Prospective Marriage Visa

[Guest cdaborn]

Hi all. I originally made my first post 8 months ago. I spent a year in Adelaide last year on a teacher exchange and had a fantastic time. I also met a wonderful Australian man. Unfortunately my exchange came to an end at the end of last year and I had to return home. We have kept our relationship going long distance and I went back at the end of July for a month to visit. We are now engaged and I am about to start the process of applying for a prospective marriage visa. Most people on this site seem to be applying for work type visas but if there is anyone with experience in applying for the PM visa I would be grateful of any advice. My biggest decision is whether to appoint a migration agent or do it all myself.

 

Best wishes

 

Carolyn

[Anne B]

Hi,

I went through the process of getting a Propective Marriage Visa 14 years ago in 1994. Obviously things have changed since then and my memory is a bit hazy(!) and there was no internet then but I did it all myself, I didn't even consider using an agent. The visa took about 6 months, and then I was given a date by which I had to go to Australia, and then a date (I think) by which we had to get married. Then I applied for Permanent residency in Adelaide, which took a while as my application got lost at the bottom of a drawer for weeks!! (Useless! )

 

After that I had to live in Australia for 2 years in every 5 in order to keep my visa. We came back to England after 3 years, so I renewed it once and got another 5 years, but as we have now been here 11 years my visa has run out. We want to go back so I will have to apply all over again, this time for a Spouse visa.

 

The main thing they are interested in is whether yours is a genuine relationship or a scam marriage, so they need to be convinced that you have actually met each other before etc etc. I was half expecting to have to produce evidence (photos, letters etc) to prove our relationship but didn't have to. If it is all above board then there shouldn't be any problems. When I applied it was much harder to emigrate, the Aussies weren't wanting people to go over, especially not the Poms!!!!!

 

We have been happily married now for almost 14 years but some things are hard being married to an Aussie. One of you is always on the other side of the world from their family. At least there are no arguments over which parents you are going to visit at Christmas! Good luck with everything

 

Anne

[Guest Aussie pat]

I did the opposite 13 years ago and came to the UK on a prospective marriage visa. Earlier this year my husband was granted a spouse visa for Australia as we are going back. We didn't use an agent for either visa. Agents can be expensive and sometimes you can feel that you've lost control of the process as communications come thru them. Providing you are happy to do the leg work and are organised you could probably do it yourself for this type of visa. I probably would use an agent for some of the other visas though as they look far more complicated.

 

Hedy

[Guest cdaborn]

Thanks Anne and Aussie pat. You have really confirmed what I was thinking. I think I should be able to do all the paperwork myself. I don really want to use an agent. It seems fairly straight forward just time consuming, identifying the evidence to send in support of your application.

 

My biggest problem would be making sure David is getting his paperwork filled in Australia as I am not there give him a prod, but fortunately we have mutual friends who will do that for me!