TheAls Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 Hello, Have been scouring the forum for a while now trying to work out whether me and my partner would qualify as a de facto relationship, but still am no clearer. Any advice would be much appreciated. My partner is a qualified physiotherapist so she is hoping to apply as a skilled individual (i think 189), with me as her de facto partner. We have been together for 2.5 years, but have spent much of this time as long distance due to me having a job in Bristol and my partner studying full time in Stoke (we met while i was still in stoke). As soon as she graduated from university she got a job and moved in with me down here, but this has only been 4 months so far. Since we've been together we have been on several holidays together, including to her sisters wedding in crete. We havent got any joint finances or bills as we have not been living together for very long and have not got our own place at the moment. Despite being together for 2.5 years, my worry is that we dont have official paperwork to back this up. How much of an obstacle is this going to be to us being accepted as a de facto couple? - we can get plenty of statements from friends/family and photographs from holidays etc, but will this be enough? Is there anything else we can do? Thanks in advance for any help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bryzee86 Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 Hi, I think you would be fine. Get as many statements as you can, and also provide booking itineraries or boarding passes for your various holidays together. You can also write a declaration each, declaring your relationship, how you met, how the relationship has progressed etc. Also detail any gaps in the relationship so you're not missing any info out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blossom Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 Wait until you have been living together 6 months to make sure, but you should be fine. Things like car insurance at that address, bank accounts at that address, even if not joint, drivers licence at that address etc all help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CollegeGirl Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 Actually, I don't agree. De facto requires a year of shared finances and a year of living together generally, and they CAN be super-strict about being even one day short of 12-months. Do you live in a state where you could potentially register your relationship? That would waive the 12-month requirement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 I disagree with the above, I think you will be lacking evidence of defacto relationship. Can she pass a skills assessment with only 4 months of work experience? I would recommend she leaves it for another six months or so and then starts skills assessment etc, then by the time you are ready to apply you will have 12 months of living together. She will have a years work experience too, which will make finding jobs a lot easier once she gets here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blossom Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 Actually, I don't agree. De facto requires a year of shared finances and a year of living together generally, and they CAN be super-strict about being even one day short of 12-months. Do you live in a state where you could potentially register your relationship? That would waive the 12-month requirement. The year is only for the defacto visa. If you are a dependent on someone else's visa (be it 457 or pr) it is only six months of living together. Crazy but true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CollegeGirl Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 Oh good lord... I had a brain cramp. I know that, I was just thinking they were applying for a de facto partner visa. It's been a crazy afternoon here! Thanks, Blossom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 The year is only for the defacto visa. If you are a dependent on someone else's visa (be it 457 or pr) it is only six months of living together. Crazy but true. Did this change? Because it certainly used to be 12 months for any PR visa, whether partner or dependent on skilled migrant? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blossom Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 It's been six months for at least the last 7 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blossom Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 As far as I know anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 It's been six months for at least the last 7 years. No, definitely not 7 years. Because it has been 12 months during the time when I have been aware of anything about the Australian visa system and that is only last 5 years. ETA 12 months. http://www.immi.gov.au/skills/skillselect/index/including-family-members/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blossom Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 I stand corrected. So it's just temp visas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maggie2012 Posted November 20, 2013 Share Posted November 20, 2013 Hello, Have been scouring the forum for a while now trying to work out whether me and my partner would qualify as a de facto relationship, but still am no clearer. Any advice would be much appreciated. My partner is a qualified physiotherapist so she is hoping to apply as a skilled individual (i think 189), with me as her de facto partner. We have been together for 2.5 years, but have spent much of this time as long distance due to me having a job in Bristol and my partner studying full time in Stoke (we met while i was still in stoke). As soon as she graduated from university she got a job and moved in with me down here, but this has only been 4 months so far. Since we've been together we have been on several holidays together, including to her sisters wedding in crete. We havent got any joint finances or bills as we have not been living together for very long and have not got our own place at the moment. Despite being together for 2.5 years, my worry is that we dont have official paperwork to back this up. How much of an obstacle is this going to be to us being accepted as a de facto couple? - we can get plenty of statements from friends/family and photographs from holidays etc, but will this be enough? Is there anything else