Off Shore Australian Partner Visa With Baby Of The Relationship

[msnok]

Hi Guys,

I am new to the forum and would like some advice regarding an off shore visa application my partner and myself are about to make.

Our story

I have been travelling to Thailand since may 2007 with many trips logged up in my passport. During this time I met my Partner though we did not commence a relationship till may 2008.

We promptly started living together and things moved quickly, by Jan 15th 2009 we found out we were expecting. We provided all this info to immigration at this time along with a lease agreement for our house in Thailand asking for a 6 month tourist visa for my Thai partner to support me during the second half of pregnancy, birth, and post natal period in oz. This was granted. I returned to Oz 5 months pregnant and my parnter followed a month later. At the time my partner and had a business in Thailand and still does with a lease contract to continue for a further 2 years. Our intial plan was to return to Thailand once our baby was 2 months old. Also at this time there was much political unrest in Thailand and the tourist industry was taking a battering in turn making the income from his business unpredictable on top of this the staff we left in charge started taking our profits or running it into the ground. In the end my partner had to leave just prior to the birth out of fear of losing our income over there.

I promptly followed him back with our son once he was immunised at about 2 months. We spent a month there re-accessing whether it was still suitable to live in Thailand. It turned out it was not because of the business instability and unreasonable visa restrictions for me which required me to leave the country every three months, not ok with a tiny infant.

By now with all the back and forth and a new bub our budgets were stretched. The baby and I had to return to Oz alone and my partner worked away at the business to save for the next trip. Finally some 7 months later we were ready and Bangkok was taken under seige by protests though we finally managed to get a visa application sent into the Oz embassy which was closed to guest because of the violence. We had ask for a single 3 month tourist visa this time. They sent us back a multiple entry 1 year visa and the only restriction being that each stay was to be of 3 months. Very nice on their behalf. We then had 3 great months together and I had some well deserved rest which any parent particularily single ones will sypathize with. This brought us right up to our sons first birthday. As you can imagine this is all very costly on a Thai income and being a stay at home mother there is not much I can do to help support my partners immigration cost. I do have family members that will act as sponsors though other cost need to be met by us. So now several months later my partner has enough to apply for the defacto visa. We understand there is a strict 12 month co-habitation requirement with the only exemption being compelling and compassionate circumstances. While we have had many periods of seperation do you think that our case would be one that falls under this catagory. Do you think the back and forth will be evidence of our ongoing commitment to our family. We have many millions of photos, emails, phone records, letters ect. There are also plenty of visa stamps in all our passports and of course all the information previously supplied to immigration supporting my partners other visas. I would really appreciate any feedback as it would be so heart breaking to be knocked back at this point our son is 15 months old and I am exhausted emotionally and physically.

Thank you for taking the time to read our story.

[gburns57au]

Read here.

http://www.immi.gov.au/migrants/partners/partner/820-801/eligibility-defacto.htm

It would seem that you may be eligible for a waiver of the 12 month cohabitation requirement

[electau]

With hindsight it may have been better for you to have legally married in Thailand in 2009 it would have made your visa application a lot easier. Defacto applications are always more complex.

There is the allternative and that is to apply for a financee visa 300 and get married in Australia.