Hello

I am currently begining the process of applying for a Defacto visa to allow me to move from Ireland to Australia with my boyfriend. I am lost in all the information.....

I am Irish and my boyfriend is an Australian, we have been together just over a year. Living together for the last 5 months with my parents in Ireland. He lived in the UK before this, that is where we met.

We have been meticulous about keeping receipts travel documents etc as we are aware that the visa requires us to be "living together" for 12 months.

Will this be a major problem for us when applying?

Have so many questions but would appreciate any advise..

Welcome to the forum em and essentially you need to have a good read of the relevant visa - Family - Visas & Immigration , the 309/100 for the defacto partner and key sections are eligibility and Applying for this visa, making good use of the Checklist.
Booklet #1 also has details of what you need to provide.

Yes, having a 12 months relationship is a requirement though that can include living together at your parents, it just being a case of everything adequately documented to show that 12 months.

You'll see a sticky thread near top of the first page by elkitten on what she did to prove her relationship and though there'll always be differences, it can serve as an example for the collation of data and its presentation.

Hi Wanderer
Thanks for your reply. Our situation is a bit sticky, my boyfriend will have to return to Australia in April as there are no jobs available here in Ireland at the moment. That will mean we have only been living together since September - April (8mths). I will not be able to follow him out there for a few months as I have things here I need to clear up first. Will this affect our visa application majorly as it does state you cannot be apart permenantly etc?

We do intend to marry soon and some people have advised us to apply for the Prospective Marraige visa - however that would be rushing the wedding. I did try email the Visa office in London about our situation to get advise but I just received a generic email response with a link to the Visa website - which I have read a billion times over.

My biggest issue is which visa to apply for as I want to give us the best chance at a positive outcome...

Eight months is not 12 unfortunately despite your best intentions and Immigration regulations cannot really be bent so much but if you are planning to come to Australia once you have things sorted, you can still use that eight months plus another four in Australia to show that 12 in total together have occurred and having the gap in between can be used to advantage in a way of showing that you have the commitment to go to the extent of travelling.

Still make sure you can do all that is possible in respect to collecting documentation and have statements from family and friends etc., all as detailed in Booklet #1.
Re how the 12 months can be considered made up you'll see some Commonly Asked Questions examples in the 12 months relationship link you'll find in a visa eligibility section and for an onshore partner visa application it'll be Partner Visa: Onshore Temporary and Permanent (Subclasses 820 and 801) you need to use

If you're planning on coming out on a WHV for instance, all the better for you'll have at least a further 12 months to build up time and no need to rush, perhaps even a second stint of 12 months too if you do some regional work to become eligible for a second WHV - details in the Working Holiday Visa info.

Once here, if it's more permanent work that you can secure by having some particular skills, it's possible you may also find an employer prepared to sponsor you and so there may be several options open to you.