[ras1234]

Hey!
We just got our partner visa granted after 3 months and couldn't believe it. We were so nervous and expecting it to take at least 12 months so it came as a total surprise.
We found the process quite difficult and confusing at times as the government website is soo vague about what it wants. Oh and time consuming too!! We considered hiring a visa advisor to support us with the application as that is what so many people had advised, but they are SO expensive and it's costly enough for the application alone. So we did lots and lots of research and did it alone.

We wanted to help people save money and time so I have put a site and guide together. If you are looking for help check it out!

If you have any questions on the threat we are happy to help

 

[Skybluebrewer]

Congrats. We've seen a lot of quick grants this year, some within a few weeks. Not likely anything different that anyone did, just luck of the draw. Some of those people didn't even have decision ready apps and still got grants within a couple months! Many of them straight to PR.

If anyone is willing to put in the effort, it can likely be done without a professional assuming it's not a complicated app. I can work on my own car engine with the help of manual and forums but sometimes it's just worth paying a professional, either out of convenience or due to something more complicated than I can handle.

That being said, I wouldn't pay for anything that didn't come from a professional. No offense. My partner and I were able to get two partner visa grants, one ready in just over 3 months and another in just 20 days, and this back before the immigration website was updated to be as informative as it is now. This forum and people like ampk, Mish, Mania and some of the RMAs provided plenty of clarification on any gray areas. I hate seeing people pay for info they can get for free. The money would be better spent with a professional if spent at all.

 

[ras1234]

Thanks! All the info on the site is free, but we’re offering access to our application if it will help anyone, too. Most information is just offering tips that will help when it comes to the application. We were clueless when we started up and it’s helpful to know what to expect 🙂

 

[aussieEmily]

Thats great news!

Do you both live together for 12 months before you lodged the visa application? Me and my partner have been long distance for a year but have frequent visits so I am still trying to figure out what counts as the 12 year requirement for the de facto relationship requirement.

 

[Savingfriend]

Hi everyone! We are confused about getting a register relationship. Should we print the form from the website or we think of applying in person and they have it there already to fill up the form? Thanks

 

[JandE]

Hey!
We just got our partner visa granted after 3 months and couldn't believe it. We were so nervous and expecting it to take at least 12 months so it came as a total surprise...
..
We wanted to help people save money and time so I have put a site and guide together. If you are looking for help check it out!

You are charging £40, that's about $73, for your information that others provide on here for free, and your visa, presumably the 309 from the UK, was processed in a very average time, or even above average, for that particular visa from the UK.

Example times:

Offshore 309 Grants from UK applicants in 2018:
309 Granted 19 Feb 2018 after 6 weeks
309 Granted 14 Feb 2018 after 3 months
309 Granted 30 Jan 2018 after 3 months
309 Granted 20 Jan 2018 after 2 months
309 Granted 18 Jan 2018 after 7 months
309 Granted 18 Jan 2018 after 2 months
309 Granted 17 Jan 2018 after 5 months
309 Granted 17 Jan 2018 after 4 months
309 Granted 9 Jan 2018 after 6 months
309 Granted 8 Jan 2018 after 4 months
309 Granted 5 Jan 2018 after 6 weeks
309 Granted 3 Jan 2018 after 4 months
https://www.britzinoz.com/australian-partner-visa-grant-times-for-uk-applicants-in-2018

 

[ampk]

but we're offering access to our application if it will help anyone, too.

Many people are lazy and love just to copy what others have done.

So when 6,30 or 100 applications all very similar to yours cross the Case Officers desk - I expect they will see red flags.

I don't think it is wise to offer access to your application if you want to help others - it may well have the opposite effect.

I have often linked a way I presented some evidence but never in full, for communication I suppled the following for Skype conversations and a cover page explanatory note about how the pages were randomly selected and some other key points. Other than Dept of IMMI and a RMA that reviewed after submission no-one has seen the cover page or its exact content.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/htjonooqj470p5w/Skype log.pdf?dl=0

So an idea and an example is given but it can not be copied, it still will take effort from applicants.

 

[CCMS]

It could be construed that you are providing immigration advice and charging a fee for it. In Australia it is illegal to provide immigration advice unless you are a Registered Migration Agent. I take it that your intention is to live in Australia, so I’d be very careful what you do with that web-site. Moreover, I think it is quite irresponsible to share your visa application with others. Their circumstances may be totally different to yours and by using your application as some sort of template, they may get themselves in all sort of strife. What worked for you won’t necessarily work for others. I also find it quite unethical that you’re trying to make a quid out of it.

 

[ras1234]

Hi All,

Thanks for your thoughts on the matter. I think it's clear to all that we are only giving an example of what we did and clearly not advising, but your comments are appreciated. We are speaking from our personal experience and while you say there is lots of information available elsewhere personally when we found this either difficult to find or to understand when putting together our application. One of the most useful sites we found offered something similar and we personally found this very helpful, the only issue was the application was outdated so we thought we would share our recent experience.

Ultimately we're only trying to help and provide information we would have been grateful for

 

[ras1234]

Thats great news!

