I didn't expect that...

[louisekerry]

I just got a job as a Nanny in Gladstone, I'm incredibly excited as well as nervous, I wasn't expecting this at all. The only downside... Gladstone is 320 miles away. It feels really awkward, like I'm really happy to have a job, God knows I've been trying hard enough to find one. But coming here was mostly about us being together again. The job is for six months, I'm coming back to Brisbane for a week in September for his birthday, and then I'll be back here before Christmas, so its not that bad, I know, it could be so, so much worse. I could be in a different state, I could be back in England..I know. But to know I'm likely to see him twice in the next six months isn't a nice feeling when I'm now used to seeing him every other day...

We've been looking at our options too, for when my visa is up, I think we both underestimated how much of a bitch this may be. But we both want to make it work. We've agreed, for now, to just enjoy the time we have.

I'm excited, because its a massive deal for me, coming here was also about the whole experience and learning and growing and all that stuff, my first time on my own as an adult. I've never been more scared in my life, but I can't say I've ever been happier

[Jazi]

wow, that is a hard decision to take a job that far away when you're only in Aus for a short time.. Good luck and I wish you strength to be able to be apart but that close (if you know what I mean, UK is a lot further ).

You mentioned visa options after your working visa - where are you guys at with that right now? I'm currently waiting for my SO to be granted the Fiance visa right now for Aus, so I have been through the process of applying for it - long wait for an answer though! What are you guys thinking for closing the distance? I know that question contradicts what you said about just enjoying the time you have... but you might be thankful for thinking about it NOW and planning ahead - my SO applied for his visa in November and was told 9 months for a definite answer (by Australia House in London which is where his application is processing from) - we are almost at 6 months since application and are still waiting like they said - getting yourselves organised and everything earlier could save A LOT of waiting.

[louisekerry]

Hey, thanks for replying. It was a pretty hard choice to make, considering it would mean being relatively long distance again for another six months, plus the fact I'm only here til next March..

See, the plan we were going with, was that at some point this year, I would try to find some farm/fruit picking work for 3 months, once I'd done that I could be able to apply for a second working holiday visa, so I'd go home for a bit in March, because there are things back home that I want to do when I return, like get my driving license, etc. Once the 3 months specified work was done I was going to come back here and we were going to try and find somewhere to live together, then I'd go home in March for a while, come back for another year and we'd spend it living together, because that would satisfy the 12 month requirement for the Partner Visa, is that the one you've applied for? I've not seen a Fiance one.

Only now I've taken this job, and it being for six months, by the time I come back here in December, there isn't going to be enough time before my visa expires to complete the 3 months work..I do have a week off every month, so I was thinking about trying to get some of it done during that time if I can. Failing that, we've been looking at the process of registering the relationship. Apparently, I don't know if I've got the right end of the stick, but the government website says that the 12 month living together requirement may be waived if we register our relationship. So at the moment, the plan is for me to move to Gladstone for the job, come back mid december, try to find somewhere to live together, register the relationship and open a joint bank account. Then apply for the Partner visa, I go home in March and we'd wait for it to be approved...

Mike's suggested we look into seeing a lawyer in December, so that we have someone that can go through the application with us to make sure there's no confusion or anything that would hold it up and so that we know 100% where we stand. Plus the Partner visa looks to be around $3000..its all pretty scary.

[digitalfever]

That's an amazing opportunity and you'll never know how it could help you in the future! The distance sucks but sometimes that's just how life unfolds!

[temporaryuser]

so the nanny job doesnt count as 3 months of work?

[louisekerry]

It is, a brilliant opportunity. Just one that's so hard to take considering we only just got back together after six months of being on the other side of the world But I am excited and really happy, its just sort of...bittersweet I guess.

No, the job doesn't count for the 3 months work, it has to be a job on the list of specified work, like on a farm or picking fruit. I've heard some people say they got their second visa form signed off because they were working as a Nanny on a farm somewhere, so they just kind of counted that as done and their employers signed it off. I'm not sure if I'd be able to do something like that with this job because I'm pretty certain its not on a farm.

