Guest kurtsarah Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 Hi there, I'm sure you've probably read a thousand of these posts, but I've been reading for hours and can't seem to put together a solid answer to my questions. My partner (Sarah who is the pom and was here in oz originally on a WHV) and I applied for a de facto partner visa may last year. Our app was last minute and probably not put together very well as it was also a very stressful time. We didn't send any police checks or medical checks with the application as we were told it was ok to send later on. Almost a year later and with a joint decision to move to the UK this year for a year, Sarah has rang DIAC and been informed ours is due for review in May. She has started chasing up a health assessment and police checks. My questions are: 1. whether she actually needs a health assessment (the DIAC website says she may be asked to, but hasn't). If so how long the results generally take to be sent to DIAC. 2. what police checks she needs, I'm already assuming a UK one which she is applying for online. What about an Aus one? And what's this I've read about fingerprints? 3. if we have to get these and send them off and they aren't back until after May will it delay our application by a long time? 4. why haven't we heard about a Case Officer? 5. we sent our application off when we had only lived together for 11months, since then we have completed an entire year lease with electricity bills and etc to prove it. will the early app matter? 6. she is temporarily living at a friends place as our lease just expired and i'm overseas serving on an army deployment, will this impact things? 7. lastly on the phone DIAC said if the temp visa is granted she only has to wait a year for the permanent one, what if we are out of the country at that time? Also FYI, we're in Townsville, applied to the Brisbane office by post and was granted a bridging visa A with no work restrictions, and later changed to a bridging visa B so she could spend last christmas at home with her family. Thanks in advance for any help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peach Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 My questions are: 1. whether she actually needs a health assessment (the DIAC website says she may be asked to, but hasn't). If so how long the results generally take to be sent to DIAC. Yes she will need a medical. No idea how long it takes onshore to return the results sorry. 2. what police checks she needs, I'm already assuming a UK one which she is applying for online. What about an Aus one? And what's this I've read about fingerprints? She will need an Australian and a UK police check (and any other country she has lived in for 12 months or more). Finger prints are not required, but some countries (e.g. US) include them. 3. if we have to get these and send them off and they aren't back until after May will it delay our application by a long time? Can't answer this, DIAC are a law unto themselves. 4. why haven't we heard about a Case Officer? It sounds like you won't have a case officer until they review the application in May. 5. we sent our application off when we had only lived together for 11months, since then we have completed an entire year lease with electricity bills and etc to prove it. will the early app matter? This could be a show stopper. Doesn't matter if you lived together or not, but did you show evidence of a 12 month defacto relationship? DIAC could reject the application on the basis that you did not meet the criteria at time of application. 6. she is temporarily living at a friends place as our lease just expired and i'm overseas serving on an army deployment, will this impact things? This wouldn't be a problem, time apart for job reasons is fine. 7. lastly on the phone DIAC said if the temp visa is granted she only has to wait a year for the permanent one, what if we are out of the country at that time? You just need to keep DIAC informed with a contact address, so they can get hold of you at the time the PR visa is processed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cez Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 Yeah she'll most likely need a medical check, it's worth getting that done ASAP. She will need an AFP police check as well as a UK check, you don't need to have the fingerprints thingo done though. You might never hear that you've got a case officer - I was given my visa after 11.5 months and was never told I even had a case officer! It shouldn't matter that you're living apart at the moment if it's because you're in the army - things like that are perfectly understandable. Finally, you need to keep Immigration updated with your new addresses, it doesn't matter if you'll be living overseas when your missus can apply for her permanent visa, as long as Immigration know where to send the forms! For the permanent visa you can apply onshore of offshore - it doesnt matter that you applied onshore for your temporary visa. Good luck, hopefully shouldn't be too much longer for you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boganbear Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 You have to wait 2 years for a permanent visa, not 1 year and I think you have to be in Australia when it is granted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kurtsarah Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 5. we sent our application off when we had onlylived together for 11months, since then we have completed an entire year lease with electricity bills and etc to prove it. will the early app matter?This could be a show stopper. Doesn't matter if you lived together or not, but did you show evidence of a 12 month defacto relationship? DIAC could reject the application on the basis that you did not meet the criteria at time of application. Really so even though we've been together for almost 3 years now? I can't even remember what our initial application showed, it was so last minute. I'm gonna lose my **** if they reject this after the money we've spent, the stress it's put us through and all this time. I hate DIAC so much. Surely evidence of an ongoing relationship since applying would be sufficient in an appeal or something? If it is rejected, what then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peach Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 As I say, it depends on whether you submitted evidence to show the relationship going back three years. If your first piece of evidence was a lease agreement that was 11 months old at the time you submitted your application, chances are you will be asked for more evidence to prove the length of the relationship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cez Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 You have to wait 2 years for a permanent visa, not 1 year and I think you have to be in Australia when it is granted But if they lodged in May 2011 and get granted the visa in May 2012, then it'll only be another year till the permanent visa is granted (May 2013), I guess this is what immi meant? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kurtsarah Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 As I say, it depends on whether you submitted evidence to show the relationship going back three years. If your first piece of evidence was a lease agreement that was 11 months old at the time you submitted your application, chances are you will be asked for more evidence to prove the length of the relationship. No, we didn't submit that much evidence, we've only been together almost three years now, in June actually. What I was asking is, say we were shy of 12months relationship evidence, will they take into account that we are well and truly past the requirements now? Will we be allowed to show evidence of an ongoing relationship? I've got phone bills from my time here on deployment where the only number I have texted or called is hers. She's listed as my de facto in the Army. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peach Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 You needed to to show you were eligible for the visa at the point you applied, your status now does not count. They are most likely to ask for more evidence to prove you were eligible. If you cannot convince them of the relationships length prior to your application the visa will be rejected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kurtsarah Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 You needed to to show you were eligible for the visa at the point you applied, your status now does not count. They are most likely to ask for more evidence to prove you were eligible. If you cannot convince them of the relationships length prior to your application the visa will be rejected. Ok, what options do we have, is there someway to restart the application? QLD now offer the ability to register civil partnerships which they didn't when we applied. If it's rejected, can we reapply? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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