# Tourist visa 600 whilst waiting for 309 visa



## Nunu (Dec 30, 2011)

Is there anyone that's taken this route? If so how are you/ did you explain reason for return, show funds etc
Thought there was a thread discussing it but can't seem to find it.


TIA


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## Mish (Jan 13, 2013)

Yes tried but was for the 300. I think alot of depend on how hardcore the post is that you are applying through. You might have more chance than what we did in Cairo due to the civil unrest in Cairo (and this was before 30 June protests). My fiancee even had a letter with leave approved and a job to return to and that didn't help.

All I would suggest would be to include as much evidence as you have. We showed funds in his account and my account but they said that the onus was on him to show that he could support himself (might be different if you are married (not sure if you are married or defacto)). He had more than what DIAC in Australia told me was the minimum and was told he had limited personal funds *sigh*.

All I can say is try and just put in as much as you can to show that there is a reason for you to return to Turkey.


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## kmarees1986 (Apr 23, 2012)

Nunu said:


> Is there anyone that's taken this route? If so how are you/ did you explain reason for return, show funds etc
> Thought there was a thread discussing it but can't seem to find it.
> 
> TIA


Luckily DIAC understand that the with the wait times for the 309/100 visa, partners will want to be together. My husband is from the UK and is currently in Australia with me on a TV. While you still need to meet the requirements of a tourist, they are more leniant in this situation, especially if you are married. Mish applied for a prospective marriage visa then her partners tourist visa so unfortunatly, they viewed her case with a more stringent outlook.

We applied for the 3 month visa only, as my husband has a criminal record we didn't want to complicate the application for anything more than that. Once you apply for a 6 or 12 month TV they look alot more closely at your finances and ties to your home country. Lucky for us, we did not recieve the "no further stay condition" and we can apply for an extention of his tourist visa. I will point out, we have compelling circumstances as I am about to have a baby (not normally viewed as compelling for the partner visa just as a side note).

Below is a list of suggested documents/items to include with the paper application:

- Bank account statement in your name showing a minimum of $1000 per month. This is the rough benchmark given by DIAC (I say rough very loosley) however for high risk countries they will likely need to show more. I understand to define a high risk country you can review the electronic tourist visa country eligibility lists. If your country isn't listed you are classed as "high risk" and will need to bend over a little more backwards. You need to show beyond all doubt that you will not need to work while in Australia. DIAC will be very worried about how you will support yourself so make sure you can cover yourself financially.

- If while in Australia you will be staying with family cost free, a letter from them stating that will go a long way. Some people have even included income proof and proof of home ownership for those who are putting them up. There is a section on the application which asks you if anybody will be supporting you during your stay, you can include their name and details there.

- Letter of invitation from the sponsor is listed in the required documents. Instead of this in our application, we includeda statement from each of us outlining our intentions. We were 100% honest in the sense that we said the true reasons for wanting the visa and then included a paragraph to say that in addition we planned ot visit family and friends so my husband could meet his extended family and experience Australian culture before immigratinf permanently. We didn't have anything booked or plans set in stone, however for a high risk country applicant I would suggest that you include a detailed itinerary of what sort things you will likley do while here to meet the tourist requirement. If there are any family events like weddings or significant birthdays, a copy of the invitation to you and your partner would be useful. I'm not suggesting you go and book and pay for trips and activities but a well thought out itinerary would help you mee the tourist requirement.

- Since it's likley that you will try to be with your partner for the duration of your processing time you probably won't be keeping your current job? My husband is a self emplyed trades person so we included his last tax return documents to show his self employed status - it might be beneficial for you to include your own tax documents to show that you are established in your country. It will show DIAC that you could easily return to Turkey for work.

- Include any lease agreements/mortgage/deed documents showing you have ties to Turkey.

- For good measure, get yourself health insurance. I brought my husband 12 months backpackers insurnace which covers hime for medical. It cost about £130.

- Include anything that will help DIAC see that you do not intend to work and you are not going to do anything wrong. The beuatiful thing about the TV and the offshore partner visa is you have to leave in order for the partner visa to be granted so unless you're willing to waste the 1000's of $$ you have already spent to get to this point, DIAC will be pretty confident that you will leave.

