Requirements To Satisfy 2Nd Stage Spouse Visa Apps For Aus

[Madivad]

We're currently in the process of getting a spousal visa for my wife. We currently live in Thailand, and plan to spend half a year here, half a year there, or maybe 3 monthly—chop and change as we feel, well, that's the idea.

Someone was telling me she needs to spend a certain amount of time in Australia to qualify for second stage. I have looked for this on the site but feel I'm just not finding it.

Is there a minimum continuous period she must remain in the country?

Is it continuous or cumulative?

I know she has to be in Aus FOR the second stage processing, just what if she's only in Aus for 60% of that time? And a possible worse 40%?

[Madivad]

And a tag on question, someone tried telling me last night that after the two years she would be forced to give up her thai passport as the Thai govt wouldn't allow her to hold both. But she wouldn't have an Aussie passport yet (she will eventually, but certainly not after two years—that will be down the track).

Will there come a day she has to make such a decision?

I want here to eventually get an Aussie passport for convenience of travelling to any country that I can, but we don't want her have to relinquish anything she can do as a Thai (for example, being the reason I can stay here :-P)

[bangkockney]

There is no problem under Thai law with dual nationality. I believe there are also members of this forum who have dual Thai-Australian nationality.

And a tag on question, someone tried telling me last night that after the two years she would be forced to give up her thai passport as the Thai govt wouldn't allow her to hold both. But she wouldn't have an Aussie passport yet (she will eventually, but certainly not after two years—that will be down the track).

Will there come a day she has to make such a decision?

I want here to eventually get an Aussie passport for convenience of travelling to any country that I can, but we don't want her have to relinquish anything she can do as a Thai (for example, being the reason I can stay here :-P)

Edited October 16, 2011 by bangkockney

[Madivad]

Yeah I was pretty sure this guy was speaking from the perverbial. Bl00dy bush lawyers :-P

[Goinghomesoon]

We finished my partner's 2nd stage papers about 8 weeks ago. You have 1 month from the day they send the email (or letter) out to respond. Basically the form is a repeat of what was filled out for the initial application - if you have a copy of the form you initially lodged then you should be okay. We did not need to resubmit any of the documents that we had already submitted. However there are a number of other documents you may need to provide depending whether your circumstances have changed since your last application - in our case nothing had changed except our address and we had already sent in the appropriate form with the address change when we moved to Australia.

We lived in Thailand the whole 2 year period of my spouse's temporary visa, the information pack did not mention any minimum residency period required for PR. I believe that only applies at the next step - Aussie citizenship (see www.citizenship.gov.au for information).

The cover letter with the pack instructed us to mail the second stage application to Brisbane and expect a decision in 6-8 months.

[Berek]

I don't have any info, sorry, but find it very difficult to believe you would be allowed to spend all the time outside of oz before getting residency. After yes you just need to get a reentry permit.

[Madivad]

I suppose I would have realised at some point, but I hadn't thought about re-entry permits for her. If she has a residence stamp/visa in her passport, she still needs recently everytime?

Re time outside of the country, this is why I'm asking. I will ensure we meet the minimum requirement, in fact we probably will surpass it, but it would be good to have the lowdown

[gburns57au]

When my wife and stepson got theirs in late 2009, we were required to fill out a form of about 5 questions relating to circumstance change. Perhaps Goinghomesoon was required to fill out another form because of time spent out of the country. My belief was and still is that the applicant is required to spend the majority of the TR time in Oz (no set time, Immigrations discretion), however GHS has stated different. 6-8 months for a decision on PR though makes me think that GHS has some facts wrong

The PR is valid for travel in and out of Oz for 5 years.....If the applicant wishes to travel after that without citizenship/Oz passport then they will require a re-entry visa which is valid for 5 years.

Edited October 17, 2011 by gburns57au

[Goinghomesoon]

Residency requirements (and the amount of time one can spend overseas during the qualifying period) from the Citizenship website:

Australian Citizenship Act 2007 Residence Requirements

To satisfy the residence requirements you must have:

• 4 years lawful residence in Australia. This period must include 12 months as a permanent resident immediately before making an application for Australian citizenship and
• absences from Australia of no more than 12 months in total in the 4 years prior to application, including not more than 90 days in the 12 months immediately prior to application.

Lawful residence means residence in Australia on a temporary or permanent visa.

Edited October 17, 2011 by Goinghomesoon

[Goinghomesoon]

Text of the documentation received from DIAC Brisbane in early July 2011 re: 2nd stage processing contained the following (note I was wrong in my earlier post - we had 60 days to respond, not 30).

There were 8 attachments/forms.

- Checklist (one page form on which you fill out your partner's visa number, contact details etc).

- "Further Information" paper listing the types of extra documents you need to send if your circumstances have changed.

- "Additional Information" file providing info on police clearances and waiting times (this is where the 6-8 month wait is detailed).

- "Form 80 Personal Particulars for Character Assessment" - long form very similar to the initial application form.

