Spouse Temporary Visa (Subclass 309) and Permanent Visa (Subclass 100)

[Titus]

Hi everybody

My wife and I have finally made the decision to immigrate and are now forging (or about to) through the process.

I’ve been reading the posts on the forum but I still have a lot of questions that I haven’t been able to find answers for… So if anybody has relevant info please share.

It seems that in our case the easiest / cheapest / quickest process of arranging visa’s would be to go the Spouse Visa route since my wife has Australian Citizenship by descent (her mom was born in Aus).

Q1) If there is something missing from our visa application or an imcomplete document or anything in those lines… Do they automatically reject the application or will they contact us to provide the supporting documentation?

Q2) My wife has a certificate of Citizenship and a valid passport, as far as I understand all she needs to get to Aus is a plane ticket?

Q3) Being her spouse, married for more than 12 months, it would seem that we would qualify as far as the basic requirements are concerned. The problem is with the sponsorship… I read on the application forms that the sponsor must be a PR. This would obviously disqualify her as an eligible sponsor….

I contacted an Immigration agent for a free appraisal and asked him during the process about this and he said that the PR status is simply a technicality that they will overlook. Anybody else been in a similar situation?

Q3a) If my wife is eligible to sponsor me… How will she prove her ability to meet the financial obligations of the sponsorship? Again the migration agent said we simply attach our current salary info and financial assets?

Q4) As far as the “Statutory declaration by a supporting witness relating to a partner visa application†goes… The application forms say that person completing the form must be an Australian citizen? Is that also true for SA applications?

Q5) It seems that the Police Clearance Certificate, Full Birth and Full Marriage Certificates take 2-3 Months to process. Should we apply for them before even lodging our Visa application?

Is it possible to supply standard birth certificates, marriage certificates with the Visa application and then forward the rest as we receive them?

Q6) Medicals – Is it a once off evaluation or a series of checkups/tests? Do I do them before applying for the visa or only after once they request the results (read something along those lines on the forum)

Q7) Is there something obvious that I’ve missed? Any advice regarding the 309/100 that might save us a ton of trouble later on?

Thanks in advance

T

[Titus]

Seems the very first step for anybody even getting a thought of doing the immigration thing is to apply for Full Birth and Marriage Certificates!!!! Just do it!

Nobody else have any info on my other questions?

[Mara]

Hi Titus, I think the reason you have not had an answer is that there are not too many people in your situation, so not many that would have answers for you. I checked on the immigration website and they say that if you have questions you need to contact your local office, which would be the Australian Embassy in Pretoria. Here are their contact details:

http://www.immi.gov.au/contacts/overseas/s...frica/index.htm

Q1) If there is something missing from our visa application or an imcomplete document or anything in those lines… Do they automatically reject the application or will they contact us to provide the supporting documentation?

Answer: Sorry I have no idea, we worked through an agent, so he saw to it that our stuff was all correct before submission.

Q2) My wife has a certificate of Citizenship and a valid passport, as far as I understand all she needs to get to Aus is a plane ticket?

Answer : Is the valid passport Australian? If so, then yes, all she needs is a plane ticket. If a SA passport, then I am not sure whether or not she needs to get an Aussie passport first. The reason I say this is because as an Aussie, you are required to enter Australia on an Australian passport.

Q3) Being her spouse, married for more than 12 months, it would seem that we would qualify as far as the basic requirements are concerned. The problem is with the sponsorship… I read on the application forms that the sponsor must be a PR. This would obviously disqualify her as an eligible sponsor….

Answer: I do not know if you actually need sponsorship as a spouse, what may be a problem is because she is not an Australian resident, but I am only guessing, this is a question you will have to ask the Embassy.

I contacted an Immigration agent for a free appraisal and asked him during the process about this and he said that the PR status is simply a technicality that they will overlook. Anybody else been in a similar situation?

Answer : None

Q3a) If my wife is eligible to sponsor me… How will she prove her ability to meet the financial obligations of the sponsorship? Again the migration agent said we simply attach our current salary info and financial assets?

