309 De Facto visa help

[ceejay007]

Hi all!

 

I'm hoping some of you here might be able to help out with your invaluable advice

 

Here's the situation - I'm an Aussie, and my lovely lady is a Brit. We met each other in India about 15 months ago, and I moved to the UK at the start of July last year to be with her, and we've been living together since then. That gives us about 9 months under the belt, according to the Oz de facto requirement.

 

Our future plans are as follows - by the end of May, we're going to be travelling around Europe in a camper for 4 or 5 months. From there, we're planning on going to live in Spain for a few months and teaching English or pulling pints. By the end of this year or the start of next, we would like to move to Oz.

 

This is where things get a bit confusing for us. As we will be applying for the partner visa in the near future, does anyone know how we should go about it, considering that by the time our 12 months of living together elapses, we will be out of the UK and travelling around Europe? We would also prefer not to go back to live there, however, we expect to make the odd trip back if required to get the visa sorted. Would we be better off applying in another country, such as Spain, or would it be best to apply via the UK as that is where our history is?

 

Also, would the fact that we're away travelling together have any effect on the outcome of he visa?

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

[BimbleBee]

Hi Ceejay

I can't advise on the country of application thing but, having done the De Facto application ourselves, and had that bit approved, I know a bit about that. I would start collecting evidence of your relationship now including proof of places you've stayed together, flights you've taken together, joint membership of anything, statements from people who have been with you together (including employers, language teachers etc.)...get as much as you can. If you haven't already, get a joint bank account and also make some payments to each other. Like ours, your situation doesn't fit the classic of living together and sharing bills for 2 years but if you have enough evidence it should be fine.

Hope that helps.

[SkippyChick11]

Hi Ceejay,

My advice would be to have everything together for the application before you head off to Europe.

From memory, I think the Stat Decs (completed by Aus citizens) need to be signed within six weeks of the submission of application.

If you could leave your application with a trusted friend in the UK, they could receive the stat decs while you were away, along with any documentation you pick up between May and July (van insurance for Europe in both names etc), and pop in the registered post to Aus House when the time came around.

 

There are other embassies that process the 309 visas (from memory I think there's one in Berlin), but if you're going to be on the move all of the time, it may be difficult for the Stat Decs to catch up to you. If you can stay in one place long enough for the stat decs to arrive, you could always post from Europe to Aus House anyway.

 

Good luck