Inputting Partner's Information on Expression of Interest + De Facto Requirements?

[Lisa93]

Hi,

 

My name is Lisa Miller and my partner and I are hoping to move to Australia in 2015. We are currently filling in our EOI ready to send once we have completed the Skills Assessment and IELTS Test. My partner is the main applicant and I am hoping to be included on his application as a de facto partner (another issue I have which I will explain separately below) but so far I have not seen anywhere on the EOI that will allow us to fill in my details, despite saying his relationship status is "de facto". Please advise on where it may ask for my information and if it does not, should I just assume we will be asked for this information once we have received a proper invitation?

 

In regards to the de facto situation, after reviewing all of the requirements for a de facto relationship, I would say that we are in one. However, we do not officially live together, although we do stay at each others houses on alternate weeks. We have been together for four years and have never had any periods of separation and we can provide evidence that we receive social invitations as a couple and we even have a joint bank account. Given this, do you think we will be regarded as a de facto couple? The DIAC have not given me much information on this, just that it is a requirement to have lived together for at least 12 months. We even considered choosing the engaged option on the EOI to avoid the de facto dilemma but I have heard that I can only be included on the application if we choose de facto.

 

I would appreciate any help that you can offer with this because I really need it to get sorted ASAP, there is so much to consider we do not have the time to worry about silly things like this!

 

Thanks a lot

[Rupert]

I have not tried to add a partner on an EOI, but plenty must have, so just giving this a little bump for you.

[deldesouza4369]

Hi,

 

My name is Lisa Miller and my partner and I are hoping to move to Australia in 2015. We are currently filling in our EOI ready to send once we have completed the Skills Assessment and IELTS Test. My partner is the main applicant and I am hoping to be included on his application as a de facto partner (another issue I have which I will explain separately below) but so far I have not seen anywhere on the EOI that will allow us to fill in my details, despite saying his relationship status is "de facto". Please advise on where it may ask for my information and if it does not, should I just assume we will be asked for this information once we have received a proper invitation?

 

In regards to the de facto situation, after reviewing all of the requirements for a de facto relationship, I would say that we are in one. However, we do not officially live together, although we do stay at each others houses on alternate weeks. We have been together for four years and have never had any periods of separation and we can provide evidence that we receive social invitations as a couple and we even have a joint bank account. Given this, do you think we will be regarded as a de facto couple? The DIAC have not given me much information on this, just that it is a requirement to have lived together for at least 12 months. We even considered choosing the engaged option on the EOI to avoid the de facto dilemma but I have heard that I can only be included on the application if we choose de facto.

 

I would appreciate any help that you can offer with this because I really need it to get sorted ASAP, there is so much to consider we do not have the time to worry about silly things like this!

 

Thanks a lot

 

We were just granted a 189 and my partner and I are in a defacto relationship. Okay for your fist question: on the EOI it will only ask about the relationship status; as you've seen. This is all it asks, it won't even ask for your name at this point. Once you've got your invite and start filling out the visa application (online) it will ask you to fill out all of the details for both the main applicant and the defacto partner. So for now don't worry about that.

 

My partner and I were both living in separate houses for much of the period we were claiming (only 15months). It's difficult to explain what you need to provide exactly; the way it was put to me is to paint a general picture of your relationship together and back it up with as much evidence as possible. We provided the following:

 

- Relationship statements from both me and my partner, explaining how we met, how the relationship developed (timeline), activities we've undertaken together (and dates), financial responsibilities (we did'nt have a joint account), sharing of domestic duties and our plans for the future.

- Statements from our family and friends (one each from both our parents, my sister and my girlfriends best friend) highlighting how they see our relationship and social interation.

- 8 photos of shared experiences; holidays, family events, social events, gigs, festivals etc.

- Tickets (of any kind); travel, gigs.

- Bank/credit card statements; we have separate accounts (until we move) so we highlighted transfers from her to me ans vice versa throughout the period we claim we were together and also expenses such as the holidays/gigs/etc.

- Christmas cards, letters to you both, even the bank statements sent to one of your addresses with both your names on it.

- Evidence of joint memberships: we had the gym.

 

One thing to remember is to try and tie the whole relationship together; evidence the whole time frame that you are claiming, showing significant dates/events each year and tie that together in your statements. My statement was typed and covered almost 3 pages of A4.

 

Here's a link to a document which helped us get our head around what we were trying to prove. It's more relevant for specific relationship/partner visas than skilled migration visas, but there's some really good info there.

 

http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/booklets/books1.htm

 

Sorry for the long reply, just trying to give you as much info as possible. Hope it helps you out and good luck!

Cheers

Del

[Lisa93]

We were just granted a 189 and my partner and I are in a defacto relationship. Okay for your fist question: on the EOI it will only ask about the relationship status; as you've seen. This is all it asks, it won't even ask for your name at this point. Once you've got your invite and start filling out the visa application (online) it will ask you to fill out all of the details for both the main applicant and the defacto partner. So for now don't worry about that.

