Partner visa requirements

[Philip]

I am an Australian citizen and starting to look into the 309/100 process for my British wife.

I am approaching this from a UK perspective because I helped an Australian friend apply for the equivalent UK visas several years ago.

The big differences seem to be that Australia doesn't care about what happens after you're in Australia (if you get the 100 straight away), but really cares about proving the relationship.

To demonstrate a genuine relationship, the UK wanted to see one document for the six 3-month periods in the preceding 2 years, addressed to the couple either separately or together, but the couple just submitted a photo of them doing something together for each of the 6 years they had been married, and that was sufficient. For Australia, it looks as if you need to submit some essays and get other people to write essays about you... also we only have one joint account and many sole accounts, and we just treat them as belonging to each other (which is against the T&Cs of the banks), but how do you prove that?

For the UK application, it was absolutely vital that the sponsor had a certain salary for a specified time period just before the application, and they had to provide a floor plan of their house showing that there were sufficient bedrooms for the whole family. Australia seems to only make the sponsor sign a form saying they will support the applicant financially and with accommodation, but doesn't ask for any proof? Am I missing something?

The issue that I thought we might have, is that we lost our jobs because of covid and decided to look after our child full-time. We weren't going to think about looking for jobs until we arrive in Australia, as we have lots of money saved up anyway and my wife's parents are generously giving us some inheritance early. However, it looks as though we don't really need to mention any of this in the application?

Edited July 16, 2022 by Philip

[Marisawright]

You are right, the UK and Australian approaches are totally different.

The essential difference is this: 

• the UK doesn't really care whether you're a genuine couple or not, so long as you're bringing enough money with you.  
• Australia doesn't care about your financial situation, they just want to know you haven't fabricated a fake relationship to get a visa.

To be strictly accurate, you don't get "essays"  from people, you get 'statutory declarations' from people, stating that they've known you for x years and that you've been living together in a committed relationship for that period of time.  The form needs to be witnessed by a qualified person.  Here's the form they should use:

https://www.ag.gov.au/legal-system/publications/commonwealth-statutory-declaration-form

You don't need an essay from yourself. You need your marriage certificate and evidence that you've lived in a shared home for x years (a lease in joint names, or a mortgage or property in joint names).  You need evidence from your bank accounts that you are sharing common expenses. That doesn't necessarily mean a joint account, it could be evidence that you're paying some of her bills from your personal account and vice versa.  Anything you can think of, that shows how intertwined your lives are. 

If you're anxious, you can always ask a migration agent to check over your application before you submit it, which will be cheaper than getting them to do the whole thing from scratch but will give you some peace of mind.

Edited July 16, 2022 by Marisawright

[paulhand]

7 hours ago, Marisawright said:

The form needs to be witnessed by a qualified person.  Here's the form they should use:

For partner visa supporting stat decs, there is a specific format that is preferred, Form 888: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/form-listing/forms/888.pdf

[Jon the Hat]

It takes time to pull it all together, but none of it is hard per se.  It helps to understand the groupings of evidence before you start which you don't see until you start the application proper - filling in the forms in your immi account and making payment.  It then opens up the documentation section which contains the below categories.  You have limited uploads so it is recommended to group things into pdfs - eg household bills, photos together. joint travel evidence.

Nature of couple's household

Citizenship

Photo

Financial Aspects of the relationship

Social Aspects of the relationship

Birth or Age

Medical examination, evidence of intention to undergo

Photo - passport

Form 888 Stat decs from supporting witness

Address - residential

Character

Nature of the couples mutual commitment to each other

Couple are living together

Character Assessment, evidence of intention to obtain

Form 80

National Identity document other than passport (eg UK driving license)

Marriage certificate etc

Other

Hope this helps!

 

[Philip]

Thanks all.

A question on migration agents - I suppose different levels of service are available, but do you have to do everything yourself online and the agent only looks through your documents before you upload them, or is it possible for agents to access your account and do some (or even all) of the application for you?

[paulhand]

3 minutes ago, Philip said:

Thanks all.

A question on migration agents - I suppose different levels of service are available, but do you have to do everything yourself online and the agent only looks through your documents before you upload them, or is it possible for agents to access your account and do some (or even all) of the application for you?

I do the complete application for clients and lodge it from my account. Obviously, the applicant needs to provide me the required information, which is collected using an online questionnaire that covers all the information needed for the application and supporting paperwork. I also offer one-off consultations if people just have a number of questions they want answered.  

