# 457 to tourist visa to defacto!!!



## 99bottlesofbeer (Oct 21, 2010)

Hello and help please - I came out to Australia from Ireland 7 months ago to be with my boyfriend, he's Irish but a permanent resident out here, we've been doing long distance for about a year and a half. I came out on a tourist visa. Two months in I got offered a job and sponsorship a 457 visa, which I took. Unfortunately the job hasn't worked out and on the last day of my probabtion, three months, I got let go. I'm now still officially employed by the company until tomorrow, then I have 28 days. I've started looking for work because I think it's a shame to let the 457 visa go, but have been told that the market is really slow between now and christmas and it's unlikely that I'll find anything in the time frame. My question is - can I switch from a 457 visa to a tourist visa? And if I could do this, I'd like to try and stay in the country until next April on a tourist visa, and then my boyfriend and I would plan to apply for a defacto visa - I'm pretty sure I'd have to leave the country for this though as my tourist visa would have run out. Does this sound like an option? At the moment we're trying to figure out whats the best and easiest way for me to stay in the country.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 
Thanks for your help


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## aussiegirl (Dec 15, 2009)

Hi,

If you put in a de facto visa application while in Oz, you will be given a bridging visa when your current visa expires to allow you to stay in the country while they decide on the partner visa. Keep in mind, the bridging visa will give you the same conditions as the visa you hold at the time, so if it's a tourist visa, then you won't be able to work. So, I would get the partner visa application in as soon as you can if you want to contnue your 457 visa rights. Partner appliations lodged onshore can take up to 6 months or more to be processed, so it would be a drain on finances if you had to spend that time as a tourist.


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## Wanderer (Jun 16, 2007)

You can apply for tourist visas onshore and if you have been working and can show some funds to support yourself, should be a good chance of getting one.
You may however find that there could be a No Further Stay condition put on it, it being something of a random application and as far as I know you cannot request a visa not to have it, so that could prevent you from applying for a partner visa later.

If no further work/sponsorship comes along and you need to be here until April to get your 12 months requirement up for a partner visa, you woukld in the first instance want to apply for a six months tourist visa and again need to have the funds/means of support and I'd not go putting wanting to qualify for a partner visa as reasoning on the application, for visas are issued for an intended purpose.
If you find there is a No Further Stay condition on the visa, come expiry time, you would need to take a trip abroad, New Zealand being a destination for many if on the east coast and then because there is still some areas of Australia you want to see, you apply for an ETA via a travel agent when there to return on and with 12 months up you can consider the partner visa.
One catch in that is not to leave it until last days of your tourist visa to attempt to leave from Australia for NZ have a requirement that you have a return ticket to a country that you have a right of entry to and to save that being an issue, best to at least give yourself several days with a return date before the tourist visa expires and on arrival you get the ETA, cancelling the tourist visa if need be.

Another possible option if you are not too old, that is over 30 or have had one before would be the Working Holiday Visa and you do need to be outside of Australia to apply and so you could see about either getting a Bridging Visa B which allows travel whereas the BVA does not, take your trip and the WHV is an online application that you'll get an answer to within days normally, and so you would then have a year, able to work and no No Further Stay condition and even able to consider three months seasonal regional work so as you could apply for a second WHV.

Though you could consider putting in your partner visa while on the 457 to get a bridging visa with rights, it may not be for too long as every chance with less than 12 months together, it would be a quick refusal for the partner visa, fee gone and then just another 28 days and if you think getting work may be a problem, perhaps little point in all that.

Another choice that some people are exploring of late is to seek a relationship registration which you can do in ACT, NSW, Tasmania or Victoria for now and that waives the 12 months requirement but it does take some time and the difficulty may vary with location, it being the state/territory legislation that determines requirements.
It also takes at least a month and is a less certain approach but if in one of the above you can check out requirements via B,D &M registries, there also being a sticky thread up near the top of the section.


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## spanish (Feb 13, 2013)

99bottlesofbeer said:


> Hello and help please - I came out to Australia from Ireland 7 months ago to be with my boyfriend, he's Irish but a permanent resident out here, we've been doing long distance for about a year and a half. I came out on a tourist visa. Two months in I got offered a job and sponsorship a 457 visa, which I took. Unfortunately the job hasn't worked out and on the last day of my probabtion, three months, I got let go. I'm now still officially employed by the company until tomorrow, then I have 28 days. I've started looking for work because I think it's a shame to let the 457 visa go, but have been told that the market is really slow between now and christmas and it's unlikely that I'll find anything in the time frame. My question is - can I switch from a 457 visa to a tourist visa? And if I could do this, I'd like to try and stay in the country until next April on a tourist visa, and then my boyfriend and I would plan to apply for a defacto visa - I'm pretty sure I'd have to leave the country for this though as my tourist visa would have run out. Does this sound like an option? At the moment we're trying to figure out whats the best and easiest way for me to stay in the country.
> Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
> Thanks for your help


Hello,
I was looking for some help for my visa in Australia and I have found your post. I guess that at this stage you must have found a solution for all your visa problems, and I would like to know about it, as my situation is quite similar. I came to Australia with and eVisitor visa in 2011. After 3 months I had to leave the country to renew this tourist visa. 3 months later I got offered a job and I was sponsored with the 457 visa. The contract ended and I am now with a Tourist Visa, I think it is 676, but I am not completely sure right now. I am not sure if I will get another 457 in future, but my partner and I are thinking about De Facto visa as we have lived together for more than one year, but I am a bit scared as I dont know if Immigration grants De Facto coming from a Tourist Visa. 
I would really appreciate any advice you can give me pleaseeeeee


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