Prospective Marriage Visa

[Tom Brody 17]

Hi Everyone, just looking for a bit of advice please from anyone who know's a bit about these matters. I am getting engaged to a Filipina Lady at Christmas, finally popping the question, so hoping it will be a happy time for us. Sadly she was refused a Tourist Visa in October to visit me here in Oz for a three week visit. (Basically they said there was no incentive for her to return to Philippines, even though she has a lease and her own market trading stall which she run's and makes her living from) and we had ticked all the box's correctly and she had the equivalent of around $4,500 AUD in her bank account. There you go!!!

 

Over the past 18 months or more I was in UK trying to sell my property there before finally getting back here to Oz. I am a PR here. Our intention all along was as soon as I got back to Oz we would make our plans firm and be together permanently, and to bring here here with me. So fair play, she was very patient while we were apart while my house sale was ongoing. As she is Filipino, she is classed as "High Risk" in terms of the fact Philippines is not an ETA Country Quote from the immi website, "The terms 'Low risk' and 'High risk' show whether passport holders are eligible to apply for an Electronic Travel Authority (ETA). Low risk applies to nationals from countries which issue ETA eligible passports. A list of these can be found on the department's website. High risk countries are those which are not ETA eligible".

To apply for the Prospective Marriage visa it is estimated at a turnaround time of 12 months. In other words another year's wait. For us this is another body blow in so much as how long it is likely to take. A friend of mine has suggested to apply for a student visa, and do a skills course here, like baking or pastry chef or something, a course over a year and during that period apply onshore here in Australia for a Prospective Marriage whilst she is here? Apparently a student visa is granted in approximately 3-4 months ?

 

Does any of that make sense? Is it a possibility? Is it allowed? Personally I laughed at the idea at first, but was persuaded to look into it further if it can help our situation. I guess really I need to find a good migration agent to assist us with the situation, it is frustrating me now to the point that I am actually thinking of packing it in here and just going to live there instead, something that I truly do not want to do. I find being alone here in Oz is not good, as it is just existing not living and I feel disappointed in how our plans appear to be blocked at every corner we turn. I am not one to ever complain, but it is very difficult now.

 

Can anyone offer me some advice on all this, I would really appreciate it.

Thank you and my best wishes.

[Xenon4017 102]

I am actually thinking of packing it in here and just going to live there instead, something that I truly do not want to do.

 

Why do you truly not want to do this? Sounds like a great experience. And you could live as man and wife, with all that entails.

[Guest GeorgeD]

A friend of mine has suggested to apply for a student visa, and do a skills course here, like baking or pastry chef or something, a course over a year and during that period apply onshore here in Australia for a Prospective Marriage whilst she is here?

 

The Prospective Marriage Visa (PMV) is an Offshore Visa. You can't apply for it Onshore (in Australia)

 

Nothing stopping her applying Offshore for the PMV, then going to Oz on another visa. She would need to leave for it to be granted though....you need to be offshore at grant as well. Sounds like an extremely expensive options...student visas and international student fees can be expensive, just for the sake of a few months.

 

When do you intend getting married? You need to get married within 9 months of the PMV beign gratned and then apply for a Spouse Visa or you have to leave the country...could you bring forward your marriage? Get her in to Oz on any sort of visa (tourist is fine as logna s there is no No Further Stay restriction, get married then apply for a Spouse Visa onshore. Once you ave an Onshore Spouse applcaition in place, she will get a bridging visa with work rights when her previous visa ends (eg tourist) After all, you plan on gettign married soon anyway...

[CollegeGirl 262]

The Prospective Marriage Visa is not a visa you can apply for onshore. It is offshore-only. However, if she came there to study for a year, it would be reasonable for you to live together while she was there to study and then later decide to apply for a partner visa as a de facto or married couple once you qualified.

