Hi all,

myself (australian citizen) and my partner (UK citizen) are going through our paperwork (evidence etc) and about to apply for a 300 prospective marriage visa.

We met in aus, lived there and in the UK and Ireland together for 1 total of 19 months. In december of 2009 my partner left australia as we could not get the visa we wanted (de-facto - as we hadnt quite made the 2 years.
...and so we decided for me to stay in aus and attend university, and for her to go home to england also for university.

In April we decided this was a bad idea and we definately did want to be together, so 2 weeks ago i flew here (UK) -- however am quite worried that this 5 months of us being techically seperated will hinder our chances of the visa being granted.

~ might it be smarter to simply get married now while im in the UK and then apply for the onshore partner visa? Ideally not but I'd hate to lose the AUD$1705 application charge due to this technicality. We genuinely do love and want to be with eachother and time is of the essence as im sure many of you can appreciate.

any advice would be greatly appreciated as we are now quite apprehensive!

Thanks in advance,
Damo

Well, it is only a 12 months relationship that is the minimum requirement for a partner visa so I'm not sure where being short of two years comes into it, but regardless you do need supporting evidence.

Though in exceptional circumstances, time apart can be counted a read of Australian Immigration Fact Sheet 35. One-Year Relationship Requirement and an example there may indicate it'll not apply to your case.

You can of course get married but by stating you'll do that and then apply for an onshore visa, are you saying you would intend to then travel back to Australia after marriage and apply here?
If so, it does bring into it the uncertainty of whether your new wife would be allowed to enter on an ETA I suppose for if it was viewed that the intent was to put in a partner application, the regulatory hard line is that a visa is only to be used for its intended purpose.
I posted more on that in Any advice for complicated de facto app? and there's other aspects of that thread which may be of help to your situation .

You would be best to apply offshore if getting married, and sure it may take a few months but at least you're doing it right and it's cheaper offshore.

Alternately, if your intended was to get an ETA to return here unmarried, if you are living in ACT, Victoria, Tasmania or NSW [ legislation on way there ] , you may want to consider a relationship registration rather than marriage straight away.
Relationship registrations also waive the 12 months requirement though you do still need to have good evidence of a relationship existing and if you have not done so already, do read the info on the Immi site, particularly Booklet#1

Even being married, it is no walk in the park and marriage does not make it a given.

Thankyou Wanderer,

I do see your point about the marriage and what it may seem like from a border agents perspective - to be honest we just dont want to be apart any more and want it to happen as soon as possible so was looking for a way to speed it up. Having said that I neglected to mention that we would get married here and also apply from the UK, I would go home, wait the x months for it to be granted (with luck) Lack of finances was also an extenuating factor.
Also we had both wanted to start university - and so thought that a long distance relationship might work for a year to get some money together and have a shot at study , hence her coming home (to the UK) in December.

You mentioned an example where it may not apply in our case? I have read through and it examplifies work restraints - would that include study restraints? Neither of us can afford to pay the International student fees at university unfortunately.

I came to realise in April that I didn't like being apart from her - applied for a Leave of Absence from University and made arrangements to come to the UK and see her, and to apply for the 300 visa from here.

I have read booklet 1 and the links you sent, thankyou, I am still nervous though as although we have lived together for quite a while, have mail to same addresses, saw doctors together and even had our names on a rental lease together, (with written statements from them aswell) - that basically over the past say 4 months, the bulk of our contact has been by phone - and because of ridiculous call charges - those calls have been made on pay phone cards - so no proof of who called who and when.

Basically I'm asking if we were to explain all this in great detail in our statements, along with that of friends and family, the how's and why's, would we have a fighting chance?

Your feeback is greatly appreciated

Damo

You can certainly apply for the PMV300 without the 12 months requirement and a lengthy history together will support your intent.
It does mean that not just arriving in Australia and having gotten married either here or anywhere after the arrival has to occur within 9 months of visa grant but an onshore application also needs to be made.

So it is rather full on and if that is your intent, going for the marriage in UK and application offshore may be the go.
The 12 months requirement is also removed though you still need to provide a sound support case.

The other thing that you need to look at will be the requirement re an Assurance of Support or AoS seeing as you're studying and will I assume have minimal income.
So you ought to speak to the folks back home on that score.

And then the other thing that will impact on your new wife is that because she will be on a temporary residency visa for two years, she will be subject to international student fee rates for any studying intended.

Yes, love can be a rocky road at times and so you may want to discuss the implications of that and is she happy to postpone studies here for a couple of years, perhaps be the chief financial supporter and by that time you have completed studies and work, the roles can be reversed and her fees will be normal with PR.

So certainly a few things you ought to work through.