- 2 x Stat Decs (one each for myself & Thai partner to complete, asks if your relationship is still continuing and details of your life together)

- AFP police clearance application form

- visa application withdrawal form

Dear Sir/Madam

Request for Information for Your Visa Application

I refer to your application for a combined Partner (Provisional 309) and Partner (Migrant 100) Visa. Your application for a permanent visa Class BC (Migrant 100) will shortly be considered by the Second Stage Partner Processing Centre.

The department requires additional information or documents that cover your circumstances since you were granted the provisional spouse visa. A summary of the information required is provided in the attachedVisa Checklist. More information about each of the requirements is included in theFurther Information attachment.

You will be assigned a case officer once the requested additional information or documents are received by the department's processing centre.

Withdrawing your application

You can withdraw your application at any stage during processing. If you wish to withdraw your application, you must advise the department in writing via email or mail and please quote your client ID, full name, date of birth and file number.

Time by which you must respond

You must respond to this request within 60 calendar days from when you are taken to have received this letter.As this letter was sent to you by email, you are taken to have received it at the end of the day it was transmitted.

If we do not receive any response from you within the timeframe specified above, or if your response is unsatisfactory or incomplete, then in accordance with legislation, your application may be decided based on the available information.

How to respond

You can contact the Brisbane Second Stage Partner Processing Centre by:

Email: [email protected].

Post: DIAC – Brisbane Partner (Permanent) Processing Centre

GPO Box 9984

Brisbane QLD 4001

Telephone: In Australia you can call 13 18 81 between 9 am and 4 pm Monday to Friday. Details on contacting our offices outside Australia are available on our website at www.immi.gov.au.

Kind regards,

_________________________________________________

Brisbane Partner (Permanent) Processing Centre

Department of Immigration & Citizenship (DIAC)

Email: [email protected]

GPO BOX 9984 Brisbane QLD 4001

Edited October 17, 2011 by Goinghomesoon

[Goinghomesoon]

Details of the wait time (as of early July 2011) from the Additional Information part of the pack:

Processing Times

The current processing times for the second stage partner processing area is 6-8 months from the date of eligibility (the 2 year anniversary of your application lodgement). Each application is decided on a case by case basis and it is not possible to provide you with an exact timeframe for processing of your individual application.

Hope this is helpful to the OP.

Edited October 17, 2011 by Goinghomesoon

[Madivad]

Thanks guys for the responses, especially goinghomesoon for your personal account. I did know that about citizenship, but that is a different ball game altogether.

I know for tax purposes you are a legal resident if you spend 183 days or more in country but that's another game again.

I still can't find anything about TR and PR status minimum time in country requirements. If GHS is correct, and I have no reason to doubt that, then we shouldn't have any problems.

Extrapolating those figures above, 4 years legal resident (assuming the definition is as with the tax law), means in country for the majority of any financial year. Or with regards these cases, probably from the day they enter. They can spend up to 3 months out of the country per year, although diddling the figures you could stretch that to almost 6 months in any of the first three years, you would need to spend less out in the other years. The last year being crucial, spend no more that 90 out of country and be PR.

It is pretty straight forward really. So in GHS's case, those first years won't count towards citizenship as the majority of it was spent in Thailand.

I would like confirmation on actual definitions and requirements to meet PR status. I too do think it's strange that you could spend the whole time in Thailand.

I suppose it's all a bit far off to worry about yet. We still haven't even got our TR yet. We still have 20 people in the queue in front of us. How efficient are they? When we spoke to them a month ago they were still processing July, at least now they're in the August pile.

[Madivad]

I remember we've all covered the 2 year thing before, that's pretty cool. So 2 years from August gone she'll be eligible to apply for PR which is another 6-8 (possibly 12) months by that time :-)

Thanks for your digging around

[gburns57au]

My wifes 2 years was due in December 09........she was granted PR in October 09

In other words she was granted PR before her 2 years was up and that included having to do an AFP clearance for me as it came in as a requirement after we lodged the PR papers.

Couldnt find a website for 2nd stage processing which would have been handy as things with DIAC do change constantly.

[Goinghomesoon]

After reading the above I started to get very worried that we may have missed something about a minimum Australian residency period while on the temp spouse (309) visa. So I emailed Immigration and here is an extract from their response. Thank goodness it seems we are okay They also confirmed the current wait for second stage is still 6-8 months from the date of eligibility.

" There is no requirement that the applicant resides in Australia for a certain period of time during the two years, the only requirement is that the applicant entered Australia before the entry date stipulated on the visa 309 grant."

[Madivad]

After reading the above I started to get very worried that we may have missed something about a minimum Australian residency period while on the temp spouse (309) visa. So I emailed Immigration and here is an extract from their response. Thank goodness it seems we are okay They also confirmed the current wait for second stage is still 6-8 months from the date of eligibility.

" There is no requirement that the applicant resides in Australia for a certain period of time during the two years, the only requirement is that the applicant entered Australia before the entry date stipulated on the visa 309 grant."

