I am sure everyone gets nervous about the interview. I know I did when I went for a defacto visa. To help people prepare, I thought I would start this thread for people to post what questions what the immigration officer asked you or your partner in the interview.

If you have any questions about visas or the interview, please don't post them here - start a new thread.

__________________
Please post your visa application details in the visa timeline threads - Skilled visa applications Spouse/Defacto applications

I am an australian citizen and my partner is French. We are currently living together in France and applied for an offshore de facto visa.
A few weeks ago he had his phone interview, here are some of the questions they asked him in a 20 minute interview:

Where did you meet?
What do you do now?
What are your plans for when you are in Australia?
When are you intending on moving to Australia?
Does your sponsor live with you now?
What will you do for work once in Australia?
What are the daily duties within your household?
Who contributes to the daily spendings?
etc.

The questions basically covered everything in the initial forms (40sp and 47sp)

I am croatian citizen,my husband is australian.I applied for spouse visa.
Last week I had an interview.

These are some questions that I was asked by my CO:

My name,date of birth?
Husbands name,date of birth?
Does he has any brothers or sisters?
What he is doing for living,what kind of job?
When and were we met?
How our relationship begin?
Why we decided to get married?
What will I do when I come to Australia?
Who is supporting me now? (I am waiting visa here in Croatia, he is in Australia)
How many times were I in Australia?
Have I met my husbands relatives?
How we are in contact,now when we are apart from each other?

Interview lasted for about 30 minutes.

The questions basically covered everything in the initial forms (40sp and 47sp)

I met my husband in a train in Australia.

The first question the CO asked in the interview was: Do you usually give your number out to strangers?
And i was like WTF? How can she ask that? Is she implying i'm cheap? It's Australia for god's sake. The CO was from Bangladesh (the country which my husband is from and where we are now awaiting for the visa to be granted so we could come back to Australia), so she might've thought that was only something a cheap girl would do. Just because her marriage was arranged and she saw her husband for the first time on the wedding night.

The rest were stupid questions - Another one, why didn't your mother let you guys stay at her house after marriage? Pfffft well maybe cos she wants her privacy, and when people get married they move out of home! I don't know ASK HER! Just because in the CO's culture generations upon generations live together in one house - can't believe people get paid to do this stuff.

As my application was personally lodged in Berlin, I was ask to tell the CO about my relationship and how i got to meet my partner. Cant remember any specific questions it was more like going through my application and giving explanations to bills, photos and letters.

Hope that helps Sonny

PS: @Amandy: hope you learn a little more patience with partners cultural background in the future...

Defacto Visa, Offshore
Nationality: Canadian (australian defacto)
Phone interview conducted in the U.S.A

I was asked:

Basic identifying questions (my name, my defacto's name, date of birth, about his family, where he is emplyed, etc)
Where we met
How long we had been living together (this was a case specific question for me since my Defacto and I have a rather complicated history)
When did our defacto relationship start
What i intend to do for work once i get to australia
If we had any major purchases together
Why do i think this is a "spouse like" reltionship (its a lot harder to answer than you would think, especially when your on the spot like that!)
What did i think would happen if my visa got refused (yikes!)


I think that's it.... best advice i can give anyone--just say calm and dont worry about it. I wrote down some fates for myself too to have handy since my Defacto and I's history is complicated and has a whole bunch of dates in it. Ther is no harm in doing that for yourself if it will make you feel better. If you forget something (i did, i forgot one of my dates...) just say that your not sure and give an estimate. Immi people are people and they know that sometimes people forget exctly when stuff happens.

Good luck to everybody waiting for an interview!

@ Sonny - Patience with what and whom?

The questions I was asked were personal attacks and even if there is a cultural difference between the CO and myself, it shouldn't be expressed in an interview. Also, why the hell is she working in an AUSTRALIAN EMBASSY!
My partner's cultural background and mine are extremely similar, but what has it got to do with anything. In my culture it is deemed inappropriate to give numbers out to random people, but who cares, when you are blinded by damn good looks and when your heart connects with someone, no one thinks about right and wrong!

I personally think culture should not be judged when in an interview for a visa. That is too personal.

The following are the Questions that mostly asked in the Embassy during the interview. So you must prepare yourself about all these questions before going for an interview.

• Who is your sponsor?
• What proof do you have that your sponsor?
• Source of income of your sponsor?
• How are you related to him?

__________________
Australia Immigration Service
Australia Visa | Work in Australia
Travel Guide to Australia

Hi guys,
Has anyone had any experience in 'permanent residency' interviews? My girlfriend has her interview next week... what sort of questions do they ask?

The rest of my story is here if anyone can help with that as well.
Urgent help needed please / PR interview / de facto relationship

Thanks.

Hi,
Has anyone had any experience in 'permanent residency' interviews? My gf has hers next week and is a bit nervous.
What types of questions can she expect to have in her interview?

Are the interviewers usually friendly or it just depends?

Thanks