[me-and-my-girls]

Hi

So I wanted to pick the brains of anyone that has married someone from overseas and had to organise for them to live here, or one of the Americans out there that have married an aussie and come here to live (I know there are a few of you out there).

My fiance lives in the USA and we have finally decided that the place for us to live (at least for the foreseeable future) is here in Australia. I am looking at all the immigration stuff and I am sooooo confused. There are several options, which confuses me even more.

Firstly there is a fiancee visa, which from what I understand, he will need to be outside of the country for the entire duration of the visa application - only God knows how long that could be. But once it is granted he can come and live here and work.

Then there is a partner visa, which I think we could apply for if we just got married and he would be able to live here for the duration of the application process - again, who knows how long that could be. I think the problem with that one is that he won't be able to work while he is here, and correct me if I am wrong but I'm not sure if it gives automatic work rights when it is granted anyway.

Problem is, we really need him to be working. He has his own business which will not be a problem to continue from over here, so finding a job is not an issue, but we still need permission for him to do that. Also, he/we want him to come now. I don't want to wait for an eternity to be able to see him again. He has travelled here quite a few times and is still using his ETA visa, and the plan is for him to come again at the end of the month but we can't afford to have him keep going back and forth indefinately. We just want him to stay.......and work.

Has anyone gone through this process and might be able to shed a bit of light on it for me. I am confused............and lonely

[Lausii]

I went through immigration joy about ten years ago with my ex husband. We went the partner visa route as we were married. He had to go back to his home country for about two months and apply from there. We had all the medicals, police checks etc done before he went back and all he had to do was lodge. However ours may have been quicker as I was expecting our third child and I did get an MP involved to hurry it up so my ex husband was back in time for the birth. I have heard of it taking up to 6 months to a year in some cases.

Good luck, I'm sure others will come in with more up to date information.

[MakeLoveNotBacon]

We have but it was over 15 years ago so it might have changed. We met overseas, and he came here on a tourist visa, which I think was six months. Once that was due to expire we applied for a spousal visa. While the visa was being considered, he applied for a bridging visa which allowed him to work until the application had been accessed.

We started off by contacting Immigration and going in for an interview. We told them our story, and they told us what to apply for and what to do (lots of documented evidence of our relationship). As it was a de facto relationship, we had to prove it had been going for a minimum of 12 months.

As I said, it's been 15 odd years but we found the process quite easy and straight forward. Good luck.

[RobotFerretOfDoo...]

If you have sufficient evidence to prove a committed relationship, the application process can be quite fast. I think it only took us about a month once we pulled all our information together.

It's a number of years since we did it, but my memory is that he doesn't have to be outside the country to apply, it's more that you have to apply and be accepted in the one place. So if you apply from OS, you have to stay there until accepted; if you apply in Aus, you stay here until accepted. And would not be able to work until the appropriate visa is granted.

Pretty sure you also need to show that as a fiance you would be able to support him if he can't work - basically you're going guarantor for him as the govt won't be prepared to pay him benefits or anything if something goes wrong.

[Bek+3]

This is my experience and it was 8 years ago now.

I met and married my DH in the UK. After we got married we applied to come to Australia. (I am Australian, born and bred.) The paperwork set us back about 3k. DH had to undergo medical checks, criminal checks etc. It was then about 14 months after all paperwork had been submitted before we were approved and I was able to bring him home with me to live.

For me to become a permanent resident of the UK though took me all of a whole afternoon sitting in the Croydon immigration office in London with marriage certificate and ID and passport in hand!!

[FiveAus]

Mine was a while ago....1999....... So it may have changed. We weren't marred because his divorce wasn't final so he came on a tourist visa from the US and extended it out to a year then we applied for a spouse visa. He didn't work for a year but once we applied for his visa, he got permission to work while on the bridging visa. By the time hs visa was granted, his divorce was sorted and we got married shortly after.

[girltribe4]

I am the Aussie and my husband is the one who married me and came over here to live . Our case was very simple though and we had our spouse visa in about 2 weeks as we had been married for 4yrs and had 2 children with one on the way .
We still had to prove it was a ''true'' relationship with statements from friends & family , also any joint bank statements even photographs !!
Even though it was a easy application we still went through a migration agent to make sure the mounds of paperwork were correct and we had everything we needed first time round.

Once we were here it was much easier for him to apply for medicare benefits ect than for me as a returning Aussie ( I hadn't lived here for 15yrs)

[Amellyne]

I married an American and he came over here to live with me, we had a complicated time originally trying to get into the US so decided to bite the bullet, get married and move to Aus.

The paperwork itself was fairly easy and we submitted it in the US at the embassy over there (As we got married over there) cost us about $1400US to do it, it took him about nine months for this visa to be approved, 11 to get here after he tied up loose strings in the states, I was back in Aus at this point as I had to prove I had a job to support him, however he did come and visit part of the way through the process which they didn't mind.

If in doubt contact immigration here (or an Australian embassy over there) they are more than happy to help and we found the process, although long, not particularly painful.

Edit: just to state my story is 3 and a half years old, so it is likely that they have altered the system since we went through it.

This post has been edited by Amellyne: 12/01/2013, 06:47 PM

[fun_fairz]

I also applied from outside Australia. Partner is from UK and i am australian,. We applied for a defacto visa and the paperwork was a pain but the whole process was pretty straightforward. We were approved within a week of submitting the application.

[sarkazm76]

My ex moved to Australia to be with me at end of 2004. He came on a working holiday visa for 12 months - only allowed him to have each job for 12 weeks though so was massive pain in the ass. We applied as defacto (I'd already lived with him in Canada for 12 months previous) and it was no problem. I don't remember costs - I'm sure if was only a few hundred. We needed evidence of our relationship and had to go to an interview. Was stressful for nothing really as in the end it was pretty easy. They allowed him to stay here on his current visa terms while the apllication was pending. From memory we broke up and he left in May 2007 so I guess... he was here 2004-2005 on his visa then for 18 months waiting after that perhaps. As soon as we let them know our relationship was ending he had a limited amount of time to leave the country.... so we jsut waited until he was ready, lol. If we had become engaged or got married in the meantime we would have had to start our application all over again - I do rememebr that bit!