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Partnership Visa/ETA Tourist Visa

2K views 19 replies 5 participants last post by  ellieandollie 
#1 ·
Hi everyone,
My name is Mandy and I am from Australia. My husband has had to go back to England 2 days ago, so as you can imagine at this point I am quite upset. He has had to go back to England as we received the wrong advice from an Australian immigration lawyer.

Is anybody able to tell me if my husband applies for a partnership visa offshore, is he able to apply for a tourist visa whilst the partnership visa is taking place?

Any information that you have would be greatly appreciated.

Mandy
 
#2 · (Edited)
Hi everyone,
My name is Mandy and I am from Australia. My husband has had to go back to England 2 days ago, so as you can imagine at this point I am quite upset. He has had to go back to England as we received the wrong advice from an Australian immigration lawyer.

Is anybody able to tell me if my husband applies for a partnership visa offshore, is he able to apply for a tourist visa whilst the partnership visa is taking place?

Any information that you have would be greatly appreciated.

Mandy
Hi Mandy,

Welcome to the forum!

What you are suggesting is possible, my husband is from the UK, we applied for our offshore partner visa in May and he is currently with me in Australia on a 3 month tourist visa.

Offshore partner visa's in the UK are currently taking about 8-9 months to process. I have seen some people get theirs approved around the 7 month mark but no quicker than that. Your husband will need to be offshore for the visa to be approved also, so you will need to keep your CO informed once you have one assigned, which is normally about 2 weeks after you apply.

In regards to the tourist visa, DIAC seem to be a little more leniant on the general requirements people need to meet to get a tourist visa [edit - I meant to say when you have applied for a partner visa offshore...]. Since your husband is from the UK, as long as there are no complications such as a criminal record or children required on the visa, the eVisitor is the perfect option as its approved online.

It means that he will need to leave the country of course every three months and he will still need to satisfy immigration at the airport that he is only visiting. In order to do this, make sure he has plenty of money in the bank when arriving in Australia. The main concern is going to be if he is going to work illegally so enough money between you to cover his visit is vital.

Tell him not to pack as if he is moving there either...I know that might be hard to do but it would raise alarm bells at the airport that he might intend to stay on a tourist visa, which will be the other main concern for immigration. You're better off getting stuff shipped.

I hope this helps!
 
#4 ·
Thanks for your help,
My husband had already been living in Australia for 2.5 years on a previous partnership visa which ended with his Ex about a year ago. We met 6 months ago, fell in love instantly and he moved in with me 2 days after we met we married on our 6 month anniversary and have been married for 2 weeks, this is so upsetting as we have just married. Everything that his has is at our house so he wouldn't need to bring in a lot of things back from the UK. I am just worried about when he applies for the perm. visa and then applies for tourist visa if this will impact it when it says no further stay attached to the tourist Visa ?

Mandy
 
#3 ·
Hi Mandy -

Sorry to hear your husband had to leave. If you're of a mind to do something about it and believe that an immigration lawyer provided you with incorrect advice, you may want to file a MARA complaint against him - these are taken VERY seriously. See http://mara.gov.au

Re: visitor visa while awaiting partner visa decision, we regularly obtain these for our clients - in many (but not all) cases they are approved as DIAC generally has a policy consideration during processing where families are not supposed to be separated. That being said, some posts - especially some European ones - have been taking a very hard line lately on this. However, as the UK is considered a low-risk country re: immigration, I think the chances are good that he would get a visitor visa.

Hope this helps -

Best,

Mark Northam
 
#5 ·
Hi Mandy -

Sorry to hear your husband had to leave. If you're of a mind to do something about it and believe that an immigration lawyer provided you with incorrect advice, you may want to file a MARA complaint against him - these are taken VERY seriously.

Re: visitor visa while awaiting partner visa decision, we regularly obtain these for our clients - in many (but not all) cases they are approved as DIAC generally has a policy consideration during processing where families are not supposed to be separated. That being said, some posts - especially some European ones - have been taking a very hard line lately on this. However, as the UK is considered a low-risk country re: immigration, I think the chances are good that he would get a visitor visa.

Hope this helps -

Best,

Mark Northam
Thanks Mark
Thanks for your help,
My husband had already been living in Australia for 2.5 years on a previous partnership visa which ended with his Ex about a year ago. We met 6 months ago, fell in love instantly and he moved in with me 2 days after we met we married on our 6 month anniversary and have been married for 2 weeks, this is so upsetting as we have just married. Everything that his has is at our house so he wouldn't need to bring in a lot of things back from the UK. I am just worried about when he applies for the perm. visa and then applies for tourist visa if this will impact it when it says no further stay attached to the tourist Visa ?

The immigration Lawyer advised us to go to New Zealand and apply for a tourist Visa, when leaving Australia, the airline advised that my husband would not be able to re enter the country as he had a return ticket to Australia and then we had to purchase another ticket to Singapore to a country that would allow him to enter without a Visa, so he could then enter NZ. Once we were in NZ instead of the tourist visa being approved instantly they then replied to my husband asking for his reasons for visiting Australia, asking for a full travel itinerary of what we would be doing, NZ was the start of our honeymoon then we would just be traveling on the weekends when we came back to Australia.

