engaus

I believe VERYSTORMY means you will be sent home. my partner is from the UK and was asked to show proof of funds. He didn't have a return ticket , they didn't ask him about that. He'd never been to Australia before. how much money do you have?

I believe they have very recently changed the character requirements to take a tougher stance. Definetly speak to a registered migration agent.

What do you mean you don't have joint finances? You need joint finances..you don't have to have joint bank accounts but you need to have evidence that you have combined finances.. Id say there is a lot of people using the online system to apply before 1 jan so there will be increased pressure on the system. your visa status will say "processing" until a decision has been made on your visa. Most people load form 40sp and 47sp, my partner and I didn't and the visa was granted but we applied when the online system had just been launched.

There is a "usually resident" requirement that the sponsor has to satisfy so perhaps ensure you meet that?

1. You can travel for a few months. 2. I don't believe so 3. I believe you have until your police checks and medicals expire 4. Anyone in the application has to validate their visa, your partner can't validate it for you. I'm not incredibly knowledgeable in skilled visas so someone will correct me on the points above if so

Yeah hopefully your applying for a PMV 300 and not a partner visa 309...that's if you have never lived together, have no shared finances etc

I know in Australia before they can close your account they have the attempt to contact you a few times via letter to advise you this will happen and give you a chance to stop it. I'd think something similar would happen in the UK? Not that it makes a difference now

I agree, still check because you become eligible for Medicare when you have applied for an 820 and are on a bridging visa, so you never know, you may be eligible for something.

Be careful with flight centre - they have an extremely high turn over of staff. If your looking for a job with a travel agency then don't do a travel course. flight centre hires people who have travelled (and unfortunately a lot of people who have done little travel). They do a lot of on the job training, but are very heavily sales focused - it's all about numbers with them which can make for a terrible working environment

I did an Advanced Diploma of Tourism Management in 2012 in Melbourne with William Angliss (well respected tourism school). I wanted to get into a specific area of tourism and got lucky getting an internship with a very large group tour organisation that only took on students from the school I attended. I went on to get a permanent job with them. But apart from getting that internship - the entire course was a waste of time IMO. The most important thing in getting a job in the tourism sector is having the travel experience. In the organisation I worked for I never came across anyone else that had done a tourism course - they got their jobs because they lived and breathed travel- they had been to the places that our company travelled to. Everything else they could teach you on the job quite simply.

Are either of you not able to get a WHV to enable you to live with each other to build the evidence? This is what my partner and I did. I quite work, moved to London for a few years to build up evidence and then he followed me back to Australia on a WHV and applied onshore. Of course if you are over the age limit or have already used these it's not a possibility. So you could have him come over on a tourist visa for 6 months, register your relationship (if your able to, not sure which state you are in) and then apply onshore for the partner visa. Of course he is unable to work on that visa but he would get a BVA which would come into effect when his tourist visa expired - this would enable him to work without any restrictions. Otherwise, apply for the PMV - which as Quinkla says - is designed for people in your situation. You are unable to live together but you want to be together. Note that in London there is a 10-14 month waiting period for people wanting partners visas as far as I am aware. 12-18 months for onshore partner visas.

There isn't a two year work permit as far as I am aware... There is a 4 year 457 temporary visa Or a working holiday visa which is valid for one year. If you complete 3 months regional work in that year then you will be eligible for a second year working holiday visa. Note on the working holiday visa that you can't work for an employer for longer than 6 months. So most people on this visa can only manage to get bar and hospitality work.. If you are happy to come over for 2 years and go home then the WHV might be the visa for you. If you are trying to live in Australia permanently it may not be your best route. But at the end of the day there is a lot more to it than simply finding an employer to sponsor you - you have to be deemed skilled to a certain level and usually your job has to be on the CSOL or SOL lists. Web developer is on the CSOL list, but your partner would need recent experience (wasn't sure if this was a career he left to be in the transport police). SOL - http://www.immi.gov.au/Work/Pages/skilled-occupations-lists/sol.aspx CSOL - http://www.immi.gov.au/Work/Pages/skilled-occupations-lists/csol.aspx You will note on the CSOL list that there is a ANZSCO code next to the occupation. If you google this it will give you the min requirements that your partner will need to meet I belive, see link below: https://www.acacia-au.com/anzsco/261212.php I believe to get a visa with a occupation on the CSOL you need to have state or employer sponsorship! Not sure if any states are sponsoring web developers, you would have to look into the individual state websites. I'm not terribly knowledgeable in skilled visas, so hopefully someone else will come along soon and correct me + give you additional info

Was the UK spouse visa not just deemed as not being against human rights by the courts? They have a min earning requirement.... if that wasn't deemed to be against human rights then the Australian visa certainly wouldn't be.

