The 12 month rule (Spouse subclass 309) - Annoyance

[Guest Thelostsurfer]

Hi guys this site has been useful to me so far so I thought I'd give it another crack

 

My partner and I have been together for over 4 years, my parents moved to Australia 6 months into our relationhip - I moved back to the UK to be with her and from then on we were living together. We decided that Australia was the better option in life so we left last year to come here, she on a WHV. We lived together until March this year, in which she had to go back to the UK to tie up loose ends. I stayed in order to get closer to my Citizenship, buy a car, renovate a Garage and so on - Whilst there she has had job struggles and family problems - Thats now sorted and we are going to go for the Spouse Visa (309) this month - We've hit a snag with the 12 month rule though - We can highly demonstrate that we have been together for the last 4 years through bank statements, pictures, cards, stat decs etc, and we can prove she was living with me up until she left. The problem is, is since she's been gone, we've mainly used MSN, Skype and Email - I have no records of the MSN and Skype records (On our own stupid part) but do have the Emails (Success at last) - It's only been the last month or so we've used the phone. I spoke to someone on the Immi phoneline, and they were pretty ignorant and didn't seem like they wanted to talk so I thought I'd ask here =) Is this going to be as big an issue as I'm fearing - I can throw emails at them but is the CO likely to care and shoot it down because it's just email? Our family and friends can state that they know of our constant contact and our future plans, so that's alright - but we are obviously worried that all of the things we have went through to be together in Oz (Ie having to be apart) will be pointless as they will just look at the almost 6 month gap we've had - We are both only 21 (almost) so have no real financial commitments, we just did everything together and took life as it came but we have plenty of evidence that we are a genuine couple. Has anyone else had a similar issue? And am I looking far too much into this? Because it's making us hesitatnt to put our money towards it, when I could just go back to the UK with it (not what we want to do at all). I'm not sure what to do now because it's just too worrying to get yourself built up for a big knockdown... Any thoughts, advice etc would be kindly appreciated

[Happy Lass]

E-mails *do* count.

[Guest Lanabanana]

Hi there

I haven't been in the exact same position as you but the emails will count. Also, you can probably provide evidence via phone bill of phone contact.

I would get someone from your family, or a close friend to write a small letter stating that you are a couple.

However, unless it specifically asks if you spent time apart, I wouldn't bring it to their attention. Being immigration they will know but if you can provide evidence that there is a long relationship history then I don't think it will be much of an issue. Just provide evidence for the 4 years previous to the time spent separately and evidence of the time now.

 

Applying for Visas is a pain in the bottom. My partner and I have had to do it twice now. Both times to allow him entry to a country so we have the process downpat now but it still can be stressful wondering if you have covered everything.

 

Good luck.

[Guest Thelostsurfer]

Thanks for your input, its greatly appreciated Well I'm glad the emails will count, I'll be able to sort them out now! The thing is, when it comes to the phone bill, I don't have much evidence, we were speaking on skype practically all the time up until a month ago, when it decided to pack in (Her computer) so its only been since the beginning of Augsut really that we've been using the phone, roughly 4 or 5 times a week. We have people set up to do the Stat decs for us, and they will state that they know we've been in regular contact and sorting out our respective aspects of the visa etc - It's just frustrating, because we always speak, but because its Skype and I can't prove it, we might get rejected, the only reason we used it was because it was free. It just sucks to think that 4 years of a happy relationship could be tainted because of 5 months of missing conversation! I guess we're gonna find out, she has her medical booked for the 24th and police checks should be back soon, so its going to be frontloaded, I just hope to God that we get it, I hate the thought of going back to the UK