# Checklist for Partner Permanent Visa 100



## Chunchang (Aug 17, 2013)

My wife applied outside Australia for permanent residency. She was granted a 309 visa nearly two years ago and is now completing the forms in Australia for the 100 visa (permanent permanent residency). Among the forms to fill in is a checklist that asks for details, to be filled in in a table, of "any overseas travel undertaken by the applicant and dependent applicants since the grant of the temporary partner visa."

The four cells of the table are headed "Applicant name", "Country", "Departure date" and "Arrival date". Particularly given the fact that the original application was lodged overseas, does anyone have any idea what these labels mean? "Country?" What country? "Departure date?" Departure from where? "Arrival date"? Arrival where?


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## ccpro (Feb 2, 2012)

I had the same thought before. It was confusing. In th end I put down country as the destination of where you travel, departure date as the date you left aus and arrival date as when you return to aus. That's how I did it.


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## CollegeGirl (Nov 10, 2012)

It seems like a straightforward question to me. It's asking if your wife has traveled overseas at all since her visa grant. Obviously one of those answers is going to be her trip to Australia, and then if she's traveled outside Australia since then, you'd fill in the information for those trips as well.


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## Chunchang (Aug 17, 2013)

*Partner Permanent Visa 100*



ccpro said:


> I had the same thought before. It was confusing. In th end I put down country as the destination of where you travel, departure date as the date you left aus and arrival date as when you return to aus. That's how I did it.


Thank you for that. It is exactly how I had provisionally replied, too, and will leave it at that. Nevertheless, the answer is as unsatisfactory as the badly framed question. That's because the question stresses that it wants to know about any (and it underlines the word any) travel since the grant of the 309 visa, which necessarily entails travel TO Australia from the country in which the visa was granted.

In fact, why the question is asked is beyond me. Apart from the fact that the Department of Immigration can find out about the movements of the applicants and their dependents into and out of Australia at the press of a few computer keys, what does it matter? As I understand it, once the 309 visa is granted and activated by arriving in Australia, applicants and their dependents have the legal right to come and go from the country as, when and as many times as they please.

But then again, you wonder why, when filling in these forms for the 100 visa (as I understand it, when you apply for the 309 visa you are technically applying for the 100 visa, too) why do applicant, partner and dependents have to supply copies of the very same passport pages that the department obtained copies of, and would obviously have on file, when the original application was made?


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## Chunchang (Aug 17, 2013)

*Partner Visa 100*



CollegeGirl said:


> It seems like a straightforward question to me. It's asking if your wife has traveled overseas at all since her visa grant. Obviously one of those answers is going to be her trip to Australia, and then if she's traveled outside Australia since then, you'd fill in the information for those trips as well.


If that is the way you see it, CollegeGIrl, fair enough. However, the fact that other people have the same problem as me in understanding the question suggests it is not as clear as you think.


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## Whitney (Jan 4, 2013)

I'm inclined to agree with CollegeGirl that the question seems straight forward. But CG and I both spend a lot of time reading and advising people about visas so perhaps we're just more familiar with immigration questions and paperwork than the average Joe.


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## Chunchang (Aug 17, 2013)

*Checklist for Partner Visa 100d*



Whitney said:


> I'm inclined to agree with CollegeGirl that the question seems straight forward. But CG and I both spend a lot of time reading and advising people about visas so perhaps we're just more familiar with immigration questions and paperwork than the average Joe.


Whitney, I think you have hit the nail on the head. The question is framed to be understood by someone versed in the language and thought processes of the officials of the Immigration Department, not the great majority of those filling in the form. Heaven knows that it is difficult enough to get all the i's dotted and t's crossed in completing all of these forms.

I would argue that the question is set out in a totally counter-intuitive way,
the first clue being the column headed "Country". Only by jumping ahead then backtracking can the uninitiated discern whether this is asking for the country where they travelled to or, as it turns out (if your interpretation is correct) the country from which they travelled. (The answer to the question of where they travelled to would not be supplied until the next line).

In short, a table with four columns, headed, respectively, "Country of departure", "Date", "Country of arrival", "Date" would do a wonderful service to the ideals of plain language and to those who have to negotiate the hurdles put in front of those applying for permanent residency.


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## Whitney (Jan 4, 2013)

Chunchang said:


> Whitney, I think you have hit the nail on the head. The question is framed to be understood by someone versed in the language and thought processes of the officials of the Immigration Department, not the great majority of those filling in the form. Heaven knows that it is difficult enough to get all the i's dotted and t's crossed in completing all of these forms.
> 
> I would argue that the question is set out in a totally counter-intuitive way,
> the first clue being the column headed "Country". Only by jumping ahead then backtracking can the uninitiated discern whether this is asking for the country where they travelled to or, as it turns out (if your interpretation is correct) the country from which they travelled. (The answer to the question of where they travelled to would not be supplied until the next line).
> ...


Haha! We're far from immigration department employees! I can only speak for myself but everything I know about migration to Australia I have learned online - some on the government websites and some on forums- but all of it is available to any one who is looking.

