Evidence of one year cohabitation - Partner Visa (820)

[KidA]

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

[piglet1]

When I met my partner 4 years ago, he was renting an apartment and I moved in with him (shamelessly haha). My name wasn't on the lease for the first 6 months of our relationship and we didn't have any utilities under our name as it is always under the landlord's name - that's how it works there unfortunately. When we submitted our application, our CO demanded more evidence of our cohabitation, one bill or letter addressed to me/him/us every quarter is sufficient enough for our CO. As a backup, I printed our online invoices of our website which was registered under our first apartment, air tickets (also have address info in the billing, etc)... Basically every single item that has our address on it. Our last landlord even asked his lawyer to write a formal letter declaring that we lived there for a year and was a good tenant, etc.

[KidA]

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.

[KidA]

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.

[SkippyChick11]

Hi KidA,

I think you should be fine with this. The fact that you can show money going in between your accounts, coupled with the leases - goes to show an ongoing relationship, especially if your past landlord noted that you were renting the same room.

Re further correspondence at the same address - even if your partner didn't get paper statements, he should still be able to print off statements from his internet banking which will show his address at that particular time (well, mine did, anyway!).

Definitely include travel itineraries, especially the one where you flew to Aus together .

 

Good luck with it!

[Spherian]

The state that you are in now, is it possible to register your relationship? if you are in NSW then the link for info is: http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/Relationships.htm

 

Basically if you register you can waive the 12 month requirment - still include all the information you have, but it makes the application the little bit simpler..

[KidA]

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.

[bma]

Your evidence is pretty good. What about car insurance policies, are you both nominated drivers on each other's policies? And what about superannuation? Don't forget to put each other as beneficiaries. Good evidence are also the wills, you can buy a DIY kit at the post office.

 

Be creative with evidence! Considering you've been together since August 2011, you must have heaps of evidence, you just need to find it. Check past bank statements for example, I'm sure you bought presents to each other etc.

[KidA]

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.

[Emiku]

Hi Jon,

 

I came to Australia under the same circumstances and with what sounds like less evidence than you I was granted the temporary visa last year.

 

We had almost no concrete evidence of living together, only same addressed letters etc. We showed a lot of joint travel and bookings and also a lot of personal emails between us and/or friends mentioning our relationship. We got 3 stat decs done from reputable friends/family. There were a lot of photos that we managed to get printed with dates taken on the back (at Big W!).

 

Some advice I would give you is

1. Open a joint bank account straight away, even if you have no use for it.

2. Do not get a medical done before handing in your application: I did this and it took over a year to get a case officer, in which time my medical had "expired" and I had to get another very expensive medical done. The case officer will advise you of any more evidence you need, such as an Australian Federal police check if you've been in Aus for over 12 months when you get a case officer.

3. Be patient. After lodgement it took 15 months for me to get a case officer, but as soon as I handed in the 2nd medicals and police checks it was granted in 2 days! Married friends of mine were granted in around 6 months.

4. Copy or scan any forms you send as you will probably need that info again at some point

5. When you go to a JP to get "authorised copies", get about 5 done of your passport as this saves time in the future.

[wrussell]

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...

 

Th relevant criterion for a de facto application is to have been in a de facto relationship for at least the 12 months immediately preceding the application.

[KidA]

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.

[Coralie Rachel Scott]

I wouldn't leave the medicals and police checks. The UK one takes some time - you need the picture of you witnessed by someone who's known you a while in a respected profession (in UK I think). I submitted my police checks but was waiting on the medical results (submitted everything except meds on 21/12/12, meds on 28/12/12 and was granted on 04/01/13!).

 

I think your evidence is really sufficient, but I would definitely open up the joint bank account as well.

 

Good luck!