Options for Australian Visa for Thai Partner

[suk53]

Hi all,

 

I am seeking your help/advise. I am trying to get my head around how to get an Australian Visa for my Thai girlfriend/partner to visit me for an extended period (6-12 months).

 

It appears that getting an Australian visa for Thai nationals, esp. women, has become extremely difficult this year. We applied twice for a Visitor visa for her, both rejected to our surprise (the second time despite a ridiculous amount of documentation about anything under the sun). Reason for rejections was 'not satisfied that the applicant wishes to return' without elaboration (but a lot of typos).

 

I am not sure why the Australian embassy in Bangkok (apparently) thinks that she would work or illegally immigrate? She has absolutely no intention to work or to illegally immigrate. They are wrong with their judgment (prejudice).

 

Background: We are together for 6 months. She does not have an employment history in a conventional sense, however, she earned money (a lot actually) as model/actress/TV (project/freelance) work and has essentially spent the last two years mainly traveling in the US (after a long-relationship breakup; from savings). She owns a condo (but in her ex' name), a Mini, her family has three houses, two factories and two well-known Thai brands (i.e., she is most certainly not coming to Australia for economic reasons, she would not work). She has a current 10-year US visa, a 2018 Schengen visa and two prior Australian visas (like early 2000s) with no visa issues of any kind. Since February she has contracted as a fashion designer (THB 30k/m). I am a professional in Sydney (European passport but Australian permanent resident, in Sydney since 2011), good three-digit income. We had provided documentation on this with the applications.

 

At the moment, I am flying fortnightly for weekends to Bangkok, and we have been to EU/Asian countries over the past months, but this is just financially unsustainable (we are both in stable financial situation but not rich) – and emotionally a primarily "Skype relationship" is only so much of a replacement for, you know, actually being together.

 

Could you comment on our options or suggest alternatives? Any recommendation on good visa agents? Any "workarounds"? Anything else that could be done? (e.g., should we pay 150k THB to have the condo transferred to her name? should I challenge the decisions in an Australian court? it's very hard to do)\

 

1. Apply for Student Visa. She actually would like to take English classes, might as well do this in Australia. – I was told by an agent that chance is only 25% because many Thais apparently use such visa for work and she got rejected on a prior visa to the same destination (as above).

 

2. Apply for Visitor Visa – but she got rejected twice so I wouldn't think it this is a great option. The only thing is we could document more work/employment history now, and potential transfer the condo to her name.

 

3. Apply for New Zealand visa – we both move to Auckland, New Zealand, for some time and I fly to work in Sydney every week. (!)

 

4. Keep flying to Thailand until the end of the year and then apply under De-Facto-Partner conditions.

 

Note: I think that we cannot get married, apply for Promise-of-Marriage visa or De-Facto-Spouse visa because 1) divorce of my first marriage is still to be settled (after an unrelated 2017 separation), this will take some more months, 2) we don't want to marry because of a visa and 3) 6 months is not long enough for de facto (it needs to be 12 months). She is too old for this below 30s-Working-Visa (maybe there are other types?). I cannot work entirely remotely out of Thailand.

 

Thank you for any help and thoughts 

Edited May 27, 2018 by suk53
Typos

[simple1]

As a starting point rejected applications for tourist visas are not open to a legal appeal process. As you live in Australia why not arrange an appointment with Immigration to see if you can ascertain the reason/s for rejecting the applications based upon "insufficient reason to return". However, from your post above it would appear that other than owning a car she has no assets in her name / reason to return. Perhaps a director of her agency can provide a letter saying G/F is a contractor and they have agreed for her to take leave of absence during assignment/s and require her to return to work on XX date. Also consider applying for a 2/4 week tourist visa, providing evidence of medical insurance for the period, after meeting with Immigration, to test the waters.

 

Could be wrong, but understand Oz is cracking down on student visas due to abuse of the system.

 

Hopefully someone who has more recent in depth knowledge who will also contribute.

[Will27]

Just for starters, you can forget about getting a 6-12 month visa for her.

It's very hard, especially for a first time (with you).

 

She doesn't have to be financially well off as long as you're supporting her,

so putting the condo in her name wouldn't make a great deal of difference IMO.

 

You said you've been together for 6months and have had 2 applications

refused already. How long were you together when you applied for the first visa?

 

From what you have said, it seems to me that you weren't together that long when you made

the first application. How long did you ask for on the refused applications?

 

I would just give it a few more months and then apply for a month visa to start with.

 

 

[skulldragger]

Apply for a 3 month visitor visa.

Have you been financially supporting her? If so provide evidence of that plus a letter stating that you will be financially supporting her when she returns to Thailand.

Two years ago my daughter in-law to be had a 3 month visitor visa rejected as they did not believe she had any reason to return to Thailand. She had no formal job as she helped her mum in her small shop.

She immediately reapplied with evidence my stepson was sending her money , which was only about A$100 

per month, plus a statement from each of them detailing their relationship and him also saying he will support her when she returns to Thailand. The visa was approved in 1 week.

Last year she applied the same way and the visa was approved.

 

On a side note she applied for a provisional partner visa in September last year and it was approved within 6 weeks.

I found it strange as she was told the wait time would be 10 to 14 months and we expected the same. My other daughter in-laws 4 years ago took 8 months and my wife's 15 years ago took 6 months.

 

Edited May 27, 2018 by skulldragger
Added info

[Surin13]

There are so many red flags in your post, I that I agree with the refusal from what you have written. 

 

Happy to help, but what was the reason for the first refusal and how did you address it.