KidA

Ok great, I'll go for priority service. Thanks!

On the citizenship invitation letter, it recommends waiting at least 10 business days after ceremony before applying for a passport. I’ll be in New Zealand by then. I could just travel on my British passport and experience delays on re-entry. ill call DHA tomorrow and ask them what to do.

Hi guys, I just got my invitation for my citizenship ceremony, which is great. However, the ceremony takes place less than two weeks before I plan to travel to New Zealand.The ceremony is on 18/04/2018 and I go to New Zealand on 02/05/2018. As an Australia citizen, I will need to leave and re-enter Australia on an Australian passport. However, I'm not going to have time to arrange a passport as there is less than two weeks between the ceremony and my departure date. It states on the ceremony invitation letter that they recommend waiting at least ten business days after ceremony before applying for a passport. Does anyone have any ideas on what I should do? Will I need to re-arrange the ceremony date? Thanks

Applied: 21/04/2017 Received test invite: 23/01/2018 Test date: 31/01/2018 Approval: TBC Ceremony: TBC Sydney

In some cases (ie those who arrive already on a permanent visa). But for people like me, who spent three years in Australia before being granted PR, the UK pathway is shorter (two year wait on PR, as opposed to 4 here)

I think those who already meet the new criteria will be fine, and shouldn't experience any delays.

They will be frozen. I'm hoping that Labour opposes and that it won't go through, in it's current form at least. If Labour opposes then the government will need the support of eight crossbenchers in the Senate. I'm going to apply today and hope for the best.

I am going to try to get in in tomorrow. If I can arrange to get my Identity declaration form countersigned by then. I haven't contacted the Department. My experience with them is that they give inconsistent advice. It depends on who you speak to. Also, the legislation still has to be debated, go through Senate etc. I don't think anyone knows what form it will take. 'From today' doesn't necessarily (and shouldn't) include those who have lodged citizenship applications, or even those who have already been granted PR. I will get my application in ASAP and hope for the best.

I'm worried that you might be right. It seems very unfair to retroactively void an application which was submitted when the applicant met all criteria. However, it's not the first time migration (refugee) policy has been retroactively changed.

Yikes! I have completed everything apart from my identity declaration form, which I am in the process of organising. If I get my application in now. and then subsequently the new legislation gets passed, will my pending application be valid? The news reports say that if the changes are enacted they will be in force 'from today'.

Thanks for the responses / reassurances. I arrived in Australia this morning - no issues.

Thanks for all the responses! I went back onto the immi website, selected 'update details', and this time selected 'damaged passport' rather than 'lost passport' for my reason for updating details. It let me update the details there and then. I've since checked VEVO and it seems to have updated my passport details. Fingers crossed...

Hi forum, I'm a UK citizen and hold a permanent partner visa for Australia. While visiting the UK a few weeks ago, I lost my UK passport. I replaced it, and am currently in Nicaragua on holiday. I return to Australia in just under a week. It just occurred to me that my visa was linked to my previous passport. I tried logging into immi account to change my passport details there, but it wouldn't let me, as my passport had been lost. It advised me to complete a paper form 929 and return it with a certified copy of my replacement passport. There's no way I'm going to be able to organise this in time. Does anyone have a number for DIBP that I can call from outside Australia? Or am I best going to the Australian Consulate in Managua, Nicaragua on Monday? Or, should I just re-enter Australia next week with my new passport, on a tourist visa, and then sort it out when I am in Australia? Will this cause me more problems down the line? I'm freaking out slightly and don't know what to do. I should have sorted this out a few weeks ago, when I first got my replacement passport, but I had to re-organise my whole trip and the Visa issue slipped my mind at the time. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Many thanks, Jon

Hi, almost finished putting the onshore partner visa application together. Form 47SP asks if we have had any periods of separation and to explain why, which concerns me slightly. I met my partner in October 2010, and we've been living together in a de facto relationship since August 2011, so we satisfy the one year minimum. We lived together in London while he was there on a working holiday visa. However, his visa was due to expire on 1 June 2012 so he had to leave the UK, before he could re-enter on a tourist visa. During this period he went to France, did some volunteer work for five weeks then returned to London. We then moved to Australia together in August 2012 and have been living together here since. Is this 5 week separation period likely to be an issue? I explained on the form that he left out of necessity due to visa conditions, and that he returned after five weeks. I'm just slightly worried as it happened in the last twelve months. We kept in daily contact during this period and I can provide an itemised phonebill showing this and facebook screenshots displaying messages to each other during this period. Thanks for your help.

Thanks

Hi everyone, I'm currently putting together my application for a partner visa and it's almost ready to go. I've seen a few threads where people have advised to send envelopes in with the visa application as these are stamped and can be used as proof of address. It didn't occur to me until recently to keep anything like that. We have heaps of proof of address - leases, bank statements, invoices, tax documentation, mobile phone bills, etc, which all have the address on the documents. Should this be ok? We haven't kept much in the way of invitations (most event invitations go through facebook) or cards or anything. Just a couple of postcards addressed to my partner to our previous address which mention me in them. We do have other evidence of a shared life together - joint holidays, photos, 5 strong statutory declarations from friends, joint financial commitments, etc. I've just never seen the need to keep envelopes and it didn't occur to me until recently.

Thanks George, that's a great help. I've looked online and there are several voluntary JP services in Adelaide city. So for documents such as bills and statements, do we just sign and date each page of the photocopy?

