[will456]

My Fiancee was granted an offshore Prospective partner visa in Vietnam and moved to Australia a few months ago.
We are now married and have received our official marriage certificate yesterday.
What now?
We did the first application ourselves online. Do we now go online and apply for the partner visa from scratch or contact immigration and notify them of a change in circumstances?
How much does it cost? Does it make any difference that we got the first visa overseas (offshore)?
Any help is greatly appreciated as we want to get things moving ASAP.

 

[al_ghazal]

you apply online using the partner visa application form it's actually same form as PMV but your responses indicate you are going for 820/801. there's a part where you identify you're applying from PMV. you need to upload everything again and provide evidence of your relationship from when last visa granted ie since she got the PMV. it costs about $1100. I applied in June and haven't got a response yet but my friend applied in May and got the partner visa in 8 weeks! as soon as you apply you can enrol in Medicare you don't need to wait for the bridging visa. The English classes start once you have 820 so if you're interest in that better to apply asap.

 

[will456]

Ok I've applied for the Partner Visa, paid my $1,180 and received a bridging visa to commence when the Prospective Partner visa ceases next year.
When I open the bridging visa in my account there is the section to upload documents. Should I start doing that now or wait until I'm notified to do so?

 

[Skybluebrewer]

Ok I've applied for the Partner Visa, paid my $1,180 and received a bridging visa to commence when the Prospective Partner visa ceases next year.
When I open the bridging visa in my account there is the section to upload documents. Should I start doing that now or wait until I'm notified to do so?

When you log into the 820/801 application on immi, you have access to the upload screen. Yes you should upload all required documentation as soon as possible. Like already mentioned, that includes evidence of your relationship since the grant of the 300, your marriage certificate, two new form 888s, all the identity docs, etc.

The sponsor also needs to create a new application as the sponsor.

 

[Skybluebrewer]

The applicant does not need to redo a medical or police checks unless specifically asked by a CO to provide them.

 

[JandE]

Ok I've applied for the Partner Visa, paid my $1,180 and received a bridging visa to commence when the Prospective Partner visa ceases next year.
When I open the bridging visa in my account there is the section to upload documents. Should I start doing that now or wait until I'm notified to do so?

I would start now, we did as soon as we paid the fee. It is all very similar to doing the 300 again, for the applicant.

When I began the sponsor part of the 820 application, I was told that I didn't need to add any extra documents, unless asked for later. It seemed odd at the time, but everything went OK, and the 820 was granted.

The 820 was granted 4 months before the PMV 300 was due to expire.

 

[Skybluebrewer]

Definitely do it now. Wait times vary drastically for 820s from 300s. Mine was granted in 20 days. Some have been done sooner. You don't want someone to pick up your app and you have no evidence for them to look at.

 

[tweety15884]

I applied for 820 on August 17, 2017 from subclass 300. We included police checks for my sponsor as they are sometimes requested now and we wanted to have everything uploaded in advance. I haven't heard anything since I've applied, except for the automatic bridging visa grant. Uploaded more relationship proof this week and was hoping for a quick approval. My subclass 300 was approved after only 2.5 months last year

 

[JandE]

I've seen this information being talked about. Although not on the Border website yet, so not sure how accurate it is.

Any applications lodged before and after 18 November 2017 and not finally decided may get refused without notice, and without requests for further information, if the application is not decision ready.

For applications lodged prior to 18 November 2017, the Department will provide only ONE opportunity to submit additional documentation.

This indicates that all applications MUST be decision ready, no more incomplete applications.

 

[Savage_Flame]

I've seen this information being talked about. Although not on the Border website yet, so not sure how accurate it is.

Any applications lodged before and after 18 November 2017 and not finally decided may get refused without notice, and without requests for further information, if the application is not decision ready.

For applications lodged prior to 18 November 2017, the Department will provide only ONE opportunity to submit additional documentation.

This indicates that all applications MUST be decision ready, no more incomplete applications.

I wonder what happens in regards to police/medical checks? Technically decision ready means they must be uploaded and completed straight away? That does not seem logical and barely any warning has been given. The DIBP sure do like to change it up at any given moment

 

[SoItGoes]

Completely don't understand why medical & police check should be delayed to provide to the Dept at the same time of lodging. You can pay $7000 & can wait couple years for outcome yet willing to take risk save some bucks leaving your application non decision ready? For onshore application (at least in my case), I didn't have to provide medical again, & police check was only $50+

It is simply nonsense!

 

[Savage_Flame]

Completely don't understand why medical & police check should be delayed to provide to the Dept at the same time of lodging. You can pay $7000 & can wait couple years for outcome yet willing to take risk save some bucks leaving your application non decision ready? For onshore application (at least in my case), I didn't have to provide medical again, & police check was only $50+

It is simply nonsense!

I totally understand and see your point, however..

I have no problem complying with the rules and providing police checks and Medicals for being decision ready - but what I do not particularly enjoy is when it changes at the drop of the hat and the policies change overnight with absolutely no warning. In fact I still am unsure about whether Police checks and Medicals actually need to be uploaded straight away now - it is all speculation and no clear answer seems to be given by the DIBP.