Answer : None

Q4) As far as the “Statutory declaration by a supporting witness relating to a partner visa application†goes… The application forms say that person completing the form must be an Australian citizen? Is that also true for SA applications?

Answer : None

Q5) It seems that the Police Clearance Certificate, Full Birth and Full Marriage Certificates take 2-3 Months to process. Should we apply for them before even lodging our Visa application?

Answer: The full birth and marriage certificates, absolutely, do them immediately. The police clearance, I would hold off for a while until you have all your answers from the embassy. Once you have an inidication from them of how quick things will happen, then go ahead and get your police clearance.

Is it possible to supply standard birth certificates, marriage certificates with the Visa application and then forward the rest as we receive them?

Answer : No, that is not what they want, the unabridged certificates is what they need.

Q6) Medicals – Is it a once off evaluation or a series of checkups/tests? Do I do them before applying for the visa or only after once they request the results (read something along those lines on the forum)

Answer : Medicals are a once off thing, depending on how long they estimate your visa will take, I would perhaps do them at the same time as your police clearances, but as both are only valid for a year, be careful, the timing has to be right.

Q7) Is there something obvious that I’ve missed? Any advice regarding the 309/100 that might save us a ton of trouble later on?

Answer : I have no idea what the 309/100 is, so no comment.

Sorry about not answering all your questions, but did the best I could. Perhaps you should contact one of the immigration agents on this site, they may have more accurate answers for you. Here is a link to them:

http://www.saaustralia.org/index.php?showforum=65

[choog]

I would suggest applying for Police Clearance Certificate, Full Birth and Full Marriage Certificates and medicals etc, right now - Monday. Rather submit everything together - complete. I believe its a fairly quick for visa to be approved - so make sure you have everything as i'm not sure what happens if they are missing stuff - worst case scenario, they could send it all back to you, but not sure.

You need to full birth certs - not half ones, so apply for unabridged.

Medicals are a once off.

When would you like to leave SA?/enter OZ?

If your other half has aussie citizenship and aussie passport - then your as good as gold mate.

Are you filling out forms 40sp & 47sp?

"Statutory declaration" - you can get people in SA to do this, and they dont have to be an Aussie. Download form 1127.pdf from the immi website - this is about partner migration, and explains the Statutory declaration.

[Titus]

Thank you for the replies/advice and confirmation so far

Seems that we are on the right track then. Wife has a valid Aussie passport. Already completed forms 40SP and 47SP. Battled a little to find form 1127.pdf… until I realised that it was actually information booklet 1

Just wish I could get VFS to reply to my questions to give a definitive answer!

Have heard that as a migrating 'Australian' couple we'll get bumped to the top of the list for visa processing… terribly sorry if I end up ‘pushing-in’ in front of you then. Promise I’ll post any useful info/advice I come across in the process!

Will be off the day after the visa arrives! Hopefully before the end of the year! Although we might stay long enough to enjoy our last Christmas with all the family!

[choog]

Titus, where are you headed to?

[Titus]

Not too picky at this stage. Job offers will decide...

Wife has family in Canberra so was hoping to settle somewhere along the East coast so that we're not too far from our 'support structure'

Titus, where are you headed to?

[Titus]

Finally got a reply from VFS...... you can decide if the info is of any help

Email to VFS

My wife and I have started completing the necessary forms for the spouse visa. We’ve been looking at the forms (40sp & 47sp) and there are a couple of points that we’re currently unsure about.

We have already applied for our full birth and marriage certificates but it seems that the regular certificates may be acceptable?

As far as the statutory declarations from individuals with personal knowledge of our relationship are concerned... some forms say that they must be from Aus citizens, in some places it says that family will suffice. Does that included South African family?

I’ve read in several places that I should only have the medicals done once requested to. But from what I understand from the forms I must do this before applying for the visa?

Is it possible to submit our application now already and attach any outstanding documentation as it becomes available? Or must we prepare everything that we can possibly think of before applying?

Reply from VFS

Good Day Duane

Thank you for emailing VFS

Kindly go as per checklist, you can submit any information that you feel will support your application

The statutory declaration must be from Australia

The decision is up to you, you can take the medicals before or round about the same time when lodging the application or you can wait for the Australian High Commission to request them from you

You can submit the application form and any requirements that you have know and forwarded the outstanding documents as they become available.

