RobinVanPersie Posted February 7, 2013 Share Posted February 7, 2013 Hey just wondering what documents/proof is required for proof of defacto? We have a joint lease on our house, a joint bank account which we pay our rent into/out of, foxtell, bills etc. Would this be enough to prove it and would they need to be certified etc? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MARYROSE02 Posted February 11, 2013 Share Posted February 11, 2013 I just Googled your question and found this site after about two seconds and, whoever they are, they seem sound. My Access AustraliaAustralian Visa & Migration InformationNavigation Home Start Here Professional Services Temporary Visas Long-Term Work – 457 Visa Working Holiday – 417 Visa Work & Holiday – 462 Visa [*]Permanent Visas ENS – 186 Visa RSMS – 187 Visa Skilled Independent – 189 Visa State & Territory Sponsored – 190 Visa Resident Return – 155 Visa Spouse/Partner Visas [*]Employer Resources Standard Business Sponsorship Partner Visa Project – Evidencing Your Relationship 0 inShare Email CevherShare inShare0 Email How do you evidence your relationship? What types of documents do you need to provide? There is quite a bit of information available on the net in relation to what type of evidence that you should be submitting with your application. DIAC’s website and booklet provide good some guidance. Grant Williams’ blog has an excellent post dedicated to this topic. Clearly not all forms of evidence are born equal. Your case officer will place more weight on some forms of evidence relative to others. In this post, I will breakdown the relative strength of different forms of evidence. Now please note that this information doesn’t come from any official source. The below advice is very much my own opinion and is based on my own experience. Strong forms of evidence Documents that show joint assets, liabilities, undertakings, bequests etc. Examples: Joint bank accounts Jointly owned assets such as real estate Joint liabilities such as mortgages Any joint undertakings such as a joint lease Naming each other as beneficiaries under your respective wills or insurance policies This type of evidence is strong because it can be relevant to multiple factors which your case officer needs to consider. These documents usually state both your name and your sponsoring partner’s name, your address and a date. Consequently, these documents can evidence your co-habitation as well as the duration of your relationship. More importantly, it also evidences a particular form of commitment that you and your partner have made together, such as jointly incurring a loan or mortgage, or ensuring that your assets are left to each other under your wills. Your case officer is required to consider the nature of your commitment to each other. And you will see from Regulation 1.09A that to properly address and evidence this consideration, you are expected to provide documents that demonstrate various forms of joint commitments that you have made. Furthermore, the very definition of a de-facto relationship confirms that you and your partner need to have a ‘mutual commitment to a shared life (to the exclusion of all others)’. This definition clearly implies that de-facto partners are expected to share various aspects of their lives with each other, including finances, liabilities, assets and contractual obligations. Good forms of evidence Documents generated by third parties that are addressed to you and your partner (these documents can be addressed to one of you only, although documents that are addressed to both you and your partner are stronger in terms of evidencing your relationship). Examples: Bank statements Bills, invoices, receipts etc. Letters, invitations Flight tickets or receipts evidencing your joint holidays or travels These documents show that you and your partner live together,and also evidence how long you have been living together. In my view, there is a difference between documents that are addressed to you both, and documents that are only addressed to one of you. Again, the relevant consideration is whether your documents demonstrate that you are committed to each other, and that you have a shared life. I have seen case officers take the view that just providing documents that are addressed to you or your partner only is not sufficient. Their reasoning is that there isn’t enough evidence of your ‘shared life’. So you should really look at everything that you ‘share’ and determine whether you can evidence this (and preferably at the same time, also evidence your co-habitation). Do you have your membership at the same gym? Do you attend the same church? Do you share any other hobbies, classes or activities? If these bodies or companies send you correspondence, ask whether they can send you documents in your joint names. Of course, some of these bodies and companies will be a lot more accommodating then others, but it never hurts to ask. I have also included third party evidence of your travel under this category. Showing consistent travel, vacations and activities together is good evidence