Subclass 309 Visa advice...

[iamrachael]

Hi all

 

I'm a newbie just looking for some advice. I'm Australian living in London with my English partner. We submitted our 309 visa online in February. Our CO only requested the bare minimum of forms/evidence from us, which we submitted, along with my partners health and police check a few months later as requested. Our CO seems to be very carefree about our application - she said there's no need to have things certified, no need for any additional evidence etc. Has anyone else had this experience with their CO? I'm starting to feel a bit nervous about the whole process as I'm seeing a few Feb/March applicants are having their visas approved now. Do you think we should upload the additional documents/evidence just in case? Or is this complicating things for our very blasé CO? Might I add, we've had next to no contact with her - do we need to send her a friendly 'don't forget about us' email?

 

Thanks,

Rachael

[vickyplum]

Not quite sure what you mean when you say your CO only requested bare minimum forms / evidence. Did you go via a Migration agent? Usually it's up to the applicant to read the guidance and interpret it to fit their situation.

 

But if the CO who is processing your application says your submitted enough, then that should be OK. Feel free to email them but it won't make any difference to how quickly they grant your visa. A lot of people recommend not contacting them at all!

 

And welcome to the Forum

[MovingtoTasmania]

Hi all

 

I'm a newbie just looking for some advice. I'm Australian living in London with my English partner. We submitted our 309 visa online in February. Our CO only requested the bare minimum of forms/evidence from us, which we submitted, along with my partners health and police check a few months later as requested. Our CO seems to be very carefree about our application - she said there's no need to have things certified, no need for any additional evidence etc. Has anyone else had this experience with their CO? I'm starting to feel a bit nervous about the whole process as I'm seeing a few Feb/March applicants are having their visas approved now. Do you think we should upload the additional documents/evidence just in case? Or is this complicating things for our very blasé CO? Might I add, we've had next to no contact with her - do we need to send her a friendly 'don't forget about us' email?

 

Thanks,

Rachael

 

Welcome to the Forum Rachael. It sounds as if the CO has enough from you but you needed to have looked in the Partner Booklet and ensured that you sent the evidence as per the booklet as the CO will want the "legal" bits and request them but won't request supporting evidence such as bank statements, mortgage statements etc. I did read on another forum (I'm not a member but before I submitted our application) of someone who had sent some evidence but not anything additional and was then subsequently denied the visa and this person was feeling aggrieved that the CO didn't request more but apparently they only request things like Birth Certificates and that type of thing. Anything additional that proves the relationship is up to you to provide from the start as it states clearly in the Partner Booklet that you need to provide evidence and also tells you what is considered evidence and it even says that being married and having children isn't evidence in itself of the continuing nature of the relationship.

 

I don't say this to worry you, I am sure that your application is fine. I sent so much stuff that it came to just over a kilo I think in weight and cost a fortune to post and that was my decimated pile as I was advised by many on here to not send so much so I went through it and took loads out.

 

I wouldn't worry about not having contact as that is quite normal and you won't have contact until the visa is granted unless the CO needs more information. She will not forget about you at all. I didn't need to have anything certified either, in fact, I only had to have my wedding certificate notarised and certified by the FCO because I applied for a new Aus passport and Aus House told me that because my wedding certificate was "foreign" (it's a British one lol) it needed this for the passport. For the visa, nothing was needed except copies.

 

If you are concerned about the amount of evidence you have sent, look through the booklet again and go through each section and see if you need to upload more.

[iamrachael]

Thanks so much for your replies.

 

VickyPlum & MovingtoTasmania - We have applied for the visa online through the immi website. We were appointed a CO within days of submitting the application. She emailed us directly asking us not to attach photos, correspondence between my partner and I, cards etc, we were also told there was no need to have any of our documents certified. So we have not done any of that at her request. Now reading through the forums and people who have submitted everything with their application but their kitchen sink is having me worry that we've not done enough. Obviously this is our CO's job and I'm sure she'd email us if there was any problems, but it's all just a little unnerving. We have done our best not to bother her with emails and phone calls but perhaps we should to refresh her memory. I really don't know!!!

