Partner visa - how difficult ?

[talktosi]

Just commenced plans to move to Australia from the UK and have spoken to some migration consultants on the assumption that although an obvious financial outlay, having them take care of the process would be quicker and a lot less stressful. I assume they know exactly what immigration are looking for in the application and save us doing the leg work. Is it a lot of work ? Is it worth the expense ? We want to submit application soon as have been told that processing times are very quick at the moment ( as little as 3 months) due to increase in number of visa allocation and resources available. also told that thing may change at the next review in June. Many thanks

[Jon the Hat]

If you are willing to invest the time yourself and your case is straightforward (no medical or conviction issues for example) imo there is no need to use a migration agent.  Especially if your wife is from the UK (all docs in English for a start, and a presumption of no economic incentive for migration) then I wouldn't bother.   Also worth noting that your agent cannot pull your documentation together, you have to do that yourself.  There is plenty of discussion on here about how much to provide etc.  

[vickyplum]

It's perfectly do-able - just don't try to complete it in a rush, and be prepared for a lot of admin (ie, getting documents/forms notorised. obtaining statements from friends/relatives etc).

[Wanderer Returns]

2 hours ago, talktosi said:

Just commenced plans to move to Australia from the UK and have spoken to some migration consultants on the assumption that although an obvious financial outlay, having them take care of the process would be quicker and a lot less stressful. I assume they know exactly what immigration are looking for in the application and save us doing the leg work. Is it a lot of work ? Is it worth the expense ? We want to submit application soon as have been told that processing times are very quick at the moment ( as little as 3 months) due to increase in number of visa allocation and resources available. also told that thing may change at the next review in June. Many thanks

I took care of my partner's application which wasn't that straightforward, so I asked an MA to review it before it was submitted. He said he didn't think there was sufficient evidence of our relationship, so we dragged up a few more photos, emails and Facebook posts - fortunately my wife is a bit more romantic than me! We also included copies of our reciprocal wills, which is a fairly big commitment. The agent (who was in Queensland) didn't charge me anything for looking through my application, but his good advice may have tipped the decision in our favour, as my wife got her visa without any issues. I dropped by his office at Christmas with a bottle of single malt, which was most appreciated! 

[Marisawright]

I think @Wanderer Returns'approach is your best bet.  The hardest part is gathering all the evidence, and an agent can't do that for you.  However, the other hard part is knowing what sort of evidence to collect, and how much is enough.   Most couples underestimate how much is needed if they're doing it on their own, and that can be fatal for the application.   Most agents will charge to check your application but it's a lot less expensive than hiring one to do the entire job.  

[psuwara]

I think it's more time consuming really than difficult. We spent a lot of time collating photos, receipts, writing our story, putting things together, checking documents, reviewing e-mails and getting things into PDF files. Lastly, you want to double check your application form.

One of the most time consuming things was getting EVERYTHING translated and notarised by a Russian translation agency. Then SCANNING EVERYTHING! It took me 6 hours just to scan all the application forms and translated documents.

Finally we had an agent simply manage and check over everything. Then lastly there was the police checks and medical tests.

The best thing is, to write up a checklist and slowly work through things day by day. We did ours when the pandemic lockdowns in Russia happened, worked through everything little by little, and after a month, we had everything prepared, then a few weeks later, our agent had reviewed things, we were asked a few questions, then paid the application fee. 

A few months later I had forgotten to submit police checks because I thought they were optional, but read they were required, fortunately I requested these about a month before our RFI, which was just so lucky, because the Russian police check took 40 days. So I got it all in time and our 309 VISA was granted end of last year! Except getting back to Australia now is just a headache.