I need to point out I am no expert, this is just my advice from months of research and of course going through the process myself. As Mish mentioned high risk countries have much more of a hard time so you need to inlcude plenty of evidence to support your application.


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## Nunu (Dec 30, 2011)

Thank you so much for all the replies!


I'm not sure if our reason is compelling enough but we have a 3 month old daughter that he hasn't met yet and with the quoted processing time of 6 months, It's really worrying that he will miss out on seeing our daughters milestones.

I'm currently a stay at home mum but will be going back to university full time next month and another reason I need my husband here is to babysit whilst I'm at uni. I have money saved up and will be able to provide evidence of it and I'm currently staying with my mum and I'm sure shell be able to provide a statement saying he can stay rent free. 
The problem is my husband. He currently isn't working and he's spending his time helping his brother with the family restaurant. He has no ties to turkey since he is planning to move here. Also since he just paid 3000$ on the visa and paperwork he has no savings either :/ would this cause a problem?


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## Nunu (Dec 30, 2011)

Forgot to say thank you kmarees for that list!


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## kmarees1986 (Apr 23, 2012)

Nunu said:


> Thank you so much for all the replies!
> 
> I'm not sure if our reason is compelling enough but we have a 3 month old daughter that he hasn't met yet and with the quoted processing time of 6 months, It's really worrying that he will miss out on seeing our daughters milestones.
> 
> ...


Maybe also his brother can include a letter showing that he has been contributing to the family business and has work to return to when his tourist visa expires.

When you write your statement to include in the application, make sure you detail that your husband hasn't met your daughter so in addition to visiting it is important he is there for the early stages of your child. DIAC needs all the informatiuon to make their decision and it might mean that you will be in luck. I moved back here in April and have been on maternity leave ever since, i'm just on centrelink so I inlcuded that information. I had about $5000 in the bank plus my husband had about $2000. I don't know if we needed that much but I wanted to make sure that we were totally covered on the financial side. I didn't want DIAC to be able to say a thing about money. My parents also included a statement showing we are staying with them cost free while we wait for the 309 outcome.

Is your husband listed on the birth certificate of your daughter? I would include that also. Send a copy of your marriage certificate and correspondance from your CO showing the timeframe quoted also. I'm sure the can access this information but in the event it doesn't work like that at least they have that.

Get all your ID documents and statements from yourselves and families certified by a JP to add that extra weight too.


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## Nunu (Dec 30, 2011)

He's not on the birth certificate as he wasn't here to sign but when he had his interview at the embassy they said they believed she was our child as we provided a stat dec explaining the situation. Should we do the same for the TV?
Did you include a payment summary from centrelink?
Also would it be worthwhile to include a confirmation of enrollment from uni?

I was also talking to my husband and he said that if he came out here in the next 6 to 8 weeks he would need to go back to turkey to properly say goodbye to his family and we will probably go back with him to visit our family - is this also a good enough reason to return?


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## kmarees1986 (Apr 23, 2012)

Nunu said:


> He's not on the birth certificate as he wasn't here to sign but when he had his interview at the embassy they said they believed she was our child as we provided a stat dec explaining the situation. Should we do the same for the TV?
> Did you include a payment summary from centrelink?
> Also would it be worthwhile to include a confirmation of enrollment from uni?
> 
> I was also talking to my husband and he said that if he came out here in the next 6 to 8 weeks he would need to go back to turkey to properly say goodbye to his family and we will probably go back with him to visit our family - is this also a good enough reason to return?


If you have a copy of the statement that you included in the 309 application then include that aswell.

I didn't include a payment summary but it can't hurt to inlcude one. Not sure how beneficial the uni enrolment would be to be honest. Even though you are going to discuss that your husband will be caring for your daughter during your UNI hours, it isn't the purpose of a tourist visa so not sure if they will view it in the wrong light??

Make sure you inlcude your plans to return to Turkey as a family to introduce your daughter to her Turkish family and for your husband to tie up all loose ends and say his goodbyes. Put this in your statments.


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## Nunu (Dec 30, 2011)

thank you so much for the advice kmarees!!
Good luck with the birth and visa!


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## kmarees1986 (Apr 23, 2012)

Nunu said:


> thank you so much for the advice kmarees!!
> Good luck with the birth and visa!


