Visa help! (defacto)

[thomasvo]

Hi guys,

 

I'm from Belgium and I was in Australia on a working holiday visa from july 2010 - june 2011 and from june 2012 - may 2013. During my second working holiday visa I met my partner Nicole who is an Australian citizen living at the Sunshine Coast. During the time I met her I was living and working in Sydney. We had a casual relationship before until early January 2013 when we got into a serious relationship with each other. When my contract at work expired at the end of january 2013 I left Sydney and flew to the Sunshine Coast and stayed at my partner's house until I left Australia in may 2013 to go home to visit family. I went via Thailand to visit a friend there when I found out my grandmother had passed away. I stayed in Belgium for a little over 2 months as my signature was required on several documents since I am one of the legal heirs (both my parents have passed away). I came back shortly after that on a tourist visa (arrived on the 23rd of july 2013) to be with my partner again but now we would like to sort out a visa so I can stay and work here. We would like to know what the options are and how viable they are. My partner has 3 kids from a previous relationship so its not like she can come to Belgium with me. Australia is the only option.

Do I quallify for a defacto visa if we register our relationship? Do I have a reasonable chance of getting one? Would I be better off applying onshore or offshore? I know that once you apply you get a bridging visa, would I be eligible to work on a bridging visa?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Thomas

[Rupert]

At the moment you do not appear to qualify for the partner visa, not unless you get married anyway. This is due to you not having been in the defacto relationship for long enough, I would say you were merely dating a first (as we all do).

 

So you could get married or look into registering your relationship, apparently it circumvents the time you need in the relationship, unfortunately I don't know much more about it, but have a search and you should find something.

[Notts]

Registering a relationship has the same effect a getting married - you have to prove a current de facto relationship at the time of applying, rather than a relationship that has been ongoing for 12 months. The QLD application form (which has details of the requirements) is http://www.justice.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/134185/application-to-register-a-relationship-form15.pdf.

 

Bridging visas issued to applicants for partner visas do not have any restrictions on working.

[Ozmaniac]

Because your partner lives in Queensland, you will be able to register your relationship and that will provide an exemption from the 12 month relationship requirement. You'll still need to provide as much relationship evidence as you can come up with but you must have a fair bit given the history of your relationship so far. Hopefully you already have joint bank accounts and similar things. At the end of the day though, the decision rests with DIAC and it's up to you to provide evidence that will convince them that your relationship is 'genuine and continuing'.

 

You will need to be able to provide evidence of your current residential address as part of the required documentation for the relationship register but only one of you needs to have been resident in Queensland for 6 months.

 

There's a delay of 10 days between applying and for the registration to take effect so get a move on so that you can lodge an onshore Partner visa application before your current visa expires. It will cost more and take longer than an offshore application but you'll get a Bridging visa with unrestricted work rights - that's now standard for onshore Partner visa applications.