We have talked about it a lot today, once December comes around and I'm back here we're going to try to find somewhere to live together, register our relationship, then in March I'll go back to London, and we'll apply for the Partner visa..which, according to the government website, will take 5 months. That's the plan for the moment anyway. Luckily, we've saved a load of stuff, plane tickets, chat logs, tickets from holidays we've been on, photos, letters, tickets from events we've been to. He took me to an AFL game on Saturday, that was fun :P

[Jazi]

See, the plan we were going with, was that at some point this year, I would try to find some farm/fruit picking work for 3 months, once I'd done that I could be able to apply for a second working holiday visa, so I'd go home for a bit in March, because there are things back home that I want to do when I return, like get my driving license, etc. Once the 3 months specified work was done I was going to come back here and we were going to try and find somewhere to live together, then I'd go home in March for a while, come back for another year and we'd spend it living together, because that would satisfy the 12 month requirement for the Partner Visa, is that the one you've applied for? I've not seen a Fiance one.

Only now I've taken this job, and it being for six months, by the time I come back here in December, there isn't going to be enough time before my visa expires to complete the 3 months work..I do have a week off every month, so I was thinking about trying to get some of it done during that time if I can. Failing that, we've been looking at the process of registering the relationship. Apparently, I don't know if I've got the right end of the stick, but the government website says that the 12 month living together requirement may be waived if we register our relationship. So at the moment, the plan is for me to move to Gladstone for the job, come back mid december, try to find somewhere to live together, register the relationship and open a joint bank account. Then apply for the Partner visa, I go home in March and we'd wait for it to be approved...

Mike's suggested we look into seeing a lawyer in December, so that we have someone that can go through the application with us to make sure there's no confusion or anything that would hold it up and so that we know 100% where we stand. Plus the Partner visa looks to be around $3000..its all pretty scary.

Well you wouldn't have seen a 'fiance' one lol cos it's actually called the Prospective Marriage Visa. The application process for the PMV and the partner visa are almost the same, you even use the same form..

Also, the you can't take what the government website says for truth about processing times... That's an approximation on their part. Me and my SO applied through London (which you would be doing if you apply from the UK) and the London processing times were 9 months...I just had a look on the Australian government immigration website it says 5 months for the PMV, same as the partner... but that isn't the case for us, the 9 months will probably be true because we have been waiting 6 months right now. So you really have to contact the embassy you're applying through for a better idea.

I'm a little confused though with your time line plans... will you be applying for the visa from the UK and living there until it is granted? or are you going to try and find a way to apply from within Australia? Either way you might want to look into an immigration lawyer before December... You'll need your SO to gather A LOT of information for the visa (including statutory declarations from friends and family) and it's SOOO much easier to not have to mail it back and forth when it's such important documents. It takes a while to gather everything together and if you visited an immigration lawyer sooner than December then you guys would know EXACTLY what you could apply for/what to do to organise it and would have plenty of time to gather the information so you could apply for the visa almost straight away when you return to the UK (if you are applying from the UK).

Also, me and my SO opened a savings bank account together in Aus in April 2012 - and then applied for his visa in November 2012... so if you guys want to open an about together anyway - you could open the account now and it would probably look a little better - not like you opened the account JUST to pass the visa requirements, ya know? I think it probably does look better that we have been putting money away together in the account for quite a few months before applying for the visa.

[louisekerry]

Thanks for the advice, we're both completely new to this so still really getting to grips with it all. We've just applied for a joint bank account with Commonwealth, so should get the paperwork for that through in the next few days. We've also found a lawyer we're going to try and get an appointment with for next week. Thought it would be better to get an idea of where we stand before I move to Gladstone in 3 weeks. Then we can be better prepared. We're going to apply to register our relationship in September, as we can't do it til then because one of us has to have lived in Queensland for six months before we apply and Mike only moved here from Sydney in February, I only arrived from London in March and I'm not back here til September for a few days. So we've decided to do it then.

I'll update on here with what the lawyer tells us...

Also, Mike lived with me for a few months in England last year, some of them we stayed with my parents, would statements from my family and friends there help us at all? We have some people here we could ask for statements too, just wondered if those might help as well.

[louisekerry]

I'm a little confused though with your time line plans... will you be applying for the visa from the UK and living there until it is granted? or are you going to try and find a way to apply from within Australia?

Sorry, knew I'd forgotten something :P
Our general plan at the moment is this:

- Open a joint account
- Speak to a Lawyer
- I start my job
- September we register the relationship
- December I finish my job and we try to find somewhere to live together
- March I go home to the UK
- We apply for the Partner visa

I dunno if that's how things are gonna go, thats just the idea we have at the moment. I guess we'll know more when we've spoken to a lawyer, which will hopefully be next week.

