How to get an Australian partner visa?

So you've decided to move to Australia to live with your partner. Thats great news! I can imagine how excited, scared and curious you are about life in down-under. However there is one big obstacle to overcome. The application for a partner / defacto visa. 


Here are a few tips on how to apply and how to know if you are eligible to apply a partner visa. 

From the website of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection:
Requirements 
You must be married or in a de facto  relationship with an Australian citizen, an Australian permanent resident or an eligible New Zealand citizen. Your relationship must be ongoing and genuine and you must live with your partner, and if you don't the separation can only be temporary. 

You might be able to be granted this visa if:

• your relationship breaks down and there is a child of the relationship
• your partner dies and you can show that your relationship would have continued if your partner had lived and you have close business, cultural or personal ties in Australia
• your relationship breaks down and you or members of your family unit have suffered family violence.

Usually your de facto relationship must have existed for at least 12 months before you apply for this visa. The department of immigration clearly states that time spend dating doesn't count towards a de facto relationship. 

There are some exceptions to the 12 months rule: 

• you can demonstrate compelling and compassionate circumstances, such as having dependent children
• your partner has been granted a permanent humanitarian visa and your de facto relationship existed before it was granted, and you told us about the relationship before the visa was granted
• your de facto relationship has been registered in Australia (this is not available in all states and territories).

Practical tips for your application

So now that we've established that you need to live with your partner for a least 12 months. Being in a de facto relationship means that you live together, share the same bed, share your food, share your bank account and pretty much share your life together almost as a married couple. Having gone through the one year requirement myself I prepared myself by doing a lot of reading on the visa. 

Tips for applying for a partner visa: 

• Get a shared bankaccount (this does sound scary but hey if both you and your partner put the same amount of money in every week and you use that money for rent and groceries, it works out well for both) 
• Save all postcards that are addressed to both you and your partner 
• Archive all your bankstatements detailing what every purchase was
• Start making a photobook, I'm sure you will have heaps of photo's of you and your partner, but don't limit it to just that. How about the photo's the both of you with your family and friends and his family and friends. 
• Photo's of a small party in your little appartment
• Print out your complete chat history from when you were not living together until when you were living together

Once the time is there to collect all these documents and to get statutory declarations, you are going to need to be very very precise. If you want to be able to do this application without a migration agent you have think as an agent. Double check all the requirements for specific documents, double check if everything is there, double check names, passport numbers, dates, EVERYTHING! 

Put it together sectioned in a big file and send it out. DO NOT FORGET TO REGISTER YOUR MAIL.. this is the last document you want to get lost in the mail. 

Send it out and then all you can do is wait. I've heard stories from people who would call the department every now and then to check on the application. You can do that, but as long as you don't hear anything you can probably assume your application is sitting on someones desk on a pile waiting to be looked at.