Australia is a beautiful country for foreign immigrants to live, work, study, or do business. It is a favorable country for millions of migrants due to its elite class cities, life quality, high employment rate, civil liberties, and ideal working conditions.
It is seen that people from many parts of the world, especially Asian countries, move to Australia on temporary student visas and work visas. However, after spending some time, they find Australia an ideal place to live and settle. Many people would like to settle In Australia with their partners, but they need to apply for the right visa in this category. Partner visa subclass 309 is the visa needed to settle with their partners in Australia.
The Application Process For A Provisional Partner Visa
If a person is married or is in a de-facto relationship with an Australian citizen or a New Zealand resident, they need to apply for certain visas. Two visas, namely Visa subclass 309 and visa subclass 100, must be applied. These visas could act as a potential pathway for permanent residency in Australia.
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A person will first be assessed for the temporary Visa Subclass 309, and if granted, it will allow for entering and residing in Australia. By that time, the immigration department will be processing the application for permanent residence.
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The combined subclass 100/309 visa application must be lodge while one is overseas. One also needs to be overseas when granting a temporary visa. To grant a permanent partner visa 100, one has to be located either in or outside Australia.
Two years following the application being lodge, one could be process for the subclass 100 visa. If the application is successful, permanent residency will be grant in Australia. As a part of the assessment, immigration will confirm whether one continues to meet the partner visa’s visa requirements.
Long-Term Relationship Requirements For Partner Visa 309
If a person has been in a long-term relationship with an Australian partner, a successful application can grant a subclass 100 visa. Therefore, the process will be shorten into a single step in this case.
Period Of A Long-Term Relationship
A long-term relationship has been in existence for a minimum period of:
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Three years
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Two years where there is a dependent child in the relationship.
Eligibility To Apply For The Subclass 309 Visa
Before applying for the partner visa 309 and subclass 100 visa, they will need to check whether they meet the visa grant requirements at the lodging date. The following requirements have to be met:
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One has an age of 18 years and above.
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They need to be marry or in a de-facto relationship with an Australian or New Zealand citizen.
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The sponsor has an age of 18 or older (exceptions are there for married couples)
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They need of sponsors by an Australian partner; if they are under 18 years of age, their family needs to sponsor them.
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The sponsor needs to meet the character requirement and provide police clearances as evidence.
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They need to meet health and character requirements.
Status Of Relationship
To determine the eligibility for a visa grant, one needs to ensure that their relationship with a partner is under the definition under visa requirements. To meet these requirements, one must either marry or have a de-facto relationship with their Australian partner.
Marriage
If a person and their Australian partner are marry, they must satisfy the following requirements:
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The marriage needs to be legally valid in Australia ( if one is marry overseas, they will need to confirm that the marriage is recognize in Australia)
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Individuals and their partners need to have a mutual commitment to a shared life as a married couple, excluding all others.
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The relationship has to be genuine and continuing.
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They either have to live together or do not live separately permanently.
De-Facto Relationship
If an individual and their Australian partner are not marriy legally, the following requirements:
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The person and their partner need to have a mutual commitment to have a shared life
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Family does not relate them
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They either live together or do not live separately permanently
For a de-facto relationship, one might need to demonstrate that the relationship has been in existence for 12 months at the time of application lodgement.
Some exceptions apply to the minimum 12-month period of a relationship. Those are:
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One can demonstrate that a proper and compassionate circumstance exists for granting the visa.
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The sponsored partner is either a holder of a permanent humanitarian visa. They also should have declare the existence of the de-facto relationship before the immigration before the visa grant.
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The sponsor should have apply for a humanitarian visa, or the relationship has to register with an Australian state or territory government.
The Department can determine the following aspects of the relationship in analyzing whether it meets the definition of marriage or de-facto relationship. They also will evaluate whether it is under visa requirements, and the requirements are:
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Financial (joint ownership of big assets like a property, joint financial responsibility, and pooling of financial resources)
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Social (is the relationship known to third parties like family and friends)
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Household (shared responsibilities in a house and organising daily lives together)
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Nature of commitment to one another (does one intend to be in a committed, long-term and exclusive marriage/de-facto relationship).
During the lodging of the application, one needs to provide documentary evidence to address every one of the above aspects. If there is a deficiency in a relationship aspect, one needs to explain that and supply the required evidence.
One should also continue to add documents to the application during processing time. With the current average processing time for the visa class extending beyond a year, one would need to wait for some time before the application is process.
The time needs to use wisely by gathering and providing documents to the Department proving that the relationship meets the visa requirements. This will make the process easier for a person to prepare for reassessing the application at the permanent residence stage. After lodging the post, the documents can attach to an online portal.
How To Apply For The Subclass 309 Visa?
To ensure that a valid application is lodge, one needs to apply correctly under visa requirements. It is very important to do the process correctly, as failing to do so could be denied the application. Then one needs to apply for the process again.
A person needs to be located outside of Australia during lodging the application with the 309 visa form and documents to submit online. The online portal is use for immigration correspondence about the application and can advise the Department in case of any changes. If an Immigration Agent in Perth applies on behalf of the applicant, they will manage it for them.
The Australian partner must also lodge a sponsorship form and submit documents from the same online system. The evidence that needs to submit includes the following-
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Character documents
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Identity documents
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Relationship evidence documents
The documents need to be provided to address all the aspects of the relationship. Other documents requirement, like a marriage certificate, written relationship statements, and two Form 888’s.
Associate With A Migration Consultant
People who live outside of Australia and do not have time to fill the visa forms could hire a migration consultant in Perth. These consultants could help one understand the various rules and regulations of partner visa subclass 309 and permanent partner visa 100. There are various registered migration agent Perth that can help a person gain permanent residency in Australia to live with their Australian partner.