Au Tourist Visa

[camlan]

Would appreciate views on the following:-

My thai g/f wants to apply for visa to Australia we intent getting married, we both want to get married in Australia and rather we go through all the drama for spouse/partner Visa just now we decided that tourist visa would be best.

I will be back in Bangkok late April and will have references, tax returns, banking account info, work history, share portfolio, etc etc, infact enough information to support a partner visa. I intent going to the embassy with my g/f to find out more information, however obtaining tourist visa seems more appropriate at this stage,although we are very serious our relationship is only 6 months in the making I have each month sent her money to bank and we are in constant contact by email and phone.

Bottom line is we want to get married whilst she is in Australia on her Tourist Visa then apply for her to stay any info or feed back would be great.

[Hutch]

Would appreciate views on the following:-

My thai g/f wants to apply for visa to Australia we intent getting married, we both want to get married in Australia and rather we go through all the drama for spouse/partner Visa just now we decided that tourist visa would be best.

I will be back in Bangkok late April and will have references, tax returns, banking account info, work history, share portfolio, etc etc, infact enough information to support a partner visa. I intent going to the embassy with my g/f to find out more information, however obtaining tourist visa seems more appropriate at this stage,although we are very serious our relationship is only 6 months in the making I have each month sent her money to bank and we are in constant contact by email and phone.

Bottom line is we want to get married whilst she is in Australia on her Tourist Visa then apply for her to stay any info or feed back would be great.

You may find the tourist visa will have a (must return condition) applied to it therefore i dont see how she would be able to settle with you in oz continuing on from the t/v.

You would be pushing it to apply only after 6 months contact.I was going to apply for my g/f t/v after 6 months as well but have now desided to wait untill next trip to thai giving it closer to the 12 month period.In this time i will have prepared a stack of supporting documents and it gives me the time to be more shure about what im doing is the right thing for me or not.

my buddy just married a thai girl in thai only after a few months contact and i think he is going to have a fairly up hill strugle with the spouse visa.If your that serious about your relationship with her maybe you should take a step back for a while gather your reqauired documents and give yourself more time to see how things develop before jumping in to quick.This will also increase your chances of getting her to oz when you apply for what ever visa

Good luck

Edited April 6, 2006 by Hutch

[gburns57au]

Hutch is right....She will have a no further stay condition(8503) on the tourist visa, unless she comes here on a 12 month multi entry visa which means she can only stay here for 3 months per trip. She cannot apply for a spouse visa while she is here on a tourist visa, she will have to go back to Thailand and apply for the spouse visa from there.

Again applying for a tourist visa with only knowing her for 6 months will be shaky, but not impossible. But that is upto you...

Graham

[markww]

I think u have to hold off on getting married just yet..... i suggest the following:

apply for a tourist visa ... u need to provide stat dec's, that you are inviting her to come to aus, you also have to advise that you will provide everything for her(financial, accom, food, health(travel insurance) and also provide a plan of what you will do during her intended stay)

I would suggest that you need to find out what doc's she would need for you to get married here(from what the celebrants would request of u and her, english birth certs etc) HOWEVER ..... she cannot apply for a spouse visa while she is here on a tourist visa.... and if you do ... then u will most likely stuff yourselves up for the future......

get her to meet your family and friends, take as many photo's as you can while she is in aus.

If u want to marry in australia after she's been here, apply for a fiance' visa(prospective spouse) at the embassy in bangkok, once that is granted, she can enter the country and u have 9 months to marry.

U NEED TO BE SMART AND THINK WITH YOUR HEAD AND NOT LET YOUR FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS CAUSE U TO DO THE WRONG THING!!

what i have told you to do is what i have done, it means u have to jump through hoops and when they tell u to jump u have to ask how high ..... but at the end of the day they have their reasons why they do it, and if u think carefully about it you will see that clearly ..... the government doesnt want another mouth on welfare if things go bad....... so doing the hard yards will pay off... and it will make your relationship stronger.

anyway ... i've said enough

[gburns57au]

You can marry her here on the tourist visa....as long as you conform with the requirements that apply to all celebrant weddings here.

