deldesouza4369

The parents/friends letter was difficult; I gave them a few events, once we'd established our timeline, that I wanted them to highlight. Gave them rough notes from both the Statutory declaration form and the DIAC booklet 1 and just said be honest and truthful. Their letters were about 1-1.5 pages of A4. We didn't go down the route of getting them witnessed, just got them to sign and date the letter. We then scanned everything and uploaded to the eVisa system. For proof of living together, it was difficult for us too. We explained our situation; that we had two properties for the majority of the period but stayed at my partners place at the weekends and my place during the week (which was true), but we couldn't prove that other than showing documents (bank statements) from that time. We rented her place in October last year, and said that since then we've been living together at my place; for this we showed change of addresses on bank statements and her driving license. In the end we evidenced as much as we could with this and in our statements we were very open, honest and emotive about the whole relationship. It must have been enough, as we weren't asked a single thing about our relationship by our CO. I was blindsided a bit when the CO asked about work experience evidence as I was convinced I had everything else sewn up tight and though it would be the de-facto relationship stuff that would cause a problem; the CO never asked a thing about our relationship. We might have got lucky, or that might be the way things go on a 189 with de-facto partner; either way I guess I'll never know. In your shoes, I would do the same; provide as much as you can as thoroughly as you can but keep it concise and to the point, for example; don't put loads of photos of the same event in, just one or two with an explanation for each event that you're highlighting. I found it really useful to look at booklet 1; especially where it talks about what you need to prove (below from booklet 1) and then made a plan of how to prove each point. "History of your relationship You and your partner must each provide a statement regarding the history of your relationship, including: • how, when and where you first met; • how your relationship developed; • when you decided to marry or commence a de facto partner relationship; • your domestic arrangements – how you support each other financially, physically and emotionally and when this level of commitment began; • any periods of separation – when and why the separation occurred, for how long and how you maintained your relationship during the period of separation; and • your future plans. The statements written by you and your partner can be on ordinary writing paper or a statutory declaration form may be used. Each statement or statutory declaration must be signed and dated by the author. For details on who can witness statutory declarations, see page 28. Evidence of your relationship There are 4 broad categories of evidence that you need to provide: • financial aspects; • the nature of the household; • social context of the relationship; and • the nature of your commitment to each other. All relationships are different, so you should provide as much evidence as you can that you believe will support your claims." Good luck!

Sorry mis-read the post; if it were a skilled migration visa you wouldn't need the police checks done until you've been invited to apply for the visa. With a de-facto visa I'm not sure exactly when you'll need them. However, yes, just fill it out and send it off; make sure you supply all the documentation that is advised on the form guidance notes. cheers Del

UK police checks are carried out by ACRO (http://www.acro.police.uk/police_certificates.aspx). You'll need the form filled out, some photos done and address proofs (for your UK address); all the details of what's needed is in the form download. It takes about 10 working days to turn around and costs £45. You'll not need this until you've received your invite and placed the Visa application. Oh and you will need a police certificate for each country you have lived in for over 12 months (i think; best check that time period) in the last 10 years.

Yeah good question, I've no idea why the 190 visas aren't in there. DIAC stopped including 190s after the last December intake. Some have suggested in other posts that 190s are being invited outside of the regular 2 invitation rounds per month; as and when state sponsorship is granted, so if that were the case then I can see why they wouldn't be reporting in the bi-monthly reports. But (big caveat) I don't know that for sure, I'm just speculating based on what others have advised.

There are some reports on the skillselect website that will give you an idea of how many people are being invited forward and what the break down of the points are. Link for the last March round here: http://www.immi.gov.au/skills/skillselect/index/reports/report-2013-03-18/ I don't know how many rounds those on 60 points are taking to be invited forward. We had 70 points are were invited forward on the first round after submitting our EOI. EOI submitted 23rd December 2012, 189 Grant was 8th April 2013. We had a relatively straight forward case and also had a 20 days between invite and submitting our visa application which we used to get as much information together as possible.