of your shared life. Decent (but absolutely necessary) forms of evidence This category is evidence that you or your partner can directly generate. Examples: Photos Emails/letters to each other Social media interaction with each other Records of telephone conversations Yes, this evidence is absolutely necessary, but generally, most couples will be able to provide ample amounts of this type of evidence. It is critical that you provide this type of evidence as it adds colour and life to your application. These documents also demonstrate several factors which your case officer is required to take into consideration such as the ‘social aspect of your relationship’. But since this type of evidence is self generated, if you submit nothing but documents in this category, it is difficult for your case officer to confidently conclude that your relationship satisfies the definition of a de-facto relationship. The real problem cases are those where only this type of evidence is provided. I don’t like your chances if your application falls into this category. At best, your case officer will ask you for further evidence. At worst (although less likely because you will generally be given a chance to provide more evidence if it appears that you meet the eligibility requirements), your application could be refused. Planning your evidence Now that you have an idea of what type of evidence that you are expected to provide, and the relative strength of the different types of evidence, I hope that this will assist you and your partner with planning out your application before you prepare and lodge it. It is a lot easier to prepare a properly evidenced application if you start to plan your application from the moment that you decide that you want to apply for a partner or spouse visa (i.e. give yourself as much time as possible to gather relevant and quality evidence). If you are lacking strong forms of evidence, then you may want to consider the option of opening a joint bank account. You can also contact your household utility providers and see if you can change your accounts to joint accounts. You can apply the same principle to your insurance policy, gym membership etc. Sure, this may be a hassle, but showing this level of commitment and the sharing of various aspects of your life will really make it easier for your case officer to conclude that you are in fact in a de-facto relationship. Over to you What is your experience with providing documents that evidence your relationship? Do you agree with my above general guide in relation to the relative strength of the different forms of evidence? What was the view of your case officer? Please let me know in the comment section below. Find out more information about Australian partner visas @ The Partner Visa Project Photo by fatedsnowfox About Peng Cheng View all posts by Peng Cheng → Subscribe Subscribe to our e-mail newsletter to receive updates. Related Posts: Update: Onshore Partner / Spouse Visa Processing Time – November 2012 I Need To Leave My Employer – What Is Going To Happen? English Language Requirement – ENS & RSMS Visas Resident Return Visa Application – Substantial Ties Requirement RSMS Visa Holders & Applicants – Do I Need to Stay With My Employer for 2 Years? Partner Visa Project – 12 Months of Co-habitation Partner Visa Project – Preparing Your Statutory Declaration 14 Responses to Partner Visa Project – Evidencing Your Relationship TracyOctober 2, 2012 at 9:22 pm#Hi, your article is very detailed and helpful. For the evidence to provide, does the same apply for including defacto partner as secondary applicant in a visa? see i wil be the main applicant from offshoreAustralia and will apply for a provisional visa and want to include my same sex partner.Are the same detailed & extensive proofs required? I found ur website through ur reply to one of my old post in Australiaforum:http://www.australiaforum.com/visas-immigration/14460-evidence-12months-living-together.htmlI just updated & replied to your feedback for further clarification/information, id be so grateful if u could again let me have ur opinion & advice.. Thanks a lot,TracyReply Peng ChengOctober 2, 2012 at 10:03 pm#Hi Tracy,Generally speaking, the evidence required for temporary visas are less stringent. The ideas are much the same in terms of what type of evidence to provide. But you generally only need to evidence 6 months of co-habitation.ThanksPCReply [*] TracyOctober 3, 2012 at 5:44 am# Hi again, thnks for ur prompt reply. oh really , only 6months cohabitation? ive tried to search on the Diac website but cudnt find much information about the cohabitation requirement nor wat to submit as evidence for adding defacto partner as secondary applicatn , for the skilled regional sponsored visa 489 visa under the new skill select( which is a 4yrs visa) Nothing is mentioned neither in the document checklist for 489 visa nor in the Booklet 6! nor it is said to refer to such and such link or booklet.. im completely lost…. Can u please direct me to the relevant link in Diac ‘s website? Many thnks, Tracy Reply Peng