Very Unofficial Defacto Visa Tips

I learned a whole lot about this Visa while going through the process myself. My application was “unusual” in that I had many unique circumstances and problems to deal with—we had no real joint assets/neat financial evidence, we had no neat proof of living together, and we had to put evidence together while he was in Australia and I was in the U.S.A. So here are some tips that I learned along the way which I hope might help you out too!

Some Rules:

DO NOT post about your own individual situation here—post it on the main board where everyone can help you and benefit from the answers you receive.

I AM NOT a migration agent/immi authority—I cannot guarantee that what worked for me will work for you and I am not responsible for what you choose to include in your application or not.

THIS IS NOT everything you have to do, these are just tips, make absolutely sure you read the all the necessary information before applying, and double check before sending.

DO POST any additional defacto tips or suggestions you have here!

I am a Canadian citizen, who applied in the U.S.A—this means I am from a Low Risk country, so High Risk country people may have to go even further in proving both their relationship and character. (It sucks, but that’s the way it is unfortunately).

Part 1: RESEARCH!!!! (notice I won’t put up any links because it is so important you research for yourself on the immi website—only you can really know if you are eligible and exactly what you will need).

-Read the Partner Migration Booklet and answer these questions: are you eligible? What sort of evidence will you need? How can you prove the 12 month relationship requirement? What sort of documents will you need to prove your identity (passport, birth certificate etc)? What documents will your sponsor have to provide? What character checks will you need? What will you need translated? Print out the booklet and make notes as you go—make notes of what you will need to look up and what you don’t understand.

-Read and print the two application forms (47sp and 40sp). Is there any question on there that you will need to look up the answer?

-If you are from a High Risk country, one of the members here, Rav, found out that you do need to fill out a form 80 even if the immi website is not clear at all as to whether or not you will need one.

- Look up where your nearest immi panel Doctor is for your health check: you may need to travel a fair distance and it’s a good idea to check asap. Call the doctors even to make sure they are still doing the medicals and how much they costs—they do not all charge the same thing so if you have a few options, call around. Also ask them how available appointments are—it might take a while for you to get in, so again, good to know and good to plan for. Print out or save the medical forms found on the immi website.

-Go on the websites of the places you will need character checks/police checks from. How long do they take? What do you need to provide? If you will need fingerprints, where will you get them (your local police station may do them for free) and how many fingerprint cards do you need? How much does each police check cost? Do you have to provide a bank draft in the local currency? If so, where and how will you get it?

-Will you need to get any documents translated? If so, go on the website of the embassy where you will be applying and they normally have a link as to how you can find an approved translator. You can contact a translator via e-mail early to see how much they charge and how long it takes.

-Did you notice that you need a whole bunch of passport size photo’s of you and your partner? You need them to apply, for the medical, and for some police checks—write down how many you will need to save yourself a few trips to the photo booth!

-Who will you ask to write Statutory Declarations on your behalf? Contact them asap to ask and send them the form so they can start working on it. It might be helpful to write to them what you think they could include. Remember, they need to get it certified along with proof they are an Aussie citizen—this can take people a while to actually get out and do, so it’s a good idea to ask them very early on! (hint: the more the merrier, you need at least two, but I supplied 7 because I could, so if you can, get a good few people to do it!)

-Where can you get documents certified? Will it cost you anything? In the U.S one must go to a lawyer or notary public (banks usually have a notary public), but in Australia there is a plethora of people who can do it for you and for free. It’s important info to know at the beginning (a google search of “where can I get documents certified in X” will usually lead you in the right direction).

Part 2: Whole lot of writing and evidence gathering!

Now that you have a massive to do list and that you know what you will need to provide, it’s time to get it all together.

-Wait to get stuff certified: all official documents (passport copies, birth certificate copies etc) and stat decs need to be certified. Save yourself a trip and wait until you are sure you have everything that will need to be certified—I got extra’s of my passport certified too, just in-case.

-Figure out if you will do your medical and police checks now and hand them in with the application or hand them in after you have sent in the application. Certain places, Singapore for example, require a letter from your CO before you can send off your police clearance so you may not be able to do them all right away (if this is the case, ask your CO the minute they contact you for the letter you need). I did all of my checks and medicals within the month after my CO was assigned and had no problems in it taking longer, but it is up to you.

-KEEP IN MIND: It is super important to remember while doing this that your CO will not be a mind reader! Do you think that there is some explaining to do on some of the evidence you provide? I had a whole LOT to explain: my billing addresses were different from where my BF and I lived, there were date problems with statements because I had American accounts, the rental bond didn’t have my boyfriends name on it, we had no bills in EITHER of our names and much, much more! I (as the applicant, not the sponsor) wrote a Statutory Declaration for each of the evidence “sections” (financial, nature of the household, social context etc) and had those statements certified. My CO later told me that this helped with the process a lot—just don’t go overboard and write a saga for each piece of evidence! Keep it short, succinct and just explain what needs to be explained.

-Stat Decs from you and your partner: You can write these on your computer rather than on the stat dec form your friends and family will fill out for you. In the Partner Migration Booklet, there is a section that tells you what questions to answer. My declaration ended up being quite long and descriptive because it had to be due to my situation—this part is actually fun because it’s nice to see what your partner will write about you! They don’t both have to be super long, but make sure you both put some time and effort into it. Don’t forget to get them certified!

