Hey everyone,
My partner and I recently applied for the Onshore Partner Visa and it got approved in less than 5 days. Given that every time I spoke to immigration I was informed it could take up to 18 months, this has obviously come as a nice surprise! I can't imagine having to wait for a year and a half for immigration to "approve" my relationship SO I am going to detail everything we included in this post to hopefully help other people achieve the same result.
Firstly I will give you some background details:
- Applicant (me) Nationality and Age: British, 26
- Sponsor Nationality and Age: Australian, 26
- Met: December 27th 2010 in Scotland
- Began Relationship: September 16th 2011 (would have been sooner if it were not for the distance - maintained daily contact throughout this period)
- Moved in Together: January 6th 2012
- Joint Lease Together: June 8th 2012
- Applied for Visa: May 21st 2013
- Visa Acknowledged: May 23rd 2013
- Visa Granted: May 28th 2013 (3 working days!)
We divided our information into three "A4 Refillable Display Books"
(from Officeworks), which included 20 plastic pockets.
FOLDER 1: contained everything that was officially required for the visa + a cover letter and a contents page.
This is what it contained:
- Cover letter - names, contact details etc
- Contents Page
- Form 47SP
- Form 80
- Stat Dec - Partner Visa (Applicant)
- Applicant's Medical Assessment
- Applicant's Proof of Identification (Passport, Driving Licence etc) and Two Passport Photos
- Applicant's Birth Certificate
- Applicant's UK Police Check
- Applicant's Australian Federal Police Check
- Applicant's University Degree
- Applicant's University Transcript (These were to back up the character assessment)
- Form 40SP
- Stat Dec - Partner Visa (Sponsor)
- Sponsor's Proof of Identification and Two Passport Photos
- Sponsors Birth Certificate
- 5 x Statutory Declarations From:
- Sponsor's former boss (Major in Australian Army)
- Applicant and Sponsor's former flatmate (verified I moved in on Jan 6th)
- Stat Dec's from both mother's
- Stat Dec from joint Australian friend
FOLDER 2: Contained all official supporting documents (Statements, Leases etc)
These were the contents:
- Contents Page
- NSW Registered Relationship Certificate (we got this because we were 2 weeks short of having lived together for a year in terms of officially sharing a lease)
- Australian Defence Force Defacto Application (Included bills, security clearances etc to have me recognised by the army)
- Sponsor's Will naming Applicant and Sole Benefactor
- Current Payslip of Sponsor (showing he is able to financially support throughout application)
- Sponsor's previous 3 years worth of tax returns
- Official letters to our shared address dated January 2012 (to show we were living together before I was officially put on the lease)
- Joint lease for apartment in 2012
- Joint lease for house for 2013-2014
- Joint Power and Water bills for 2012
- 2x Joint Bank Account Statements
- Joint Residential Phone Bill for Current Address
- 6x Sponsors Phone Bills from January 2011 until 2013 showing maintained contact
- Receipts showing furniture bought for current address
- Travel itineraries for trips taken (Flights, Ticket Stubs, Hotel Confirmations etc)
FOLDER 3: Contained all unofficial personal documents
These were the contents:
- Contents Page
- Approx 25 photos together, with our families, on trips, at formal events etc
- Evidence of Social Activities (Concert ticket stubs, new years events, musicals etc ALSO, photos of joint purchases mentioned in receipts, presents to each other)
- Personal Correspondence - letters written to each other during time spent apart, journal entries during partner's army deployment, birthday cards, valentines cards, anniversary etc
- We also included some funny bits and pieces such as a "Marriage Certificate" from an autowed machine that we got on New Years Eve - funny little things that you randomly get when you're in an actual relationship with someone
In terms of layout, labels were affixed to the front of each plastic pocket detailing the contents and, if needed, why we deemed it relevant. We also put two labels on the front of each folder stating which folder it was, what it contained (Official vs Unofficial Documents), and the names of Applicant and Sponsor (in case it went missing..).
The biggest thing that we wanted to make sure of was that all of our information fitted together seamlessly: What was detailed in our forms, matched both our stat decs and the stat decs provided by others; the travel itineraries matched the photos we included; ticket stubs matched social events that we mentioned etc.
We deliberately separated everything into different folders as immigration send back everything that isn't official. Folders 2 and 3 were returned to us the week after we applied; we thought that separating it this way would make it easier for them to see all of the information they had to keep and the information they just had to sift through.
We also made sure that everything in the first two folders was certified if they weren't originals (bills, leases, ID's, letters etc)
In terms of the supporting stat decs (Form 888), we went for two professional and impartial people as the main two and three supporting ones from friends and family.
The medical was done when all of the information we wanted to include had been gathered so it could be couriered the day after the medical was returned. The medical was returned after a week in a sealed envelope which we included in Folder 1. We put all three folders into a plastic "Translucent File A4 50mm" (again from Officeworks), and sent it via Express Post to the Sydney office.
It was sent on the afternoon of Tuesday 23rd May, Signed for by the Sydney office on Thursday 24th May, on Friday 25th of May I received an email detailing that it was a "valid application", my bridging visa details and receipt of payment, the Temporary visa was approved on Tuesday 28th May and all of the personal documents arrived back at my home on Friday May 31st.
Sorry for this being the longest post in the world; I'm not sure which aspects made our application faster so I included everything!
