Partner Visa Queries

[ChrisAC]

Good evening all,

I'm hoping to get a little bit of advice regarding the partner visas.

I am a dual Brit/Aus citizen and I am hoping to bring my wife and child over to Australia in a few years time. My wife and I have been together for around 8 years, lived together for 7 years and married for over 2 years, we have a son who is nearly 1. 

Because we have time I expect we'll do an offshore application (309/100) rather than risking an onshore application, it is my understanding that once the visa is granted, we then have 1 year to travel to Australia to activate the visa, but then can travel freely from Australia for 5 years. 

I am just wondering whether you are required to remain a resident in Australia a certain amount of time in the 5 years? Our plan would be to initially come over for 1-2 years, and then maybe return home for a similar amount of time before making a decision whether to make the big move or not.

Would this be possible? Or will we need to commit our lives to Australia on this visa? Are there any other visa options that could work?

Also, regarding the partner visa, is it correct that sometimes a permanent visa is issued right away? Rather than after 2 years? If she was on a temporary visa, would this potentially affect our plans to return home during the 5 years?

Thanks in advance

 

 

[FirstWorldProblems]

I’ll take the easy question first. Yes 100 visas can be issued at the same time as 309. Mine was earlier this year.  I don’t know what the criteria is for this, but in my case we’ve been married over 20 years which I’d imagined played a part. 
 

Yes, 1 year to activate and yes you can travel freely for 5 years from date of grant (not activation).  After 5 years your wife would not have an automatic right to enter Australia again if she were to travel overseas.  A Resident Return Visa is apparently straightforward to obtain and would allow that re-entry. 
 

One point to note though is when applying for citizenship you have to have lived in australia for 4 years and not have been absent more than a year.  So with the plan you’ve outlined you could find yourselves dependant on being granted the RRV for several years  

 

General residence requirement

To be eligible to apply for Australian citizenship by conferral, you must meet the general residence requirement:

• have been living in Australia on a valid visa for 4 years immediately before the day you apply
• hold a permanent visa or a Special Category (subclass 444) visa for the last 12 months immediately before the day you apply and
• not have been absent from Australia for more than 12 months in the past 4 years, including no more than 90 days in the 12 months immediately before applying.

https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/help-support/tools/residence-calculator#:~:text=To be eligible to apply,before the day you apply
 

I’m not a migration agent - just a guy on the internet who thinks he understands this topic a little bit, so you might want to engage an expert to avoid any pitfalls.  There are several on this site who are highly thought of. 

 

[Nemesis]

28 minutes ago, FirstWorldProblems said:

I’ll take the easy question first. Yes 100 visas can be issued at the same time as 309. Mine was earlier this year.  I don’t know what the criteria is for this, but in my case we’ve been married over 20 years which I’d imagined played a part. 

 

The criteria is 3 years together as a couple without children, or two years together if you have children

[ChrisAC]

Thanks a lot both for your answers.

It seems that a Resident Return Visa would be necessary to extend after the 5 years, I have checked the requirements and it seems she would have to be resident in Australia for at least 2 of the 5 years in order to get the full 5 year extension.

The other potential option we may have would be a 12 month visitor visa (600), either the tourist stream or sponsored family stream.  I understand she would not be able to work but it would be a lot cheaper and only take a few days. Does anyone have any experience of using this visa? It's just it says she must be a 'genuine visitor'. Would she be a genuine visitor if we were visiting with the view to moving there permanently one day? 

Thanks again to anyone that can help

 

[Nemesis]

13 minutes ago, ChrisAC said:

Thanks a lot both for your answers.

It seems that a Resident Return Visa would be necessary to extend after the 5 years, I have checked the requirements and it seems she would have to be resident in Australia for at least 2 of the 5 years in order to get the full 5 year extension.

The other potential option we may have would be a 12 month visitor visa (600), either the tourist stream or sponsored family stream.  I understand she would not be able to work but it would be a lot cheaper and only take a few days. Does anyone have any experience of using this visa? It's just it says she must be a 'genuine visitor'. Would she be a genuine visitor if we were visiting with the view to moving there permanently one day? 

Thanks again to anyone that can help

 

As long as she is intending to leave again at the end of the visit, as evidenced by home, job etc in the UK (or other hoe nation) then that makes her a genuine visitor. Planning to apply for PR, possibly, at some point in the future, isn't relevant.

[wrussell]

Family sponsored visitor visas have a mandatory - no further stay -condition imposed.

[Alan Collett]

On 25/08/2023 at 07:03, ChrisAC said:

Good evening all,

I'm hoping to get a little bit of advice regarding the partner visas.

I am a dual Brit/Aus citizen and I am hoping to bring my wife and child over to Australia in a few years time. My wife and I have been together for around 8 years, lived together for 7 years and married for over 2 years, we have a son who is nearly 1. 

Because we have time I expect we'll do an offshore application (309/100) rather than risking an onshore application, it is my understanding that once the visa is granted, we then have 1 year to travel to Australia to activate the visa, but then can travel freely from Australia for 5 years. 

I am just wondering whether you are required to remain a resident in Australia a certain amount of time in the 5 years? Our plan would be to initially come over for 1-2 years, and then maybe return home for a similar amount of time before making a decision whether to make the big move or not.

