Sooo this visa process is flipping complicated. I honestly don’t know how we would manage it on our own if I was not legally qualified and bearing in mind my experience is more along the lines of employment law I really know zilch about immigration law. I guess we would have to pay a Migration Agent or Lawyer which is totally understandable as we go through this process.
I have made the local immigration office my second home as I am always popping in to ask questions where I can’t find the answer from the Immigration Website or all of the super helpful forums for people going through the same process.
We are applying for the Onshore De Factor Partner Visa which is subclass 820 and 801 and means that I apply and the Aussie sponsors me to stay. When you submit the forms, which can be done online and the supporting evidence (or as much as you have to hand with confirmation of what else you will be sending) my understanding is that you get issued a bridging visa, we will see when the application gets submitted.
This bridging visa continues with the same conditions of the visa you are already on (I think) and so in August when my Working Holiday Visa (sub class 417 ends) I will go on to a bridging visa on the same conditions (including the working restriction).
So, so far I have managed to arrange my Australian Police check as you need a Police check for every country you have lived in for more than 12 months. This came back last week and apparently I am not of dodgy character, phew!
The Aussie will also have to apply for this, once we locate his passport, as he is sponsering me.
The process was really quick. I applied online by filling in the form, downloading, printing, signing and uploading it along with 100 points of ID (passport, medicare and bank card) and paid the $42 fee.
That was on a Sunday and on the Monday I had received an email confirming my certificate had been printed and by Friday it was sitting in the mail box for me.
Next up I have to sort out the forms and all the documents for my UK police checks. I also need to start printing all of the evidence to demonstrate our relationship as well as finish off writing our statutory declarations and filling in all of the forms.
*** 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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