Hope this helps - if anyone has any questions I would be happy to answer
My partner and I recently applied for the Onshore Partner Visa and it got approved in less than 5 days. Given that every time I spoke to immigration I was informed it could take up to 18 months, this has obviously come as a nice surprise! I can't imagine having to wait for a year and a half for immigration to "approve" my relationship SO I am going to detail everything we included in this post to hopefully help other people achieve the same result.
Firstly I will give you some background details:
- Applicant (me) Nationality and Age: British, 26
- Sponsor Nationality and Age: Australian, 26
- Met: December 27th 2010 in Scotland
- Began Relationship: September 16th 2011 (would have been sooner if it were not for the distance - maintained daily contact throughout this period)
- Moved in Together: January 6th 2012
- Joint Lease Together: June 8th 2012
- Applied for Visa: May 21st 2013
- Visa Acknowledged: May 23rd 2013
- Visa Granted: May 28th 2013 (3 working days!)
We divided our information into three "A4 Refillable Display Books"
(from Officeworks), which included 20 plastic pockets.
FOLDER 1: contained everything that was officially required for the visa + a cover letter and a contents page.
This is what it contained:
- Cover letter - names, contact details etc
- Contents Page
- Form 47SP
- Form 80
- Stat Dec - Partner Visa (Applicant)
- Applicant's Medical Assessment
- Applicant's Proof of Identification (Passport, Driving Licence etc) and Two Passport Photos
- Applicant's Birth Certificate
- Applicant's UK Police Check
- Applicant's Australian Federal Police Check
- Applicant's University Degree
- Applicant's University Transcript (These were to back up the character assessment)
- Form 40SP
- Stat Dec - Partner Visa (Sponsor)
- Sponsor's Proof of Identification and Two Passport Photos
- Sponsors Birth Certificate
- 5 x Statutory Declarations From:
- Sponsor's former boss (Major in Australian Army)
- Applicant and Sponsor's former flatmate (verified I moved in on Jan 6th)
- Stat Dec's from both mother's
- Stat Dec from joint Australian friend
FOLDER 2: Contained all official supporting documents (Statements, Leases etc)
These were the contents:
- Contents Page
- NSW Registered Relationship Certificate (we got this because we were 2 weeks short of having lived together for a year in terms of officially sharing a lease)
- Australian Defence Force Defacto Application (Included bills, security clearances etc to have me recognised by the army)
- Sponsor's Will naming Applicant and Sole Benefactor
- Current Payslip of Sponsor (showing he is able to financially support throughout application)
- Sponsor's previous 3 years worth of tax returns
- Official letters to our shared address dated January 2012 (to show we were living together before I was officially put on the lease)
- Joint lease for apartment in 2012
- Joint lease for house for 2013-2014
- Joint Power and Water bills for 2012
- 2x Joint Bank Account Statements
- Joint Residential Phone Bill for Current Address
- 6x Sponsors Phone Bills from January 2011 until 2013 showing maintained contact
- Receipts showing furniture bought for current address
- Travel itineraries for trips taken (Flights, Ticket Stubs, Hotel Confirmations etc)
FOLDER 3: Contained all unofficial personal documents
These were the contents:
- Contents Page
- Approx 25 photos together, with our families, on trips, at formal events etc
- Evidence of Social Activities (Concert ticket stubs, new years events, musicals etc ALSO, photos of joint purchases mentioned in receipts, presents to each other)
- Personal Correspondence - letters written to each other during time spent apart, journal entries during partner's army deployment, birthday cards, valentines cards, anniversary etc
- We also included some funny bits and pieces such as a "Marriage Certificate" from an autowed machine that we got on New Years Eve - funny little things that you randomly get when you're in an actual relationship with someone
In terms of layout, labels were affixed to the front of each plastic pocket detailing the contents and, if needed, why we deemed it relevant. We also put two labels on the front of each folder stating which folder it was, what it contained (Official vs Unofficial Documents), and the names of Applicant and Sponsor (in case it went missing..).
The biggest thing that we wanted to make sure of was that all of our information fitted together seamlessly: What was detailed in our forms, matched both our stat decs and the stat decs provided by others; the travel itineraries matched the photos we included; ticket stubs matched social events that we mentioned etc.
We deliberately separated everything into different folders as immigration send back everything that isn't official. Folders 2 and 3 were returned to us the week after we applied; we thought that separating it this way would make it easier for them to see all of the information they had to keep and the information they just had to sift through.
We also made sure that everything in the first two folders was certified if they weren't originals (bills, leases, ID's, letters etc)
In terms of the supporting stat decs (Form 888), we went for two professional and impartial people as the main two and three supporting ones from friends and family.
The medical was done when all of the information we wanted to include had been gathered so it could be couriered the day after the medical was returned. The medical was returned after a week in a sealed envelope which we included in Folder 1. We put all three folders into a plastic "Translucent File A4 50mm" (again from Officeworks), and sent it via Express Post to the Sydney office.
It was sent on the afternoon of Tuesday 23rd May, Signed for by the Sydney office on Thursday 24th May, on Friday 25th of May I received an email detailing that it was a "valid application", my bridging visa details and receipt of payment, the Temporary visa was approved on Tuesday 28th May and all of the personal documents arrived back at my home on Friday May 31st.
Sorry for this being the longest post in the world; I'm not sure which aspects made our application faster so I included everything!
Hope this helps - if anyone has any questions I would be happy to answer
