Need Advice On Further Oz Visa For G/F

[Joolsy]

Guys I am new on here,this is my first time and I have come on for help.My mate advised me to come to this forum. I met my Thai G/F late last year and took her home to Australia on a 3 month tourist visa,she returned home in February this year.She has come back over to Australia,we managed to get a 12 month visa for her.The only problem is that she is still married to an English guy and I want to know if this will stop her from getting any more visas.What are my options for further visas.

[bridge]

She will have great difficulty satisfying the ‘genuine visitor’ criteria after the expiration of her current 12 month tourist visa if she were to reapply for another one. DIAC will take the view that she trying attempting to obtain de-facto permanent residence through multiple tourist visas.

Limited information provided by the OP, but if you were both able to satisfy the de-facto relationship requirements (at time of application) she may be eligible to apply for a partner visa. Does she have Condition 8503 attached to her current visa?

Note a polygamous marriage is where a person has two concurrent de-jure marriages. Notwithstanding that she is still legally married to her English husband it does not prevent you from being in a de-facto relationship with her. However, you will have to evidence that your relationship is genuine, continuing and mutually exclusive (Regulation 1.15A of the Migration Regulations 1994). IMHO this may be a big hurdle.

Lastly did she mention on her prior tourist visa applications that she is married?

[electau]

She will have great difficulty satisfying the 'genuine visitor' criteria after the expiration of her current 12 month tourist visa if she were to reapply for another one. DIAC will take the view that she trying attempting to obtain de-facto permanent residence through multiple tourist visas.

Limited information provided by the OP, but if you were both able to satisfy the de-facto relationship requirements (at time of application) she may be eligible to apply for a partner visa. Does she have Condition 8503 attached to her current visa?

Note a polygamous marriage is where a person has two concurrent de-jure marriages. Notwithstanding that she is still legally married to her English husband it does not prevent you from being in a de-facto relationship with her. However, you will have to evidence that your relationship is genuine, continuing and mutually exclusive (Regulation 1.15A of the Migration Regulations 1994). IMHO this may be a big hurdle.

Lastly did she mention on her prior tourist visa applications that she is married?

She should divorce her English husband first before applying for a 309 on a "defacto basis".

Edited August 16, 2010 by electau

[gburns57au]

She should divorce her English husband first before applying for a 309 on a "defacto basis".

Why??

[gburns57au]

Being married to the Pommie guy wont preclude her from getting another visitor visa, What may affect it is the information already given to the Department on the previous applications and how the next application is approached. Quite a few people have received second 12 month visitor visas.

Basically there are three options.

Apply for another visitor visa and use the marriage as a reason why she cant get married to you and why she cant apply for a spouse visa, This is where the information given already comes into it. eg, a friend on her third visa met a new boyfriend, she got another visitor visa as she wouldnt satisfy the criteria for a spouse visa because the relationship was in the early stages and he had not divorced his Ozzie wife, she got a 3 month visa on the understanding that further visitor visas would not be issued, he eventually got the divorce, she applied for a prospective spouse visa successfully.

Apply for a de facto spouse visa, this is one of the hardest visas to get. you will have to show that you have lived together for the past 12 months in an exclusive relationship. The 12 month visa if she has spent the majority of time in Oz will help to satisfy that criteria. She will need to prove that she has co habited with you, letters addresssed to her at your address, bills in joint names etc...not the usual stuff that people on visitor visas establish. The level of prove for this visa is a lot higher than other visas.

She gets a divorce and then applies for a spouse or prospective spouse visa. Obviously this is the most time consuming option but may be the better option.

Edited August 17, 2010 by gburns57au

[Joolsy]

Thanks for the advice,firstly she does not have condition 8503 attached to her passport,second we did declare that she was married on her first visit.My friends here are all saying that she will never be able to come to Australia again after this visa because she is married to a pommie.she still has his surname on her passport and has been to England before

[bridge]

Thanks for the advice,firstly she does not have condition 8503 attached to her passport,second we did declare that she was married on her first visit.My friends here are all saying that she will never be able to come to Australia again after this visa because she is married to a pommie.she still has his surname on her passport and has been to England before

If she does not have condition 8503 attached to her current visa she can make a valid onshore application for another substantive visa. She must however be able to satisfy the criteria necessary to the particular subclass of visa she applies for.

IMHO if she were to make a further onshore tourist visa application she may have very real problems satisfying the genuine visitor criteria, given at that time, her two previous tourist visas - especially in light of the length of time spent in Australia during the last two years . Furthermore, if she was successful in obtaining a further tourist visa then there is no guarantee that 8503 wont be imposed preventing any further onshore application.

If she is still legally married to her English husband, then she would not be able to get a partner visa based on marriage. If you could satisfy the de-facto relationship requirements at time of application, then the fact that she is married is not an impediment to lodging a partner visa based on de-facto. Importantly however you must satisfy all of the requirement for the successful grant of a partner visa based on a genuine de-facto relationship, and one of those criteria is that the relationship is mutually exclusive. This may prove to be a big hurdle indeed.

All the best

Bridge