 

My partner and I were both living in separate houses for much of the period we were claiming (only 15months). It's difficult to explain what you need to provide exactly; the way it was put to me is to paint a general picture of your relationship together and back it up with as much evidence as possible. We provided the following:

 

- Relationship statements from both me and my partner, explaining how we met, how the relationship developed (timeline), activities we've undertaken together (and dates), financial responsibilities (we did'nt have a joint account), sharing of domestic duties and our plans for the future.

- Statements from our family and friends (one each from both our parents, my sister and my girlfriends best friend) highlighting how they see our relationship and social interation.

- 8 photos of shared experiences; holidays, family events, social events, gigs, festivals etc.

- Tickets (of any kind); travel, gigs.

- Bank/credit card statements; we have separate accounts (until we move) so we highlighted transfers from her to me ans vice versa throughout the period we claim we were together and also expenses such as the holidays/gigs/etc.

- Christmas cards, letters to you both, even the bank statements sent to one of your addresses with both your names on it.

- Evidence of joint memberships: we had the gym.

 

One thing to remember is to try and tie the whole relationship together; evidence the whole time frame that you are claiming, showing significant dates/events each year and tie that together in your statements. My statement was typed and covered almost 3 pages of A4.

 

Here's a link to a document which helped us get our head around what we were trying to prove. It's more relevant for specific relationship/partner visas than skilled migration visas, but there's some really good info there.

 

http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/booklets/books1.htm

 

Sorry for the long reply, just trying to give you as much info as possible. Hope it helps you out and good luck!

Cheers

Del

 

 

Thank you very much for your reply, that was very informative. Well so far we have wrote our own statements, but looking at how long yours were I think we need to add to them! I will also look at doing a proper timeline with images. I have also scanned tickets and cards onto the computer and got around 8 pages of photographs from different times. How did you go about getting your parents etc to write the statements? I have been speaking to someone from the DIAC and they said you should use statutory declarations that you can get online, but which ever way you do it they have to be witnessed by a police officer, solicitor etc. We are also having a bit of an issue with proving we live together, as we do not own our own house - he lives with me, my mum and sister. According to my mum there is no official document we can get with his name on it, but I am currently speaking to the housing officer about getting this sorted. Would you say you had any particular problems with this side of the visa? Because obviously its really important that you can be included on the same application otherwise you would have to get your own visa, and I am not even eligible for most! And thanks for the link, it does go into a lot more detail so I will be sure to use it.

[deldesouza4369]

The parents/friends letter was difficult; I gave them a few events, once we'd established our timeline, that I wanted them to highlight. Gave them rough notes from both the Statutory declaration form and the DIAC booklet 1 and just said be honest and truthful. Their letters were about 1-1.5 pages of A4. We didn't go down the route of getting them witnessed, just got them to sign and date the letter. We then scanned everything and uploaded to the eVisa system.

 

For proof of living together, it was difficult for us too. We explained our situation; that we had two properties for the majority of the period but stayed at my partners place at the weekends and my place during the week (which was true), but we couldn't prove that other than showing documents (bank statements) from that time. We rented her place in October last year, and said that since then we've been living together at my place; for this we showed change of addresses on bank statements and her driving license. In the end we evidenced as much as we could with this and in our statements we were very open, honest and emotive about the whole relationship.

 

It must have been enough, as we weren't asked a single thing about our relationship by our CO. I was blindsided a bit when the CO asked about work experience evidence as I was convinced I had everything else sewn up tight and though it would be the de-facto relationship stuff that would cause a problem; the CO never asked a thing about our relationship.

 

We might have got lucky, or that might be the way things go on a 189 with de-facto partner; either way I guess I'll never know. In your shoes, I would do the same; provide as much as you can as thoroughly as you can but keep it concise and to the point, for example; don't put loads of photos of the same event in, just one or two with an explanation for each event that you're highlighting. I found it really useful to look at booklet 1; especially where it talks about what you need to prove (below from booklet 1) and then made a plan of how to prove each point.

"History of your relationship

You and your partner must each provide a statement regarding the history of your relationship, including:

• how, when and where you first met;

• how your relationship developed;

• when you decided to marry or commence a de facto partner relationship;

• your domestic arrangements – how you support each other financially, physically and emotionally

and when this level of commitment began;

• any periods of separation – when and why the separation occurred, for how long and how you

maintained your relationship during the period of separation; and

• your future plans.

The statements written by you and your partner can be on ordinary writing paper or a statutory

declaration form may be used. Each statement or statutory declaration must be signed and dated by the

author. For details on who can witness statutory declarations, see page 28.

 

Evidence of your relationship

There are 4 broad categories of evidence that you need to provide:

• financial aspects;

• the nature of the household;

• social context of the relationship; and

• the nature of your commitment to each other.

All relationships are different, so you should provide as much evidence as you can that you believe will

support your claims."

 

Good luck!