.immi.gov.au/citizenship/Pages/residence-calculator.aspx

Definitely speak to a registered migration agent so that you can get advice as to what options you both might have. As you will have a law degree, one possibility might be using your WHV to pursue admission as an Australian lawyer while you are here on the WHV.(you will have more courses and study and training to do, but lawyers are currently on the SOL, so it might open up some possibilities for you.. though I note that you are undecided about what you want to do... and yes it can be difficult for foreign law graduates to get legal jobs in Australia.) A migration agent will help you look at all options which may be open to you both.

I agree with the others. For online applications, scanned colour copies are usually acceptable. Case Officer can ask for certified copy to be provided, but usually the scanned colour copy is sufficient. True that when a certifier certifies a copy they are only certifying that it is a true copy of the original, and they are not vouching for the bona fides of the original. However, a person authorised to certify a copy of a document should refuse to certify a document if they in fact suspect that the original document is fraudulent or that the certified copy would likely be used to commit a fraud. For example if a person presented a passport where the photo section looked like it had been tampered with and a new photograph inserted over an existing one - this tampering might be reasonably obvious on physical inspection of the document but not so obvious on a photocopy of it. The certifier owes a duty of care to persons to whom the certified copy may be presented. In relation to the question of whether a scanned original is better than a scan of a certified copy one reason why assessing authorities/DIBP/etc might prefer or ask for a certified copy or scan of the certified copy rather than just a scan of the original is that the certifier should provide their name and contact details on the certified copy so that the assessing authority/DIBP/whomever can contact the certifier and confirm with the certifier that they saw the original document, and perhaps even ask other questions such as whether the person who presented the document was the person shown on the document, etc. So having the option to contact the certifier might be one reason to seek a certified copy or a scan of certified copy.

A copy of your Passport is a very basic requirement when the Agent is going to be representing you in a visa application. Aside from that fact, Agents do need to establish your identity also - to be sure that you are in fact who you say you are. Requirements for lawyers to ensure that they have confirmed their client's identity are even more strict. Confirming a client's identity is of course more difficult if the agent or lawyer has not met the client in person (so cannot ask to see original document and compare to the person sitting in front of them, so asking for other evidence of identity is not unreasonable to establish your identity to the agent... though yes, the birth cert is not needed at this stage for the assistance or advice to be provided to you at this stage. I would think that the agent is asking for it to help confirm your identity to the agent, and because the agent knows that the birth cert will be needed in any event later on for the visa application. Sorry to hear that you have been the victim of identity fraud in the past. It is good to be alert to the question as to who you do provide identity documents to and for what reason you do so.. but in this case, copy of passport at least I think should be expected, even right at the very start of appointing the agent. While the visa application is not being lodged yet, the agent does need to establish your identity when you become a client. An excellent suggestion. You are entitled to ask why it is needed, what your concerns are, how your identity documents will be safeguarded - what protections are in place, who will have access to it, etc. You are entitled to know that your identity documents are securely stored. If you are not satisfied with the safeguards in place, then as someone suggested, find another agent that you are happy with. Ultimately if you do proceed with a visa application, you will be agreeing to provide all of these identity documents and more to DIBP. You should have a written contract with the agent which sets out when and for what the agent can bill you. Agents are required to set out in a written contract in advance what you will be billed for. Without a signed contract the agent may not be entitled to claim any fee. Have a discussion with your agent about how and when and for what you will be charged. If you are not happy, hold off until when you are ready to proceed with visa application, but it Is often beneficial to have the agent engaged from as early as possible. Just my thoughts on the various comments!