She can then apply for the spouse visa on her return to Thailand, this negates the need for the fiance visa and then the Temporary Resident visa applications.

But being married either here or in Thailand does not mean that she will be a shoe-in to get the visa approved....you will still have to go through the whole process.

I would also hasten slowly.....

[carlthailand]

Meet wife in August. Married in Thailand in October. Went to Oz for holiday in April. Child born in October, wife applied spouse visa December granted in March this year. Can be done. Depends I suppose on circumstances, income etc etc.

Good Luck

Carl

[camlan]

Thank you all for your comments so far.

From the advise given I can see it would be better to wait a few

more months before applying for her t/v (11 months by Oct) at least if she gets her t/v by then we should be spending Christmas together in Aust. My trip to LOS April will be meeting her family and going to Hua-Hin for 10 days it does not give us much time together because of my work commitments in Aust but we will together and gathering more happy moments to support her application.

CAMLAN

[Mighty Mouse]

The frustrating thing with the Aussie embassy is that they expect couples to make life long decisions quickly.

Western relationships usually entail a lengthy courtship period where couples get to know each other properly before committing to marriage. A typical (and safe) engagement period is two years.

Such arrangements are difficult when she lives in Thailand and he lives in Australia. He and she can only get together when he takes his holidays in LOS.

Camlan, without suggesting how you should run your life, it would probably be in the best interest for both of you if she visited Australia a couple of times, before you get married.

It gives you both time to live together in an Aussie home environment, blend the cultures and explore possible future employment opportunities for her.

You have only been together for six months, no need to rush things.

As the others have already stated, you won't be able to extend your conditional TV and being married is no guarantee of spouse visa approval.

There is no reason for you to delay applying for a tourist visa. Six months in a relationship should be enough.

The twelve month multiple entry visas seem to be the flavour of the moment so perhaps you should plan the next year of your lives around such a visa. By the end of that time, you should have enough evidence to support a spouse visa application and you both should be in a better position to decide if you can spend the rest of your lives together....happily.

[camlan]

The frustrating thing with the Aussie embassy is that they expect couples to make life long decisions quickly.

Western relationships usually entail a lengthy courtship period where couples get to know each other properly before committing to marriage. A typical (and safe) engagement period is two years.

Such arrangements are difficult when she lives in Thailand and he lives in Australia. He and she can only get together when he takes his holidays in LOS.

Camlan, without suggesting how you should run your life, it would probably be in the best interest for both of you if she visited Australia a couple of times, before you get married.

It gives you both time to live together in an Aussie home environment, blend the cultures and explore possible future employment opportunities for her.

You have only been together for six months, no need to rush things.

As the others have already stated, you won't be able to extend your conditional TV and being married is no guarantee of spouse visa approval.

There is no reason for you to delay applying for a tourist visa. Six months in a relationship should be enough.

The twelve month multiple entry visas seem to be the flavour of the moment so perhaps you should plan the next year of your lives around such a visa. By the end of that time, you should have enough evidence to support a spouse visa application and you both should be in a better position to decide if you can spend the rest of your lives together....happily.

Your advise has always been well received I intend taking same and progress as suggested

kind regards

Camlan

[Cinario]

In the Partner Migration booklet it states its possible to apply for a partner visa (Spouse, Subclass 820) in Australia if you are already married, etc. so long as you are in Australia when the visa is granted. I'm planning for my wife to come to Australia first on a tourist visa then applying for a spouse visa. I will get a definite answer from DIMA very soon.

[gburns57au]

In the Partner Migration booklet it states its possible to apply for a partner visa (Spouse, Subclass 820) in Australia if you are already married, etc. so long as you are in Australia when the visa is granted. I'm planning for my wife to come to Australia first on a tourist visa then applying for a spouse visa. I will get a definite answer from DIMA very soon.

Not quite right...

you can marry before applying for a spouse visa....but the partner needs to be in the country where the application is lodged for the notification of the decision. I think you will find that the only time an application will be accepted within Oz is where the fiance visa is issued and the partner needs to apply for the spouse visa after the marriage and before their initial visa expires. The fiance visa allows for a person to stay here for 9 months from date of issue for the purpose of getting married but another application is required to allow the partner temporary resident status.