I would prefer people not send you examples of their application... not that I'm doubting your integrity at all, mimay, but there's so much personal info in an application that could be used by an identity thief I think it's a dangerous precedent to set for this forum.

Also, others sharing copies of their own statements with strangers is just as dangerous - again, not saying YOU are at all unscrupulous (I'm sure you're not!) but someone with less integrity might just take it and copy it and use it themselves... it happens!... and then the people who wrote it originally could find themselves in hot water with DIAC as they try to figure out who the original author was and why they gave their statement to someone else to copy.

Not to mention - someone else's application is not going to help you anyway. You have YOUR love story and YOUR evidence... and each person's love story and every batch of evidence is going to be completely different.

Sticking to general questions about what types of evidence were included, what order others' applications were in, and what format they wrote their statement in (like you already have asked) is probably the best move.

 

As CG said everyone has their own story .... just write from the heart.

On relation to your employment. Do you declare your income that you have been paid cash for to the ATO? If not .... that is illegal!!! DIAC may not be happy that you are earning income illegally .... it is not illegal to pay someone cash, however it is illegal to not declare it on your tax return. Also some employers pay you cash to get away with paying benefits. If your employer is being dodgy and paying you cash I highly doubt that they would write you a letter as DIAC could pass that information on to the ATO and they would be in big trouble. But if you have declared it to the ATO you can just provide your payment summary to DIAC.

 

Your annual income tax Notice of Assessment is a good evidence of your income and your bank statements would be sufficient evidence for your financial position.

There is no right or wrong answer as to the format of relationship statement. I believe it would be even more difficult to write your own statement if you have some "sample" to follow / refer.

For the statements from family and friends, they can just fill up the Form 888 if they are Aus citizen or PR. If they are not, then they can write up a stat dec according to the law in their country.

 

Your annual income tax Notice of Assessment is a good evidence of your income and your bank statements would be sufficient evidence for your financial position.

There is no right or wrong answer as to the format of relationship statement. I believe it would be even more difficult to write your own statement if you have some "sample" to follow / refer.

For the statements from family and friends, they can just fill up the Form 888 if they are Aus citizen or PR. If they are not, then they can write up a stat dec according to the law in their country.

Hi,

Just wondering if stat dec wanna be filled offshore, can I get them to fill in form 888 as well and a copy of their ID and then just get them to witness sign it according to their country JP like equivelent? is that ok? or only Australians need to fil in form 888 and offshore people just fill in blnak paper or something?

thanks very much

 

I understand people shouldn't give me personal information, I was thinking more for just the format of it. But yeah I didn't really think about how dangerous it could be if someone sent someone their information.
I have written most of my statement already but I wrote it as kind of a journal entry, and it's not really straight to the point and I'm not too sure of what to cut out or put in or how much emotion to put in it. I know I have to make the DIAC understand how in love and how serious my fiancé and I are, but I realise it has to be straight to the point so its hard to know how to get the right balance.

On the rare occasion that I earn enough money to get taxed, I do get taxed but it's hardly anything so I haven't bothered doing a tax return in the 2.5 years I've been working. I have a group certificate if that would help at all?

 

You shouldn't have it reading as a journal entry stating what you did each day your were together etc. You should have it showing how your relationship developed and what your plans are for the future. Emotion is good though, it shows how hard it is being apart etc.

Yes provide your payment summary.

On a non-immigration note. You should be lodging a tax return even if it is hardly anything, you can get fined for not lodging tax returns - an ex co-worker of mine just got a huge bill from not lodging .

 

Our relationship statements are about 5-6 pages long (typed), so quite extensive. We basically just sat down and put to paper the whole history of our relationship from the very beginning, ending with our life as it is at the moment (living together, sharing things etc) and future plans. But this is such a personal part of the application that I don't think there's a right or wrong way to do it (as long as the dates match up with the rest of the application and the fact that you're a genuine and loving couple comes through).

About the statements for family and friends: we just told them a couple of key facts to consider when writing their statements (i.e. mention "defacto" in there, write it in english etc.) but no fixed structure or anything. We were actually quite impressed by what we got back from them. They vary in formatting from simple lists to texts that read more like stories and some do have grammatical errors, weird sentence structures etc. I think that just underlines how genuine they are.

Regarding the photos, we arranged 2 or 3 per A4 page and added location, date and if applicable the name of relevant persons in the photo (e.g. applicant's mother, sponsor's brother).

 

Okay, ill try to make it more to the point with more emotion then, thanks.