That is good news. Great work, thanks for the info.

[Madivad]

"...the only requirement is that the applicant entered Australia before the entry date stipulated on the visa 309 grant."

That does bring to mind one more question. I'm guessing they send out an email and/or paper copy of the official "grant" notice. Do you remember when you got that compared to the amount of time she had to enter the country? ie was it a matter of she had to enter the country with one month of receiving the letter? Or three months?

I think I read somewhere once it was based on your medical and police checks, and you had to enter before either of those expired—I think that is 12 months after issue.

Do you have any low down for us?

Thanks again

[Goinghomesoon]

Partner's grant was a sticker in the Thai passport rather than a letter and gave 5 months to travel from issue date. So it was issued June and partner had until November to enter. We went to Oz for a 2-day flying visit and that was it.

[gburns57au]

That does bring to mind one more question. I'm guessing they send out an email and/or paper copy of the official "grant" notice. Do you remember when you got that compared to the amount of time she had to enter the country? ie was it a matter of she had to enter the country with one month of receiving the letter? Or three months?

I think I read somewhere once it was based on your medical and police checks, and you had to enter before either of those expired—I think that is 12 months after issue.

Do you have any low down for us?

Thanks again

Usually 12 months from the Embassy's receipt of the first documents for the application.

[gburns57au]

After reading the above I started to get very worried that we may have missed something about a minimum Australian residency period while on the temp spouse (309) visa. So I emailed Immigration and here is an extract from their response. Thank goodness it seems we are okay They also confirmed the current wait for second stage is still 6-8 months from the date of eligibility.

" There is no requirement that the applicant resides in Australia for a certain period of time during the two years, the only requirement is that the applicant entered Australia before the entry date stipulated on the visa 309 grant."

And they tell you that the 309 visa will take up to 12 months to process....most are still getting theirs within three to four months....wakey wakey people.

I have said this since February......the reason they released the increase in processing times was to stop people harrassing them about applications after 3-4 months....if people think it will take 10 - 12 months then they wont ring up until then.....by then the visa should have already been granted....

The Embassy have done this before a few years ago. Asking the Embassy is a waste of time as they will stick to the advertised times.....I believe that since Feb this year there has not been an offshore application that has taken more than 6 months that we have heard about on here.

[Goinghomesoon]

Hi Gburns - remember though that the waiting time referred to above is the 2nd stage (permanent) visa which is no longer processed in Bangkok. All the documents are sent by the applicants directly to Brisbane, even if you reside in Thailand.

[gburns57au]

Hi Gburns - remember though that the waiting time referred to above is the 2nd stage (permanent) visa which is no longer processed in Bangkok. All the documents are sent by the applicants directly to Brisbane, even if you reside in Thailand.

I realise that.....I would suspect that they employ the same tactics from time to time.....it means that they can do their processing jobs instead of having to deal with people contacting them all the time, thereby tying up resources.

Having said that....the new centre in Brissy maybe having some teething problems as well.

[Madivad]

That does bring to mind one more question. I'm guessing they send out an email and/or paper copy of the official "grant" notice. Do you remember when you got that compared to the amount of time she had to enter the country? ie was it a matter of she had to enter the country with one month of receiving the letter? Or three months?

I think I read somewhere once it was based on your medical and police checks, and you had to enter before either of those expired—I think that is 12 months after issue.

Do you have any low down for us?

Thanks again

Usually 12 months from the Embassy's receipt of the first documents for the application.

I thought it was something like that

[Goinghomesoon]

So much for the lengthy waiting times DIAC warned about. Got a letter from Brisbane this week that the Permanent Visa has been approved. Total time from application to approval less than 3 months.

[Logarhythm]

Are partners automatically eligible for Medicare, or is there a waiting period? The information they gave my wife on receipt of her temporary visa is a bit vague.

Edited November 11, 2011 by Logarhythm

[gburns57au]

Are partners automatically eligible for Medicare, or is there a waiting period? The information they gave my wife on receipt of her temporary visa is a bit vague.

I believe that she will get a temporary medicare card when she gets here, you may need to confirm that with them....she will get her permanent one when PR is granted....

When my wife and stepson were granted PR....we got the medicare letter before the Immigration one.

[Goinghomesoon]

Yes to Medicare. Very easy to enrol, anyone on a 309 or 310 visa only needs to present the enrolment form plus passport/visa evidence. Took us all of about 5 minutes and the card arrived in the mail a week later.

www.medicareaustralia.gov.au/public/files/ma_3101_medicare_enrolment_application_form_011005.pdf

[Logarhythm]

Thanks guys. Only 3 and a half weeks more and we'll being residing in Australia. It's nearly 5 years since I've lived there.

[agrow]

Are partners automatically eligible for Medicare, or is there a waiting period? The information they gave my wife on receipt of her temporary visa is a bit vague.

she can apply for medicare as soon as she gets temp spouse visa,we just done that and recived medicare number on the day ,4 days later card arrived in mail .