Aussie Partner Processing Wait times

[steve0367]

Hi Guys,

I am just about to start this process with my partner. I am not sure if I should go with de facto or pmv.

we have been together since Dec 2012, although we are not married we have been engaged since July 2014. She has travelled here to oz on 3 x 3mth Tourist Visas over the last 2 years and I have visited her in Thailand 8 times Totalling 140 days many of them at the family home in her village. I live and work in Australia she lives in Thailand supported by me.

I guess my question is do you think I would qualify as a de facto in the eyes of DIBP? As the cost is now $8585 AUD (includes her daughter) I do not want to screw this up

[Larz2013]

Hi Guys,

I am just about to start this process with my partner. I am not sure if I should go with de facto or pmv.

we have been together since Dec 2012, although we are not married we have been engaged since July 2014. She has travelled here to oz on 3 x 3mth Tourist Visas over the last 2 years and I have visited her in Thailand 8 times Totalling 140 days many of them at the family home in her village. I live and work in Australia she lives in Thailand supported by me.

I guess my question is do you think I would qualify as a de facto in the eyes of DIBP? As the cost is now $8585 AUD (includes her daughter) I do not want to screw this up

They are very strict on 12 months co habitation... so you dont qualify!

Getting married means you dont have to prove living together for 12 months.

[simple1]

Hi Guys,

I am just about to start this process with my partner. I am not sure if I should go with de facto or pmv.

we have been together since Dec 2012, although we are not married we have been engaged since July 2014. She has travelled here to oz on 3 x 3mth Tourist Visas over the last 2 years and I have visited her in Thailand 8 times Totalling 140 days many of them at the family home in her village. I live and work in Australia she lives in Thailand supported by me.

I guess my question is do you think I would qualify as a de facto in the eyes of DIBP? As the cost is now $8585 AUD (includes her daughter) I do not want to screw this up

Any questions you have concerning partner visa, de-facto or otherwise, dependent child together with the criteria & required documentation should be answered by reading the booklet at the URL below.

https://www.border.gov.au/Forms/Documents/1127.pdf

[Gopro]

Hi Guys,

I am just about to start this process with my partner. I am not sure if I should go with de facto or pmv.

we have been together since Dec 2012, although we are not married we have been engaged since July 2014. She has travelled here to oz on 3 x 3mth Tourist Visas over the last 2 years and I have visited her in Thailand 8 times Totalling 140 days many of them at the family home in her village. I live and work in Australia she lives in Thailand supported by me.

I guess my question is do you think I would qualify as a de facto in the eyes of DIBP? As the cost is now $8585 AUD (includes her daughter) I do not want to screw this up

You can be defacto and not living together full time. You must prove you have been defacto for 12 months prior to application lodgement. I did this. There's a couple of things you need to keep in mind, like proof of this and the criteria for this is lengthy. There is way around without getting married. Shoot me a PM for more info if you like.

[Bootsnugget]

Hi all,

Have just read the 29 pages of anxiety and frustration and amazing bouts of patience displayed by the majority of posters.

I am planning on submitting a partner migration subclass 309 / 100 application in BKK in the coming weeks.

After a 3 yr relationship, me 2 years living in BKK and 1- 3 month tourist visa visit to OZ for her.

My questions are,

1) is there a consensus on using a migration agent or not?

2) how do we best show paper evidence of "JOINT" relations, we havent seemsed to accumulate any real written joint ecidence such as pwer bills, bank accounts etc...

Sure we can get the stat decs.. social media conversation strings, photos etc...

3) The police and hospital checks, are there forms needed before application for these or are they given after application?

I see there is no price difference now whether applying on shore or offshore, it's now a very expensive $6895 per application.

Cheers in advance for any contemporary advice, tips or experiences.

Boots

[Gopro]

1. I loved the process myself I became an agent :-) Use one only if they are registered in OZ, https://www.mara.gov.au/ for your own peace of mind and use one that is experienced.

2. That is hard, I was lucky to have most records electronically, travel, financials, social, you can use friends from oz. Gather anything and everything.

3. Police, you do after you apply, they give you a letter, (that was my worst experience) medical can be done after you apply also but they both must be done before decision.

[Bootsnugget]

Thanks for the quick reply, Gopro.

So will things like joint wedding invitations (to other peoples weddings), gym membership? Plane ticket reciepts and travel itineraries help?

I did use the "email conversation" option on whats app and viber so have records of 2.5yrs of conversations over social media both meaningful and meaningless 555.

Regarding official translations, for instance the thai birth certificate.. needs to be translated to English?

[Larz2013]

Thanks for the quick reply, Gopro.