[Nemesis]

On 17/07/2022 at 09:10, Marisawright said:

You are right, the UK and Australian approaches are totally different.

The essential difference is this: 

• the UK doesn't really care whether you're a genuine couple or not, so long as you're bringing enough money with you.  
• Australia doesn't care about your financial situation, they just want to know you haven't fabricated a fake relationship to get a visa.

To be strictly accurate, you don't get "essays"  from people, you get 'statutory declarations' from people, stating that they've known you for x years and that you've been living together in a committed relationship for that period of time.  The form needs to be witnessed by a qualified person.  Here's the form they should use:

https://www.ag.gov.au/legal-system/publications/commonwealth-statutory-declaration-form

You don't need an essay from yourself. You need your marriage certificate and evidence that you've lived in a shared home for x years (a lease in joint names, or a mortgage or property in joint names).  You need evidence from your bank accounts that you are sharing common expenses. That doesn't necessarily mean a joint account, it could be evidence that you're paying some of her bills from your personal account and vice versa.  Anything you can think of, that shows how intertwined your lives are. 

If you're anxious, you can always ask a migration agent to check over your application before you submit it, which will be cheaper than getting them to do the whole thing from scratch but will give you some peace of mind.

Although not relevant in this case, this is not strictly true. A couple does need to provide some proof of the relationship, especially if it is a fairly new one, and if the partner arrives with the intention of marrying in the UK and then applying to stay, then there are also checks done by the Home Office when the request to marry is lodged. 

[Marisawright]

7 hours ago, Nemesis said:

Although not relevant in this case, this is not strictly true. 

That's interesting, because when we applied for our UK spouse visa in 2015, we supplied our marriage certificate and nothing else.

The only things they seemed to be worried about was whether we had enough money and a place to stay in the UK.

Edited July 19, 2022 by Marisawright

[Nemesis]

15 hours ago, Marisawright said:

That's interesting, because when we applied for our UK spouse visa in 2015, we supplied our marriage certificate and nothing else.

The only things they seemed to be worried about was whether we had enough money and a place to stay in the UK.

From previous posts though I think you and your partner have a long history together? 

As in the rest of my post,  A couple does need to provide some proof of the relationship, especially if it is a fairly new one, and if the partner arrives with the intention of marrying in the UK and then applying to stay, then there are also checks done by the Home Office when the request to marry is lodged. 

There are many articles and documentaries outlining the ways that the government tries to spot the bogus marriages - if possible before they happen. There are rules that the Registry Offices have to follow if a bride or groom doesn't hold a British passport, and they have to wait longer to get permission to marry. Longer established couples have it much easier except for the financial and accommodation issues. 

[Marisawright]

5 hours ago, Nemesis said:

From previous posts though I think you and your partner have a long history together? 

 

Not that long, we diidn't get together until we were 50.  I can well imagine that de facto couples or not-yet-married couples need to supply more proof, it makes sense. 

The point I was making is that people applying for the Australian partner visa still have to supply a considerable amount of evidence even if they've been married for years.   For the UK visa, the marriage certificate and financial evidence seems to be sufficient.

[can1983]

21 hours ago, Marisawright said:

That's interesting, because when we applied for our UK spouse visa in 2015, we supplied our marriage certificate and nothing else.

The only things they seemed to be worried about was whether we had enough money and a place to stay in the UK.

The UK financial requirement is a really difficult one to meet, or at least it was for me. I had to get a job from Australia interviewing over the phone so that I got a letter saying I had a job to go to. Since I hadn't seen the place I was going to work in or met the people I lasted about a month after arriving before I got a better job.

The UK system didn't think about the practicality of their dumb system. I've heard of lots of cases of people quitting these 'visa jobs' shortly after starting, not even turning up the first day or getting their parents friend to provide a fake job offer. It wastes a lot of people's time and achieves very little 

[Marisawright]

36 minutes ago, can1983 said:

The UK financial requirement is a really difficult one to meet

Indeed it is.  It's fine for older people (like us) who have investments or who have substantial equity in their home.  Younger people rarely have enough capital so they have to get a job and as you say, that's not easy.  There are many couples stuck overseas as a result.  While the UK was in the EU, it was common for couples to settle in Ireland or the British communities in Spain, which they were legally entitled to do (as an EU citizen and spouse), then they could eventually qualify to enter the UK.  That door is closed now, obviously.