CraigLucy26

Yes we have thought about that, but for us, marriage is only something we'll do once, and we want time to save money and plan for our day, not be rushed into doing it just to make the visa process easier. We don't mind putting in the hard work to go down the de facto route, it just gives us more time and freedom. We plan to set our date and book our venue in the next 2 weeks, so we will have a lot more wedding planning done by the time we apply. Again - we are registering the relationship too, so do you think with all that we will be ok ? The last thing I want is for it to be rejected and us be forced to have a quicky wedding just to be able to stay!

Thanks for your advice. We live in Queensland so as far as I know, registering the relationship should be ok. Finanically and with living arrangements, everything on paper is in joint names.

Hi! So. My fiancé is Australian and I'm English, and in May we'll be applying for our de facto visa. I'd love some advice from anyone who's been through this process, here's a breakdown of our situation. We met when I was on my 1st year working holiday visa, after I'd completed my regional work. In July 2013 I decided to stay in Aus to be with him and activated my 2nd year visa. May is our 1 year anniversary - so I'm right that we can apply for our visa after this time - according to the 12 month relationship requirement. Everything was going fine until I called Immigration and the lady said "You have to have lived together for 12 months, not just have been in a relationship 12 months" - is this true?!?! We didn't move in together until August 2013! We have a joint 1 year lease on our 1 bedroom apartment so it's pretty clear it's just the two of us together. Can anyone help clarify that point first of all!? Here's the rest of the evidence we've got to go with everything.... - Rent receipts and lease from August 2013 - Joint travel to Thailand and the UK (to meet my family) - Photos with our mutual friends, photos of us all over and photos of us with each others families - Joint bank accounts - Joint savings - Joint household bills accounts - 2 x joint party invitations - We're engaged!? The date is soon to be set and we'll at least have our "save the date" cards to add to our application - We're registering our relationship with the Births, Deaths and Marriages registry - We will have our marriage license by the time we apply - Mutual friends on facebook and instagram - Linked profiles on facebook and instagram - Reference letters from our families ..... Along with all the forms we need to fill out, the police checks, the medicals etc, is there anything we're missing? We really want to do this without going through migration agents etc, so any help on here is greatly appreciated!!!! Thanks