Thank-you and best of luck to you also. I hope your husband is granted the TV!


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## erindave (May 10, 2013)

Hi Nunu

Was the tourist visa granted? I'm curious as I might need to do the same for my partner, we don't have compelling circumstances except for the fact I want to be home for my mother's 73rd birthday as she will be alone as my other sister is travelling and wants us to housesit her house while she is away.


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## Nunu (Dec 30, 2011)

Hey erindave

We didn't end up applying for the tourist visa as when I emailed my co for info on the tourist visa she called us and told us to wait as she was going to grant the visa that week. 

I think you might be eligible for the ETA so that might be easier to get. I think kittykat started a thread on the process last year (sorry I'm on my phone so I can't add the link) 

I wish you the very best and hope your visa is granted quickly!


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## Khyatid (Mar 1, 2014)

Thank you Kmarees your inputs were also valuable for me, we are also thinking of Torist Visa (TV) as our 309/100 is under process. 

I would also like to know the documents to be submitted for the TV application after partner visa (309/100) application, as we have already submitted the finance related docs. (i.e. salary slip, IT Returns, bank stat., etc), relationship docs., accommodation proofs during the partner visa. do we need to re summit them or not required?


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## a.k.z (Jun 29, 2014)

hello everyone,

this post has proven to be the most useful info post from all the forums i have read so far. Me and my husband are also planning to apply for sponsored family stream visa in a week or two. We have a religious festival coming up and my birthday too by the end of July and i really want to spend a month or two with him. Spouse visa timeline is such;

Spouse visa application: 02nd Feb'14
Medicals done: March'14
PCC: April'14
CO Appointed: 20th May'14

No updates yet. 

So now we want to apply for sponsored family visa.I know the official basics like forms, the security bond. My online conern is i wont get the visa approved on the basis whereby my husband is already residing in Australia and DIAC would think i wont go back and so get my visa rejected. But i'm already in line for partner visa and then my husband is ready to pay for the bond, it shouldn't be an issue right?
Any suggestions anyone has to give would be very welcomed.

Thankyou much

Regards.


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## Mijita (Jul 22, 2014)

Hello! I am in a similar situation and am hoping for some advice from those who have had this experience.

I am an Australian citizen who resides in Mexico with my Mexican partner (high risk country) and we want to travel to Australia in January 2015 for two weddings. I am wondering what the chances of getting a tourist visa are.

Some background: we maintained a long distance relationship for approx 2 years, during which time I visited Mexico and my partner applied twice (nearly 4 years ago) for an Australian tourist visa but was rejected. I think this can be put down to the circumstances at the time, he had just finished studying and had no job etc to return to thus the DIBP was not convinced he would return. I had provided an invitation letter but didn't specify he was my boyfriend as it was early days. In the second app we provided some more details, he was starting a business plus evidence of visas to other countries he had complied with such as holding a 10 year US visa etc. Not enough.

We have now lived together in Mexico for 2.5 years and a month ago applied for the 309/100 visa. I have full-time employment here as does my partner however he runs his own company which makes it difficult. We don't own property but do have a rental agreement until May 2015.

I wonder if the following evidence would be sufficient:
- Proof of employment for both of us in Mexico (recent payslips, tax returns, bank statements with sufficient money in our joint account to cover the trip, etc)
- Copy of company details and my partner being the legal representative
- A selection of contracts that my partner has as part of his business i.e. funding from the government, contracts for services, etc.
- Rental agreement for our house
- Letters from our friends who will get married along with copies of their passports
- Proof of 309/100 application
- Statutory declaration from both of us as to the reason for the trip (I am an Australian legal practioner so I feel that if I do this it could have weight given that providing an incorrect stat dec would have serious consequences for me professionally).
- Other evidence of international travel and complying with visa conditions (tourist and student visas but not to Australia)

I wonder if it is worth buying our airfares in advance to show that we would be arriving and leaving literally days before and after the two weddings. I'm just worried about doing that and then getting rejected.

I would appreciate any advice!


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## SARAH.F (Jul 18, 2014)

Mijita said:


> Hello! I am in a similar situation and am hoping for some advice from those who have had this experience. I am an Australian citizen who resides in Mexico with my Mexican partner (high risk country) and we want to travel to Australia in January 2015 for two weddings.


