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Defacto Visa Help Needed

5K views 10 replies 6 participants last post by  aussiegirl 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi there,

I have been reading this forum for a few weeks now and have found all of the help to be invaluable. I have had a good hunt around for the answer to some of my questions but I can't seem to find what I'm looking for. I wonder if someone could help me please?

A bit of background - I am an Aussie citizen and my boyfriend (defacto partner and US citizen) and I have been living together for a year but dating for 2 years. Unfortunately the first year he was trying to sort out a working visa to live in the UK so we did spend some time apart, but he came to the UK on a 6 month tourist visa and the rest of the time he was in the US. We will be applying offshore as we're in the UK currfently. I have an old HECS/HELP debt of roughly $5000 from about 8 years ago that I had totally forgotten about until we started filling in all the forms but other than that I am pretty certain we meet all of the requirements. We don't have a lease in our name and most of the bills are in my name however we have bank statements showing my boyfriend transferring money to me each month.

We are in the process of putting together all of our documentation to apply for the defacto partner visa but unfortunately he has lost his job in the UK and needs to leave the country by November 23rd. For this reason we don't want to delay the application and have already sent off for his UK police clearance and are sending off for his FBI background check today. We found the local approved doctor where he needs to have his medical and he has booked an appointment for next Tuesday.

My questions are: Is it ok to have the medical before we send off for the app for the partner visa application? The surgery we spoke to sounded like they courier the results straight to the dept. of immigration. We don't want anything to hold up the application so thought it best to try and arrange these things before we were requested so we could have the application as front loaded as possible but now I am worried that we have to wait to book medicals when immigration tell us to proceed. Also, I am wondering if my old HECs/now HELP debt will affect our eligibility at all? I received some youth allowance about 8 years ago but asides from that I have never received any funding from Centrelink.

Thank you everyone in advance!
 
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#2 ·
It seems, at least with the skilled worker visa (I am assuming it is the same for you), that there is some risk in taking the medicals early, but a possible reward if your processing moves swiftly.

The medical exams expire and if your visa is not processed in time, you'll need to do them over again. However, if you submit them upfront, then you don't have the waiting period between the CO request and your submittal.

If I were you, I would not submit the medicals with your application, but after your application get your medicals within a week or two. That way when they are requested, you have them ready, but you don't have as much risk in them expiring.

Also, take note of when medical forms are updated (there is a schedule somewhere); if you are about to take your medical but know that form updates occur that month, it might be prudent to wait until the end of the month in case they make changes that would affect your submission.

Good luck!
 
#3 ·
They will look at your total financial/employment situation but more for determining whether they will want you to have an Assurer of Support so it may be that you want to read up on that, a link you'll find in the visa info and have someone appraised.
The HECS/HELP debt of $5000 shouldn't come into consideration so much.
Hopefully, the Bf also has some mailings to the same address that can be used for supporting the application and if you do not have a lease is there a landlord or whatever you can get a statement from re he living with you.

Some applicants do get their medicals done up front, though not so many prior to actually having an application submitted and some people have found that information can be lost in the system to some extent.
Not 100% sure and it is something you should try and get advice from Immi on via a phone call or preferably an email to local AHC to ask, but a medical examination will usually have reference to Name and Passport ID as well as an application No. when obtained on request so the latter will be what is missing and so supposedly there'll be a file kept at nearest applications lodgement centre which will have all the Jane & Joe Does in it, but at least with names/passport ID.
Where it can get interesting will be if someone says:
. This guy is a yank, maybe we had better send it somewhere there!
. No!, we'll send this on to the Aussies.
Hopefully, it doesn't just slide down behind the filing cabinet!
As CPM has stated, the other issue is medical validity of 12 months but hopefully a defacto is granted before that time.
Worst case scenario would be doing a repeat.

But make the effort to contact AHC in London if that is where you plan on lodging for someone posted recently on how they were submitting a partner visa whilst not in their own country and the application was going to be sent to their country but that may vary depending on country/language etc., but worth checking!
The other thing that'll likely take some time is going to be his FBI check as that is being reported as taking about 10 weeks and so it could be after 23 November so you need to plan re that as well.
You can submit your application, get the medical hooked up and then send the FBI check in afterwards but wheré will he be to have the FBI send it to him.

Perhaps you had better make plans on being somewhere and maybe he needs to use a family address in the US to have the FBI check sent to and then they can forward it on so as you can then send it in to be with the application.

