Best Option for Partner Visa 309 or 820

[AmyMi]

Hi all

I am originally from the UK, but have Aussie Citizenship after living in Sydney from 2014-2019.  I relocated back to the UK two months after getting citizenship as I was in a long distance relationship with my now husband.  We now have two children and are looking to move to Australia to raise our family.  My husband is a Lithuanian citizen with settled status in the UK, having lived in London since 2000.  We need to sell our home, and our eldest son is due to start school here in September 2024, so ideally we would relocate around this time or ahead of this.

My questions are:

1. Are we best to apply for 309 visa overseas, and hope that it gets processed quite quickly.  I've seen UK applications are often being approved quickly, however, I don't know if the fact that my husband is Lithuanian, not British might affect that? Or if it's due to the office location processing the application?

2. Alternatively, we could sell the house, travel to Australia with husband on visitor visa and apply for 820 visa when on shore.  If we did this option, would he need a flight out of Australia booked to be able to be let into the country?  Also, once we apply, would he go on a bridging visa and be able to work?

Our children have/ will have citizenship by descent.  

 

Any advice welcome.

Thank you

 

[Jon the Hat]

You have a little over a year until your eldest would start school here most likely, so why not apply now?  Not much to lose honestly - as your kids will have citizenship by descent you can enter with your husband on a visitor visa later if you need to and your kids can still start school.  Chances are it will be all done and dusted by the middle of next year anyway

[Marisawright]

9 hours ago, AmyMi said:

Hi all

I am originally from the UK, but have Aussie Citizenship after living in Sydney from 2014-2019.  I relocated back to the UK two months after getting citizenship as I was in a long distance relationship with my now husband.  We now have two children and are looking to move to Australia to raise our family.  My husband is a Lithuanian citizen with settled status in the UK, having lived in London since 2000.  We need to sell our home, and our eldest son is due to start school here in September 2024, so ideally we would relocate around this time or ahead of this.

Apply now, it's highly likely you'll get the visa long before September next year.  

[rammygirl]

How long before your husband can get British citizenship?  His settled status will lapse after a while and spouse visas for the UK are harder to get nowadays.  You never know. People do end up returning to the UK. 

Edited November 27, 2023 by rammygirl

[AmyMi]

Thank you @rammygirl i actually hadn't considered his settled status lapsing. Very grateful to you for highlighting that.  He is eligible for British citizenship, but cannot have dual citizenship with Lithuanian. 

 

 

[Marisawright]

17 minutes ago, AmyMi said:

Thank you @rammygirl i actually hadn't considered his settled status lapsing. Very grateful to you for highlighting that.  He is eligible for British citizenship, but cannot have dual citizenship with Lithuanian. 

In that case, do give it careful thought.  It is much more difficult to get a spouse visa for the UK than it is to get a spouse visa for Australia -- and if you decide to return home in a few years' time, it's likely to be even more difficult.    The biggest hurdle is that you must meet a financial requirement which, of course, is raised from time to time.

[BendigoBoy]

35 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

In that case, do give it careful thought.  It is much more difficult to get a spouse visa for the UK than it is to get a spouse visa for Australia -- and if you decide to return home in a few years' time, it's likely to be even more difficult.    The biggest hurdle is that you must meet a financial requirement which, of course, is raised from time to time.

Truesay, but in a few years' time, it could very well be far more appealing for someone jumping back to the northern hemisphere to settle in the EU rather than the UK - something that's lost if that Lithuanian citizenship was to be yielded up.

[Marisawright]

51 minutes ago, BendigoBoy said:

Truesay, but in a few years' time, it could very well be far more appealing for someone jumping back to the northern hemisphere to settle in the EU rather than the UK - something that's lost if that Lithuanian citizenship was to be yielded up.

Very true

[Philip]

Although we could have done the tourist>bridging>onshore route, we decided to get my wife's visa in the UK.

This is because all the evidence we needed for the visa was in the UK. Any physical documents have to be scanned in. If we were going for the 820, we would have needed to scan them in advance and if doing that, why not just apply straight away. Or else we would have had to bring all the documents to Australia, a difficult task, not to mention having to go back to the UK if they wanted some other document that we didn't bring. You will also need character statements from friends/family and the best people to do this for us were in the UK.

And if you have started living in Australia then you need documents from Australia which may be impossible to get as a tourist.

In the end the 309/100 visa took much less time than we thought it would. Once we arrived in Australia with my wife being a PR, we could get started on everything straight away e.g. bank account, driving licence, medicare, buying property. With a temporary/visitor status and not knowing how long the permanent visa might take, these would be difficult and require extra steps in the future.

We also considered bringing our son on a tourist visa and then applying for his Australian citizenship by descent after arrival. As we planned not to leave Australia for around 1-2 years he would not have been obliged to get an Australian passport until later, saving some money, but we decided that was a false economy.

 

 

Lithuania will hold a referendum on multiple citizenship in May 2024.

Around 75% or more of Lithuanians seem to be in favour of allowing it, as a similar referendum was held in 2019, which only failed because it required a yes vote from 50% of the electorate. It appears the upcoming referendum will be mandatory. Assuming a yes vote, it will still take some time for laws to be updated.

If your eldest son is meant to start English school in September 2024, he may not need to start NSW school until February 2026. He would have the option to start in February 2025. So if the aim is to start school with the rest of the cohort, then you might still have time for your husband to get British citizenship if it all works out. The UK citizenship application does ask you where you intend to live and I don't know if answering Australia has a negative effect...

 

 

[Nemesis]

6 hours ago, Philip said:

In the end the 309/100 visa took much less time than we thought it would. Once we arrived in Australia with my wife being a PR, we could get started on everything straight away e.g. bank account, driving licence, medicare, buying property. With a temporary/visitor status and not knowing how long the permanent visa might take, these would be difficult and require extra steps in the future.

We also considered bringing our son on a tourist visa and then applying for his Australian citizenship by descent after arrival. As we planned not to leave Australia for around 1-2 years he would not have been obliged to get an Australian passport until later, saving some money, but we decided that was a false economy.

 

Just for anyone else reading this, holding a temporary visa like a 309 on arrival is no barrier to any of the items mentioned. Not so easy for some things as a tourist (though I had no problems opening a bank account as a tourist).

[Marisawright]

16 minutes ago, Nemesis said:

Just for anyone else reading this, holding a temporary visa like a 309 on arrival is no barrier to any of the items mentioned. Not so easy for some things as a tourist (though I had no problems opening a bank account as a tourist).

I think that was the point of the post.  Philip decided to apply for the 309 offshore (and wait for it be granted) rather than travel on a tourist visa and apply onshore, for precisely that reason.    

[Nemesis]

11 hours ago, Marisawright said:

I think that was the point of the post.  Philip decided to apply for the 309 offshore (and wait for it be granted) rather than travel on a tourist visa and apply onshore, for precisely that reason.    

And the point of my post was to distinguish between the 309 temporary/provisional visa and a tourist visa.