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## SARAH.F (Jul 18, 2014)

Hola Majita I'm not sure if your situation has changed since your above post from July 2014. I jumped back onto this forum today to find out some information. I have read a lot of forums and am collecting evidence and have the basics needed. But any further advice would be greatly appreciated on applying for a tourist Visa from overseas. CHEERS


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## Mijita (Jul 22, 2014)

Hi Sarah

Funny you should reply because we just submitted the tourist visa application a couple of days ago. In the end we put together 30 documents. It is hard because my partner has a job but he is also a partner of the business so whilst he had an employment letter from his business partner stating he was aware he was taking holidays, etc, we also included a lot of the business legal documents: corporate constitution, proof of tax obligations being met, bank statements to show cash flow, lease agreement for offices, funding grants from the government. It is a very solid business so I hope that that is valued. This is in addition to proof of his personal finances (we submitted a bank statement showing around $6000, for a 3 week trip I think this is ok). I also work here so I provided details of my employment. In addition we submitted the wedding invitations for the weddings we will attend, a couple of invitation letters, proof of our house lease, our pre-purchased tickets, a draft itinerary, travel insurance etc. We have spent a fair bit of money in the hopes that he gets approved but we checked that our airfares were refundable too, just in case.

Just a word of warning, I know this is just my experience but when my partner had his tourist visa app rejected 4 years ago he had applied for a 6 month visa. When it was rejected he was told it was very uncommon for the department to grant 6 month ones. I must admit there were other flaws in the application so this wasn't the determining factor but maybe something you should consider.

I have a friend here who recently applied for tourist visas for her husband, parents-in-law and sisters-in-law and they were all approved.

Re: the partner visa, we have heard nothing since applying in August. So still no word on when to do medicals or police checks. It's a slow process but we are both happy living here in Mexico, we both have great jobs so to be honest we aren't in a rush to move home.

Edit: one thing we found hard with the partner visa was just the different way things operate here compared to Australia, for example we hardly ever get mail delivered, it just disappears, our bill delivery is irregular and we have only received one letter ever, my parents and friends have sent things and they have never arrived. Also, we couldn't find a bank that would do a standard joint account, the best option was opening one with me as co-signee so whilst I have a card and I'm on the contract the statements are only addressed to my partner. Our house is leased from my partner's mum so whilst we have a lease all the bills were in her name so we got a notorised statement from her that we pay all the bills etc. One other thing that was really handy was getting stat decs from friends who had visited our house. Because of the no mail/not many bills thing it is hard to prove where we live so I had nearly 15 australian friends who had visited and who all provided stat decs. We also got residency certificates from the local council (a handy little document that is available here because a lot of people have no formal ID to prove their address).


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## syd (May 13, 2014)

I just received a 1 year visitor visa for Oz. My partner is Australian and we are engaged with no partner visa submitted yet. I specifically asked to visit my SO for the Christmas Holidays but in my second paragraph I stated my case as to why I believe that I am eligible for a 1 year visa. This was my second visa approval; the first one was for 3 months.

I think it is very important to provide an extensive cover letter outlining the importance of visit, your ties to your home country and previous travel. Also. identify the fact that you have already applied for the partner visa and will not do anything to jeopardize that application. Note that you are aware that he needs to be outside of Oz to be granted visa.

I am no expert, but I read that visitors visas should be granted to applicants who appear to have a legitimate relationship and especially those who have submitted a partner visa application. For this reason I think you should submit evidence of your relationship.

I uploaded 10 pictures of my SO and I with his family, copies of joint stay at hotels and joint account, evidence of letters addressed to me at his home in OZ. In total I uploaded about 30 documents and about 15 of them were related to proving that we are in an established relationship.

I made mention of our future plan get married, but I need to spend more time with his children to develop a stronger bond.

I also submitted an invitation letter addressed to embassy from my fiance and it noted the importance of this visit. His letter was focused on the fact that he is an established business owner and can fully support me during my stay. He provided evidence of Australian citizenship, his business, mortgage statement and his bank statement. His letter was quite short. I wrote both letters by the way...he just signed and email it to me.