So will things like joint wedding invitations (to other peoples weddings), gym membership? Plane ticket reciepts and travel itineraries help?

I did use the "email conversation" option on whats app and viber so have records of 2.5yrs of conversations over social media both meaningful and meaningless 555.

Regarding official translations, for instance the thai birth certificate.. needs to be translated to English?

Hey Boots!

We used an agent and he's been worth every cent.

Yes anything with both ypur names on.. anything at all! Flights, hotels, invitations photos of jmportant times like xmas songkran loy krathong letters and emails from family general receipts of travels ...

Yes everything needs to be translated into english with the official stamp.

Police check is the most painful experience of the whole visa...

[Bootsnugget]

Hi larz,

Thanks for your reply. Yes I read that you had loads of issues with the police report.

So I spent nearly 2 years here, 2013/2014.

That will mean I need a Thai police check too?

Re. The translations, is there someone you used here in BKK that you can recommend?

Cheers Boots

[Will27]

Hi all,

Have just read the 29 pages of anxiety and frustration and amazing bouts of patience displayed by the majority of posters.

I am planning on submitting a partner migration subclass 309 / 100 application in BKK in the coming weeks.

After a 3 yr relationship, me 2 years living in BKK and 1- 3 month tourist visa visit to OZ for her.

My questions are,

1) is there a consensus on using a migration agent or not?

2) how do we best show paper evidence of "JOINT" relations, we havent seemsed to accumulate any real written joint ecidence such as pwer bills, bank accounts etc...

Sure we can get the stat decs.. social media conversation strings, photos etc...

3) The police and hospital checks, are there forms needed before application for these or are they given after application?

I see there is no price difference now whether applying on shore or offshore, it's now a very expensive $6895 per application.

Cheers in advance for any contemporary advice, tips or experiences.

Boots

You will get various answers when it comes to using an agent or not.

Basically, the spouse application isn't that hard. If you have a reasonably straight forward case

and are ok at doing paper-work, I recommend saving some coin and do it yourself.

Some people don't have the time or inclination to do it themself so use an agent.

Don't forget, it's you who still has to provide most of the paper-work and running around anyway.

[Larz2013]

Hi larz,

Thanks for your reply. Yes I read that you had loads of issues with the police report.

So I spent nearly 2 years here, 2013/2014.

That will mean I need a Thai police check too?

Re. The translations, is there someone you used here in BKK that you can recommend?

Cheers Boots

Yeah thats correct!

We didnt use any translators in Bkk sorry, we live in the south.

[Bootsnugget]

Hi Will,

Thanks, yes I can see the majority of the work is still carried out by us not them.

So are any of these transaltion places able to be used? Like in trendy building below VIS or do we need to use certain, registered ones?

Cheers

Boots

[Gopro]

Translators here https://www.naati.com.au/home_page.html I used one that was travelling bwteen BKK and OZ, she was very quick and did a discount for the tonne of docs that need translating.

[machans88]

I have a quick question, I am about to start partner migration process

,we live in Thailand now for 5years with our two young children who are both now Australian citizens by descent.

The application will therefore only be for her

,does that mean I wont have to worry about a police check here in Thailand,although they are under 18,they are not part of the migration process because they are aussies any way?

[woody087]

I have a quick question, I am about to start partner migration process

,we live in Thailand now for 5years with our two young children who are both now Australian citizens by descent.

The application will therefore only be for her

,does that mean I wont have to worry about a police check here in Thailand,although they are under 18,they are not part of the migration process because they are aussies any way?

they are oz citizens already so no police check needed

[Eddie01]

Hi All we started the clock today by lodging a 309 partner visa and also a subclass 600 tourist visa at VFS today . As a bit of background info I have lived in Thailand for almost 3 years , together with my partner for almost all of that and we have an 11 month old daughter who already has her Australian citizenship by decent. We are hoping to use the 12 month tourist visa to cover the gap between now and getting the 309 granted. Also we were told medicals and police checks can be done in Australia when the time comes. Anyone in a similar situation to ours ?

[machans88]

Hi All we started the clock today by lodging a 309 partner visa and also a subclass 600 tourist visa at VFS today . As a bit of background info I have lived in Thailand for almost 3 years , together with my partner for almost all of that and we have an 11 month old daughter who already has her Australian citizenship by decent. We are hoping to use the 12 month tourist visa to cover the gap between now and getting the 309 granted. Also we were told medicals and police checks can be done in Australia when the time comes. Anyone in a similar situation to ours ?

