jhog90 Posted May 1, 2022 Share Posted May 1, 2022 Hey folks In the process of applying for the 309 visa for/with my partner and v overwhelmed by the whole process and hoping to get some advice clarification on a few points... Do the documents I submit need to be certified? Confused about this one bc on a few blogs I've seen people specifying they had documents certified. However I can't find anywhere on the Home Affairs info page specifying documents need to be certified. When I applied for my son's (Aussie) citizenship by descent it was explicitly stated that the documents I submitted needed to be certified. Most of our supporting witnesses will be British (currently live in the U.K.). I'm concerned having majority non-Australians as our supporting witnesses will "hurt" our case. Any insight on this from folks who've been in a similar position? Being his sponsor what actually do I need to do to support my partner’s application? Do I need to lodge an entirely separate sponsor application? Or attach a form to his application? Quite confused. We applied for a travel exemption for my partner to enter Australia during the covid restrictions. We ofc had to show evidence that we were in a realtionship. His exemption was approved. I'm thinking of including this to strengthen our case...my logic is home affairs has previously "acknowledged" our relationship and travelling abroad in a pandemic demonstrates our commitment to each other and our families? My partner thinks it'd be irrelevant so just wondering what others' thoughts are. Form 888 which is filled in by supporting witnesses…anyone applied from the uk? V confused about what to do bc the form won’t be considered a stat dec unless it’s filled in by an Australian (or permanent resident) in Australia? Any general advice/need-to-know information from anyone whose done it for those applying without an immigration specialist? I'm terrified that our application will be rejected and we were initially going to use an agent/lawyer but unfortunately our financial situation has changed and it's something that we can no longer afford. A massive thank you to anyone who chooses to comment/offer their wisdom :-) I’m stressing so much over this application (I hate paperwork and when I moved to the uk I used immigration agents for my entire visa/residency process) so really appreciate any/all help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psuwara Posted May 1, 2022 Share Posted May 1, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, jhog90 said: Hey folks In the process of applying for the 309 visa for/with my partner and v overwhelmed by the whole process and hoping to get some advice clarification on a few points... Do the documents I submit need to be certified? Confused about this one bc on a few blogs I've seen people specifying they had documents certified. However I can't find anywhere on the Home Affairs info page specifying documents need to be certified. When I applied for my son's (Aussie) citizenship by descent it was explicitly stated that the documents I submitted needed to be certified. Most of our supporting witnesses will be British (currently live in the U.K.). I'm concerned having majority non-Australians as our supporting witnesses will "hurt" our case. Any insight on this from folks who've been in a similar position? Being his sponsor what actually do I need to do to support my partner’s application? Do I need to lodge an entirely separate sponsor application? Or attach a form to his application? Quite confused. We applied for a travel exemption for my partner to enter Australia during the covid restrictions. We ofc had to show evidence that we were in a realtionship. His exemption was approved. I'm thinking of including this to strengthen our case...my logic is home affairs has previously "acknowledged" our relationship and travelling abroad in a pandemic demonstrates our commitment to each other and our families? My partner thinks it'd be irrelevant so just wondering what others' thoughts are. Form 888 which is filled in by supporting witnesses…anyone applied from the uk? V confused about what to do bc the form won’t be considered a stat dec unless it’s filled in by an Australian (or permanent resident) in Australia? Any general advice/need-to-know information from anyone whose done it for those applying without an immigration specialist? I'm terrified that our application will be rejected and we were initially going to use an agent/lawyer but unfortunately our financial situation has changed and it's something that we can no longer afford. A massive thank you to anyone who chooses to comment/offer their wisdom :-) I’m stressing so much over this application (I hate paperwork and when I moved to the uk I used immigration agents for my entire visa/residency process) so really appreciate any/all help We only needed translations and 888 ID documents need to be certified. We didn't need to certify Australian ID. Though you may need to certify any overseas ID documents, maybe... Edited May 1, 2022 by psuwara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psuwara Posted May 1, 2022 Share Posted May 1, 2022 (edited) Also, don't be afraid. The main concern is getting information wrong accidentally. If you need some advice, I suggest you write up a structured plan to break down each task into parts. It makes the whole thing digestible. Initially it feels like a huge task, but doing things one by one is what you need to do. Give yourself two months to put the application together so you have plenty of time to check, double check and collect all the information. The anxiety is real. But putting the pen to paper to just start breaking things up really helps relieve the anxiety. I remember when we did our first revision on the forms ... We did have a friend look over the application and did discover we accidentally called my wives sisters and brothers, step brothers and step sisters... that was a good find. Edited May 1, 2022 by psuwara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMcKie Posted May 2, 2022 Share Posted May 2, 2022 The only overseas documents I have had certified were for 888 forms, I would recommend passports for this (my agent advised this). My UK passport, driving licence and birth certificate for the 309 weren't certified. