SkippyChick11

Yes, sorry - I should have specified. We've been in Aus for 12 months with OH on his 309 visa, and are now getting the paperwork together for the PR (100) visa. At the moment I've got a couple of utilities, marriage cert (married since 309 was granted), lease, bank statements etc. Does our evidence need to be as robust this time as it was for the 309? Cheers, A

Hi guys, What evidence (ie how much evidence) have you provided for 100 visa? Cheers

This made me laugh, thanks Pom Queen! Philippine Airways will be flying out of Heathrow again, starting from November. Guess who we're flying with in mid-Nov? Yup. :embarrassed: Although at approx £200 cheaper than Malaysian, we figure it's only going to be 23 hours of our life. Although I have a feeling that the 4.5 hour stopover in Manila waiting for the Darwin flight, will draaaaaag!!

cheers all

Excellent. Thanks for your advice WF123. :biggrin:

Hi there! We're just going to buy a padded bike bag for each (have a look on ebay) and just check them into over-size luggage at the airport. I've looked up "sporting equipment" on our airline's website and it gives you the acceptable dimensions and requirements. Whereabouts are you on this miserable Cornish day?

Hi all, We're flying out in Nov and we're now intending on taking our two mountain bikes on the flight with us rather than putting in our movecube (as we're going to have more baggage allowance than first anticipated). We were just after some advice re hydraulic brake fluid in the bikes - ie do you have to drain it etc? Any assistance is appreciated. Ta!

Moving back to Brissy with my Pommy OH at the end 2013/early 2014 after 8 years in the UK. Hoping to rent Manly-ish. I've always known that I'd move back to Brissy, but can't quite get my head around the fact that it's going to happen soon! Eeek! Am getting nervous about the job situation too... :rolleyes:

Perhaps you could send in the application prior to 1st Sep, with a note saying that you are awaiting the relationship certificate to come through and you will forward it on upon receipt...? Good luck

Hi Hana, When you say "defacto" do you mean living together? ie you've been in a relationship for 20 months, but only living together for 3 months. If you've got your relationship registered, this should negate having to show that you've lived together for 12 months, but I would definitely include evidence of a relationship for the past 20 months. Include the pieces of evidence that you have listed in your original post, plus evidence of holidays together, money going in between your accounts, car insurance details if you're listed as named drivers etc. Furthermore, get your partner's flatmates to fill in a stat dec each, saying that you've been living there for 3 months, but you have been in a relationship with your OH for 20 months and you would stay ** nights per week when you had your own place. Perhaps you've contributed while you weren't living there as well? Did you put money in a kitty or buy milk/bread etc for the flat? Little things like this can help to paint a bigger picture via the stat decs. You also mention that you are not currently listed on the lease. I know when I was a property manager in Qld (about 9 years ago - so may be out-dated advice), you could fill out a form to be an "approved occupant". Perhaps you could look into that. It just lets the agency/landlord know that you're staying there, even if you're not named on the lease. That could be provided as visa evidence as well. Hope some of this advice helps! Good luck

We use CurrencyFair peer 2 peer currency exchange. All you need is your BSB/Account number to transfer to Aus. Have found it really good as you can transfer money into your currencyfair account , set an exchange rate that you'd like to achieve and if you've got time, your money will sit there until the exchange rate reaches that point, then it is transferred to Aus. Alternatively, you can just transfer it at whatever the current rate is. Anyway, just thought I'd share in case it's of any use in future!

Hi Stuart, My OH and I were asked for more evidence at the start of our application (which freaked me out a little, to be honest). I went back to the CO and said something along the lines of: "if we go and get wills, etc and submit them, will that satisfy your requirements?" To which our case office replied "I am only concerned with evidence pertaining to the 12 months directly preceding the date of receipt of application" ie from Oct 2011 - Oct 2012. So that put the kibosh on that. Luckily, within his response, KP also put in a roundabout way (I had the feeling that he was not able to just come out and say directly what he was after, and that it was up to us to figure it out) that he was more interested in us submitting extra evidence which supported that we did not live "separately on a permanent basis". At this point I was working in London (and had a flat in London) and commuted weekly between there and my OH in Cornwall. I ended up putting all of my travel dates (backed up from train itineraries) into a table which showed the number of days we spent apart each time. This was presented to the CO with a supporting statement which pointed out that even though I paid for everything in London and OH paid for everything in Cornwall (and we didn't have the usual joint utilities), we actually spent nearly 50:50 together and apart, and the train tix came out of our joint account. We also included future travel itineraries where we were going away at Xmas time etc (which showed an ongoing commitment). I know that this stuff is particular to our case, but just thought I'd share in case any of it was relevant to you. Wish you all the best of luck

No probs! It must be a nightmare trying to get your head around it in such a short period of time! Any more queries, just shout!