we can do? Thanks in advance for any help You would probably need to prove 12 months living together... When we applied for the visa, we were married, but only for a few months. Despite that, we had to prove that our relationship is genuine, going back ONE year! Even so we could prove that we had lived together for over 15 months (council tax bill, change of current account address etc.), still we were required to provide a statutory declaration as well! We have filed the visa Application in May of this year, so the info is recent. Also, it very much depends, despite what others say on your Case Officer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GeorgeD Posted November 21, 2013 Share Posted November 21, 2013 You would probably need to prove 12 months living together... You don't need 12 months living together. You need to have been in a defacto relationship for 12 months. Defacto couples can and do live apart...same as married couples. There is no 12 month co-habitation requriement. They may say they expect you to have lived together, but an expectation is NOT a requirement. There are plenty of circumstances which will also meet the defacto requirements when people haven't lived together for 12 months. They may be economic, employment related, cultural, religious, etc. That said...I think the OP is still going to struggle to prove at least 12 months in a defacto relationship rather than just 'dating.' Whilst they may have lived apart, they would still ened to show joing financial commitments, joint lives to the same extent a married ocuple would have, etc. A joint mortgage or lease would show that...irrespective of where you actually lived during that time. A joint loan, joint bank account, etc also shows this, again without living together. Do you have wills? If not, get them done. This is a commitment in the future. Are you named as beneficiaries in any life insurance? Are you listed as next of kin with Doctors, dentists, employers, etc? If you are in a defacto relationship then your partner will be listed as those...again you don't need to be at the same address 7 days a week to have done this. There are other ways to prove 12 months of a defacto relationship rather than just living together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FP215 Posted November 21, 2013 Share Posted November 21, 2013 Living together specifically may not be a requirement but it certainly helps. For our visa we initially provided the following defacto evidence: 16 months joint bank statements itineraries/pictures/tickets/email confirmation for 6 holidays statutory declarations 2 years of Car Insurance for both cars (with the other person a named driver) and same address listed for both. Joint Council Tax bills Bills/Letters/Statements to each of us individually but showing that we were at the same address for over a year We were then asked for further information to prove the relationship and sent through additional bank statements showing joint savings, a wedding invitation to us both, more bills/letters to us at the same address. Just wanted to give you an idea of what we were required to provide as it may help you to understand whether you can provide a similar level of evidence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ConfusedBrit Posted November 21, 2013 Share Posted November 21, 2013 Hi, we have submitted our visa and I am a defacto partner on my boyfriends 190. We had to prove that we had LIVED together for a year which we have done. As I live at my boyfriend's place, i'm not on the mortgage and we don't have joint bills etc. Instead I showed bank statements highlighting amounts of money I have transferred every month to cover "rent" and bills etc. As we have in fact been together longer than the time we've lived together, we sent lots of photos of us together, in different locations over the years as well as itemised phone bills highlighting all the calls/texts we've sent to eachother. He is also a named driver on my car insurance so I sent my last 2 insurance certificates proving this as well. We also sent any cards/invites that have been sent to us both. We both had to write a statement and get 4 family/close friends (2 on each side) to write statements about our relationship as well. Hope this help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ConfusedBrit Posted November 21, 2013 Share Posted November 21, 2013 http://www.immi.gov.au/visas/including-family-members.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert Posted November 21, 2013 Share Posted November 21, 2013 You don't need 12 months living together. You need to have been in a defacto relationship for 12 months. Defacto couples can and do live apart...same as married couples. There is no 12 month co-habitation requriement. They may say they expect you to have lived together, but an expectation is NOT a requirement. There are plenty of circumstances which will also meet the defacto requirements when people haven't lived together for 12 months. They may be economic, employment related, cultural, religious, etc. That said...I think the OP is still going to struggle to prove at least 12 months in a defacto relationship rather than just 'dating.' Whilst they may have lived apart, they would still ened to show joing financial commitments, joint lives to the same extent a married ocuple would have, etc. A joint mortgage or lease would show that...irrespective of where you actually lived during that time. A joint loan, joint bank account, etc also shows this, again without living together. Do you have wills? If not, get them done. This is a commitment in the future. Are you named as beneficiaries in any life insurance? Are you listed as next of kin with Doctors, dentists, employers, etc? If you are in a defacto relationship then your partner will be listed as those...again you don't need to be at the same address 7 days a week to have done this. There are other ways to prove 12 months of a defacto relationship rather than just living together. You are right but I think this is muddying the waters in OPs case. They do not sound like they were living apart through circumstances, it wasn't like they had a home together but then she needs to go to study. It seems pretty clear to me that they were dating and had simply not got to that defacto stage in the relationship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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