# Prospective Marriage visa or not?



## G & J (Oct 13, 2009)

Hello to All,

I’ve been reading through many of the posts here over the last few weeks, as my GF & I are currently going through the process of applying for a visa so as she can migrate to Aus. & we can live together here.

Because we do not meet the criteria for a Partner or De Facto visa, I’m pretty sure the only option for us is the Prospective Marriage Visa.

Here is where we are at;

GF is a US Citizen (northern USA).

I’m a permanent Aust. Citizen.

We met on the ‘net about two years ago, & chatted regularly.

I went over to USA on a holiday, & met up with her, & stayed with her for a month before returning to Aus.

We were really happy with each other, & wanted to get together again, so six months later, after saving up for air-fare, etc., GF came over to Aus. & stayed with me for a month.

Again, we were really happy, & started to talk about a future together.

At that point in time, GF had been separated from a previous marriage for about eight years, but had never formalised the divorce. She commenced proceedings, & is now divorced, & has joint custody of her 11yr old Daughter, with terms written in the custody papers that the Daughter will be moving to Australia with GF, & is allowed to go back to USA to visit her Father during the School-holiday period.

We were really happy with this outcome, as we thought the custody issue may have prevented us from getting together.

During the time we were waiting for divorce proceedings to be processed, I went back over to visit for another month.


…Which brings us pretty much up to date.

I was hoping to get her over to Aus. within the next few months, then apply for a De Facto visa, but we don’t meet the 12-month rule, nor do we have any joint paperwork at all.
GF does not qualify for a working or study visa either.

Unless I’m mistaken, our only option is to apply for a Prospective Marriage Visa to allow her to come over here permanently.

This is a bit of a shame, because we were trying to line things up with the start of the School year for the Daughter, not to mention that GF has already got rid of a lot of her belongings in preparation for the move.

We have already started getting the paperwork in order, but before we commit to the application for the Prospective Marriage visa, we want to make sure that we’re not overlooking another method that will get them over here sooner, permanently (ie; no risk of being rejected & having to go back to US to apply again).


Thanks for taking the time to read.

G & J.


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## Wanderer (Jun 16, 2007)

Welcome to the forum G & J and the only other option I can think of is if your lady came over for another holiday and then you decided it would make sense to get married here rather than returning.
Have a look at Partner Visa: Onshore Temporary and Permanent (Subclasses 820 and 801) go to eligibility section and look up married applicant.

Note the way I have phrased the initial intent is for a visit, that being the purpose of visitor visas and you do not need an 11 yo to put out any different signals.

There is of course the risk that a no further stay condition was attached to the visas and that is more a random action from what I can gather.


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## G & J (Oct 13, 2009)

Hi Wanderer, thanks for the reply.

We really can't risk the expense of them being sent back OS again, however small the chance may be. We'll continue getting the Prospective Marriage Visa application in order.

Thanks again,

G & J.


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## Wanderer (Jun 16, 2007)

The other approach G & J would of course be shoot over on another trip, get married there and then she can apply for the offshore partner visa as a married applicant and a lot less hoopla re proving relationship/commitment and likely to possibly even be approved quicker than the Prospective Marriage Visa.

Keep her family happy and then hold a wedding party/repeat here if you desire.


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## LovedUp (Feb 23, 2009)

Hi G & J

I think that the prospective marriage visa is probably your best bet. I'm sure that planning a wedding etc in the US to apply for a spouse visa would be far more time consuming than gathering that little bit of extra evidence for the prospective marriage visa. The fact that you are in Australia will also make life a bit easier and hopefully the process of putting your application together a bit quicker as you will have easy access to any documentation you may need as well as for setting a wedding date and finding a celebrant etc.

If you mention in your application that you are aiming to have your partner's daughter start school at the begining of the Aus school year that might also help to speed things up a bit. From what I have heard, when children are involved you are sort of given priority.

One last thing, I see that Wanderer suggested that your partner go over to Aus again on a visitors visa and then you get married and apply for a spouse visa in Australia. I spoke to a migration agent a while back because I was considering doing the same thing and was told that immigration really frown upon that as they could feel that your partner obtained a visitors visa using false information (eg. I want to go to Australia to travel) because she didn't reveal her intent to marry and they could therefore refuse her any additional visas such as a spouse visa.

Hope this helps.

Good Luck


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## Wanderer (Jun 16, 2007)

You certainly need to have a clear head on your thought train Loved Up and a tourist visa with no nfs on it.

But if someone came over for a visit and then thought along those lines, even contacted immi to ask for their advice on the situation, it is all above board.


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## G & J (Oct 13, 2009)

Thanks again Wanderer & LovedUp.

I guess that I was putting the feelers out to make sure that I was not overlooking another obvious path to take.