You should give this feedback to your CO so perhaps they can do something about it.


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## Chunchang (Aug 17, 2013)

Oh, I had not thought you were with the Immigration Department, although I did think you might be an immigration lawyer, or some such. Having been through the wringer of the immigration process over the past couple of years I have got to know a bit about it too. (And I did, once, go through the Canadian immigration process, and ended up getting permanent residency after a long battle.) The department does have a feedback process so, yes, passing this idea on to it is a possibility.

You are right in saying, of course, that a lot of answers are out the to be found, but sometimes it really does take a lot of digging. A case in point is finding all of the papers to be filled in when applying for the 100 visa. (A short answer to that is that if the department has your address it will send them at the appropriate time.) I looked in the obvious places and only after a lot of searching eventually found them. So you have to know what your are looking for, and it takes persistence.


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## CollegeGirl (Nov 10, 2012)

No, no - Whitney and I are only fellow applicants who spend a lot of time reading immigration forums to learn about the process. I'm sorry, Chunchang, if my answer came across as dismissive. You can certainly send feedback to immigration that that part of the form was confusing. I can see how it could be. Best of luck.


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## Chunchang (Aug 17, 2013)

*Checklist for Partner Visas 100*

CG, you didn't come across as dismissive (but thank you for being sensitive to that possibility). You did come across as being
quite sure of yourself, and I don't think there is anything wrong with that.
I guess now that I have laid out the problem in more detail, you can see a bit more clearly where I am coming from.

I think people like you, me and Whitney who have a bit of knowledge of the system and can understand the language and can express ourselves relatively well are very fortunate. I feel for those who don't have that expertise.

If you are waiting for an answer on an application, I trust all will go well for you. I sent away the last of my wife's papers this afternoon. I'm hoping that all things being equal it will all be in the bag by Christmas, which will give us something to celebrate.


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## CollegeGirl (Nov 10, 2012)

Thanks Chunchang.  I am waiting on a visa myself, yes. Applied back in April, so we are hoping against hope to hear something in September. Our case is complicated by medical issues, so we're not sure of an approval. It's scary. It's one of the reasons I spend so much time around here - it's the only way to help stem the anxiety from waiting. 

Best of luck to you and your wife with your application.


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## ccpro (Feb 2, 2012)

Chunchang said:


> Thank you for that. It is exactly how I had provisionally replied, too, and will leave it at that. Nevertheless, the answer is as unsatisfactory as the badly framed question. That's because the question stresses that it wants to know about any (and it underlines the word any) travel since the grant of the 309 visa, which necessarily entails travel TO Australia from the country in which the visa was granted.
> 
> In fact, why the question is asked is beyond me. Apart from the fact that the Department of Immigration can find out about the movements of the applicants and their dependents into and out of Australia at the press of a few computer keys, what does it matter? As I understand it, once the 309 visa is granted and activated by arriving in Australia, applicants and their dependents have the legal right to come and go from the country as, when and as many times as they please.
> 
> But then again, you wonder why, when filling in these forms for the 100 visa (as I understand it, when you apply for the 309 visa you are technically applying for the 100 visa, too) why do applicant, partner and dependents have to supply copies of the very same passport pages that the department obtained copies of, and would obviously have on file, when the original application was made?


I can only imagine the reasons behind this is to see if the applicant needs to provide overseas police checks. Of course they can check their system to see all the details, but if we can write it down, i guess it will be easier to process especially when there are thousand cases. For the passport page, we may be giving them the same passport copies as before, but there are people who have changed passport due to various reasons since the initial partner visa application, DIAC will need to know if there's any change. To me this is like an exam, I would just try my best to score my visa. There are lots of things I don't like about the forms etc, if I start thinking too much it will just do my head in. I just do it and wait for the final outcome.


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## bokie (Jul 11, 2013)

CollegeGirl said:


> Thanks Chunchang.  I am waiting on a visa myself, yes. Applied back in April, so we are hoping against hope to hear something in September. Our case is complicated by medical issues, so we're not sure of an approval. It's scary. It's one of the reasons I spend so much time around here - it's the only way to help stem the anxiety from waiting.
> 
> Best of luck to you and your wife with your application.


hi Collegegirl,
i hope you would not mind if i ask what makes your medicals complicated because my medicals were referred to the Medical Officer of the Commonwealth of Australia for assessment on the 20th of August 2013 due for the reason that my blood pressure went up due to tension or let us say white coat syndrome i already done my Createnine test (normal) and I am already cleared from my Cardiology examination because I was automatically got a referral to a Cardiologist, i am still anxious and worried because i really do not know what's going to be the result of tomorrows assessment. I hope that this will not mess up all the effort that my husband and I made for my SC 309 application ( lodged Feb. 28,2013)


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## Rains (May 9, 2014)

Wow, so much paper work to do even for the 2nd stage. Sigh~
So, if you don't mind, ChunChang, has your wife got the visa now?


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