5-6 pages, that's a lot! Haha did you put heaps of detail in there?
That actually makes heaps of sense. I suppose the DIAC isn't looking for perfectly composed sentences and formatting, they're looking for legitimate statements and facts about the relationionship. Did you write it in dot points and did you write every single thing you did or did you write it kind of like a story?

 

Okay, ill try to make it more to the point with more emotion then, thanks.

5-6 pages, that's a lot! Haha did you put heaps of detail in there?
That actually makes heaps of sense. I suppose the DIAC isn't looking for perfectly composed sentences and formatting, they're looking for legitimate statements and facts about the relationionship. Did you write it in dot points and did you write every single thing you did or did you write it kind of like a story?

Hehe, you know I cut it down from 8 pages

I wrote it as a story, as did my partner (though initially he thought he couldn't be bothered and planned on just writing list. Turned out he quite enjoyed writing the statement.).

It basically ties in beautifully with the rest of the evidence we are providing (or so I think), mentioning the travels we've been on together, the most important dates, how we divide household chores etc.

What helped me a lot to get started was writing it down as a list, basically making sure I could tick things off I wanted to be mentioned in the statement.

 

Also I asked my boss just then if she could give me something that I can show the government to say I work there and she said she will write a letter. But she says she can give me a tax form to do my taxes, so does that mean she can give me the one I need for the visa or do I have to claim my tax first?

 

Mimayla, you really need to take care of any and all previous years' tax returns / tax debt you have first before you do anything else. One of the questions they ask when you apply is if you have any debt to the Australian government. In your case, it sounds like you do. DIAC and the ATO will absolutely share information, so even if you wanted to (not that you would!) this is not something you could be dishonest and tick "no" for without them finding out.

DIAC doesn't care about any other kind of debt, but debts to the government they do care about.

If you tell them about income, but you haven't paid taxes on that income, that's going to be a really big problem. Just get it done. Better to do it now than to let penalties and interest continue to build up and have it be even more later.

 

my relationship statement was 6 typed pages and my partner's was 3..there is no specific length as long as they address the aspects of your relationship that DIAC want to know about. The format I used for our statements was to just write the headings from the partner migration booklet ie Where, when, how you first met / how your relationship developed etc.
In regards to the statements from your friends / family perhaps you could look at the Form 888 and get your friends to use this form or structure their statements in a similar way. This will be quite easy as there are specific questions on this form for your friends / family to answer. I believe from memory that the Form 888 is not required for PMV but you can use if you wish.
I would make sure that one of the statements is from your parents and that they include details about where you and your partner will be living and what if any other financial support they will be providing for you and your partner.
I printed 3 or 4 photos to a page showing us with different friends or family members in different places and wrote the date the date and location and who was in each photo.

 

Mine was about 5 pages too. I wrote mine in sentences and no dot points, but everyones will be different. I wrote mine more as a story about how we met, how it developed, future plans etc.

I didn't go into detail with everything we did. They don't need to know that we went to the supermarket to get food etc. Just pick and choose what you write in detail. It could be something happened in your life and your fiancee supported you through it, how you felt when he had to go home.

Your employer might be talking about a payment summary which they are required to lodge for everyone. Though you need to provide details for employment for 2 years so you will need the one for the year before as well too.

 

Okay that sounds good! I think mine will end up being about 3 or 4 pages. How many photos in total did you have?

 

Far too many

We went for roughly 2 per month we've been together (1.5years). These usually depict a main event from that month, e.g. travel, meeting respective families, social events with mutual friends and tie in with evidence provided in the "joint travel", "joint social events" etc. sections.
We also made sure to put in photos that show us with those people that provided statutory declarations, just to strengthen those further.

We were actually aiming for half that amount of photos, just 1 per month. But some of them we felt so strongly about we didn't want to cut them out (e.g. family visits).

 

Our statements were much shorter. Maybe 2 pages typed. I was fairly factual about it, and I don't think our journey was that different to normal. Basically that we met, when we met each others family, some key things we went to together - like wedding and funerals, and then getting married.

We also discussed my illness and how we supported each other through that, and the reasons for wanting to move to Australia (also related to illness and wanting to be closer to family). I threw in some stuff about how excited we were to move back to Australia to sweeten them up about how much I loved Australia!

We put in about 20-30 photos from the last 6 years. Focus was on finding photos from the big family holidays we have had, and those with other people in them. I noted where the person in the picture had also done a stat dec for us. We don't have that many pictures of the two of us, but it seems it was enough.