Medicals and police checks generally last 12 months. So if that is the case, they can expire. Now that may not be the end of the world, but when you have lived in multiple countries, and may need to provide new ones - it can take up to 3-4 months sometimes to obtain overseas police checks from Australia. That can delay the visa application immensely. And booking in a medical can take time, and it cannot be done before actually applying I do not think?

It has been highly recommended to wait at least a few months for Medicals and police checks for partner visa applications for a very long time now. Which is what my partner and I have gone with. We applied for the PMV a few weeks ago. And now these changes come from nowhere, and apparently visas can be simply refused because it needs to be decision ready from an overnight policy change? Had I known I would have waited longer to apply and sorted it out.

I could be totally wrong in the medical/police check front loading new requirement, but from what I read it needs to be decision ready including those documents.

 

[will456]

...
Medicals and police checks generally last 12 months. So if that is the case, they can expire.

There was a question on the application - "Have you had a medical check in the last 12 months" She answered YES as she had one in December 2016.
Hopefully they won't ask again. Likewise police checks for applicant and sponsor are within 12 months.
Yes, I will start uploading documents again today. All certified ID documents and statements are still current. I just need to update our history and photo records to bring everything up to the present day.

I just noticed that the bridging visa doesn't allow us to re-enter the country after leaving. It commences at the end of the prospective partner visa in May 2018.

We had arranged to travel to Vietnam in May 2018 to do another Wedding ceremony with the family (we are legally married in Australia so it is just a big celebration).
That cuts it very fine. We need to leave Vietnam before the prospective partner visa expires or my partner will be stuck there!

 

[Skybluebrewer]

There was a question on the application - "Have you had a medical check in the last 12 months" She answered YES as she had one in December 2016.
Hopefully they won't ask again. Likewise police checks for applicant and sponsor are within 12 months.
Yes, I will start uploading documents again today. All certified ID documents and statements are still current. I just need to update our history and photo records to bring everything up to the present day.

I just noticed that the bridging visa doesn't allow us to re-enter the country after leaving. It commences at the end of the prospective partner visa in May 2018.

We had arranged to travel to Vietnam in May 2018 to do another Wedding ceremony with the family (we are legally married in Australia so it is just a big celebration).
That cuts it very fine. We need to leave Vietnam before the prospective partner visa expires or my partner will be stuck there!

If the 820 is not granted before the 300 runs out, there is a bridging visa b (BVB) that can be applied for to allow a BVA holder to leave Australia and return again within the dates of the BVB. That shouldn't be a worry for you.

 

[Skybluebrewer]

As for medical and police checks, the website still states to wait until requested. One would think that they would update that if they intend to change it.

And while they say they are only valid for one year, it is not uncommon for those things to "expire" but a CO does not request them to be done. This is typically seen in onshore applications.

Of course, some COs have requested them be redone. It seems to be at their discretion or a case-by-case basis.

Personally, if they were asking for decision ready apps, I would just submit everything including police checks and medicals. If they choose to request them to be done again in over 12 months, they also know how long it can take and how that will cause delays.

It sounds like they are trying to reduce wait times by streamlining the process. Open an app, make a decision, close app, move on. Not the constant back and forth communication requesting forgotten items or things not done properly all while having mutiple applications open and the queue behind them growing.

I'd definitely recommend anyone applying from here on out to have a reputable RMA look over their app before submitting. So many times on here we read posts from people that didn't know they needed something (like state checks in addition to FBI checks in the US, F1229s for migrating children, F80s, sponsor police checks, and even sponsors failing to do a 40SP). It sounds as if forgetting a single required document can be the difference between a grant and a refusal.

 

[Skybluebrewer]

Double post. Deleted second.

 

[will456]

I wonder what happens in regards to police/medical checks? Technically decision ready means they must be uploaded and completed straight away? That does not seem logical and barely any warning has been given. The DIBP sure do like to change it up at any given moment

OMG!! We haven't even got our wedding photos yet from the photographer. I've updated our relationship history since the PMV application but would like to provide further proof that it was legit eg. the large group shot of our friends at our wedding outside the church.
Also how do I find evidence of joint finances. My new wife is from a poor part of Vietnam. She has put her life savings in my bank from the sale of her only assets - five rubber trees $500 USD.

 

[Skybluebrewer]

OMG!! We haven't even got our wedding photos yet from the photographer. I've updated our relationship history since the PMV application but would like to provide further proof that it was legit eg. the large group shot of our friends at our wedding outside the church.
Also how do I find evidence of joint finances. My new wife is from a poor part of Vietnam. She has put her life savings in my bank from the sale of her only assets - five rubber trees $500 USD.

For PMV to 820, they mostly want to see your marriage certificate and some proof you're starting to combine your lives together (now living together, etc). You don't need all the same extent of evidence as a straight 820 application.

I would just explain your situation and upload what evidences you do have. The most my partner and I had was a joint savings account, a phone bill with both our numbers and internet for the house, and our names on the lease for the house we were staying in when we applied 820 from 300. We hadn't yet purchased a car together, I was still unemployed, and we didn't have any bills for electricity or water in our names as it all was provided with the house.