Would this be possible? Or will we need to commit our lives to Australia on this visa? Are there any other visa options that could work?

Also, regarding the partner visa, is it correct that sometimes a permanent visa is issued right away? Rather than after 2 years? If she was on a temporary visa, would this potentially affect our plans to return home during the 5 years?

Thanks in advance

 

 

Hi ChrisAC.

In case of interest here are some stats for a sample of our recent partner visa applicatons submitted for UK based clients:

 

Best regards.

 

 

Edited September 15, 2023 by Alan Collett

[can1983]

On 15/09/2023 at 11:11, Alan Collett said:

Hi ChrisAC.

In case of interest here are some stats for a sample of our recent partner visa applicatons submitted for UK based clients:

 

Best regards.

 

 

By immigration standards these times are breathtakingly quick. Must be really well presented/documented and simple cases.

I think i managed 4 months myself in 2017 but thats a world ago now...

[Alan Collett]

16 minutes ago, can1983 said:

By immigration standards these times are breathtakingly quick. Must be really well presented/documented and simple cases.

I think i managed 4 months myself in 2017 but thats a world ago now...

Lodging a complete decision ready application is the key.

Not necessarily simple ...

Best regards.

[FirstWorldProblems]

Yep. I did mine myself. 50+ hours of work went into a fully loaded application. 60 or so pieces of evidence. Grant was 5 weeks later - could have been less if I hadn’t waited a few weeks to get the medical done. 

Edited September 20, 2023 by FirstWorldProblems

[Madworld]

On 20/09/2023 at 07:27, FirstWorldProblems said:

Yep. I did mine myself. 50+ hours of work went into a fully loaded application. 60 or so pieces of evidence. Grant was 5 weeks later - could have been less if I hadn’t waited a few weeks to get the medical done. 

I'm a dual Aussie/Brit citizen and my husband is a UK citizen, we've lived together for 12 years and married this time last year.  We are in the UK and applying for the 309/100 partner visa, also doing it ourselves and hoping to have it fully loaded too before we hit the submit button - just waiting on a couple of letters from friends/family and my hubby's UK police check.  We've lived in the UK all of these years - will I, as his sponsor, also need to get a UK police check? and will he need the medical check or shall we wait until he's asked to do it after submission?  

On the document upload, there is a restriction of 100 docs - I know that seems a lot but once you get the evidence together it all adds up - is it ok to pdf iscans of cards (birthday, Christmas, wedding etc.) as send it as 1 doc (with lots of pages) or do they all need to be scanned individually?  We don't have joint bank accounts/mortgage/utility bills so will have to scan individual bank statements, utility bills etc. showing transfers/payments between us and the bills as well as travel docs etc instead to show joint evidence.  Am I right in assuming if they span the years we've been together it will be sufficient evidence?

Thanks for any suggestions/help!

[paulhand]

9 hours ago, Madworld said:

 We've lived in the UK all of these years - will I, as his sponsor, also need to get a UK police check? 

Yes, you will. 
 

I don’t think I have ever uploaded more than around 40 documents, usually less. You can combine things into logically grouped pdf files. 

[Madworld]

Thanks for the reply Paul.  Will get on it then.

[wrussell]

An 801 application is invalid if an applicant does not hold an 820. Some delegates who intend to proceed immediately from an 820 grant to an 801 grant do not inform applicants about the 820 grant, and some do. This sometimes creates confusion.

[Jon the Hat]

On 21/04/2024 at 06:22, Madworld said:

On the document upload, there is a restriction of 100 docs - I know that seems a lot but once you get the evidence together it all adds up - is it ok to pdf iscans of cards (birthday, Christmas, wedding etc.) as send it as 1 doc (with lots of pages) or do they all need to be scanned individually?  We don't have joint bank accounts/mortgage/utility bills so will have to scan individual bank statements, utility bills etc. showing transfers/payments between us and the bills as well as travel docs etc instead to show joint evidence.  Am I right in assuming if they span the years we've been together it will be sufficient evidence?

Thanks for any suggestions/help!

Absolutely - group all like documents, and call them B Jone Bank statement.pdf, Pics of joint travel .pdf and so on.  Will speed things up too!  Imagine you are the person reviewing all this and make it as easy as you can for them.

[AliG]

On 25/08/2023 at 15:25, ChrisAC said:

Thanks a lot both for your answers.

It seems that a Resident Return Visa would be necessary to extend after the 5 years, I have checked the requirements and it seems she would have to be resident in Australia for at least 2 of the 5 years in order to get the full 5 year extension.

The other potential option we may have would be a 12 month visitor visa (600), either the tourist stream or sponsored family stream.  I understand she would not be able to work but it would be a lot cheaper and only take a few days. Does anyone have any experience of using this visa? It's just it says she must be a 'genuine visitor'. Would she be a genuine visitor if we were visiting with the view to moving there permanently one day? 

Thanks again to anyone that can help

 

No idea whether a Visitor Visa is appropriate in the circumstances but I imagine you wouldn't be covered for medical or other public services on a visitor visa so you might save on visa costs but incur additional costs elsewhere...