 

If you're an Oz PR and you're only now getting back to Oz, though, you may have another issue - in order to sponsor for a partner visa/PMV, permanent residents must be "usually resident" in Oz. Depending on the CO you get, that is sometimes interpreted to mean living in Oz over the last two years. You may want to touch base with a migration agent to make sure before you apply - you wouldn't want to be rejected over something so simple.

[Quinkla 2,654]

There are many alarm bells ringing. DIAC will want to know how you met and how genuine the relationship is. They will want statements from at least two people who know you both and can vouch for the relationship; and will want evidence to prove the genuineness of the relationship. The alarm bells are likely to ring even louder given that you are not a citizen and have been out of the country for more than 18 months in the past two years. Being refused a tourist visa is unusual and the recency of this does not bode well for subsequent visa applications. A student visa may well be refused immediately as your gf doesn't have sufficient funds to pay for course fees and live in Australia for the duration of a study course. Your offering to provide support would possibly raise more questions than it would answer.

[Quinkla 2,654]

Thank you for your reply. In short, I don't like it there as a place to live. In addition my soon to be Fiance wants to move overseas also, and thirdly the costs incurred first in moving out here to Oz and then on again to yet another Country is prohibitive. I enjoy visiting Philippines to see her family and spend time with them, but I am not even going to pretend for a moment that I could live there permanently. Sorry that's just a personal choice/feeling. I have visited 6 times over the past 2 years, and been happy to visit, but neither of us want to remain there. My question was more for help to do with settlement here in Australia, but thank you anyway for your interest.

Hi Tom

 

Truth is I wish you well, but I don't know you. I'm just trying to get across issues that might be raised when you apply for a visa - as are the other dispassionate people on this forum. There's no point trying to persuade us but if you can address these issues in your application, you'll stand a better chance of success. In your position, I would probably talk to a registered migration agent as I think your case is not straightforward.

[Tom Brody 17]

Why do you truly not want to do this? Sounds like a great experience. And you could live as man and wife, with all that entails.

Thank you for your reply. In short, I don't like it there as a place to live. In addition my soon to be Fiance wants to move overseas also, and thirdly the costs incurred first in moving out here to Oz and then on again to yet another Country is prohibitive. I enjoy visiting Philippines to see her family and spend time with them, whenever I can, but I am not even going to pretend for a moment that I could live there permanently. Sorry that's just a personal choice/feeling. I have visited 6 times over the past 2 years, and been happy to visit, but neither of us want to remain there. My question was more for help to do with settlement here in Australia, but thank you anyway for your interest.

[Tom Brody 17]

Hi Tom

 

Truth is I wish you well, but I don't know you. I'm just trying to get across issues that might be raised when you apply for a visa - as are the other dispassionate people on this forum. There's no point trying to persuade us but if you can address these issues in your application, you'll stand a better chance of success. In your position, I would probably talk to a registered migration agent as I think your case is not straightforward.

 

It's OK, I appreciate the points you raise, and Yes I agree we will seek the advice of a Migration agent to deal with it. Fingers crossed. We have ample proof of the long term relationship, from photographs, travel documents, e-mails, and so on. Citizens from UK, Phils and Australia know us and can back that up. I point out as well, that we as a couple know of quite a few Filipina's who have suffered the same disappointment on a tourist visa, but then been successful with a partner/marriage visa. They may never admit it but the High Risk I refereed to in my initial post above is applied across the board apparently based on statistics. Well we will see, If it turns out we have to go back to UK, well so be it. I think she actually would prefer that. Thanks for the help.

Edited December 2, 2013 by Tom Brody
additional words

[Peach 3,269]

On the positive, the refused ETA is an official record of your relationship - when the time comes for you to show documentation of it.

[Tom Brody 17]

On the positive, the refused ETA is an official record of your relationship - when the time comes for you to show documentation of it.

Exactly Peach, and also the Brits did the same to us in November 2012. So that's on record too. Brits said she had no incentive to return to Phils as her emotonal ties were to myself there in UK. So kicked out the application.