[Guest]

Uploading documents online means you don't need them certified (if colour scans). Its only paper post applications require certified copies.

 

Did you provide the 2 stat decs, both your supporting statements and supporting evidence to show you as a couple living together at the same address for the timeframe? Bills either in one or the others name or in both your names, bank statements the same, car insurance showing you both named, that sort of thing? If so, you would have supplied the supporting evidence they are after.

 

Honestly, its not that you have to send the kitchen sink. Some people do though We were somewhere in the middle and I sent in random bills from each year in each of our names or both showing us as being at the same address. Not each month or anything, just one or two for an entire year covering all the years since we had lived together (so about 6 all up at the time). But they showed we had been resident at the same address at the same time. The 2 years prior to my application I also included hubbys salary slips and a few bank statements to tie in with this to show he was the main earner and supporting us as a family.

[MovingtoTasmania]

Rachael, I didn't bother with sending cards, love letters or the like to our CO. I didn't even send photos other than those required for the forms lol. I sent copies of hubby's P60's going back 7 years, the mortgage statements as that's joint, gas bills for each year but all a different quarter, same for electric and water, copies of our wills, copies of medical cards (which are actually letters not cards) showing that we are all registered with the same GP, just stuff like that, oh and hubby's pension statements going back 5 years. It did stack up to quite a lot actually but you don't need to send all the cards, skype logs, sex video and all that. The CO really doesn't need that. Honestly :smile:

[iamrachael]

So I emailed our CO today, just for peace of mind. Her reply was very simply that nothing further was required from us and the documents we have provided are sufficient. We should not expect to hear anything further until a decision is made between September and October. Feel very relieved, now just hoping we get approved!!!

 

Thanks again for the advice and reassurance. I will now go back to holding my breath and twiddling my fingers until September.

[iamrachael]

One last question, does anyone know how long do we have to make the move to Australia after the visa has been approved? I've heard 12 months, but not sure where I'd read it.

[Pumpkin]

Thanks so much for your replies.

 

VickyPlum & MovingtoTasmania - We have applied for the visa online through the immi website. We were appointed a CO within days of submitting the application. She emailed us directly asking us not to attach photos, correspondence between my partner and I, cards etc, we were also told there was no need to have any of our documents certified. So we have not done any of that at her request. Now reading through the forums and people who have submitted everything with their application but their kitchen sink is having me worry that we've not done enough. Obviously this is our CO's job and I'm sure she'd email us if there was any problems, but it's all just a little unnerving. We have done our best not to bother her with emails and phone calls but perhaps we should to refresh her memory. I really don't know!!!

 

People get very silly about the things they attach, I expect it is you that has done this right whereas the majority go overboard. I expect COs get very fed up of wading through mountains of photos and wedding invitations and flight tickets. The main evidence requested is proof of joint address, if you have that, most other things are superfluous.

 

And indeed, it is not necessary to get things certified for an online application, never has been. I heard from my CO twice, once to request medicals and once with visa grant,

[MaggieMay24]

There are two dates to be mindful of:

 

Initial Entry Date: You MUST enter Australia to activate the visa. This is usually 12 months from your Police Check/Medical Check, whichever was earlier. You simply need to enter the country and could then immediately leave again if you weren't yet ready to move.

 

Expiry Date (I don't remember if this is what it's called): 5 years from the grant date, this is when the entry rights on the visa expire. As long as you're in Australia by this date, you can then remain indefinitely. But since the entry rights expire after 5 years from grant, you can't travel (well you can, but you can't get back into the country) if you don't either become a citizen or get a Return Resident Visa.

 

So you don't need to move here within 12 months, you simply need to at least visit to activate the visa. You can then make your move any time in the next 5 years.