I work in the USA but I am from a high risk country so I knew I had to submit a lot of evidence. My visa does not have a No Further Stay clause surprisingly.


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## Mijita (Jul 22, 2014)

Thanks Syd, your situation is very interesting and it is promising you can get a 1 year visa from a high risk country. Our situation is a little different as we don't have any intention of staying in Australia longer than 3 weeks at this stage. I remember when we spoke to a migration agent about our partner application and told her we were more than happy to keep living in Mexico she was shocked. 

We didn't provide evidence of our relationship as such for the tourist visa apart from stating it in the cover letter and letters of invitation and including the acknowledgement of receipt of partner visa application and copies of our residency certificates. We applied online and so I figured that if they want they can see all the documents we uploaded to the partner application. We focussed on proving the stability of my partners business as this area had been our downfall when he was rejected previously. 

Given that we live together in Mexico we both provided letters and each said that we are very established here and have no other intention but to continue to live here until the partner visa is determined. I didn't specify we knew we had to be offshore to get it granted…maybe I should have, but I did specify we applied offshore. We provided all our airfares and itinerary as well as wedding invites (this is the main reason for our trip). It's only 3 weeks so I hope that goes in our favour. It makes me annoyed to think we have to go through all this just because of my partner's nationality but oh well, what can you do!?


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## syd (May 13, 2014)

Mijita said:


> Thanks Syd, your situation is very interesting and it is promising you can get a 1 year visa from a high risk country. Our situation is a little different as we don't have any intention of staying in Australia longer than 3 weeks at this stage. I remember when we spoke to a migration agent about our partner application and told her we were more than happy to keep living in Mexico she was shocked.
> 
> We didn't provide evidence of our relationship as such for the tourist visa apart from stating it in the cover letter and letters of invitation and including the acknowledgement of receipt of partner visa application and copies of our residency certificates. We applied online and so I figured that if they want they can see all the documents we uploaded to the partner application. We focussed on proving the stability of my partners business as this area had been our downfall when he was rejected previously.
> 
> Given that we live together in Mexico we both provided letters and each said that we are very established here and have no other intention but to continue to live here until the partner visa is determined. I didn't specify we knew we had to be offshore to get it granted&#8230;maybe I should have, but I did specify we applied offshore. We provided all our airfares and itinerary as well as wedding invites (this is the main reason for our trip). It's only 3 weeks so I hope that goes in our favour. It makes me annoyed to think we have to go through all this just because of my partner's nationality but oh well, what can you do!?


You should be just fine .

I was just posting my info in case it can help someone from high risk country who wants to visit a partner in Australia for extended periods.

Hope he gets the visa, since they have no reason to be concerned that he will try to stay in Australia.


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## Mijita (Jul 22, 2014)

Thanks Syd! I will update once we find out. Enjoy your holidays with your fiance.


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## SARAH.F (Jul 18, 2014)

THANKS A MILLION MIJITA & SYD

Your advice on your own experiences with applying for the tourist visa has been appreciated and extremely helpful!! It's made me realise I need to do a little bit extra on my partners application now in relation to prooving our relationship aswell as the finance/proof of employment side and submitting more documents. 

I'm so happy to hear you were granted a 1 year tourist visa Syd, maybe we will be successful with our 6 month application knowing this. 


Just a few questions I need help with!

When or where do I upload my documents for the online tourist visa app? Is it after pressing the 'SUBMIT' button (as in you are ready to submit your application status)! Or before. I haven't pressed submit yet but haven't seen anywhere to upload docs and I haven't entered any payment details yet either! (Please excuse me if this is a dumb question as I've never used the immi account system before!)????

And did you translate all your documents? THANKS AGAIN AND PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOURS GETS GRANTED & I'll do the same!! 

CHEERS SARAH


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## syd (May 13, 2014)

Glad I could help  I should clarify that my visa allows 3 month stays within the 1 year period. With this in mind, he might want to apply for 3 months visa, then apply for another visitor visa onshore if there is not a' No Further Stay Condition'. The other option is for him to return to Mexico after 3 months then make another visa application. Of course this option is more costly, but it might be best.

You need to submit application and pay fee before you will be allowed to attach documents.


