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Visa Help

4K views 24 replies 9 participants last post by  Scotty P 
#1 ·
Hello

I am inquiring on behalf of my Fiancée i need help on what visa to apply for.

My Fiancée is Mauritian 25 years of age, currently on a student visa studying fresh water and marine biology in Perth and will graduate in July 2013

I am an Australian Citizen, I have no idea what visa she should be applying for so she can stay in the country. We have been in a relationship for 12 months and have known each other for approximately four years. We plan on getting married within the next 8 to 12 months, we do not live together due to our religious beliefs. I would like to keep her here if possible, but if not obviously she would need to go back.

We plan on submitting the visa application ourselves once we know exactly what to do. The only Onshore visas i have looked at is the Partner visa. All other visas i have looked at such as Prospective marriage visa's have been off shore. Some help with what would be the best way to go would be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards
Scott


Kind Regards
Scott Paton
 
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#2 ·
I am not a visa expert by any means, but I'd say you're on the right track looking at Partner Visas. Since you can't live together, gathering evidence of a genuine relationship will be challenging. Start thinking now how you can prove you guys are committed to each other. You will probably have to explain in a declaration why you can't live together before marriage and explain your religious beliefs. How much time do you have 'till her visa runs out?
 
#3 ·
Hi Pxer,

Thank you for the reply, her visa expires 15th of Sep 2014 however she is waiting on some uni results and if passes will graduate in July 2013, hence making the remaining visa extension invalid. (The extension was on the basis she had to re do some units)

I have started on the evidence Photo's of our engagement and just today set up joint bank accounts so we can save for the wedding. (I have only just begun gathering evidence) The pastor of our church is going to write us an intent to marry letter also.
 
#5 ·
Hi Scotty. Welcome to the forum!

Just a quick note about applying for an onshore partner visa in WA - you are required to have lived together for 12 months before you are eligible to apply. The only way to waive this requirement in Western Australia is by getting married (relationship registration is not available in WA). So you will need to marry your partner before you can lodge a 82/801 visa. You are correct that for a prospective marriage visa she would need to be offshore.
 
#7 ·
Thanks Whitney,

Yes i've started on the evidence, I am seeing a migration agent for some further advice however we will be submitting the application ourselves. I've had one agent tell me that they may be able to get around it due to our religious beliefs, however it sounded a bit thin and a lot of "mights" been thrown around. I'd like to do it properly and not rush, i'm prepared to have the time apart if it means not blowing the application fee on a rushed application.
 
#8 ·
I think you are taking a very sensible approach Scotty.
This isn't something that you want to rush and it can be complicated trying to get so much evidence and documentation organised at such short notice.

If you can both accept some time apart, maybe she could go home and apply for a subclass 300 prospective marraige. Make sure you don't get married before she re-enters Australia on that visa though.

The good thing about the prospective marriage visa in your situation is you need far less evidence than you do for a partner migration visa, since they don't expect that you would have lived together in the same capacity as a married or de-facto couple to live in.

Good luck!
 
#9 ·
The more we talk about it the more neither of us want her to go back. Does anyone know if someone on a student visa can apply for a Tourist visa onshore? Also has anyone got any recent updates on the Prospective Marriage visa processing times?
 
#10 ·
How much scrutiny would we get from DIAC if we did a court wedding and simply signed the registry papers so we can apply for the onshore (820) Partner visa? We would then do a “normal” wedding later on after the visa was granted.
 
#11 · (Edited)
Scotty, other people's processing times aren't necessarily going to help you here. I haven't seen many others here from her country. What factors into processing time is country of origin, countries where the applicant has lived, whether there's anything in the applicant's health history that DIAC wants a closer look at, the strength of the evidence you send in, and (the biggest variable) how long the security agency in the applicant's home country takes to get back to DIAC on their external security check.

Generally, low-risk countries' applications process more quickly than high-risk countries, and her country doesn't seem to be classified as low-risk... but there are exceptions to every rule. The Philippines is a country technically considered high-risk, but their prospective marriage visa applications usually get through pretty quickly. (Except for right now, actually, since they're capped.)

DIAC does have some basic processing time guidelines on their website, but many people get theirs faster, while others get theirs way slower. It's pretty difficult to predict.
 
#12 ·
Actually, looking at the Spouse and Family Timelines feature in this forum, it looks like one other person from Mauritius entered a timeline. They applied for a PMV in August of last year and got it granted in March of this year. Again, your case could be similar.. or theirs could have been held up by something. Impossible to know.
 
#13 ·
Update

Just a quick update, it's been a while since i've been on the forum. My Fiancee ended up staying in the country we were able to enroll her in some extra units for her uni degree as her student visa expires September this year.

We are getting married on the 24th of May this year, just a couple of months to go :) i had a quick question about the letter of intent to marry. Since my partner was able to stay we will be applying for the onshore partner visa after we are married. I believe we have to obtain the letter one month prior to the wedding. My question is what do we do once we have the letter? Do we get married and submit the letter with the visa application?
 
#14 ·
Scotty -- I think what you're talking about is the Notice of Intention to Marry form, which is something you have to fill out and lodge with Birth, Deaths, and Marriages one month before you get married in Australia. You can find some information about it here: Getting married - Births, Deaths & Marriages Victoria

Our celebrant lodged ours for us. You don't actually need to show evidence of this to Immigration (or at least, I didn't). Your marriage certificate, which you can obtain after you get married, is the evidence they're looking for when you lodge an onshore (married) partner visa. :)
 
#16 ·
Thanks for all the info guys, i just want to say that my partner and i are now married we were married last week on the 24th of May in Perth and will be going to Mauritius at the end of June for another ceremony with my wife's family and to have a honeymoon.

Now I can begin the visa process, although i started many months ago gathering evidence and documents etc. At this stage because its been at least twelve months or so since i made my initial inquires about an onshore partner visa, I'm wanting to know if any laws have changed in regards to onshore partner visa applications?

I have few different templates of the contents of the application and how to present it which i obtained from this forum. Apologies i can't remember who they came from however the information is extremely helpful, i will be using these templates to collate the info. I have one of the most important documents the marriage certificate, our minister also submitted the intent to marry letter for us.

We will be submitting a dissension ready application, is there any other advice you could offer?
 
#18 ·
Thanks for that, once i have the application finished i was planning on submitting it in person. Would this be the best way or via registered post?
 
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#19 ·
I don't think they like you dropping the applications off anymore.
Why not apply online? Makes things a lot easier in my opinion - keeps a record of everything you upload and no stressing about post arriving or getting lost.
 
#20 ·
You can't submit in person anymore.
 
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#21 ·
Thank you, if i apply online how dose the acknowledgment of the application work. My wife student visa runs out in September this year, how long after submitting the application will she go on a bridging visa?
 
#22 ·
It's all via email. They will email you an acknowledgment email straight away along with a bridging visa. Then once the student visa ends the bridging visa will come into effect.
If you use the online system you can continue to upload evidence and it's all there for you to see - another bonus is that you don't need to get any official documents certified - colour scanned originals is all you need
 
#24 ·
Thank you, so the online system kind of negates having to have everything ready or decision ready, am i correct in saying you can upload at your leisure? or as you go? We will have everything ready at least most of it to go right away. I was planning on doing a decision ready visa.
 
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#25 ·
Apologies for all the questions, i did not know there was an online option the last time i was researching the partner visa. Which was at least a year ago or more. This looks like it will make things a lot easier.
 
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