If it's the plan for you both to be returning to Australia, he can get either a tourist visa or an ETA to leave the UK prior to 23/11 and then when a visa is ready for granting, he'll need a quick trip to NZ, or somewhere in asia/pacific that is easiest/cheapest to allow it to be granted.
If he flies to NZ, he'll need a return flight booked and a right of entry so either the ETA or a tourist visa with multiple entries would be best for that.

If you want cheap flights UK to Australia, check out www.airasia.com
 
#4 ·
Thank you CPMaverick and Wanderer for your help. As seems to be the case with everyone our situation is a little further complicated by the fact that we have holidays booked and paid for in January as we weren't prepared for my BF to lose his job so we need to remain in the UK until then before we fly out to Australia, which will probably mean us leaving the UK in November and hopefully he can return on a tourist visa for 3 months. Fingers crossed we get a nice immigration officer at the gate, if they exist?!

I think we'll hold off on the medical but get the FBI check sent off ASAP - ten weeks is a long time to be waiting on that and we definitely don't want that to hold anything up. I'll definitely check with the AHC in London to make sure we can lodge the application here. Seems like the safest bet it so send the application in then get the medical done soon after and wait until they ask for medicals/police clearance. I'll post once we've figured it out and heard back from AHC to let everyone know what they say!

Thanks again!!
 
#5 · (Edited)
Just thought I would let you know that I heard back from Australia House in London and they have said that my old HECS/HELP debt will not affect a partner visa at all which is good news. They also said not to get medical checks or police clearances until our CO requests them as they are only valid for 12 months. Currently the processing times are 5-6months so we decided to go ahead and arrange the medical for a few weeks time as with the 6 month processing time it will still be valid by the time we enter Australia in 2011. With any luck if we send in the application in a couple of weeks by the time we are assigned a CO we should have at least the medical and UK police check back and will just be waiting on the FBI background check. Fingers crossed it all goes to plan! Now to just finish assembling all our evidence...yikes!
 
#6 ·
Hi AmyinLondon,

glad to hear it didn't affect your application. I have a $17,000 HECS debt myself which I'm hoping won't affect our application either. I know you posted a long time ago but I was wondering if you could remember whether you indicated on your sponsorship form that you have an "outstanding government debt". I'm unsure as to whether or not it needs to be stated as it is not "outstanding" in my eyes, rather unpaid because the conditions for compulsory repayment are not currently being met. Anyone else out there who has a HECS/HELP statement, did you class this as an outstanding government debt?
 
#7 ·
Hi miniature.moose,

From what I can see, there is nothing in the sponorship form (40SP) to state whether they have a debt to the governement. This is only mentioned in the applicant's 47SP.

I certianly don't remember ticking any boxes about my HECS debt when I filled in my form for my husband's app.
 
#9 ·
Hi, we are also in the process of submitting a partner application from London. Hoping to drop the application in on Monday.

We have been living together for 2.5years. We have our rental agreement, joint bank account set up letters from the beginning of 2010 and some recent bills but there is some time in the middle where we haven't really got anything - damn that shredder! Do you think it will be ok or are you covering every month in the last 12?

I really don't want to get it wrong because my partner leaves back to oz on Tuesday next week and it already looks like we will have to spend quite some time apart '-( He got an internal company transfer and we only found out a month ago. We never imagined it could take 6 months to get what is actually only really a temp visa! I'm hoping our time apart won't affect the application.

Good luck with your application, it would be nice to keep in touch and share the process!

Net
 
#10 ·
nettle said:
Hi, we are also in the process of submitting a partner application from London. Hoping to drop the application in on Monday.

We have been living together for 2.5years. We have our rental agreement, joint bank account set up letters from the beginning of 2010 and some recent bills but there is some time in the middle where we haven't really got anything - damn that shredder! Do you think it will be ok or are you covering every month in the last 12?

I really don't want to get it wrong because my partner leaves back to oz on Tuesday next week and it already looks like we will have to spend quite some time apart '-( He got an internal company transfer and we only found out a month ago. We never imagined it could take 6 months to get what is actually only really a temp visa! I'm hoping our time apart won't affect the application.

Good luck with your application, it would be nice to keep in touch and share the process!

Net
Hello all I hope you can help I had a total freak out today - London office returned all our docs (cards, bills etc) with no letter saying anything - is this a good thing????
 
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