The tourist visa was not granted by the time we left NZ as the immigration lawyer told us it would. The first time he gave us the wrong advice was at the start, when my husband received an email for Immigration saying that they had sent an letter to a previous address which he had not applied to and he now has 28 days to reply to the email and advise what he will be doing as the partnership visa he was previously on, the sponsor had withdrawn. This is when we hired the lawyer, he advised us NOT to respond to the email as they would then send out another letter and we would have a further 28 days to put in another application for our perm visa. This was not the case and we received a letter saying that Immigration had made a decision as we had not made contact and he has 28 days to leave the country, hence the last minute trip to NZ which did not do anything anyways .

Mandy
 
#8 ·
Hi Ellie, sorry I may have misinformed you. Generally in order to obtain a partner visa (309/100 or 820/801) you would needed to have been able to prove that you have lived with your partner for at least 12 months. I thought this was the case regardless of wether you were married or not, but it seems there is no 12 month rule stipulated on the immigration website. I do suggest though you read through the partner migration booklet to make sure that you have all the required evidence which may be tricky given the shorter nature of your relationship.

Eligibility: Partner Visa: Offshore Temporary and Permanent (Subclasses 309 and 100)

Partner Migration Booklet: Partner Migration Booklet

So it seems as long as you can prove you are committed to the marriage it might be ok.

Is there any reason that you didn't apply for an onshore partner visa or is that the result of the bad advice given to you?
 
#9 ·
Hi Ellie, sorry I may have misinformed you. Generally in order to obtain a partner visa (309/100 or 820/801) you would needed to have been able to prove that you have lived with your partner for at least 12 months. I thought this was the case regardless of wether you were married or not, but it seems there is no 12 month rule stipulated on the immigration website. I do suggest though you read through the partner migration booklet to make sure that you have all the required evidence which may be tricky given the shorter nature of your relationship.

Partner Visa: Offshore Temporary and Permanent (Subclasses 309 and 100)[/url]

So it seems as long as you can prove you are committed to the marriage it might be ok.

Is there any reason that you didn't apply for an onshore partner visa or is that the result of the bad advice given to you?
it was from the bad advice given otherwise we would have.
We have bank accounts in both names, we have cars registered in both names, millions of photos of us together, including the wedding day, my in-laws even flow over from the UK to attend the wedding and stayed with us so I have heaps of photos, we have statements from friends and family, I just hope he comes back soon.

I will go through the booklet, thank you so much for helping me

Mandy
 
#10 ·
kmarees - I was just coming to post that. :) No, there's no 12-month requirement when you're married.

I have on additional concern, though - when a sponsor has sponsored someone else in the last five years, or been sponsored themselves within the last five years, they usually don't qualify to sponsor again until 5 years have elapsed. Does anyone know if this applies to applicants, too -- i.e., that they can't have been sponsored by someone different within the last five years?

I don't want to scare you OP - that may not be the case. I just want to make sure we cover all the bases.
 
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#11 · (Edited)
kmarees - I was just coming to post that. :) No, there's no 12-month requirement when you're married.

I have on additional concern, though - when a sponsor has sponsored someone else in the last five years, or been sponsored themselves within the last five years, they usually don't qualify to sponsor again until 5 years have elapsed. Does anyone know if this applies to applicants, too -- i.e., that they can't have been sponsored by someone different within the last five years?

I don't want to scare you OP - that may not be the case. I just want to make sure we cover all the bases.
When you refer to the eligibitlity criteria of the married applicant and the sponsor - its does say that:

When you may not be eligible (to be a sponsor)

You may not be able to sponsor your partner if any one of the following applies:

you are not an Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen
you have previously sponsored two other partners for migration to Australia (including sponsorships you may have withdrawn where your former partner obtained permanent residence on family violence grounds)
you have sponsored another partner within the last five years
you were sponsored for a partner visa as a partner yourself within the last five years
you are the holder of a Woman at Risk visa (Subclass 204)
you have a conviction or an outstanding charge for an offence against a child.
But it doesn't have the same stipulation under the married applicant eligibility so maybe it's not a problem?
 
#13 ·
There's another thing that is coming up for me with this case. If your husband does not have permanent residency from his previous partner visa but separated from his ex (his sponsor) a year ago he would have been required to inform the DIAC of the relationship break down within 28 days of it happening. I think that's what the email was about. If he was refused a visa because they believe he has commit fraud (which he would have if he failed to report the breakdown of his other relationship to the DIAC) then he may be barred from applying for another visa for a period of time. If this is the case you should hire a better migration agent (Mark Northram is a popular choice here) to help you sort through the application process.
 
#15 ·
Hi all -

Re 5-year waiting time after sponsorship for partner or fiance visas, it applies:

** to the sponsor, before he/she can sponsor another applicant

** to the applicant who is granted a visa, before he/she can sponsor another person in the future

Also, if a person is sponsored but a visa is not granted as a result of that sponsorship, then generally that (failed) sponsorship does not activate the 5 year waiting period for either the sponsor or applicant in that instance.

Hope this helps -

Best,

Mark Northam
 
#16 ·
Thanks for clarifying, Mark!! :)
 
#17 ·
Glad I could help - one of the most common questions we get in our office is from people who "sponsored" a partner (defato or via marraige) for a skilled, student or temporary work visa - in fact this act of including a partner on a visa application is technically not a "sponsorship" and therefore does not activate the 5-year waiting period - the 5 year period is confined to those actually sponsored (from which a visa is approved) for a family visa such as a partner or fiance visa.

Best,

Mark Northam
 
#18 ·
I hadn't even thought of that possibility for the poster in the other thread. :) Guess that's why you're the agent. ;) I'm so glad you put your two cents in Mark. Love it when you have time to do that. :)
 
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