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted May 2, 2022 Share Posted May 2, 2022 3 hours ago, jhog90 said: Hey folks In the process of applying for the 309 visa for/with my partner and v overwhelmed by the whole process and hoping to get some advice clarification on a few points... Do the documents I submit need to be certified? Confused about this one bc on a few blogs I've seen people specifying they had documents certified. However I can't find anywhere on the Home Affairs info page specifying documents need to be certified. When I applied for my son's (Aussie) citizenship by descent it was explicitly stated that the documents I submitted needed to be certified. Most of our supporting witnesses will be British (currently live in the U.K.). I'm concerned having majority non-Australians as our supporting witnesses will "hurt" our case. Any insight on this from folks who've been in a similar position? Being his sponsor what actually do I need to do to support my partner’s application? Do I need to lodge an entirely separate sponsor application? Or attach a form to his application? Quite confused. We applied for a travel exemption for my partner to enter Australia during the covid restrictions. We ofc had to show evidence that we were in a realtionship. His exemption was approved. I'm thinking of including this to strengthen our case...my logic is home affairs has previously "acknowledged" our relationship and travelling abroad in a pandemic demonstrates our commitment to each other and our families? My partner thinks it'd be irrelevant so just wondering what others' thoughts are. Form 888 which is filled in by supporting witnesses…anyone applied from the uk? V confused about what to do bc the form won’t be considered a stat dec unless it’s filled in by an Australian (or permanent resident) in Australia? Any general advice/need-to-know information from anyone whose done it for those applying without an immigration specialist? I'm terrified that our application will be rejected and we were initially going to use an agent/lawyer but unfortunately our financial situation has changed and it's something that we can no longer afford. A massive thank you to anyone who chooses to comment/offer their wisdom :-) I’m stressing so much over this application (I hate paperwork and when I moved to the uk I used immigration agents for my entire visa/residency process) so really appreciate any/all help Why not get a quote from an agent to check over the papers before you submit? It will be a lot cheaper than getting them to do the whole thing. Alternativrly, why not hire an agent? Many people do these days. The Australian partner visa is much more difficult to get than the British one and the refusal rate is high because so many people make mistakes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psuwara Posted May 2, 2022 Share Posted May 2, 2022 4 hours ago, Marisawright said: Why not get a quote from an agent to check over the papers before you submit? It will be a lot cheaper than getting them to do the whole thing. Alternativrly, why not hire an agent? Many people do these days. The Australian partner visa is much more difficult to get than the British one and the refusal rate is high because so many people make mistakes I recently saw an immigration agent ask $450 for a check of your documents, so its not overly cheap, but it is better than thousands if you want to get it done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted May 2, 2022 Share Posted May 2, 2022 54 minutes ago, psuwara said: I recently saw an immigration agent ask $450 for a check of your documents, so its not overly cheap, but it is better than thousands if you want to get it done. Not excessive in the scheme of things, and certainly better than wasting the whole application fee if you get rejected due to one little mistake (which does happen). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhog90 Posted May 2, 2022 Author Share Posted May 2, 2022 (edited) Hey all thanks so much for the help. I think I may just take up that idea and pay for the check over or even just the whole hog and hiring an agent. The thought of getting rejected is literally making me feel physically ill so even though it’ll mean being worse off in terms of money the piece of mind/approval is very much worth it Edited May 2, 2022 by jhog90 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMcKie Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 On 03/05/2022 at 03:49, jhog90 said: Hey all thanks so much for the help. I think I may just take up that idea and pay for the check over or even just the whole hog and hiring an agent. The thought of getting rejected is literally making me feel physically ill so even though it’ll mean being worse off in terms of money the piece of mind/approval is very much worth it I would advise going for the full service if you can, personally for piece of mind alone made it worthwhile for me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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