[mclericp]

Hi all

Me and my girlfriend are planning to apply for the de facto partner visa. So far we have met most criterion.

However we will be going overseas soon to Japan and we are wondering how to prove "joint expenses" as part of the "joint financial" criterion in the partner visa application. Long story short:

1. We have a commonwealth joint account where we use for groceries and other things that we do together (e.g. movies, dinner etc etc) as well as material purchases (e.g. new laptop that we will be using together).

2. We both have individual accounts for personal purchases (e.g. my own clothes).

Issue: Our joint commonwealth account will be subject to 3% foreign exchange fees when using it overseas. Therefore, the issue comes to, how should we spend our money overseas taking into account of the partner visa's "Joint finances" criterion? Some solutions I have below are:

1. I have a personal citibank account which I have created a year ago for the purpose of travelling overseas due to no foreign exchange fees associated with that account. Me and my girlfriend each will transfer certain amounts that are enough to spend for holidays into that citibank account. Once the trip is over, we will transfer our respective money out. Hence, all vacation expenses will be reflected in that citibank account. Problem: it is under my name only, so it is not really a "joint account". Further, Citibank does not allow joint account creation: all accounts are under sole user only.

2. We can apply for a joint travel card. However this will still be subject to foreign exchange fees so might as well use our joint commonwealth account....

3. We will use our existing commonwealth joint account in Japan which we will be subjected to foreign exchange fees.

4. My girlfriend has a Chinese bank credit card and we can make purchases with it in Japan. But same story, it is not a "joint finance" account.

Any other solutions to this????????

Further, some more information about our trip:

1. The hotels were booked under my girlfriend's credit card for the purpose of credit card authorisation. We will plan to pay in cash the actual cost of accommodation. I don't have a personal credit card since I don't need one.

 

[Eh?]

We went to Mexico when my wife arrived in Canada and the only part of that we included was the plane tickets and photos from the trip.

If you have other financial criteria met, use that instead. Include the plane ticket and photos in joint activities and social aspects.

 

[Savage_Flame]

As Eh said, dont stress about not being able to provide absolutely every peice of evidence whilst on travel.

Think outside the box. Show proof of transferring funds into different accounts and put a note. Plane tickets. Emails addressing both of you as guests at a hotel for example etc.

 

[Mish]

Citibank does allow joint accounts as we have one they don't allow you to change a single account to a joint account though.

You can also open a 28 degrees Mastercard (no foreign fees) in your name and then add your partner as an additional card holder.

 

[Mania]

All our money goes into a joint account.

All our expenditure goes off of my credit card.

When transferring from joint to credit card we add a note i.e. plane ticket, or groceries.

They accepted and granted both stages of mine.