Hello,
This may turn out pretty long, so please bear with me - any advice would be appreciated!
I am Irish, finishing up my PhD in the UK, and am currently in negotiations with an Australian lab to come and do a post-doc (2 year post, possibility of longer) there. It's looking pretty good so far. My partner (from the UK) would come with me, however, we're trying to work out the best way to get him there. He is over the age limit for the WHV (in his 30's) and doesn't have a qualification that would put him on the Skills Australia Needs list. In any case we would prefer, and it would probably make things easier/more flexible, for him to be added to my visa as my de facto partner. With that in mind, we really want to try and get as much done for the application as soon as possible, since I would need to go in late spring/early summer next year, and we would prefer to have it sorted out so he could come with me! I should maybe mention, I would be on a sponsored work visa from the uni I'd be working at...
We have been together for over 1.5 years and living together (but not officially, as in we have no records) for about a year. For most of our relationship, we've pretty much been planning on spending the rest of our lives together - things got serious early on due to the massive catalyst that was a near-death health scare for him about 5 months into the relationship. He's fine now (as in, he's had a heart op, and is on medication (warfarin, permanently) but is recovered - it'll have been a year since the op in a few weeks - [as an aside...is this likely, as a health thing, to affect the application?!]). This is also a lot of why we don't have official records of living together - he was off work for almost a year so it was easier (and cheaper!) to just have me on the lease. In any case, I was paying the rent and a lot of the bills (cos of his lack of wages). His parents live about 15-20 min away, so he was registered as living with them, and all his mail went there. We have, in the last couple of weeks, changed over some of his mail to the flat, and will, in the next week or two, set up a joint bank account. He has paid some of the bills (food/gas etc) over the last year so we'll be getting statements, receipts etc together for that. We can also get family and friends to provide statements. He's not met my parents (they live in Ireland and, while not mega expensive to get there, living on only my student stipend meant there was never the money to pay for him to fly over with me), although he has (briefly!) met my brothers. I have, however, stayed with his family for 3 weeks after the op and generally know and get on with them very well (they're like my second family! )
Does this sound like a reasonable case? Is there anything major we should focus on getting together for the application? I've read through some of the (very detailed and helpful!) threads here, but would like reassurance/advice/warnings (if necessary!) pertinent to this case, since it's a slightly odd one (I guess everyone thinks that..).
Thanks in advance!
Kate
This may turn out pretty long, so please bear with me - any advice would be appreciated!
I am Irish, finishing up my PhD in the UK, and am currently in negotiations with an Australian lab to come and do a post-doc (2 year post, possibility of longer) there. It's looking pretty good so far. My partner (from the UK) would come with me, however, we're trying to work out the best way to get him there. He is over the age limit for the WHV (in his 30's) and doesn't have a qualification that would put him on the Skills Australia Needs list. In any case we would prefer, and it would probably make things easier/more flexible, for him to be added to my visa as my de facto partner. With that in mind, we really want to try and get as much done for the application as soon as possible, since I would need to go in late spring/early summer next year, and we would prefer to have it sorted out so he could come with me! I should maybe mention, I would be on a sponsored work visa from the uni I'd be working at...
We have been together for over 1.5 years and living together (but not officially, as in we have no records) for about a year. For most of our relationship, we've pretty much been planning on spending the rest of our lives together - things got serious early on due to the massive catalyst that was a near-death health scare for him about 5 months into the relationship. He's fine now (as in, he's had a heart op, and is on medication (warfarin, permanently) but is recovered - it'll have been a year since the op in a few weeks - [as an aside...is this likely, as a health thing, to affect the application?!]). This is also a lot of why we don't have official records of living together - he was off work for almost a year so it was easier (and cheaper!) to just have me on the lease. In any case, I was paying the rent and a lot of the bills (cos of his lack of wages). His parents live about 15-20 min away, so he was registered as living with them, and all his mail went there. We have, in the last couple of weeks, changed over some of his mail to the flat, and will, in the next week or two, set up a joint bank account. He has paid some of the bills (food/gas etc) over the last year so we'll be getting statements, receipts etc together for that. We can also get family and friends to provide statements. He's not met my parents (they live in Ireland and, while not mega expensive to get there, living on only my student stipend meant there was never the money to pay for him to fly over with me), although he has (briefly!) met my brothers. I have, however, stayed with his family for 3 weeks after the op and generally know and get on with them very well (they're like my second family! )
Does this sound like a reasonable case? Is there anything major we should focus on getting together for the application? I've read through some of the (very detailed and helpful!) threads here, but would like reassurance/advice/warnings (if necessary!) pertinent to this case, since it's a slightly odd one (I guess everyone thinks that..).
Thanks in advance!
Kate