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820-801 Question

8K views 47 replies 8 participants last post by  Sw777 
#1 · (Edited)
Urgent 820-801 Question

Hello everyone! I am a new member to this forum. Please be gentle! :) I will keep my questions on point and as clear as i can. Here is a short synopsis of where i stand now.

I am a Australian citizen and have just returned back to Australia from the united states, having lived there for 15 years a permanent resident. I married my US citizen wife.We came to Australia in 2009 to be married so my Oz family could attend and went back to the US 2 weeks later.

We would like to apply for a 820-801 and have her and our son immigrated to Australia. Since i have left she has fallen on some financial hardship. And with myself being unemployed for the time being i can only give her some financial assistance. We do have just enough money for the processing of the 820-801 Visa and travel expenses to Oz. Will my unemployed status effect the processing of the 820-801 Visa?

If so, i cannot go through and risk every last dollar we have in the world to have it rejected. Either way, i have to make a decision soon. TIA!

Cheers!
Macros
 
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#2 ·
All I can offer you is that I am the sponsor of my Welsh husband. I receive a disability pension and have a department of housing home, my husband at the time of our application was unemployed (and thanks to the wonderful Australian economy - still is!).

My husband is currently on an 820 visa awaiting his 801 PR which should be through the middle of next year, if we don't starve to death in the meantime lol.

Hope that helps answer your question.
 
#3 ·
All I can offer you is that I am the sponsor of my Welsh husband. I receive a disability pension and have a department of housing home, my husband at the time of our application was unemployed (and thanks to the wonderful Australian economy - still is!).

My husband is currently on an 820 visa awaiting his 801 PR which should be through the middle of next year, if we don't starve to death in the meantime lol.

Hope that helps answer your question.
Thank you for your response!:) From what I am understanding so far the main thing that predicates the decision is establishing a valid relationship. Since we have been married for 6 years I believe it will not be difficult to establish proof.

Cheers!
Macros
 
#8 ·
Your son shouldn't be on your application at all, just so you know - neither as a "migrating dependent" or "non-migrating dependent." Those are both for children who need/potentially need visas. Your son is not eligible for the 820 visa because he is eligible for citizenship. I'd suggest starting his citizenship process ASAP and getting that done.
 
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#9 ·
Hi CollegeGirl, thank you for your response! :) It's awesome that there is such a place as Australia forum to be able to ask questions. I really do appreciate the responses i am getting. I think we can all agree that immigration information is worth it's weight in gold to people such as myself and many others in need of clarification or reassurance.

I may have been a little unclear about my Son. He is my step son, so i just assumed that he would be eligible for the 820 since i am just Dad and legally not his father. If this is still something i should look into please let me know. Thanks again!

Cheers!
Macros
 
#10 ·
If it's your step son then he can be included in your wife partner visa application as her dependent, but he won't be eligible for citizenship by descent as you are not legally the father. if I'm not wrong. :)

You stated you've been married for 6 years, then your wife will probably be granted straight to 801 which is a Permanent Residency visa and not 820 Temporary. :)
 
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#13 ·
Yep, stepson is a whole different thing for immigration purposes. He WILL be included on your application, as Mish stated above. :)
 
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#15 ·
Hi Marcos,

The subclass 820/801 is a combined application. So yes your wife will need to apply 820/801 and include her son as her dependent on her application. If Immigration determine she's eligible for PR she will get the 801 straight up including her dependent.

The Applicant can be eligible straight to PR without waiting 2 years period if:
-Married/de facto relationship for at least 3 years prior to partner visa application.or
-Married/defacto for 2.5 years i think with dependent child under 18 prior to application.

This is only as far as I know :)
 
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#16 ·
Hi Marcos,

The subclass 820/801 is a combined application. So yes your wife will need to apply 820/801 and include her son as her dependent on her application. If Immigration determine she's eligible for PR she will get the 801 straight up including her dependent.

The Applicant can be eligible straight to PR without waiting 2 years period if:
-Married/de facto relationship for at least 3 years prior to partner visa application.or
-Married/defacto for 2.5 years i think with dependent child under 18 prior to application.

This is only as far as I know :)
Hi Oh8'sjustme!:) Thank you for the clarification. Much appreciated!

Cheers!
Macros
 
#17 ·
A BIG thanks once again to everyone who responded to my questions. As the time draws closer in starting the process I will post my progress as a new thread. I may have a few more questions when that time comes. But at least for now i know there are people who understand and care about the struggles we all can face when it comes to immigration.

Cheers!
Macros
 
#18 ·
820-801 Questions before Subittion

Hi everyone! :)

My Wife and Stepson are now here with me on a tourist visa. :) They have been here for 3 weeks and plan on submitting 820-801 partner visa. Just to be clear, we have been married for over 6 years. My questions are:

1. We have been apart for 5 months roughly till they arrived 3 weeks ago. I came back to Australia from the US to find work and set things up before their arrival. Will the time apart be a problem with the submission?

2. How soon is too soon to submit for the 820-801? I have read that submitting maybe 2 weeks before the tourist visa runs out? We have just learnt today that we cannot get our son into the school system till we are within the process. This obviously is not ideal and do not wish for him to fall behind in his education while waiting for processing. He has completed year 11 in the US and would like to complete year 12 within the school system here in Australia.

3. Once we obtain the 820 visa can our son go to school without being regarded as a foreign exchange student? There really isn't any info on this situation. I am sure we may not be the only ones with is dilemma.

4.Do we need a health insurance policy for my wife and son before we submit the 820-801? Or can that be obtained after the application is submitted?