ChengOctober 3, 2012 at 8:25 am#Hi Tracy,For the 489, even though it is a temporary visa, because it is a provisional visa that can lead to permanent residency, you need to evidence 12 months of co-habitation. Relevant legislation: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_reg/mr1994227/s2.03a.htmlThanksPCReply [*] EizziJanuary 7, 2013 at 11:33 am# Hi Peng, This article is super helpful in quantifying the evidence (we don’t want to sell ourselves short, but we also don’t want to bombard the officer with too many photos, etc!) so thank you! I moved to Australia to be with my partner and while we have intended all along to apply for defacto status and have been collecting evidence from day 1, we also took it slow to begin with, having not actually lived together before I moved here. We didn’t modify our wills straight away, nor did I get my name put onto the home loan etc. We did get a joint bank account early on though. I think this is normal and it doesn’t show a lack of mutual commitment. But will the officer see it that way? When we submit our application, we will have been co-habiting for 15 months (with evidence) with a trail of joint things from that date, but not all of them will be from the 12 month mark. Is that likely to get us rejected? Thanks for your time Reply Peng ChengJanuary 8, 2013 at 12:19 pm#Hi Eizzi,This is very much up to the subjective assessment of your case officer – so all I can say is that it may be ok. It is not really possible to give any kind of definite advice just based on a description. Can’t really advise without looking at the evidence myself.PCReply [*] DaveJanuary 10, 2013 at 11:57 pm# This article is very helpful. My partner and I applied for a de facto 820 visa on oct 22 2012. We had been together for 9 months at the point of application, and now we have been together for almost 1 year. However we have never lived together in same residence, but spent 60% of the weeks staying at each others home. We recently travelled to uk for 5 weeks and i introduced my partner to my family and spent xmas with them. We thought our application was pretty strong. We opened a joint bank account last june and have travelled alot together and spend every day together. We received an email requesting further evidence that we “live together, or do not live separately and apart on a permanent basis”. I am a bit nervous about what to send as wee don’t have too much in the way of joint letters or memberships etc. We have flight tickets, accommodation confirmation and hundreds of photos. Any advice would be helpful Thanks Reply Peng ChengJanuary 11, 2013 at 9:28 pm#Hi Dave,The purpose of these comment fields is to allow people to ask pretty straight forward questions which are simple you answer – I’m sorry but I don’t really have to time to provide free advice for such broad questions. As you can imagine, I can’t really provide advice without looking at the evidence that you’ve submitted as well as the circumstances of your relationship. I can only offer my professional services for such questions.Only thing that I can suggest is that you submit a letter explaining your situation – including the extensive time that you’ve been together and why you haven’t being living together.PCReply [*] LaurenFebruary 1, 2013 at 10:48 am# Hello, this article was so helpful and clear- thank you! Do you need 12 months of evidence for a 457 de facto visa? And if so does it need to be 12 months of cohabitation or 12 months of a relationship? Would we still be eligible if this 12 month mark falls within the 28 days after the de facto’s visa has expired? Reply Peng ChengFebruary 1, 2013 at 1:32 pm#Generally speaking, you need 12 months of co-habitation.Reply [*] MarinaFebruary 5, 2013 at 12:33 pm# Hi Peng Cheng, I’m aplying for a Defacto 457 visa with my partner (his 457 visa was granted last december) I have lots of documents to proove we’ve been living together for more than 12 months (lease, joint bank account, bills…) Do we need to write a statement explaining and giving details about our relation ? (how we met, when, projects we have together..) I also can ask some of my Australians friends to write a statement for us, would it help ? Thanks a lot for your help. Marina Reply Peng ChengFebruary 5, 2013 at 2:06 pm#Hi Marina,You can submit a statement – its not mandatory but can help. Same with the supporting statements from friends.PCReply [*] MarinaFebruary 6, 2013 at 10:46 am# Thanks a lot for your answer. The sponsor of my partner is scared to write me the letter telling they’re agree to include me as secondary sponsored person because they don’t know what are their obligations towards me. Their agent told them it needs to be a legal letter and it cost $750. Do you know if it’s true ? Thanks again, Marina Reply Peng ChengFebruary 6, 2013 at 3:22 pm#That is a matter for your agent to explain the obligations to them. The letter just needs to come from the company (i.e. printed with company letterhead).Reply Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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