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## Mijita (Jul 22, 2014)

Yep, submit and pay and then you can go into the application and upload documents. They provide categories for you to select with further subcategories so you can classify your documents. I would suggest with the tourist visa to have everything in order before you pay because they are assessed far quicker so you don't have the luxury of taking your time to upload things. As a reference the 5 tourist visas that were granted to my friend's family only took 10 days.

Re: translation, for the tourist visa you don't need to worry as these are processed in Mexico City. I checked this with the Americas info line. For the partner visa yes, we translated absolutely every document we provided in spanish. The partner one is processed at the embassy in Ottawa and so you cannot be certain a spanish speaker will assess your case. I looked into using a NAATI translator but it is incredibly expensive for the number of documents you need to provide and being offshore you can use a local certified translator. The best thing to do is contact the Tribunal Superior de Justicia in your state and get the 2015 list of peritos traductores and just choose one. We used two different ones, one was better than the other, so I recommend that you look for formal qualifications as some are literally just people who know how to speak English. Anyway the documents are generally pretty straightforward and I just asked them to adjust things that I didn't think made sense.


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## SARAH.F (Jul 18, 2014)

Thanks again Majita! Your advice is gold for me. I can't thank you enough. Best of luck with both your Tourist and Partnership visas!! 😃


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## Mijita (Jul 22, 2014)

Hi Sarah.F and Syd! Just letting you know my partner got his tourist visa  we haven't actually heard from the embassy here but I logged into the immi account and there was the grant letter posted a mere two days after we applied on 20/11. Now I wonder if these are really done in Mexico City. It is a 1 year multiple entry so 3 months max/stay although I can't see us using it more than once it is nice to have the option.


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## syd (May 13, 2014)

Mijita said:


> Hi Sarah.F and Syd! Just letting you know my partner got his tourist visa  we haven't actually heard from the embassy here but I logged into the immi account and there was the grant letter posted a mere two days after we applied on 20/11. Now I wonder if these are really done in Mexico City. It is a 1 yeaer multiple entry so 3 months max/stay although I can't see us using it more than once it is nice to have the option.


YAY! That's great news!


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## SARAH.F (Jul 18, 2014)

Mijita said:


> Hi Sarah.F and Syd! Just letting you know my partner got his tourist visa  we haven't actually heard from the embassy here but I logged into the immi account and there was the grant letter posted a mere two days after we applied on 20/11. Now I wonder if these are really done in Mexico City. It is a 1 year multiple entry so 3 months max/stay although I can't see us using it more than once it is nice to have the option.


Congratulations Mijita. Thank you for letting me know and thanks again for all your information and help. Have a wonderful holiday to Australia with your partner. Hopefully it will be me in February.


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## SARAH.F (Jul 18, 2014)

Today my partner was granted a 6 month tourist visa to Australia, from overseas. 

I know this forum is for people who want to apply for a tourist visa whilst waiting for a partnership visa. I'am Australian and we both live overseas together. We have not applied for a partnership visa yet but I thought it might be helpful to know a 6 month tourist visa can be granted and what documents we provided. 


The documents we submitted:
PASSPORT/Birth Certificate/ Passport Photo
Bank Statement showing approximately $14000 AUD savings. 
Bank Statement (from my Australian bank) showing approximately $5000 AUD savings. 
A statement from my partner detailing why he wants to visit Australia, where he plans to travel & how and what resources he has in Australia ect. Aswell as why he intends to return to his home country and what commitments he has in his own country. 
A statement from me about our planned travel and what resources I have in Australia to support my partners travel. 
Letters of Invitation: (a total of 5) one each from my parents & 3 from my brothers & sisters. 
Return flights (paid).
Travel insurance certificate (6 months full comprehensive & paid).
Letter from employer confirming employment position in his home country (this letter did not confirm leave for the travel to Australia, it only stated that my partner was an employee of the company).
One employment payslip & a copy of employment ID. 

We also included in the application my birth certificate, passport & Australian vehicle registration (for proof of my Australian citizenship) & a letter of confirmation of my enrolment in university.

The online application took 7 days to be approved from the date of submission. 

I want to thank everyone on this forum for your advice and help with my partners tourist application (especially Majita & Syd).

CHEERS SARAH.F


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