Hi Lou! 1) It's difficult to just pick an area out of a hat, but at least you know that your OH will be working in central brisbane. To narrow things down a bit, you could have a look at the best schools in Brisbane (I know there's a link that's been floating around that rates the best schools etc, I'm sure someone will be on here shortly with it), as well as suburbs with train stations (if OH will be catching the train into the city) and how long of a commute he wants. 2) there's a shipping section of the forum that might give you some pointers. Once again, you need to narrow down if you need to ship a 20ft container, a movecube box (approx 2.5m x 1.5m x 2m - sevenseas), or just a few boxes. 3) short term lettings - as the OP has mentioned, realestate.com.au is a good place to start for short-term and longer-term rentals, also http://www.airbnb.co.uk and brisbaneholidayvillage.com.au 4) all of the usual international car hire companies are available. Perhaps just look at a comparison site - or leave it a while, see where you're staying and ask the locals who they recommend? 5) There's no reason not to, although if you're on a temp visa, I don't think it's compulsary (could be wrong). Once you get an address (temp or perm), you just need to go into Department of Transport and swap it over (and pay a fee) 6) Once you get the visa number, you can open one online. It won't be activated until you show up at the bank and show your ID etc. http://www.BOQ.com.au is a good one 7) Qld has prep school. Not sure on what age they start at, but if you google "education queensland" I'm sure it'll come up. Hope some of this helps! Best of luck

Ancestry visa is easy. That's what I came over on originally. He just needs 3 birth certificates (his birth certificate, his mother or father's birth certificate -depending on which side the english ancestry comes from- and his grandparent's birth certificate) and the form. Other than no recourse to public funds, there are no restrictions. It's a 5 year visa and after that he could apply for indefinite leave to remain. One of my friends just renewed her ancestry visa though, so it can be done (and is much cheaper than settlement).

have a look on airbnb.co.uk - there are a few around bayside that i've been looking at for when we arrive

A couple of recent BBC stories on the reality of the new spouse visa restrictions in the UK http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22833136 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22868332 I am an Aussie with a UK residency visa (indefinite leave to remain) which will lapse if I'm out of the UK for more than 2 years at a time. My OH (British) has had his aussie spouse visa approved and we're moving to Aus at the end of the year. We're not planning on moving back to the UK after we've settled in Aus, but we're aware that anything can happen in the future. As such, tomorrow I'm applying for british naturalisation and will eventually get a british passport. I naively thought that I could get a spouse visa for the UK if needed in future, but after doing a little bit of research on UKBA, I can see what a ridiculous process it is becoming. And who knows if it's going to get more difficult/expensive, say, 10yrs down the track... At approx £1200 the naturalisation/passport route is an expense we could do without, but at least it'll keep this option open in the future if we need to come back. Best of luck to everyone looking to go down the UK spouse visa route! x

FYI, the Traveston Dam has been shelved and the govt are now trying to offload all of the properties they had bought in anticipation of it going ahead...

There would be no reason for anyone to be lying about the fact that their visa was approved ahead of schedule. We were some of the lucky ones. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to how Aus House process these. Trying to figure it out will only do your head in. After we submitted OH's application we just put it to the back of our minds, not expecting to hear anything before mid-June. One day an email turned up saying it was approved. It was completely out of the blue and we have no idea why it only took 6.5 months to go through, but we're not complaining! Best of luck with your application. Hopefully the months will fly past!

Further to WolvesAussie's response, it's suggested that if you're heading over on a tourist visa to apply onshore, send all of your docs ahead of you so you don't have them on you when going through customs. You'd have a hard time explaining that you were only in Aus for tourist purposes if you had all of your docs incl. marriage cert, utilities, bank statements etc on you if you were searched... ​Best of luck!

Travel itineraries (flights/trains/buses) for both of you, showing that you've been travelling together for 14 months Money being transferred between your accounts Hotel bookings where one of you have booked (evidence: booking confirmation) and one has paid (evidence bank statement); esp if it notes that it's a double room etc Travel Insurance - did you get a joint policy? Car insurance/car hire? Did you have mail sent to the same addresses while you have been away? You might also want to think about evidence that provides an insight into you actually being a couple. A lot of the evidence listed above could just be for two mates who have been travelling together for 14 months. They don't provide a picture of you both living "like a married couple-without the bit of paper". You will need a lot more than copies of stamps in your passports and stat decs from your friends. Have a trawl through this forum and you'll get an idea of the amount and type of evidence that DIAC require for a defacto application. Good luck with it!

Hi Steve, As Kevin has noted above, I don't think Aus House accept Post Office certification. Instead most people in the UK go to a solicitors to get the docs certified. That's what we did. We just walked in (some may need an appointment) and paid £15 to get the lot certified. Job done! ​Good luck

Hi Lucy, Don't worry too much about it. We only got about 4 bits of evidence back (originals) about a fortnight after application. If you supplied mostly copies and certified copies, then you won't receive them back. Don't stress too much! Good luck!

I would suggest looking into applying for the 309 offshore visa after you have left Aus. It is cheaper and in most cases, quicker than applying onshore. The only thing you would have to consider is getting your medicals and police checks completed whilst on your travels. The processing time in London, for example is 9 months at the moment (and medicals and police checks are requested three months after application). I've seen on this forum that people have applied for the offshore visa in India/Bangladesh etc, but you'd need to check to see what their processing times are likely to be.

I've got an account with ANZ but will be closing once I get back to Aus and opening a Bank of Queensland account. No monthly fees and free transactions at Redibank ATMs. Can start the process of opening an account online and then just go into a branch upon arrival and show your passport and away you go