Depends on the amount of evidence that you have. But given the processing time of partner visas you would want to apply fairly soon if you plan on being in Melbourne late 2015. I believe at the moment processing time in London is 10-14 months. So you have a few options: 1. Apply for an offshore partner visa - need to have solid proof of living together for 12 months - bills in your names, tenancy agreements etc (you can do a search on here for the type of evidence you need to supply). This is the path I would suggest if you have the evidence to back up your relationship. 2. Apply for a PMV - this is a marriage visa. Processing time is the same. You will be given 9 months to get married and then you will be required to apply onshore for a partner visa after you are married. Less evidence is required for this visa - so it's more catered for people who haven't got 12 months of solid evidence. But it means that it will take you longer to get to PR, as you will need to go from PMV - Temporary Spouse Visa - Permanent Spouse visa instead of option one which is just Temporary Partner visa and then 2 years after submitting the application you would get a permanent partner visa. 3. Apply for a visitor visa towards November next year, hope that you don't get a No Further Stay restriction on your visa (which means you can't apply for a partner visa onshore - unlikely being from the UK but something you need to consider). Get married onshore (unlike the UK you don't need a marriage visa to get married) and then apply for your partner visa onshore. Note that as of 1 Jan there is a HUGE price increase to partner visas happening that makes applying onshore particularly expensive. So at the end of the day, i'd go for option one - and apply ASAP so that it's hopefully granted in time for your wedding in November. If you haven't already I suggest reading the partner visa booklet - little outdated but will give you a good idea of the types of partner visas. http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/1127.pdf

also, onshore partner visas have been sitting at 18 months for a while... Unless you were referring to a particular embassy as it does vary from country to country.

How do they violate human rights? If the UK spouse visa process doesn't violate human rights then the Australia partner visa process certainly doesn't. Give me Australian partner migration over UK spouse migration ANY day. At least Australia deems how genuine the couples relationship is to be higher than how much the sponsor earns - unlike the UK.

What were the exact reasons for refusal? Might be easier for people to offer advise

I figure they are trying to discourage people from applying onshore...e.g coming over on a tourist visa with the intention to apply for a partner visa onshore all along... As Ozmaniac says, better than having the UK spouse visa requirements.

I've seen quite a few applicants on another forum receiving these kind of emails so I think they may have slightly changed the way applications are dealt with over the past few months so that they are checked quite quickly when they come in to ensure all mandatory documents are there, before going on to be processed.

You could do it certainly. As MaggieMay says you need to complete the online forms and then pay for the visa - you could do this over a weekend. Once you pay you have to upload your evidence. You could spend a few weeks uploading all of this. So long as you pay prior to 1 Jan you will take advantage of the lower price.

Given the huge increase in fees just announced for applications from 1 Jan I would be trying to apply sooner rather than later. If you are apart, so long as you maintain your "defacto relationship" (defacto as defined by IMMI - so not just keeping records of your communication), you will have no issues - plenty of people remain apart during processing.

100% do not come over newly qualified. Stay home and get a few years post qualification experience before you come over. Like the UK there are just way too many new graduates looking for work. Also note that you have to get your degree assessed and will have to complete several units before you can become qualified in whichever state you are looking at living in (as each state is different). When my partner did this he was in Victoria last year and paid several thousand dollars per unit (ended up costing over $15,00 in international student fees).