Do you both live together for 12 months before you lodged the visa application? Me and my partner have been long distance for a year but have frequent visits so I am still trying to figure out what counts as the 12 year requirement for the de facto relationship requirement.

Hi Emily,

It depends on what visa you intend to apply for. If you are intending to apply for the defacto partner visa than for all practical purposes you would need to have lived together for at least 1 year before applying. If however you're planning on applying for the prospective marriage visa there is no requirement to live together before applying.

Below are the link to the definitions/criteria from the Aus government which you might find useful:
Defacto definition:
<homeaffairs .gov. au/Visas/supporting/Pages/partner/what-de-facto-relationship-is. aspx>
Prospective Marriage Visa Criteria
<homeaffairs .gov. au/trav/visa-1/300-?modal=/Visas/supporting/Pages/300/eligibility-your-relationship. aspx>

Hope this helps.

 

[Skybluebrewer]

Sounds like you're just trying to make some money.

 

[Eh?]

I believe the OP is trying to help, but charging for it doesn't seem appropriate as there are hundreds of threads on these forums detailing ways to lodge an application successfully, not to mention the RMA's who frequent these parts and often offer free advice.


For what it's worth, our application was approved and our visa was granted in 36 days and we didn't pay a cent to anyone. We used this forum and a few blogs as a guideline and created our own unique, decision ready application.

 

[CCMS]

Hi Emily,

If you are intending to apply for the defacto partner visa than for all practical purposes you would need to have lived together for at least 1 year before applying.
.

This statement is incorrect for several reasons. There is a reason why unqualified people should not provide migration advice. By all means share your personal experience, but having one visa approved for yourself does not make you an expert and does not put you in a position where you can advise others, whose circumstances most likely are totally different to yours.

Trying to make money out of sharing your application could well be considered providing paid migration advice. I repeat that I personally find this both highly unresponsible and unethical.

If I knew that someone living in Australia was operating such a website, I would not hesitate in reporting it, as it would be clearly illegal.

 

[ras1234]

Skybluebrewer & Eh? - I appreciate your point and I apologise if I have offended you in anyway with my post. As mentioned I can only speak of our personal experience of putting together our application and what we found useful.

CCMS - It was a general statement in response to a general question. I assume Emily was not looking for an essay length answer, also you will notice the link to the Aus Gov't website with more detail.

 

[CCMS]

Skybluebrewer & Eh? - I appreciate your point and I apologise if I have offended you in anyway with my post. As mentioned I can only speak of our personal experience of putting together our application and what we found useful.

CCMS - It was a general statement in response to a general question. I assume Emily was not looking for an essay length answer, also you will notice the link to the Aus Gov't website with more detail.

It was quite a specific question, which really can't be answered without knowing all the details. Saying that you need to "live together" for at least 1 year to meet de-facto requirements is not correct.

I notice you are avoiding the other issue I have raised.

 

[ras1234]

I wasn't avoiding the other comment. I simply didn't realise it warranted a response...

 

[CCMS]

I wasn't avoiding the other comment. I simply didn't realise it warranted a response...

In that case I will simply refer your website to the relevant authorities, as it is my opinion that you are offering to illegally provide paid migration advice. I'll be happy for them to decide if this is appropriate or not.

 

[ceez1986]

Hey!

We wanted to help people save money and time so I have put a site and guide together. If you are looking for help check it out!

If you have any questions on the threat we are happy to help

Hi ras1234. Congrats on your visa. Can you provide the link to the site and guide you have put together. It would really help us.

Thanks.

 

[ceez1986]

Hi ras1234. Congrats on your visa. Can you provide the link to the site and guide you have put together. It would really help us.

Thanks.

 

[joyinoz2018]

Hey!
We just got our partner visa granted after 3 months and couldn't believe it. We were so nervous and expecting it to take at least 12 months so it came as a total surprise.
We found the process quite difficult and confusing at times as the government website is soo vague about what it wants. Oh and time consuming too!! We considered hiring a visa advisor to support us with the application as that is what so many people had advised, but they are SO expensive and it's costly enough for the application alone. So we did lots and lots of research and did it alone.

We wanted to help people save money and time so I have put a site and guide together. If you are looking for help check it out!

If you have any questions on the threat we are happy to help

Thank you for sharing. This is great news! Big congrats!!! It's so comforting to hear this. We have just lodged our 820/801 application last month. We are hoping some random luck is going to come to us so we don't need to wait for a long time!

We did the application ourselves too. We did consider to use a registered migration agent to do it for us but the fees were too high. It was quoted $2,700 per 820/801 application. We didn't want to spend $7,000 + $2,700 for the application. So we did a lot of research online, read posts in this forum and went through the Home Affairs' official site many times to try to understand the application requirements as much as we could.

We found the application part was relatively easy to complete. But it took some time to answer all the questions. The difficult point we came across was we weren't sure what level of details that we should include. Given the facts that we have been together for more than 12 years and got married back in 2010, there are so many legal documents and related materials that we can attach to the application to well represent our case. But we also found it a bit confusing the attachment part didn't appear till the application was submitted and the fees were paid. It was definitely a surprise for us the amount of documents in different categories were asked in the attachment section.

Very interested in your application. If you don't mind sharing it, would like to take a read.