Beffers

We got off the plane 16th June and had mobiles within 24 hours, and home broadband on our rental by 3rd July .... granted, we had prepaid mobiles as we were getting a better SIM only deal rather than a monthly contract and we just used our unlocked mobiles from the UK in the first instance. We had no aussie credit history either.

14 months isn't overly long when on their site, Immi say 75% of applications take 15 months and 90% take 20 months. Lots of people wait a long time to have their visas processed and partner visas are some of the most complex, esp yours by the sounds of it as there's not much supporting evidence for Ben. I wouldn't give up, especially if you've paid the fee and you're 14 months in. Depends if you really want it I guess....

I'd say put it on Yarra Valley Noticeboard on Facebook too.

There's an IKEA in Richmond, also a homemaker centre (lots of home shops incl another IKEA in one shopping centre) at Springvale and another Homemaker centre at Chadstone. There's also a load of home stores including Adair's, Freedom, Bed Bath n Table, etc at Victoria Gardens Shopping Centre. Then there's big superstores like Smart all over the place. There will be lots of sales in June as its the end of the financial year, eg we paid $700 for our reclining lounge suite, reduced from $1600.

Congratulations!!! Your timeline is almost same as ours was in 2017. We got over the initial shock rapidly and left our home end May! Good luck with the next stage!!

There's no financial assessment in the spouse visa. However the migrant partner will be ineligible to apply for benefits for 104 weeks after touch down. So they would either need to be working themselves or their Australian partner would need to fully support them. I'd be more concerned whether they'd meet the genuine relationship requirement, and if they have enough evidence to support this. Even with a PMV, they would still need to go through a full spouse application after marriage which is very in depth. How long have they been together?

Depends on your lifestyle. You won't need that much for train as weekly train passes that cover Zones 1 and 2 are around $45 a month, unless you're travelling in from regional Vic. You shoudn't be touching your savings for living expenses. Will you not have a car (and associated costs)? Need to factor in contents insurance on your rental place as well, as landlords will only cover buildings and it's normally part of a tenancy agreement to have insurance. Food estimate seems a little low, particularly if that $600/month is covering eating out and takeaways as well.

I second Mountain in Tecoma, just used them for a house purchase and Michelle was awesome!

Very doubtful but might be worth putting the feelers out and contacting BankWest as one of the more flexible lenders. A 10% deposit will also mean you will pay LMI, and also you'll need to work out if you're eligble for stamp duty exemption as a first time buyer. Are you coming over on PR or Temp Visas? If Temp, then you'll need to get FRIB approval prior to purchase anyway. You can sometimes get short term rentals but you'll pay more for those as they are generally within the executive/corporate short term city centre apartment complexes rather than family homes in desirable suburbs. We've just bought our first home and put down a 20% deposit, and also needed Australian employment references and payslips for six months, showing that we were well out of our probation periods. The fact that we had both been with our respective UK organisations for over a decade each made no difference at all, nor did our Halifax mortgage statements showing that we had paid on time every month for 12 years. All UK paperwork was deemed useless and they went solely on Australian evidence. Are you planning on setting up your own businesses in Australia as you'll need proof of that income and/or payslips from a permanent ongoing position before most lenders would even consider you, especially with only a 10% deposit. If you want them to be less stringent with their conditions, you need to be offering a much higher deposit. Good luck!

We booked an AirBandB for the first three weeks, but we found our rental in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne within 14 days of arriving. We offered 3 months rent in advance and had references and all the paperwork etc. We uploaded onto our realestate.com.au profile and so it was easy to one click apply if you were at a property. There is lots of competition for rentals in some suburbs of Melbourne, depending on where you're thinking, and do a good cover letter explaining your situation and attach bank accounts to show proof of savings to cover rent and/or job offer letters, etc. You will be up against locals who have XX years rental history and/or job security that you can't compete with just stepping off a plan. We had a month off before starting work when we arrived so we could settle into Victorian life as a family before sticking a daily commute into the mix.

Treat the 820 as a completely new application - upload all evidence including last few months in Australia. A bridging visa normally carries the conditions of the former visa with it, i.e. she should get travel rights, but maybe double check with Immi if another doesn't comment affirmatively. Good luck!

