I'm an Aussie, and my wife is Japanese. We've been living in the UK since getting married last year, and she's having a baby in April. We want to move to Australia before then, and ensure my wife is covered by medicare before having the baby.

I think out best plan is to move to Australia soon (February), with my wife entering on her tourist visa, and then apply onshore for the spousal visa. According to the medicare/visa websites, immediately after application she should be eligible to apply for Medicare.

My question is - Is it 100% OK for her to enter on a tourist visa with a view to then applying for another one ? Or, at the border will they ask about the pregnancy, and whether we're planning on changing visas, and possibly deny her entry?

I think it's too late at this point to apply for the spousal visa while we're outside Australia, and we've got a time limit here....

Hi Gib and welcome to the forum,

And though quite a few people do enter Ausgtralia on one visa and then subsequently apply for another, doing it with some intent is frowned upon as you'll note in the following:
http://www.immi.gov.au/gateways/agen...7-visitors.pdf

It'll be very apparent that in you being married and your wife very expectant what the situation is likely to be and it would be the discretion of immigration officers as to how severely they may question and follow the regulations.

On the other hand, many spouse visas do get granted quite quickly and seeing as you'll have been married a year+ now, a child on the way, an application ought to be relatively straightforward as far as being accepted.
Partner Visa: Offshore Temporary and Permanent (Subclasses 309 and 100)

I'd get cracking for a Xmas present to yourselves and get an application in ASAP.
At outside, set yourself a target of application in in first week of January and you may even get a suprise by Australia Day, sometime in February at outside.

Make use of the Checklist in the "applying for this visa" section and download/print a couple of application/sponsor forms for roughing and hard copy record along with Checklist and it ought to be plain enough sailing.

Best wishes for Xmas and return.

Hi Wanderer,

And thanks for the rapid and informative answer.

It seems like it's a risk for entering Australia on the ETA, and we would be taking our chances. Actually we visited a couple of months back while she was pregnant, although it wasn't showing... No problems then, but anything can happen.

I think if I call the embassy in the morning and get an idea of how long they think the application might take, then that'll help make our decision for us. There's no problem proving we're genuine, and we can get sponsorships filled out, but we'd have to wait for her Japanese police clearance, and medical.....

Cheers

What you may get from AH Gib is something along the lines of what the Service Standard is - Client Service Charter

In reality, they do normally move considerably quicker on family visas, even for defacto visas which usually have to be supported more and certainly so for a married person.
Certainly I would get on to the police and health checks ASAP as that could delay the processing though they do say for overseas applications you should wait until asked by a Case Officer, though in your case, getting it underway is hardly going to hurt, ie.
. if application is in
. by time you get contacted by a CO, you'can have made arrangements for the health and police checks or even have them.

Hi Gib,
I might be wrong and can check it within the next few days but I believe AE will not grant your wife PR without chest X-Ray. If I am right then unless your wife is prepared to undergo an X-Ray whilst she is pregnant there is no chance of getting PR before birth. I suggest you ring the AE and/or the local Australian Medical Practitioner to find out whether she can get medical clearance without an X-Ray and that might determine your course of action. If you have meds cleared and police clearances and you are available to attend an interview with her off shore, the process should be straightforward and in time for birth.
Hope it helps,
Dorota

Not getting a Chest Xray when pregnant is a bit of a furphy for protective shielding measures can be taken.

Have a read of Chest X-ray and there are probably other sites about that you can check too.

In addition to protection the ammount of radiation one receives from an Xray is relatively quite minimal, only ten times what a days normal exposure is according to http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/pdf/sfty_xray.pdf

So if you want to go ahead with a medical examination, risk is minimal.

Wanderer, that "Client Services Charter" link was useful. I'm still surprised that it's cheaper and takes less time to apply for the visa from outside Australia. Is that deliberate to coerce people into not entering Australia early ?

My wife is a worrier, and wouldn't consider getting an xray now no matter how safe she's told it is.

That, coupled with the fact that the Japanese police clearance process seems long and painful (have to get fingerprints taken at Scotland Yard, then send to Japan and wait 2 months) means it's not looking good.

I tried to call the high commission today but my phone was a bit broken, and I think their menu system hung up on me after paying a pound a minute for 5 minutes of menu BS...

Just an update on our progress.

My wife sent her fingerprints through the Japanese embassy for her police check on 23rd December, and I've also sent a request to the Aussie police for that one.

She did her medical (without xray) on Tuesday 28th Dec, and we went into the high commission in London the next day. After talking to a couple of the people there, and one of them telling us we really shouldn't try to enter on a tourist visa, we chickened out and decided to follow Wanderer's advice and submit our visa offshore. We had our application ready, and so handed it over there and then.

We're still waiting on the 2 police checks, but my wife is going to try to hurry up the Japanese one. The medical results should come through very soon if they haven't already, and there's also my originals of the statutory declarations from my friends (character evidence of married relationship) which are in the mail from Oz. I included copies (noted as such) in my visa application. Do you think they'll care about the originals ? I've got photos of us two together from the past 27 years included, as well as photos of our wedding with 100 friends and family in attendance. They shouldn't need them...

It was a very clear application with a table of contents, lots of other evidence and superbly filled out forms, so hopefully that makes the visa person happier and therefore more likely to treat us well.

Unfortunately by the sounds of it though there's no chance of the Japanese police check being waived, and so we're still in the excrement.

Apparently if you apply in Japan for the police check it takes only 2 weeks, but you have to apply in person. Going through the embassy from the UK introduces another layer or two of bureaucracy which adds an extra 6 weeks...... Grrr.

If she was fine to fly I would have sent her home on a two week holiday....

Hi Gib, yes certainly seems it can be a pain getting stuff from another country at times and then especially so in dealing with a third country.

Good that you've found you could do the medical without the Xray and something like that was dim in my mind and have just the other day seen another reference to it so I'll look it up for future reference.

Re the Japanese Police check, sounds like that could be the very last piece of info to be needed and hopefully the CO in being appreciative of the situation could have the stamp of approval poised awaiting its arrival.
Is there any chance if the application has been sent through npw to Japan that you if Japanese fluent or your wife could attempt getting through on the phone to the relevant Police Department there and they may likewise be appreciative or at least you may be able to have a chat re speeding up the post, paying for Express return etc.

Perhaps the CO in UK may be able to advice if an email advice direct to them from Japanese Police would be acceptable.
Only trouble though in attempting to do some sensible speed up things could mean you get up someones nose and it goes worse.

Fingers crossed, even with normal timing you could still be looking at late February, maybe an early March flight.

It does seem a real bummer that DIAC do have the regulations on this sort of thing so inflexible, always amazes me somewhat.

All the best in NY and with progress.

Hi Gib,

I was wondering how much help you gave your wife when putting together her application? My partner is Korean, and though his English is very advanced, I know that he's going to need some guidance on how to express some things. But as a sponsor I can only help him, not do the whole thing for him. So I'm curious as to what you helped her with and if you wrote anything together.