Cheers!
Macros
 
#19 ·
The problem is that Australia has different school years to the US. So if he wants to do the full year 12 will need to wait till Jan/Feb - I wouldn't think they would accept him part way through year 12 but you would need to to check.

You would need to check with the school or education department on what the fees are. However his main issue will be when he goes to university as he won't quality for HECS until he is a citizen. If he had PR by then he can pay domestic up front but that is still alot of money for a 17/18 yr old to pay upfront.

You can lodge the 820/801 whenever you are ready however most do it just before the tourist visa expires so it doesn't look like they came with the intention to apply for a partner visa.

Health insurance - you can apply for Medicare for them as soon as they lodge the visa.
 
#20 ·
Health insurance - you can apply for Medicare for them as soon as they lodge the visa.
Thank you for replying.

We were told that my wife and son would need to have insurance at the time they apply for the visas. We were wondering if it is in fact necessary to have it at the time the application is submitted, or if it can be obtained AFTER the application is submitted. From what I am understanding they can get it after submitting, so it seems silly to get it beforehand.
 
#21 ·
Another question comes to mind...

Regarding the police checks that we will need to get from the US. Because my wife and son are on a 3 month visitor visa there will not be enough time to obtain the police checks from the US, from what we have been reading this can take up to 5 months. Is it okay to apply for the police checks after submitting the visa applications? If they apply for them now they will not get them back in time before their travel visas expire.
 
#24 ·
Hi Mish! Thanks for getting back to us! Really appreciate you taking the time out to do so. Just one more thing. In the first post today i was wondering about the 5 months we have been away from each other and how that might affect the submission?

Cheers!
Macros
 
#31 ·
820 Granted

Once submission of the 820/801 visa paperwork online is complete and paid for, a list of uploads for proof/documents/ identity etc is generated on the site.The suggested uploads seem a little off concerning our application. The 820 bridging visa has been granted, and i believe you have to wait till a case manager has been assigned before a letter goes out asking for specific information to be uploaded to the Immi account. Is this correct? Or should the suggested document uploads begin?
 
#33 ·
Hi Mish

Thank you for your response!:)The only reason i brought this up is because i called immigration and the guy i talked to said they would send out a letter stating what they needed, and that nothing has been requested yet since it will be at least 6 months before anyone would take a look. Which i found a bit contradictory since the list had been generated online. It takes quite awhile to get the FBI checks done (18 weeks) and they are only valid for 12 months and run the chance of them being expired by the time we are assigned a case manager. There were a few recommended uploads that seemed erroneous such as:

Provide evidence that your sponsor is an eligible New Zealand citizen. This may include a certified copy of your sponsor's New Zealand passport or proof of citizenship certificate.

For my Wife: Military Discharge, Evidence of
Military Service, Evidence of

Neither apply to us.
 
#35 ·
Yikes! :eek: Ok, we had initially started with the easiest documentation regardless of what we were told. Probably just as well. Do you or anyone know how long it is taking to be assigned a case manager? I am sure it varies from case to case and workload. Just a rough estimate would be fine.
 
#42 ·
No document room left!

Hello! Finally got our FBI background checks back today:). Went to upload the documents, and now the online immi account is telling me i cannot attach the document to the "Character, Evidence of" because we have used up all the document limit. :confused:These doc's are kind of important. So how can i add it when i have reached the limit? Is there a way to remove documents previously uploaded?

Cheers!
Macros
 
#45 ·
Hi Sw777! Thank you for your response. The problem being that when we made the original submission online through the immi account earlier this year there was no such limit - only size of the attachment limitation. So this change to the rules about number of documents happened quite a bit after after all the documents were uploaded. I have to say it's a little unfair since we were following the right procedure at the time and has effectively locked us out from doing any more uploads.

Also understand that sending documents either by email or snail mail, other than the online immi account could possibly delay the process. I will try to contact them and see what can be done since we were only following procedure at the time. Bit of a bummer to wait over 14 weeks to get the FBI clearance to have this stumbling block.

Cheers!
Macros
 
#46 · (Edited)
FBI Background Checks

I was able to contact someone via email. I was instructed to send the files directly to the email they provided. An email came with confirmation that the docs had been received. Any other docs in the future would have to be sent this way since our upload limit had been exceeded.

Just as a matter of interest - has anyone completing the US FBI background checks been successful with FBI Channeling to cut down waiting times? I read that Australia (since Feb 2015) have a few US providers that have been approved to do this.I Just thought this might be helpful info for anyone in a time crunch.

Cheers!
Macros
 
#47 ·
PR Granted...YAY!

Hello everyone! Good news....we were granted our PR's Yesterday! :) I would like to thank everyone who helped us along the way in this forum. No matter how big or small the info was, it really helped out.This is a great place to get good information on immigration to Australia.

One thing i would like to recommend to anyone immigrating from the US. Use a FBI channeller for the FBI background checks. Usual turn around (at this time of post) is 14 weeks. With a channeller it's around 3 weeks! Good if you are in a pinch for time.

Thanks again and best of luck to all who are starting, or involved in the Australian immigration process. Keep grinding away and ask questions when you are not sure of something.

Cheers!
Macros.

I was able to contact someone via email. I was instructed to send the files directly to the email they provided. An email came with confirmation that the docs had been received. Any other docs in the future would have to be sent this way since our upload limit had been exceeded.

Just as a matter of interest - has anyone completing the US FBI background checks been successful with FBI Channeling to cut down waiting times? I read that Australia (since Feb 2015) have a few US providers that have been approved to do this.I Just thought this might be helpful info for anyone in a time crunch.

Cheers!
Macros
 
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