With the benefit of hind-sight, it would have been better to wait until the divorce was complete before my last visit, & married at that point in time - it was actually joked about - getting a "shotgun marriage" in Vegas... lol.

As it stands, the Prospective Marriage path is still the most definite, & also the least expensive route to take, even if it means waiting a little longer.

Regards,

G & J.


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## eford33 (Sep 28, 2009)

Hey G&J

Quite the sticky situation you got. 

After you get married on a perspective marriage visa im pretty sure you still have to apply for a spouse visa and if you apply for that in Aus its $2550 or something like that. If anything this is the most expensive route. A shotgun wedding would be best and apply for the spouse visa right off the bat.

Plus with perpective marriage you still have to have alot of evidence. Which sucks if you dont have joint accounts and stuff.

My friend applied for a spouse visa and got it in 2-3 weeks. She applied from Canada though i think the US is more backed up. But like everyone else said, it should go quicker because there is a child involved. 

I suggust getting int contact with a migration agent, they will give you the best answer.

Good luck


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## G & J (Oct 13, 2009)

Hi eford33,

Unless I'm reading wrong, the cost would be;

Initial Prospective Marriage Visa Application Charge; $1705

plus

Onshore Partner temporary visa (subclass 820) and permanent visa (subclass 801); $825

( Partner Category Visa Charges )

Much less than a return plane trip + OS expenses, not to mention taking more time off work, etc...



eford33 said:


> Plus with perpective marriage you still have to have alot of evidence. Which sucks if you dont have joint accounts and stuff.


No - it's the De-Facto visa that you need that type of info for.

Wanderer's initial suggestion is definitely the quickest & least costly path, but I'd hate for my GF to get bailed up in Customs/Immigration on the off-chance that they thought she was coming over for more than just a holiday.


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## oziduncs (Oct 31, 2009)

*cut waiting time for prospective marriage visa*

Hi G & J,

If you go the prospective marriage visa, you dont have to wait the 5-10 months while the visa is being processed until she comes to Australia. They usually give a pre-approval, after they have checked the visa and had an interview with your GF, once this has happened, bring them out on a tourist visa. If it takes longer for your original PM visa to process, you can extend the tourist visa to up to 12 months or more. If you have a PM visa pending, this should be reason enough to extend it but rarely will it be more than that. The only drawback is she cannot legally work on tourist visa. Once the PM visa is approved (fingers crossed) she will than have to leave the country and re-enter on the PM visa. Once stamped you got 9 months to marry.

Im in the same boat, but my Fiance is Russian - so your already ahead in a way.

Good luck
Duncs


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## Lenore (Oct 16, 2009)

Hi oziduncs,
Could you tell me a little more about this pre-approval.
I really like the sound of that and it seems sensible that at least the couple can be together, make their wedding plans whilst they wait for the PMV.

I did ask immi about a tourist visa whilst we wait and a probable outcome of such an application and just received a response that said anyone can apply and no prior indication of outcome can be given, if its rejected then we have done our doe and what if there is a NFS condition and it cannot be extended.

Thanks for giving me a little ray of hope


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## Wanderer (Jun 16, 2007)

Hi oziduncs,
And when you're back here, I'm likewise interested in your information source re:


> If you go the prospective marriage visa, you dont have to wait the 5-10 months while the visa is being processed until she comes to Australia. They usually give a pre-approval, after they have checked the visa and had an interview with your GF, once this has happened, bring them out on a tourist visa. If it takes longer for your original PM visa to process, you can extend the tourist visa to up to 12 months or more. If you have a PM visa pending, this should be reason enough to extend it but rarely will it be more than that. The only drawback is she cannot legally work on tourist visa. Once the PM visa is approved (fingers crossed) she will than have to leave the country and re-enter on the PM visa. Once stamped you got 9 months to marry.


There is nothing in immigration regulations to stop people applying for more than one visa at a time.
However I'd not be too sure about pre-approval for as far as immigration goes they'll always say nothing is ever a certainty until the granting.

They'll also enlighten you as to using a visa for what it is supposed to be used for and so coming in on a tourist visa, you would be running the gauntlet of yes, "I'm on a holiday" and they "but you have a PMV pending!"

The other issue is that you would want to hope if it got this far that the system did cope well for if your application got through to the actual approval stage and you were in Australia, you could well find it rejected.

Granting will definitely not take place while you are in Australia.
You would need to rely on DIAC contacting you to tell you to leave the country before granting occurred.

It is one of the reasons that DIAC have regulations and can be quite firm on them for any system running hundreds of thousands applications needs a uniform approach and when departures from that occur, so can problems.

A similar situation does take place with offshore GSM visas that can be applied for onshore but the people in those cases are in Australia for the purpose of what their initial visa was, a bit of a difference.


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