Will be soon ,just gathering all the forms now,

been living here 6 years have a four year old and 11month old,sold our house so will have cash to bring back as well,we wont worry about,tourist visa ,will wait it out here,

I wil follow your progress,good luck and keep posting

[steve0367]

Hi all we put our application in last wednesday at vfs in Bkk, so now the waiting game starts. Was told by the guys at vfs we could expect action within 3 months. But not holding my breath on that statement. Their reasoning is that they had to contact the embassy before they would accept our application because I wouldn't change to prospective partner or a a defacto partner.

[simple1]

Hi all we put our application in last wednesday at vfs in Bkk, so now the waiting game starts. Was told by the guys at vfs we could expect action within 3 months. But not holding my breath on that statement. Their reasoning is that they had to contact the embassy before they would accept our application because I wouldn't change to prospective partner or a a defacto partner.

Out of curiosity why did you decline signing off the relationship criteria for sponsoring your partner?

Once an application has been accepted for processing usual timeline is around nine - twelve months before a final decision, has this timeline changed?

Edited January 11, 2016 by simple1

[Gopro]

Hi all we put our application in last wednesday at vfs in Bkk, so now the waiting game starts. Was told by the guys at vfs we could expect action within 3 months. But not holding my breath on that statement. Their reasoning is that they had to contact the embassy before they would accept our application because I wouldn't change to prospective partner or a a defacto partner.

What did you say you were if your not defacto or prospective? Married?

[steve0367]

I could not prove defacto and I planned to get married in April, hence the info on the web says to apply as a partner if planing to get married before a decision is likely to be made on the visa. For some reason vfs wouldn't accept our application before ringing the embassy. Any way after going to MFA with my translated state dec, passport and divorce certificate. They told me that the divorce certificate was not required and these papers where only good for one month. My plan was to get married in April!

So we went to Bang Rak and was turned away then we tried Lak Si and now I am married and have to change all the details on the visa Application

[Bootsnugget]

Hi all, back again.

Slowly compiling evidence and documents at the moment for partner visa application.

This question is in regards to statements from friends.

So if I have two good friends of mine, that are both living here in Thailand, write a statement to the effect of they have known me for so long and us as a couple for x amount of years etc... These then have to be witnessed or verified by who here in Thailand? Also, if some family members back in Australia do something similiar, can this be signed and emailed by them and printed by me in Bangkok and added to the documentary evidence?

Cheers in advance for any helpful guidance.

G.

[Gopro]

They will work on proviso they are Oz citizens. Originals always prefered.

[Gopro]

Jp in OZ or embassy in Bkk is technically your only certifiers or a regional Oz office in LOS will do it for you.

[rws85]

I am looking at applying for a partner visa and trying to decide if I should apply online using ImmiAccount or go into VFS to apply.

I am wondering how you go about attaching documents to the online account? Do I need to go to the embassy to get a certified copy of my passport/my babies birth certificate etc..

As I am staying in Pattaya if I have to go to the embassy in Bangkok, I think it would be just as easy to go apply in person at VFS?

[simple1]

I am looking at applying for a partner visa and trying to decide if I should apply online using ImmiAccount or go into VFS to apply.

I am wondering how you go about attaching documents to the online account? Do I need to go to the embassy to get a certified copy of my passport/my babies birth certificate etc..

As I am staying in Pattaya if I have to go to the embassy in Bangkok, I think it would be just as easy to go apply in person at VFS?

Attaching a document to the Immi Account requires scanning and then using browser for attaching. However, have a read of the content at the URL below, could be a reasonable option for you.

http://www.vfsglobal.com/Australia/Thailand/additional_services.html

Edited January 13, 2016 by simple1

[steve0367]

I am looking at applying for a partner visa and trying to decide if I should apply online using ImmiAccount or go into VFS to apply.

I am wondering how you go about attaching documents to the online account? Do I need to go to the embassy to get a certified copy of my passport/my babies birth certificate etc..

As I am staying in Pattaya if I have to go to the embassy in Bangkok, I think it would be just as easy to go apply in person at VFS?

[/quote

In person the staff at vfs are quite good and really go over your paper work making sure you have the correct information

[rws85]

Thanks for the advice. I think I will go apply in VFS.

[steve0367]

Just received conformation of a valid application from the Embassy today. Is this normal after reading so many post here I was not expecting any thing for a while

[simple1]

Just received conformation of a valid application from the Embassy today. Is this normal after reading so many post here I was not expecting any thing for a while

Just acknowledging receipt of application, Oz Border Control website indicates anticipated processing times for partner visa applications.

https://www.border.gov.au/about/access-accountability/service-standards/family-visa-processing-times