Australian Partner visa

[olivialee]

I'm an Australian PR working in South Africa. My partner and I have been together for more than 2 years now and we are engaged. I would like to return to Australia with him. The plan is to apply for partner visa or perspective visa. I have the following questions: 1) Which visa is better/quicker to apply? I understand the perspective visa is only for 9 months and your partner and you must be married in Australia within 9 months. 2) I understand if we apply for partner visa, it will take up to 2 years. If he applies onshore, he would need to be in Aus. If he applies offshore, he will need to be offshore until the partner visa is granted. so if a) he applies onshore, what visa can he have to apply onshore? i think a visitor visa cant, cause the visa need to have no restriction regarding further stay. b ) if he applies offshore, he will need to wait in SA for about 2 years?? In that case, would the prespective visa better, cause then he will be able to get in Aus within a year? 3) i understand that if you apply for the partner visa, during the waiting period, one can apply for bridging visa which will allow you to work in Aus. How does that work?? Ideally, is it possible to apply for the visa offshore and be able to work and enter the Aus within say 6 month? THANKS SO MUCH!

Edited February 21, 2017 by olivialee

[Mara]

@olivialee Welcome to the forum, we hope you enjoy your stay with us, and that you will find answers to your questions here!

 

As you need such specific advice, I suggest you send a message to either @SD_MOA or @TeeTMI who are both registered migration agents, that are kind enough to help people with their questions on this forum.

[TeeTMI]

Welcome to the forum OliviaLee

You are welcome to drop me an email details below  (I suspect you have too few posts to PM me yet).

[Superkruz]

On 2/21/2017 at 5:52 PM, olivialee said:

I3) i understand that if you apply for the partner visa, during the waiting period, one can apply for bridging visa which will allow you to work in Aus. How does that work?? Ideally, is it possible to apply for the visa offshore and be able to work and enter the Aus within say 6 month?

Here is a link that gives more information on Bridging visas. If he travels to Australia on a tourist visa, and applies onshore he would have to get a Bridging visa C because he applied for a substantive visa in Australia while not already having one. From what I recall, a bridging visa has the same rights as your current visa - if you have a visa with no work rights and then get a bridging visa, it will also have no work rights. I say this because it seems from your post that you assume that he will be able to work with a bridging visa.

[Superkruz]

On 2/21/2017 at 5:52 PM, olivialee said:

i think a visitor visa cant, cause the visa need to have no restriction regarding further stay.

I am sure that a friend of mine had his girlfriend come over on a visitor visa and they were successful in getting a spouse visa for her - not sure whether she popped over to NZ so that they could file her application but I suggest you do some research on the immigration website on this matter

[TeeTMI]

7 hours ago, Superkruz said:

If he travels to Australia on a tourist visa, and applies onshore he would have to get a Bridging visa C because he applied for a substantive visa in Australia while not already having one. From what I recall, a bridging visa has the same rights as your current visa - if you have a visa with no work rights and then get a bridging visa, it will also have no work rights. I say this because it seems from your post that you assume that he will be able to work with a bridging visa.

 

Just to point out that the above is not correct. 

 

The options depend upon a person's circumstances and there are also factors you should be aware of if aiming to apply onshore.

 

Also keep in mind that the current processing times for this visa (DIBP) 75% are processed within 18 months 95% within 20 months.   Processing times have been increasing dramatically.