We were just granted a 189 and my partner and I are in a defacto relationship. Okay for your fist question: on the EOI it will only ask about the relationship status; as you've seen. This is all it asks, it won't even ask for your name at this point. Once you've got your invite and start filling out the visa application (online) it will ask you to fill out all of the details for both the main applicant and the defacto partner. So for now don't worry about that. My partner and I were both living in separate houses for much of the period we were claiming (only 15months). It's difficult to explain what you need to provide exactly; the way it was put to me is to paint a general picture of your relationship together and back it up with as much evidence as possible. We provided the following: - Relationship statements from both me and my partner, explaining how we met, how the relationship developed (timeline), activities we've undertaken together (and dates), financial responsibilities (we did'nt have a joint account), sharing of domestic duties and our plans for the future. - Statements from our family and friends (one each from both our parents, my sister and my girlfriends best friend) highlighting how they see our relationship and social interation. - 8 photos of shared experiences; holidays, family events, social events, gigs, festivals etc. - Tickets (of any kind); travel, gigs. - Bank/credit card statements; we have separate accounts (until we move) so we highlighted transfers from her to me ans vice versa throughout the period we claim we were together and also expenses such as the holidays/gigs/etc. - Christmas cards, letters to you both, even the bank statements sent to one of your addresses with both your names on it. - Evidence of joint memberships: we had the gym. One thing to remember is to try and tie the whole relationship together; evidence the whole time frame that you are claiming, showing significant dates/events each year and tie that together in your statements. My statement was typed and covered almost 3 pages of A4. Here's a link to a document which helped us get our head around what we were trying to prove. It's more relevant for specific relationship/partner visas than skilled migration visas, but there's some really good info there. http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/booklets/books1.htm Sorry for the long reply, just trying to give you as much info as possible. Hope it helps you out and good luck! Cheers Del

Yeah, form 80. 18 pages of joy. I would leave it until the CO asks for it.

No probs! Good luck, I hope it's quick and painless :smile:

Aaaah! Sorry my bad; they used to put the stats for the 190 by state in the report, but they've stopped doing that for some reason after December. This was the last one I could find with 190 numbers on them it's at the bottom of the report. http://www.immi.gov.au/skills/skillselect/index/reports/report-2012-12-17/ I think on the 190 they are still subject to the ranking (by points/occupation) system as per the 189. So the higher the points the quicker you'll get invited forward. The difference is that after invite and submission of the application the 190 is ranked above 189 in the visa processing groups. So in theory it should be a shorter wait for your CO.

Cheers! Major was in Mechanical Design Engineering. Engineers Australia assigned my ANZCO occupation as a Mechanical Engineer which meant I wouldn't need state sponsorship as it's on the SOL; I thought they might stick me down as an engineering technologist, or engieeering NEC which would have meant I needed sponsorship as they're on the CSOL. Got lucky :smile:

Yeah, the 190 invitations are run on the same day, it's all automated as far as I can ascertain. I think if you root around in the stat reports you can see the 190 invitations by state for each round, somewhere near the bottom of the 189 breakdown reports.

Yeah, I believe so; there are two invitation rounds per month. You'll get picked up soon with 65 points I'm sure. This is the hardest part, waiting.

You'll get an email, although as far as I can remember I think it only tells you that you have a message, so you need to go check the application online anyway; doesn't hurt to check the system once in a while.

Yeah it really was quick; we had a relatively straight forward case I think! I maxed out the points to try and get a quick invite; it worked, we were invited on the first intake after submitting EOI. Good luck! I hope it works out for you!

Yup, you got it in one. I've been speaking to a recruitment guy who I'm working with to try and get some gainful employment before I leave. His opinion is: that there are a lot of people (esp. from the UK) looking for sponsorship, assistance, relocation etc; and there are not many employers (outside mining/oil & gas) willing to take that risk. If you pursue a 189 yourself it'll put you in a good position employment wise (unless your company are setting up over there) as it shows you've got some drive to make things happen. According to this guy (although it might be him trying to butter me up) it was quite refreshing to see someone who had undertaken the process themselves. The other thing I would give as a bit of advice, even though you don't need it, book and pass IELTS at 7s or better. The points will really help.