Application for migration to Australia by a partner – Partner Visa

The following information relates only to the partner visa, which I have requested. For the individual case, there are often other visas (such as work visas). For that, I refer to the relevant pages of the immigration office (see useful links).

⇒ As visa requirements, forms and fees change frequently, you should always keep up to date on the pages of the Department of Home Affairs!

Duration and costs

The processing of a partner visa takes about 21 to 28 months (as of 09/2019). The processing time is the same whether you apply for the visa inside or outside of Australia. An enormous amount of AUD 7,715 is the actual fee for the application, and it goes up every year. In addition, there are costs for translations, health examinations, credit card fees, etc. Therefore, you have to count for at least AUD 8.500 and more. And the fees are always due, regardless of whether the visa will be granted or not.

Where to apply for the visa?

Application outside Australia (Application for Partner Visa 100 or 309)

If you do this outside of Australia, then you have to spend the waiting time (21-28 months) outside of Australia and, if necessary, you can continue your usual life. However, when you get the visa, you will have a window of opportunity to enter Australia. Amongst other things you have to be prepared regarding the termination of the job, your flat, house etc. The procedure is almost identical to an application within Australia.

Application within Australia (application for partner visa 801 or 820)

If you apply for the visa within Australia, you will automatically receive a so-called bridging visa from the day of your application, which allows you to work in Australia until the actual partner visa is granted (or not, then you have to leave within 4 weeks), But when you apply for the visa in Australia you have to spend the same waiting time. I’ve always wondered why that takes so long. For about AUD 7,700 you could finance a month long your personal Immigration officer ….

However, applying for a visa in Australia makes it difficult to leave the country during the 21-28 months waiting time. For this you have to apply for a special type of Bridging Visa (Bridging Visa B) and justify why and how long you want to leave Australia. Usually this is approved for up to ½ year.

After consulting with one of our acquaintances in Australia, who in turn knew a lawyer who knew about visas, we had decided to apply for the visa in Australia as well as to use the services of an immigration agent.

In retrospect the service of an immigration agent is, from our point of view, not necessarily recommended. Since we did not expect any fundamental difficulties with the issue of the visa, we found the additional costs incurred unnecessary. With an agent, it is not faster or easier, which was previously communicated to us differently. The information we got from the agent was also available on the official immigration website. We did not get new insights (except that we did not need an agent) and we still had to prepare heaps of document ourselves. Only if one has no experience with authorities and also has difficulties with documents and bureaucracy, an immigration agent would surely be an alternative.

Procedure

The application for the permanent partner visa is basically carried out in two phases. To get a permanent partner visa, you first have to get a temporary partner visa. Both visas are applied for at the same time and you only pay one fee. Once the temporary visa has been granted, you will be entitled to a permanent partner visa (subclass 801) approximately two years after your application has been submitted. For this purpose, further documents must be submitted.

If you have been in a long term relationship before you have applied, the permanent visa of subclass 801 can (but does not have to) be granted immediately after the temporary visa of subclass 820. I got the permanent visa at the same time as the temporary visa, so I did not have to wait another 2 years.

For the application you need a so-called sponsor (which is usually the Australian partner), must be in good health and must be of good character and will be assessed against the character requirements.

The entire application process must be done online via your own immigration account (you can then answer all questions online and upload documents).

Required documents

For the application for the visa, amongst other things we had to provide the following documents (over 100 pages!), regardless of the fact that we were already married for 18 years and had demonstrably lived together in Germany:

“Application for migration to Australia by a partner”
“Sponsorship for a partner to migrate to Australia“
Documents proving identity
- birth certificate
- Copy of the page of the current passport showing the photo, personal data, passport and expiration dates.
- Two current passport photos (45 mm x 35 mm)
- Copy of identity card (if available)
Documents about the relationship with the partner
- Two Form 888 “Statutory declaration by a supporting witness in relation to a partner or a prospective marriage visa application”, in which an Australian makes a statement about the relationship of the partners.
- Prove that the marriage / relationship is genuine and lasting
  - From each partner an opinion on the relationship
    “Describe the circumstances of your very first meeting, including the date, location and exact address if possible”,
    “Describe how your relationship has developed between the very first meeting when you were married”,
    “Describe how your relationship has developed since you married and your plan for the future”
  - Documents showing that your partner and you share financial responsibility (for example, joint bank account or bills in both names)
  - Documents showing that your partner and you are sharing household tasks (for example, a statement about how housework is distributed, letters or postcards to both partners)
  - Documents showing that the relationship is known to others (e.g. holidays together, joint club membership, invitations to both partners)
  - Documents showing that both partners are committed to a long-term relationship (for example, letters or phone bills showing that you also had contact when you were separated)
Documents regarding the character
- Form 80 “Personal particulars for assessment and character assessment”
- Police certificate of good conduct (from the homeland and later also from Australia)
- If you have served in the armed forces of any country, certified copies of your military service record or discharge papers.
Documents of the sponsor (partner)
- Proof that the sponsor is an Australian citizen (copy passport and birth certificate)
- Police certificate of good conduct (from Australia and possibly from the current country of residence)

All non-English language documents have to be translated into English by an official translator. However, this concerns primarily only official documents such as deed of birth, marriage certificate, certificate of good conduct, etc. We had to have 5 documents translated. Proofs for the common address e.g. electricity bills, tenancy agreements etc. do not need to be officially translated.

Translators outside of Australia must confirm the translation with their full name, address, telephone number and details of their qualifications and experience in the language to be translated.
All documents (English and non-English documents) must be scanned and attached to the online application. The documents do not have to be certified. Each document may only be added once.

The forms cover similar topics, but Form 80 is a little more detailed with personal information, identity papers, addresses, trips made, jobs, education, previous visas, character, military service, parents and siblings as well as friends and relatives in Australia.

Some information is a bit difficult to provide if you are older and have not documented everything anywhere. Examples:

“Do you currently have, or have you ever had, any national identity documents or numbers (including birth registration numbers, social security cards etc.)? Give details, Type of identification document /Country of issue/ldentification number shown.”
Who knows the ID number of one’s first passport or identity card?
“Have you travelled to any country other than Australia in the last 10 years? If yes, give details in chronological order (Date from / Date to / Reason for visit / Country)”
For a European a weekend or just a day trip to skiing, hiking, etc. to Austria, Italy or Switzerland is quite normal. Not to mention longer holidays or professional travel within or outside the EU. I could e.g. do not specify when and how often I have crossed the Austrian border in the last 10 years.
In the same line is the following question:
“Do you currently have permanent residency rights in any country other than those specifically declared?”
Strictly speaking, according to Article 21 (2) of the EU Treaty, if you are an EU-national all EU countries should be listed here (soon one country less). But that is certainly not meant.

With regard to the relationship statement, after 18 years of marriage, the information expected here seems a bit ridiculous.

As documents about the relationship with the partner, we have also added a lot of photos of common holidays of the last 10 years, which reminded us a lot of the movie “Green Card”.

After having submitted all those documents, you have to wait until you hear again from the Department of Home Affairs.

After about 14 months, I was then asked to file a NATIONAL POLICE CERTIFICATE of the Australian Federal Police (costs me another AUD 42, -). Furthermore, I had to have a health check at an officially recognized medical facility for almost AUD 380, -.

Having that in mind I remember that the immigration office in Germany wanted to have filled only 4 pages for the residency permit of my wife, and we had to pay EURO 27.-.

We cannot get rid of the dim feeling that both the high costs and the amount of documents to be submitted also have the purpose of deterrence. You really have to be serious about wanting to go to Australia. Only to try out if you would be admitted no one applies for a visa for immigration.

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