 

CollegeGirl, I didn't even realise this was going to be a problem.
This has vecome more of a problem than I once though because now my boss is telling me she thinks she lost my group certificate.
If she has in fact lost it, is there any way that I can do it without my group certificate?
I've never done tax before

 

As you have never done tax before, I need to ask this question ... do you have a TFN? I just need to ask as some people don't have one.

You can ring the ATO and ask about payment summary (they call them payment summaries now not group certificates) but from memory you tell the ATO how much you got paid into your bank account and they will tell you what the tax is and you fill out a statutory declaration. Something like that anyway. It is really stupid though considering all employers are required to send the payment summaries to the ATO, so if they have them why can't they give you a copy *sigh*

Which year does your boss think they have lost? I would also think that most businesses do payroll on computer so they could just print out another copy for you and also why you weren't provided with one at the end of the financial year is another matter.

If you employer says that they can't find just say to them that you will contact the ATO and see if they can help. It could also be that your employer has not lodged the payment summaries as well.

I would also ask the ATO when you ring about lodging a return, they may also say you are not required to lodge on but if they do you will need to complete a "return not necessary" form that way later down the track you won't get fined or anything for not lodging returns.

 

Unfortunately I don't know. Hopefully someone else here will. Anyone?

 

That's okay, thanks anyway, ill keep in mind all the posts on here but the first thing I need to do now is figure out my tax.
Thank you all for your help!

 

With your statement, it's your chance to convince them that you are in a genuine relationship. Please don't take it for granted that of course it will be seen that way by DIAC so put in as much information as necessary to do this.
Remember that DIAC are not on your side or even obliged to give you a visa. With that in mind, write your statement as if you are trying to convince them of this and make sure you have plenty of information and details to back it up.
This is your chance to tell them how your relationship is. Use the heading in the partner booklet as a guide to the areas of discussion I.e social acceptance, future plans or whatever they are.

 

You need to see a tax accountant to do all your previous year tax returns. And let's hope you don't owe the ATO any money, otherwise you might have to pay some penalty and interest.

 

Okay ill keep that in mind. I think ill put in as much stuff as possible to convince them! Reading about how many pages people have written, I think ill write as much as possible. Thanks

 

Hi
Yes do your tax as a matter of some urgency, however from my own experience I can tell you that as long as you declare yourself and show the ATO that you are doing what is required they do not impose a penalty. ATO usually imposes a penalty where the payer ie You owe them a substantial amount, which from what you have indicated will not be the case.

It is more likely that your employer may have a problem if they have not paid your tax to the ATO.
So my advice is don't panic, just get it done
Good luck
Cheers
SBM

 

If you are the sponsor I don't think the question about debt to the government is asked of you. I thought that is only asked of the applicant.

However get your tax done, even if your employer can not locate the copy of the group cert/payment summary they will have other records depending on how they do their accounts. From there new ones can be generated. A friend of mine payed his taxes just for 9 or 10 years never got around to doing his returns - they found him and gave him a demand of $1,200,000 of payment mostly in compound interest and fines based on guessed numbers. ATO are not nice if you don't contact them.

 

If you are the sponsor I don't think the question about debt to the government is asked of you. I thought that is only asked of the applicant. However get your tax done, even if your employer can not locate the copy of the group cert/payment summary they will have other records depending on how they do their accounts. From there new ones can be generated. A friend of mine payed his taxes just for 9 or 10 years never got around to doing his returns - they found him and gave him a demand of $1,200,000 of payment mostly in compound interest and fines based on guessed numbers. ATO are not nice if you don't contact them.

My understanding is somewhat different, I hold the belief that they will check a sponsor or is it when you are required to give assurance of support, which are two different things? for debt to the commonwealth, secondly the scenario outlined above is an extreme case, from your description I would not worry at all, just call ATO and tell them, as the poster above stated his friend didn't do it for many years he could hardly claim a simple oversight.

ATO will be harsh if you try to avoid or they find you first, but don't stress about it you are not in the same space as the gent above, not sure why he would tell you such a horror story really
Cheers
SBM

 

Sorry SMB,
My point of sponsor was to inform that he is not giving false information to immi, as I don't believe the forms asks the sponsor that question. As was indicated previously in the post. (they may check the sponsor background for debt, I am not sure.)

Yes it is a factual horror story, but as said by the poster 2.5 years that equals 3 financial years of returns approaching fast 4. That also will be hard to explain as an oversight. It needs his urgent attention to contact the ATO, I also explained that there is ways to reproduce his Payment summaries. I could not think of a bigger nightmare than dealing with the PMV and the ATO at the same time. As you said he only has to contact them and they will cooperate and allow time to sort the past years paperwork.