Hi! I'm a norwegian student (international student) taking my bachelors degree in Perth, hence i have a studentvisa for the duration of my studies. My boyfriend recently called the embassy to enquire about what type of visa he would need so that he can stay here for the lenght of my studies.

The woman on the phone said:
- he should get a working holiday visa first for one year, we will offcourse be living together for this one year.
- then when this visa is about to expire he should then apply for the de facto visa, showing that we have been a couple for more then one year (by living arrangements, flight tickets to and from australia furhter back in time than one year, he will by that time have a good job, he is well educated... and so on as evidence)...

Our question now is:
- does it have anything to say that i am NOT an Australian citizen?
- What can be the problems we can meet in this situation??

he is:
- turning 31 in november.
- skilled worker.
- no criminal record. (offcourse :-))

what are the criterias? We both think all of this is very confusing..

Thanks in advance to those who can give us an answer! :-)

The WHV is an individual visa and your boyfriend can apply for that quite independently of you and is eligible to apply right up until he turns 31.
Working Holiday Visa (Subclass 417)

The DIAC officer has given you one option re he applying for a partner visa, if you already have a relationship but did not show him as a partner in your student application, details @
How to Apply for Dependent Family Members to Join You

Temporary/Permanent residency partner visas do usually require the sponsor to be an Australian citizen or PR but people can also get a TR partner visa to join people who are on TR employer sponsored visas and I think this issue has been raised before on the forum and there may be a way for him to apply for a TR partner visa not shown on the student link.
[ need a bit of searching ].

There're a couple of other options he may want to look at as well, and that's:
. if he is qualified and has skills, he could come on his WHV and then see what employer sponsored opportunities might be about.
Visa Options - Employer Sponsored Workers - Workers - Visas & Immigration , the temporary 457 visa being the most common initial visa for that.

Alternately, if he gets here reasonably quickly, say in next month or so to allow him time to see about employer sponsorship and if there seems little opportunity, by doing some regional work [ details in WHV section ] or WWOOF Australia for three months before he turns 31, he can apply for the second WHV and that will be tacked on to his first WHV to allow him to stay for two years.
That'll certainly give him more time to seek a 457 ES visa or perhaps even a permanent ES or independent visa.

If that happens, then he has the option of staying permanently with you as his partner.
A bonus in that for you would be your University fees would become considerably less.

What skill/qualifications does he have?