January 15th, 2019 | Updated on April 13th, 2023
Before you apply for a partner visas you must know about the options and the different categories. This will help you to choose the best pathway for immigration to a country of your chosen partner and stay together.
Right at the outset you must know that obtaining a partner visa is not easy and simple. It will take time, money and a lot of patience. There are costs of immigration lawyers and other expenses and apart from that there will be different verifications and inspections, medical tests and lot of other formalities. All these will make the entire application and approval process, lengthy and complicated.
However, considering a partner visa as the ‘love tax’ that you want to pay to be with your beloved, the wait is worthy and seems to be a very viable option for viable couples to settle in a country that will lead to permanent residence.
The Different Categories
Ideally, there are three different types of partner visa options such as:
- Partner (Marriage) visa if you are legally married to the sponsor
- Partner (De Facto) visa if you are living together like a married couple with the sponsor for at least 12 months straightaway before lodgment of the visa application and unless the relationship is registered as a Civil Union or Partnership and
- Prospective Marriage (Fiancé) visa if you are engaged and yet to be married to their sponsor or are free to marry and have personally met after turning 18.
Partners as well as fiancés of permanent residents are eligible to apply for such visas that come in the above-mentioned different categories.
The Application Process
You can apply for a Spouse Visa Australia AIA online and can even submit it while you are onshore in the country or offshore overseas. As for the Prospective Marriage Visa, it must be lodged essentially when you are offshore.
The process for partner visa applications work in different stages that includes:
- A temporary visa granted first along with full travel rights and work details including access to Medicare and
- Further investigation and processing two years later for a permanent residency visa.
As got the Prospective Marriage visa, you will first have to:
- Lodge offshore and
- When it is granted you have nine months to come to the country, marry the sponsor and then apply for the Partner (Marriage) visa.
All these strictness in the application process is followed by the Department of Home Affairs simply to safeguard the citizens of their country. It is also with intent to make sure that the applications made are from genuine people willing to carry on the relationship and stay in the country in which the visa is applied.
That is why a provision of two years is kept before a permanent visa is applied to the spouse. If the relationship breaks down before this statute of limitation, you will not be granted a permanent application unless specific circumstances apply.
Therefore, know about the requirements to get a visa first and then make up your mind whether or not you are willing to go ahead with it.