Thank you

Zakithi

VFS South Africa

[Fleetfoot]

Hi Titus

"Q3) Being her spouse, married for more than 12 months, it would seem that we would qualify as far as the basic requirements are concerned. The problem is with the sponsorship… I read on the application forms that the sponsor must be a PR. This would obviously disqualify her as an eligible sponsor…"

A3) The application forms and spouse migration booklet state the Sponsor is "The Australian citizen, Australian PR OR NZ citizen". Therefore, I don't think that your wife's non-PR status is an issue. She is a fully-fledged citizen that they would like to welcome "home" together with those she to whom she is closely related! If you've been married for 5 years or married for 2 years with dependant kids, then they will apparently grant you Permanent Visa (Subclass 100) upfront.

"Q3a) If my wife is eligible to sponsor me… How will she prove her ability to meet the financial obligations of the sponsorship? Again the migration agent said we simply attach our current salary info and financial assets?"

A3a) According to the booklet, if they are in any doubt about her ability to support you, they will ask for Assurance of Support once the application is being processed. So I wouldn't worry about this at this stage. Recognising that you as a couple are able to make out here and that Oz is desperate for employees, this shouldn't be an issue. The sponsor is only giving a commitment for the first 2 years. As far as I'm aware, if the Permanent Visa is granted upfront, I think the whole sponsorship issue falls away completely.

"Q7) Is there something obvious that I’ve missed? Any advice regarding the 309/100 that might save us a ton of trouble later on?"

A7) Hopefully, the above Permanent Visa 100 advice will save you "a ton of trouble". I also know that you both must enter Oz together before the initial entry date stipulated on the visa which is 12 months from the date of your PCC and medicals. All Oz citizens MUST enter and leave Oz using their Oz passport.

Another issue your wife may not have thought of is the retention of her SA citizenship (for what it's worth!). When she applied for Oz citizenship by descent, did she FIRST apply for Rentention of SA Citizenship at Home Affairs? Not doing so, can mean automatic loss of SA citizenship. If you follow the correct procedure, you become a dual national. You may still be able to get this sorted out after the fact, if you want.

My experience is that if you have any technical questions, the Australian High Commission are very helpful and will normally readily reply to emails.

Let us know how it goes - I could be following a similar process.

[Titus]

Thanks for your input!

As we progress it seems that two things are becoming more and more evident.

1) The process isn’t supposed to be easy. It’s supposed to discourage people that aren’t 100% certain that this is what they want to do

2) It’s not impossible! You have to be 100% certain that this is what you want to do .

You simply have to put in a fair bit of effort and not ask VFS for any advice!

I've heard from several people (unofficially ), that have already followed the process and they all say you just have to persevere. Their advice; The more complete you appliction the fewer questions are asked!

"I also know that you both must enter Oz together before the initial entry date stipulated on the visa which is 12 months from the date of your PCC and medicals" - A little worried about this though... heard that it only applied to me... but ultimately it wont really matter I guess...

[choog]

Titus, i certaintly wouldnt be worried about the sponsership thing. They cant doing anything if she's a aussie citizen and she wants to bring you her foreign husband (you) to Australia. Nothing to worry about here. They cant really decline you unless your on the most wanted list or something.

Its all honky-dory - and nothing to be concerned about. Just have the attititude/approach as though its all a formality - because it is for your particualr scenario, based on what forms your filling in.

[Fleetfoot]

"I also know that you both must enter Oz together before the initial entry date stipulated on the visa which is 12 months from the date of your PCC and medicals" - A little worried about this though... heard that it only applied to me... but ultimately it wont really matter I guess...

As I understand it, she is the sponsor that is in Oz to support you. So she's got to be there first, even it means just ahead of you in the queue when you first arrive!!! This means that you wouldn't be able to go over by yourself on LSD or start setting things up ahead of her getting there. Once you've made your initial trip and fulfilled that initial entry date condition of your visa, you can come back to SA. You only have to have settled there before the 5 years visa validity is up.

Hope that helps.