Hi, I understand that I have to submit with my visa application certified copies of my passport and birth certificate, my partner's passport and birth certificate, and the passports of the people providing statutory declarations. However, for things like leases, bank statements, correspondence, that we are submitting as evidence, can we just send the originals? Or even uncertified photocopies? Do we get these documents back eventually if we send in originals? I'm only asking as we have a lot of evidence to submit and if we are getting certified copies of everything, it will cost us a fortune. Does anyone have any idea how much we can reasonably expect to pay for a certified copy of a document in Australia? Thanks

Thanks Emiru. That's reassuring to know that your application was successful. We are going to open a joint bank account on Saturday. i've heard that the onshore application, even when front loaded, can take over a year so I will leave the police checks and medicals Neil they are requested. Fortunately I'm on a working holiday visa so I'll be able to work in the meantime, even if I have to change jobs every six months.

Neither of us have cars. I will look into making each other superannuation beneficiaries. I think we have a lot of evidence of a continuing and genuine relationship. We have heaps of invoices for gifts to each other that were purchased online, evidence of several joint holidays (flight itineraries, hotel bookings), bank statements showing transfers of money between our separate accounts for rent etc, weekly train and bus tickets between Manchester and London from the early days of our relationship when we were long distance. We can take a few screenshots of facebook showing when we met, started a relationship, messages to each other and to each other's family members, etc. My partner's dad will state in a statutory declaration that since arriving in Australia he has let us live in his home rent free, which is a pretty strong indication of a genuine relationship between us. We have another statutory declaration from an Australian friend who used to live in London and witnessed the development of our relationship. I was more concerned about whether we have enough evidence to satisfy the one year cohabitation requirement, due to the fact we have never had any shared bills. We can explain that though, as it states on the leases that our rent was inclusive of bills and council tax. Hopefully the bank statements and other correspondence to our shared addresses, our leases, various invoices for online purchases showing our address, and evidence of money transfers between our bank accounts for half the rent, will be enough to satisfy DIAC. I wish we'd opened a joint account earlier, but we will do that now, as we're now in a financial position to start saving for our future. Thanks everyone for the helpful advice, it's really appreciated.

Thanks Skippychick. Spherian, I don't think that's an option for us here in South Australia. We plan to move to Sydney but after the visa application is lodged. They have something called a domestic partnership agreement here but I think we have to be de facto for three years before we can register it.

We also have various flight confirmations/itineraries, with both of our names, billed to either me or my partner to our second London address. Also we have both kept a tonne of invoices (mainly from amazon.co.uk) for items purchased that were delivered and invoiced to our London addresses. Also, my partner has invoices from the shipping company which shipped his belongings from Australia to UK when we moved. Hopefully that should be enough, in addition to leases, bank statements, and transfers of rent.

Thanks. Leases frequently include bills and council tax in the UK. It also states on the leases, which we will provide as evidence, that the rent is inclusive of these. I hope this doesn't cause any problems as there is nothing I can do about it.

Hi everyone, I've just registered with this forum but have been reading through the threads for a few weeks and have found some of the advice really helpful. I am a British citizen, currently in Australia on a working holiday visa. I am in the process of putting together the onshore application for a temporary partner visa. My partner is Australian, we met in the UK and lived together in London from August 2011 before coming to Adelaide in August 2012. Therefore we definitely have surpassed the one year requirement but I am slightly concerned that we may not have enough evidence for this. Sorry if this is a bit detailed/long-winded... we lived together in two properties in London. The first one, which I moved into in August 2011, my partner held the lease for, as he lived there previously. We lived there for five months together, during which period he paid the rent to the letting agency weekly, and I paid half of this amount into his account weekly via online banking. I also have several items of mail addressed to me with that address, including bank statements and correspondence from HMRC and DWP. Unfortunately, my partner does not have any mail from this period, as he did not receive paper statements. Also, bills and council tax were included in the rent and paid by the landlord, which we will state in our statutory declarations. However, we do have a copy of the lease in his name, lots of correspondence addressed to me at that address and evidence of rent payments by him to the letting agency and from me to him. Also one of our friends who is Australian and was living in London during this period can attest to this in a statutory declaration. Does this sound like enough evidence? I feel like it is enough but slightly concerned due to the fact we do not have a joint bank account, have no bills (as were included in rent) and my partner did not receive bank statements or any official mail to this address, though he is on the lease. In January 2012 we moved to another London property, where we let a double room in a shared house together. For some reason, the landlord had us sign separate leases (each with the same room number and property address). One with my name and one with my partner's. We signed these at the time but in hindsight I wish I'd insisted on one lease with both of our signatures. We both have bank statements to this address but again no bills/council tax as these were included in our rent. During this period, I paid the rent monthly into the landlord's account and my partner paid half the rent into my account via online banking, which we can provide evidence of. Again, I'm concerned by the fact that the leases aren't professional and am worried that DIAC might not be satisfied. I'm hoping that the correspondence we both have to this address, plus the leases, and the payments from my partner's account to mine for half of the rent will satisfy them. Has anyone else applied for a partner visa with similar evidence and been successful? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Since moving to Australia in August 2012 we have been living at my partner's dad's house while we get on our feet and save for the visa and moving to Sydney. We have been living rent free so have no bills/leases for this period. However, we both have an abundance of correspondence to our current address and my partner's dad will state in a statutory declaration that he has been allowing us to live there rent free since we arrived in Australia. Therefore I'm pretty satisfied we have enough evidence of cohabitation for our time in Aus. Does it sound like we have enough evidence of cohabitation for our time in London? It's the only thing that concerns me about our application as I'm sure we can demonstrate that we are in a continuing and genuine relationship as we have statutory declarations, evidence of joint holidays etc. Any advice would be greatly appreciated and thanks for taking the time to read. Jon