fnb71 Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Happy New Year! I’m a PIO newbie and have found the site to be a great source of information. I intend to lodge a partner application in the UK at the end of March 2012 and wish to travel to Australia before the 8th of April (which is the last date of entry allowed on my current 676 tourist visa). My OH is my sponsor and has a 176 visa with PR, we have been together nearly 4 years. It has been suggested that I front load the application with police checks and medicals (which I intend to do) and to notify the High Commission in London of my intention to travel at time of lodgement. Would it be better to discuss this face to face ie deliver the application in person or is it fine to make notes of my travel plans and submit a posted application? I would like to book flights to Australia before lodgement but do not wish to jeopardise my application by doing something wrong. My reason for travel is purely to visit friends and family in Australia. I do not intend to work and will have a return flight. Is there any reason that I would not be allowed to travel to Australia while my application is being processed? Any guidance/feedback offered will be most appreciated. cheers Fiona :smile: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peach Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Hi, I would just write a covering letter and post your application in. You are very unlikely to come in to contact with anyone that can do anything more than accept your application and take payment if you make a personal visit to Australia House. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GeorgeD Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 There are no problems with traveilling to Australia while your partner visa application is being processed. Your Case Officer just needs to know you are in Australia so they don't grant your visa while you are onshore as this would invalidate it. You need to be offshore for a visa applied for offshore to be granted. Your CO doesn't give you permission to travel, this is not their role...they are just interested in your whereabouts when they want to contact you to ask for further info if required, and make sure you are offshore when they come to grant. I travelled to Oz on a 3 month eTourist visa while my Offshore 309 was being processed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoandJon Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 As the others said - shouldnt be a problem so long as u have a return flight. But you prob should check if u have a 'no further stay' condition on the tourist visa as that might be complicated and could be worth seeking advice on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peach Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 But you prob should check if u have a 'no further stay' condition on the tourist visa as that might be complicated and could be worth seeking advice on. This won't matter as she has applied offshore - she couldn't bridge anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boganbear Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Unless you are going to visit a dying relative or some other serious reason, it looks rather dodgy and I wouldn't advise doing what you are planning. It is rather presumptuous to apply for a partner visa and go before it is approved. Your application could be rejected for a whole number of reasons or it may take a lot longer to process than you think. If you are going to visit friends or family why can't you wait until the visa is approved and then visit them knowing you are legal? You won't have to pay for a return flight and then another flight back to Australia. Hopefully on a partner visa it won't take too long to get approval. It only took 6 weeks from sending the application to getting the visa and another 6 weeks to to sell everything and go. We booked flights after the visa was granted and had no problems getting them for a reasonable price. You can then spend all the time you want seeing your friends and relatives. We has a 3 month "holiday" staying with family and seeing the sights before settling down and finding a house, job etc and I would highly recommend it. Moving was stressful enough so you will need a break. Sometimes you just need to be patient. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peach Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Unless you are going to visit a dying relative or some other serious reason, it looks rather dodgy and I wouldn't advise doing what you are planning. It is rather presumptuous to apply for a partner visa and go before it is approved. Your application could be rejected for a whole number of reasons or it may take a lot longer to process than you think. If you are going to visit friends or family why can't you wait until the visa is approved and then visit them knowing you are legal? You won't have to pay for a return flight and then another flight back to Australia. Hopefully on a partner visa it won't take too long to get approval. It only took 6 weeks from sending the application to getting the visa and another 6 weeks to to sell everything and go. We booked flights after the visa was granted and had no problems getting them for a reasonable price. You can then spend all the time you want seeing your friends and relatives. We has a 3 month "holiday" staying with family and seeing the sights before settling down and finding a house, job etc and I would highly recommend it. Moving was stressful enough so you will need a break. Sometimes you just need to be patient. Sometimes you need to understand that these days it takes up to six months for a partner visa to get approved and not everybody wants to be apart that long. It is perfectly legitmate to make a visit to Australia while your partner visa is being processed - having applied offshore the OP will need to leave and re-enter Australia anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellieboots Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 The only issue I can see with this is that if you lodge at end of March, an 8 April arrival is very close to your lodgement date and you may not have had your application acknowledged and been allocated a CO yet. That is not a disaster, but might make it a bit more stressful in terms of trying to get hold of someone at Aus House and advise them of your travel plans. Is there any chance you could lodge a little earlier (even just a week or so) to be comfortable that you could get everything in and acknowledged and send off an email to a CO before you need to come over. But I agree with everyone else, it is not dodgy or wrong to travel to Oz while awaiting the outcome of a partner visa, provided that your CO knows about it - I did it and so do a lot of others, for all sorts of reasons... Good luck with it all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boganbear Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Sometimes you need to understand that these days it takes up to six months for a