Description
This article is from the soc.culture.australian FAQ, by Stephen Wales
with numerous contributions by others.
3.4.3 Spouse/fiance(e) immigration
[LS]
[To make things simpler, 'you' will refer to the person in the United
States, and 'spouse' will refer to the person in Australia.]
* Once you have applied for permanent residence in Australia, you may
not reenter Australia until your new visa has been issued. The
process is handled in stages. The total time for obtaining your new
status will usually take three to six months.
* The spouse must go the Australian emigration officials and get a
copy of Form M40. He/she should complete that and send it and a
certified copy of his/her birth certificate (assuming Australian
birth) to you.
* Locate your nearest Australian embassy to get the forms you will
need for the first stage of the process. The application processing
fee is $285 (US) which must be in the form of a certified check or
money order. You need to file the following documents: your spouse's
completed sponsorship form and certified birth certificate, a
certified criminal record clearance for yourself (from your local
police), a certified copy of your birth certificate, a notarized
outline of the chronology of your relationship, 3 passport photos, a
certified copy of your divorce decree (only if you have been married
before, obviously), a form they call 'personal particulars', your
passport, and either a letter from a marriage celebrant of your
intention to marry or a certified copy of your marriage certificate.
Return all of this paperwork to the Australian embassy.
* After this initial paperwork has been approved by the immigration
officer, you will receive the forms for your physical. When you have
your physical, ask the doctor for a detailed report of *anything* that
isn't absolutely "normal", including things you may consider
unimportant like allergies. Basically if there is anything at all on
your forms that could be considered any sort of medical "condition"
ask for a separate letter describing what medical treatment or
followup is necessary (if none, make sure the doctor states this).
This forms should then be returned to the immigration office at your
local Australian embassy.
* While it appears to make no difference to immigration officials
whether you are married or engaged to be married, if you are engaged,
you will have to be married within 2 or 3 months (the answers given on
this varied) of your arrival in Australia.
Rory Clancy (rclancy@nmrc.ucc.ie) asked:
> What I'd like to know is whether an application for a Permanent Resident
> Visa as an individual or as a couple are considered differently. Is the
> application viewed as two separate applications and the Points System
> calulated for both individuals or together as one combined effort.
> What is the situation if one of the couple may fall short of the
> 110 points qualification level, does that disqualify one or both??
and then answered his own question with:
I got almost no feedback from the newsgroup but somehthing turned
up in my dealings with the Embassy, basically I applied for the forms
`Application for Migration to Australia'(Form 47). This included a form
`Explanatory Notes Application for Migration to Australia' (Form 47N).
Under the section `Who this form covers' on page 1.
The form and the fee cover a family unit -
comprising a main applicant and, where applicable,
spouse and dependants.
If you are married, or living with a partner in a de facto/
common law relationship, you should consider which of
you is most likely to meet the requirements before filling
in the application form. That person should be the main
applicant.
Questions 17 to 19 in Form 47 Cover the Marriage Status of the applicant.
Again from `Explanatory Notes Application for Migration to Australia'
(Form 47N). Under the section `Questions 17 to 19' page 8.
If you are living in a relationship with a person of the
opposite sex but are not legally married (also called a `de
facto' relationship or `common law' marriage) you must
provide evidence. This could include evidence that you
and your partner use the same last name, share accomodation,
have joint bank accounts, have property in common, share
responsibility for children or have wills made out in each
other's favour and so on.
>From Form 47 Question 17, Marriage Status includes:
Never Married
Divorced
Widowed
Separated
Engaged (Date of intended Marriage) (Met in person)
Married
De Facto/Common Law
Questions 36 to 60 in Form 47 Cover `Spouse, intended spouse or prospective
spouse'. Again from `Explanatory Notes Application for Migration to Australia'
(Form 47N). Under the section `About your Spouse, intended spouse or
prospective spouse' on page 11.
If you are married, living together in a de facto/common law
relationship, engaged and intend to marry and then migrate as
a married couple, or engaged and intend to marry in Australia
this part must be completed.
So once a couple can establish their relationship as engaged/de facto/common
law they can apply using a single application form(47) as a family unit;
applicant and spouse, where the applicant is the most likely person
to satisfy the requirements (points system for independent visa class for
example) for immigration.
Antonio Lam adds:
I married my wife after I had my first landing in Australia. To apply a
permanent resident for my wife, what I had to do was to show the Australia
Embassy in Hong Kong our marriage certificate, bank statement, my visa,
and the termination letter from my employer. Point system was not
applicable to my wife. The visa was issued under the condition that my
wife would not be allowed to enter Oz under I have my first landing. Once
the principle applicant has a visa, it is almost guaranteed that your
spouse will be ok for the entry requirements.
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