-Get your “identifying” documents together—since you will probably need identifying documents for more than your application (police checks for example) make sure you make enough copies.

-Fill out the two forms (47 and 40sp)—make sure you both have your dates straight! I don’t know about you, but there was a whole lot of “uuhhh’s” being uttered when we were trying to figure out the exact date we started dating…

continued next post.....

-Financial Evidence Tips:

-Don’t have a joint lease? Bills? Did you travel together for a year or live with your parents? Did one of you support the other? Relax. What I did and what has worked for others is to very meticulously go through bank statements, for at least the past 12 months you have been together. Whether you paid bills, rented a campervan, paid for a flight to see your partner, bought them a Christmas present, paid for insurance, groceries, rent and so on, even if you don’t have the actual bill/piece of paper that says you did, it will be on your statement. Highlight each relevant purchase/payment and put a one or two word description next to it. If you are in this situation, then definitely write a declaration that explains it all. You can also provide some bills (say one or both of your names aren’t on it) and include them in this section—your CO could match the billing date to when the payments were made in the bank statement. Bills and even grocery stores also have “codes” that can be matched. ATM withdrawals will also have a location near them which can be matched to things you say in statements (eg: my BF and I traveled to NSW together… oh look there is an ATM withdrawal from NSW at the same date they went…get where I am going with this?)

-You will be surprised as to how much stuff is on your bank statements—one idea to do while you are highlighting is, for example, if you find a purchase of a present your partner gave you try to find the card or the letter that came with it… copy it and provide it with your application.

-Bank statements can also serve to show you have been living together even if your names weren’t on the lease—if your billing addresses are where you both lived make a note of that in the stat dec for this section to bring the CO’s attention to it.

-Nature of the household tips:

- This is pretty straight forward—write a statement as to who did what in the house/who paid for what (see partner migration booklet), get bills together (if you have them, if not refer back to the financial tips), and correspondence addressed to both of you if you have it. I ended up including letters and cards given to me by my boyfriends family since I did not have any correspondence or bills addressed to both of us, save for one card.

-Social Context Tips:

-You can get cards together, ticket stubs etc. You may have already shown joint travel in your financial section if you used bank statements.

-Can your friends and family prove anything you have said along the way? Get them to write that in their stat decs (eg: if you lived with your mother, get her to mention that you did) along with stuff to prove your relationship is real.

-Pictures: don’t include too many (they don’t like it apparently) but do include ones showing you with each others families, out with friends, and traveling together if possible. Have you known each other for ages? Include one of you two where you look visibly different than you do now.

-You can write a short explanation/stat dec here too in order to explain what you are showing your CO

-If it’s a lot of small pieces, I stuck all of mine in a plastic baggy so they wouldn’t all fly around and I labeled the bag.

-Nature of your commitment to each other:

-Need to include itemized phone bills? Put a key at the top to what each number is (eg: Bob’s work number, Jane’s house number). Remember, these CAN be hard to get and you might have to pay for them depending on your company and how far back you need to go.

-Need to show your intent that the relationship will last—if you are planning on getting a house together, you can include a quote from a bank for a mortgage.

HURRAH!!! YOU’RE DONE!

-Go through everything again to make sure you have BOTH filled out what you had to

-If you know when you will be getting any evidence/character/medicals NOT included in your relationship, write that at the end of your application.

-Put it all in the post or lodge in person if you can

-And now the waiting game starts….

-Interview tips: look on this webpage, people have shared the questions they got asked!

-Don’t be afraid to ask your CO questions, just don’t pester them as to “did you look at it yet? Did ya, did ya?”

-Looking on this board can give you a hint as to how long it will all take, but it depends on when you applied and so on—some HR country people got theirs faster than LR country people, while other HR applicants have been waiting for months! The more complete your application is, normally for a LR country applicant, the quicker it can be processed.

Yikes, o.k so I think I wrote quite enough for now. Please do share your tips if you have them and I hope that what I wrote was helpful.

Good luck to all of you defacto applicants out there!

REMEMBER:

DO NOT post about your own individual situation here—post it on the main board where everyone can help you and benefit from the answers you receive.

I AM NOT a migration agent/immi authority—I cannot guarantee that what worked for me will work for you and I am not responsible for what you choose to include in your application or not.

THIS IS NOT everything you have to do, these are just tips, make absolutely sure you read the all the necessary information before applying, and double check before sending.

Haha elkitten your a funny one! See....migration agent in the making! Good form helping people out like you are.

I just wanted to add a couple of things:

*My partner is from a High Risk country but he wasn't asked to provide a form 80. I think it depends on your individual circumstances and maybe if they need just that little bit more convincing to approve your visa.

*The longest part for us to get together was definitely the statutory declarations. As elkitten said, get them organised early because people really do like to take their time. We also included stat decs from non-Australians who knew us well as a couple since we didn't spend any time in Australia. They were able to get their stat decs and copies of their passports certified by any notary public in their country of residence, i.e pharmacist, police, etc.

*Include even the smallest and seemingly insignificant pieces of evidence you have...but don't double up too much on the same kind of evidence, for example, 2 or 3 birthday or Valentine's Day cards you sent to each other will be plenty.

*If you don't already have any, see if you can get some of your family members to send postcards or Xmas cards etc addressed to the both of you to show that you are both considered part of the family.

Thats about all I think. Elkitten seems to have covered everything. Good luck everyone!