Defacto on a 457 Visa HELP!

[baileyfriesen]

Hey Everyone,

 

My partner and I are hoping to get me on my partner's 457 Visa. We're having doubts it's going to go over as smoothly as we thought though because our situation is a little different than most.

 

We have now been living together for 8 months but we have also only been dating for 6 months. We had been hoping to apply for the visa as soon as the 6 months hit but now we're thinking that won't be enough. We met because I moved into his share house, and for the first 2 months were only friends. We started going out and at the same time we had started living together ( in the same room) still in our share house. We have all the evidence stating that we have been going out for the 6 months such as camping trips, internet bills, movies, letters addressed to us at the house, joint bank accounts, pictures, statement from friends and more. We obviously want to be 100% honest with our application but I'm worried they'll read our living situation and the rest of the evidence won't even matter. Also, there is quite a big age difference between the two of us so I'm not sure if this will go against us as well.

 

I rang immigration hoping they could shine some light on the situation but all I got from them was that we had to meet the 6 months and we had to have the evidence to prove it. I asked if our situation would jeopardize the application all together and she said she wouldn't be able to tell me. It would only be up to the immigration officer reviewing our file.

 

So really hoping someone on here has had a similar situation or has any ideas on things we can do for our application so that we'll have less of a chance of it getting rejected!

 

 

Thanks so much in advance!!

[Marisawright]

I'd be surprised if you had enough evidence, frankly. "De facto" doesn't mean dating - it means being married in everything but name. So you can't count the early weeks or months, when you might've been sleeping together but you weren't 100% sure you were committed to staying together for life.

 

You say yourself that you've only been DATING for six months. If you'd had your own flat before you two met, would you have moved in together so quickly? The clock starts when you decided "this is it, we''re a couple for the long term".

Edited August 18, 2016 by Marisawright

[Bungo]

Did you really open a joint bank account the day you progressed from friends to partners? What kind of joint letters do you have? Evidence of dating is irrelevant, you don't not have to prove you have been dating, you have to prove defacto.

 

But you are where your are, all you can do is submit what you have and see what happens. I would have said your chances were slim if this was a permanent visa, but I would be a little more confident for a 457 as the criteria is not as strict.