partner visa to get approved and not everybody wants to be apart that long. It is perfectly legitmate to make a visit to Australia while your partner visa is being processed - having applied offshore the OP will need to leave and re-enter Australia anyway. I realise this and waiting times are longer than when I got my visa and that there is nothing intrinsically wrong with travelling to oz whilst waiting for the visa but it would seem to add a lot of additional expense with flights and as I mentioned, there could be a lot of reasons why the application could be delayed, queried or possibly refused. Six months is not very long to be apart anyway. I did 2 years apart whilst at university and my parents were apart for their entire engagement and first year of marriage - nearly 3 years in total. I would find it more stressful waiting for the approval in Australia knowing it could be refused or run the risk of being deported or having to go back to the Uk to get the visa aproval then come back again or they could wait a few months more, save some more money and not waste it on unecessary flights going around the world to see people they can see once they get to Oz for good. The situation seems rather like buying a house before the bank has approved the mortgage - very risky and has serious consequences if it goes wrong or you could wait a bit longer for approval and everything goes right. It seems a bit of a no brainer to me but the OP will have to decide the pros and cons of their options. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrussell Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 Happy New Year! I’m a PIO newbie and have found the site to be a great source of information. I intend to lodge a partner application in the UK at the end of March 2012 and wish to travel to Australia before the 8th of April (which is the last date of entry allowed on my current 676 tourist visa). My OH is my sponsor and has a 176 visa with PR, we have been together nearly 4 years. It has been suggested that I front load the application with police checks and medicals (which I intend to do) and to notify the High Commission in London of my intention to travel at time of lodgement. Would it be better to discuss this face to face ie deliver the application in person or is it fine to make notes of my travel plans and submit a posted application? I would like to book flights to Australia before lodgement but do not wish to jeopardise my application by doing something wrong. My reason for travel is purely to visit friends and family in Australia. I do not intend to work and will have a return flight. Is there any reason that I would not be allowed to travel to Australia while my application is being processed? Any guidance/feedback offered will be most appreciated. cheers Fiona :smile: May I suggest you consult a registered migration agent about visa strategy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fnb71 Posted January 6, 2012 Author Share Posted January 6, 2012 Thank you all for your frank advice, it's most appreciated. I will collate all paperwork and submit the application as soon as I can. :hug: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GeorgeD Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 You can apply offshore for a Spouse Visa and then enter Australia on another visa. Just like every other time every single person enters Australia, the visa they posses must be the most appropriate visa for the purpose of their trip. If you are going to Australia to visit friends and family then a tourist visa is the correct visa for entering and remaining there on the conditions of that visa. The fact you have applied for another type of visa and that application is being processed has no bearing on your eligibility for entry on a different, valid visa. Your tourist visa will have a maximum period of time you can spend in the country...for example, 3, 6 or 12 months. As long as you don't breach any of the conditions of that visa, then there is no reason whatsoever for you to be deported or for it to affect your Spouse Visa application. If you overstay your visa or work on a tourist visa, then you'll be in trouble, but if you stick to the conditions then you're fine. For the Offshore Spouse visa to be granted then you need to be offshore anyway. You don't need to go back to the UK...you just need to be outside of Australia at time of grant. Bali or NZ would be fine. From my own experience...I went for 10 weeks during my wait. Sure it was good to be with my wife, but cabin fever set in also! It is no good when your partner goes out to work and you are left on your own all day. When you have work rights you can get a job and meet people. It's really difficult when you can't. It might actually make starting life in a new country a lot harder if you go there and become totally reliant both financially and socially on your partner. I came back to the UK and when my visa was granted I found a job within four weeks of landing, this made life so much easier for me. I don't think I could keep my sanity not working for so long and my partner out working. Just because you can go and spend time together in Oz doesn't mean it is necessarily the best thing to do! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fnb71 Posted January 6, 2012 Author Share Posted January 6, 2012 Thanks for letting me know the pros & cons from your own experience George and for the sound advice also, most appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellieboots Posted January 6, 2012 Share Posted January 6, 2012 I agree with George - although I did come out on a tourist visa during my application process it was only for 2 and a half weeks for a family birthday party and had been booked prior to lodging the visa application. My scenario was a bit different because OH and I were both living in the UK and both just came here on holiday at that time. nd After we landed when we came out on the spouse visa, I had work rights straightaway, and was able to have some time to settle (and go to New Zealand for my brother's wedding and a bit of a holiday) and then I got a job and started 6 weeks later. It was all pretty easy - we know a friend of a friend who brought his wife out on a tourist visa then applied onshore for a spouse visa (I know this is different to what you are planning) and she is SO BORED, can't work, stuck in the house all day, and they have needed to leave the country every 3 months because she's on an evisitor and can only stay for 3 months at a time, they thought it would be easier but I have to say I think I was better off, even though I waited longer to come out it was not as stressful as that! Best of luck with whatever you decide and ask as many questions as you need to, lots of us have been there... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fnb71 Posted January 9, 2012 Author Share Posted January 9, 2012 Thanks for your comments wellieboots, most appreciated. :biggrin: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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