There is a certain degree of juggling going on in my life at the moment. Between keeping in touch with family and friends in the UK, blogging, job hunting, visa application stuff and of course spending time with the Aussie I feel like there are a lot of “balls in the air” at the moment but it is worth it.
As you know I finished working for the company where I had worked for about 5 months last week. I have a job lined up to start but not for a few weeks so I thought I would try and find something temporary for a few weeks to get out of the house, earn some money and of course spend time in the air conditioning.
Sadly it appears that it is not meant to be as even with my criterion being only administration work in an office for 2 to 3 weeks there just isn’t anything around, even with my amazing recruitment consultant who found me my last job literally in 24 hours after I joined.
I’m filling the time as best as I can but there is only so many movies you can watch and so much window shopping you can do. Today i’m meeting up with my friends for lunch and quite looking forward to it.
(Image from here)
This break in work does also give me/us the opportunity to start getting things together for a visa application.
We have decided to apply for the Onshore De Facto Partner visa (subclass 820 and 801) which will mean that I am able to remain in Australia after my working holiday visa expires in August and also visit the UK for my friends wedding in September and for Christmas with my family.
This is by no means an easy decision and I know it has been tough on my family and friends when I told them that I was going to apply for the visa and remain in Australia but they have all been amazing and so so supportive which makes me feel truly blessed to have such wonderful family and friends back home.
The visa process is so confusing and very involved, the Aussie thinks I am joking when I grab the receipts for dinner etc from the keypad thing but it is needed.
I sometimes think that I am a Lawyer but I have had to visit the Immigration Office in Darwin numerous times to check things or ask our questions so I can totally understand why people use migration agents to help them even with the expense. I’m determined to do this by ourselves with a little help from Immigration, the visa website in Australia and the many many online forums where you can speak to people and ask your questions or find the answers because someone else has answered it.
After quite a bit of research I have made a list/table of each aspect of our application and what we need to provide to Immigration with our application forms.
We have to prove that we are in a genuine relationship which includes:
♦ LOTs of statutory declarations from our friends and families that they are currently writing for us as well as our own;
♦ That we have lived together for more than a year (or been in a serious relationship for more than a year);
♦ How we support each other financially, emotionally etc;
♦ That we or particularly me are of good character through Police checks; and
♦ I will eventually have to have a medical to show i’m healthy and won’t require lots of medical treatment.
I suspect that this is going to cost us a fortune in printing and scanning costs before we even get to the fee for the visa, police checks and medical but I think it will all be worth it!
I’ll try and keep you updated on my visa application as it progresses but we are hopeful it will be submitted within the next few weeks, fingers crossed.
Forums I have found helpful (although you should always refer to the Immi website and/or the Immigration Department)
Poms In Oz
Australia Forum
Expat Forum
*** Please note that I am in no way giving visa or legal advice about applying for visa’s in Australia or anywhere else – this is just what I have found and is only relevant to our situation ***
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