From what you have described in your posts I would be worried that you do not have enough financial evidence. You will need to demonstrate more than just 3 payments to each other over the course of your relationship + if you are about to apply, opening a joint account now is not going to help - I don't know when you plan on applying but if you can operate the joint bank account for a few months before you apply, then it would be worth it. They hold a lot of weight on the financial side of a relationship and you need to remember that you need to demonstrate that you have a relationship akin to marriage - that doesn't mean that you need to have a joint account but you would still have joint finances. E.g you pay for groceries + he pays for dates (as you say). My partner and I lived with my parents for an entire year prior to my partner and I applying for our partner visa. Below are some of the things we had - not just for the financial requirement: 1. A letter from my parents explaining our living arrangements. For example, that we had out own room and bathroom, that we cooked several meals a week together, that we would often go out for dinner, that I was the one that generally did the clothes washing whilst he would wash + dry the dishes. That my partner would drop me off at the train station each morning for work and he would pick me up again in the evening. Things like this show that we lived independently as a couple even though we lived under my parents roof. 2. We did not have a joint account. But we paid my parents a small sum every week for rent. My partner would transfer his half to me and then I would transfer my half and his to my parents account. Wasn't a huge sum of money but my parents were helping my partner and I whilst we saved for a house. This was something they also mentioned in their statement. 3. We printed off our bank statements - my account and his account. We highlighted every transfer to each others account (we had several a month). We had a car together - we took turns in filling up petrol but it was almost always at the service station near my house which showed on the statement - so we highlighted these transactions in my statements and his to show a joint responsibility (we also had car insurance, which had us on the same policy). We would often go to the supermarket and pick up some ingredients for dinner or lunch. We also highlighted these on our statements as we took in turns buying these but they were almost always from the same supermarket. We had a few weekends away so I could show reservations in my name, but he would pay for things whilst we were there. We could show on his bank statements that he had transactions in the town/city we had been staying in to correspond with my reservations for example. 4. We bought gifts for each other e.g. anniversary, birthday and Christmas. We had receipts for these that we included in our application. 5. We had a joint cinema membership, and a few joint rewards memberships. We highlighted any transactions on the statement to this cinema and included our cinema membership card along with a transaction report of the tickets bought on those days. We did the same for the other memberships we had. 6. We had wills drawn up - we don't have any major assets or anything but these went a long way to prove commitment. We also had each other name as a beneficiary in our superannuation along with being next of kin at the doctors and our workplace. 7. We had joint invitations - engagements and birthdays with photos to complement those invitations. 8. We had ambulance cover in our names, very cheap to take out (not sure what state you are in, but we needed this in Victoria). 9. We had approx 6 form 888's plus a few statements from his friends a family (they live overseas). 10. Statements and various other official documents to show we lived at the same address 11. Tax documents to show we were listed as being in a defacto relationship for the previous year. So you may find that you have more than you think when it comes to relationship evidence (it's surprising what you can use!) - but IMO you will need more than proof of three transactions to meet the financial requirement. It's COMPLETELY up to you as the applicant to paint a good overall picture of your relationship and ensure you have evidence in all 4 evidence categories. They don't know who you are and if you can't show them that you are in a relationship akin to marriage (and that you are not just dating) then you will be in a bit of trouble. As a young couple, who lived at home, who had no large joint assets, I felt like my partner and I had a lot to prove. We on paper could be seen as dating if we didn't have solid proof of sharing responsibilities and costs like a young couple who lived out of home would.

Good stuff, i'm so glad it's worked out for you! A few things that we also included that I can't see that you have there were: They like to see that you both have a future commitment together so we had a will drawn up - very simple to do and you could easily have that done by the 10th. You can also have each other down as beneficiaries on your superannuation We had joint memberships - so included out joint fly buys, we had a joint cinema membership, and a few others for restaurants We were listed down on the same car insurance We lived in Victoria so we had ambulance cover together So they are just a few other things that I can think of that we supplied. Just make sure that you give them a good overall picture of your relationship and cover the 4 pillars of evidence well. They seem to hold a lot of weight on joint financial evidence so try to make sure you have as much of that as possible.

The link I PM'd you yesterday detailed the exact partnership in the ACT that is accepted by IMMI as qualifying to waive the 12 month requirement. I'm on my phone so can't link you again unfortunately.