When you open a bank account in UK with an Aussie bank, ask the, to open a GBP foreign transaction account to sit alongside your Aussie one. We did and we pay zero transfer fees on international transfers, and it's so much easier than dealing with Transferwise, or wondering how family will send money to put into baby's bank acc etc. where in Aus you headed?

It's the hardest part I think, the waiting, I remember it well and ours was relatively quick. Good luck!

And sometimes they triage the applications, and you could fail that process if all the evidence isn't there. Really not worth the risk. Take the time to submit a watertight application. Is it worth the risk? Do you have a contingency if you get a refusal? Partner visa have a high % of rejections. Don't be one of them!

The website of 13-19 months is the best guide. There's another thread specifically for the partner visa from London office that you may be able to gauge a more realistic figure from.

Look at Darwin and Alice. Darwin is a beautiful small city, and Alice is more like a large town. Both have their good points. I love the Top End, but I'd recommend you do a reccie before you decide to put your eggs all in the one basket. Not all people understand or appreciate NT. I find it fascinating and stunningly beautiful but I love the outback and the quiet life. Darwin is a fabulous place but its not everyone's cup of tea. You can't compare it to anywhere else as its fairly unique due to it's geography. A reccie is definitely the way to go, and lots of research.

We're just about to go thru this. Settlement 15/2, move into new house 2/3 and hand keys back on rental after professional cleaning on 4/3 (we both work full time and so wanted a bit more time to move all our stuff). We gave our agent two months notice to break lease (we are 8 months into a 12 month lease, and in our second year at the rental) and consequently don't have to pay any break lease fee nor any rent after our final payment on 3/2 (normally when you break a lease here in Vic you pay rent until a new tenant has been secured)!

I'd be getting a second unbias opinion. Its too important to risk!

Depends on your budget and lifestyle too. I was recommended Bayside as the must have area, and we hated it! We now live in the Dandenong Ranges, have been here for 18 months and have just bought a house. People say its too from CBD, one hour Belgrave line, but we don't work in the City. There are always massive assumptions that you need to be within reach of the CBD, but I go into the city once every couple months and that's all. We've just bought a big 3 bed with a self contained studio below on 3000 square metres for 550K. Our rental was a 2/3 bed cottage on 2000 squ metres for $350/week. I know we couldn't have done either closer to the CBD and the quality of life up here is far greater than anything down in the suburbs! My advice: think about your lifestyle and your budget. And start from there, if you don't mind a half hour drive from beach, then why pay a premium to live there? If you want green parks and open spaces then not all suburbs will offer this. Do you prefer modern housing areas, then this will give you options from Altona / Werribbee etc in the west or Officer etc in the East. Do you want a large garden for your kids to play? Lots of plots are small in the suburbs, so be mindful of it. And lastly, budget and proximity to schools - budget will dictate a lot and schools are generally zoned and will need research depending on how old your kids are. Its a bit of a minefield! Also check out Facebook page UK Mums in Melbourne - lots of advice on there once you're further along in your research and/or once you've had your visa granted. Good luck!

Yes as far as I am aware, all foreign documents have to be translated with the translation provided together with a copy of the original language document. But hopefully one of the migration agents on this page can conform this for you for sure.

Potentially depending on how you present the information, ie your name may not have been on the bills - mine wasn't - but I had a monthly transfer of funds from my own account to my partner's, thus evidencing my share of the bills and annotated and referred to this in my statement and in the annotated bank statements. Your own personal statements may cover off some of the reasons but its hard to tell whether Immigration will accept this in lieu of a watertight well evidenced application. Have you spoken to an agent to double check this at all?

Yep I understand the 'may not' but why take the risk? Easier to consult a migration agent to make sure your application is watertight. Better than risking a rejection in my opinion, but obviously entirely up to you whether you get professional advice. Good luck.

Defacto = living together, sharing bills, paying rent together, lease agreements in joint names etc. Run this by a migration agent as your work and university reasons may be a good enough justification why you've not lived together, if you've stat decs from friends. But only an agent would be able to advise properly.

Time spent "dating" doesn't count. They will look at evidence of defacto/common law/living together, and not boyfriend/girlfriend stuff. Use a migration agent to make sure your evidence stacks up. Better than running risk of a visa refusal.

It doesn't sound like a lot to go on, if you've only one lease document, but if you could also show any joint insurance policies, annotated bank accounts showing sharing of bills and groceries, that might help. Good luck.