[Jazi]

Thanks for the advice, we're both completely new to this so still really getting to grips with it all. We've just applied for a joint bank account with Commonwealth, so should get the paperwork for that through in the next few days. We've also found a lawyer we're going to try and get an appointment with for next week. Thought it would be better to get an idea of where we stand before I move to Gladstone in 3 weeks. Then we can be better prepared. We're going to apply to register our relationship in September, as we can't do it til then because one of us has to have lived in Queensland for six months before we apply and Mike only moved here from Sydney in February, I only arrived from London in March and I'm not back here til September for a few days. So we've decided to do it then.

I'll update on here with what the lawyer tells us...

Also, Mike lived with me for a few months in England last year, some of them we stayed with my parents, would statements from my family and friends there help us at all? We have some people here we could ask for statements too, just wondered if those might help as well.

Statements from your family certainly can't hurt the application... but they do specifically request ones from Australian citizens (I believe your Aus statement peoples have to fill out a farm called 'form 888') and you have to get them to have their statement witnessed/a copy of the proof of their citizenship (passport/birth cert) witnessed by a Justice of the peace (or whatever those official people are called!). So basically it would just give them more 'evidence' of the relationship to give them UK statements but wouldn't ACTUALLY hit the requirements for the form 888 - if you get what I mean? I'm sorry to sound confusing by the way... it's the nature of the visa really, once you get into trying to figure out the specifics it gets quite complicated .

I'm really glad to hear that you guys have pushed forward the lawyer visit/finding out what you need to do for the visa! I am a firm believer in knowing your options sooner than later .

We opened our bank account with Commonwealth too, best bank ever, although I've had accounts with them all my life so I'm, probably bias... but they are a good bank.

Sorry, knew I'd forgotten something :P
Our general plan at the moment is this:

- Open a joint account
- Speak to a Lawyer
- I start my job
- September we register the relationship
- December I finish my job and we try to find somewhere to live together
- March I go home to the UK
- We apply for the Partner visa

I dunno if that's how things are gonna go, thats just the idea we have at the moment. I guess we'll know more when we've spoken to a lawyer, which will hopefully be next week.

I think you guys are on the right track, especially with deciding to get your information together now. At the beginning of the thread you were singing a whole different tune and were going to wait until December for any planning .

It definitely sounds like you guys will want to gather as much information as possible in the coming months/ask your friends/family to start writing their statutory declarations and start writing your own - you and your SO both need to write a statement/statutory declaration about your relationship, it's pretty much a huge essay detailing the history of your relationship and you have to answer some other things in there - like how you support each other, etc. Mine was about 7k words , your friends/families don't need to be nearly that long by the way .

at the very least I would start studying the partner handbook/any information you can find on it/making lists of exactly what things you will need and pounce on it in December once you live together again - it will give you time to gather everything together before you move back to the UK and then you can hopefully apply almost straight away which means less waiting!


By the way - I'd like to know what the lawyer says if you're happy to share that information?

[louisekerry]

Thanks for your advice, really appreciate it. Though to be honest, I'm really not sure where we are now. We've opened the bank account so are waiting for the paperwork for that to come through, should be a few days according to the website. We were talking about seeing a lawyer, I even found one who said he would see us on Monday. Now he's telling me he's not ready to have some stranger judge our relationship, which is fair enough, neither am I. I'm really anxious about this too, its a big step. He says he feels scared that as soon as we try any of this, its all gonna blow up in our faces. He's worried about it going wrong and us being told no. I'm starting to think I'm thinking into this too much too soon, but at the same time, I want to be prepared.
Our general plan was that I go home in March, and we do everything to prepare for the application before then and send it off once I'm home. Then when/if its approved, I move back here to him til he finishes uni, then we would think about returning to England together for me to do my post graduate study..although I looked into this some more yesterday, and found out that if I move here, and aren't 'ordinarily resident in England for 3 years prior to my application' I won't be eligible for funding for it. So if I decide to just do it next year and get it out of the way, it'll mean another year apart. We were wondering though if it would be possible to apply for the partner visa a few months before my course finishes, so then by the time I'd finish maybe it would be approved and I could just come out here then? Would that work?

Sorry to be so vague, I know I sound like I don't have a clue what I'm talking about, and to be fair I probably don't..my head is just swimming right now. The fact we have two weeks before we're long distance again isn't helping