If you are in an official or unofficial (but genuine) relationship with someone who lives in Australia, you may be able to  immigrate to Australia. Before we mention that how this is possible, let’s define some terms for you:

Spouse Visa:  Is a visa that is granted to official spouse of a person who holds Australian Permanent Residency visa, or is a citizen of Australia or New Zealand.

De Facto Visa: If you are in a genuine and continuous unofficial marriage with an Australian permanent resident or a citizen of Australia or New Zealand, you may be eligible for migration to Australia.

What is the difference between Spouse Visa and De Facto Visa?

De Facto visa is similar to Spouse Visa. However, as there is no official document to prove that you are in a marriage relationship, your relationship will be assessed at various stages and the visa will be granted only if your assessment is successful.

How long the Visa is valid for?

If you are an official spouse of a citizen or a permanent resident of Australia, you will be granted a permanent residency visa. Once your spouse applies for permanent residency as the main applicant, he or she can add you to his or her application as a spouse. If the main applicant is granted a permanent residency visa, you will be granted a visa too.

If you are in a De Facto relationship, you will initially be granted with a two-year visa. You will be eligible to study,work and live in Australia with that visa. After two years, the visa holder will be able to apply for a permanent residency visa. At this stage, the immigration office will assess the status of their relationship again. If it is approved that the relationship is still working and there is no major issue in it, the application will proceed.

What are the eligibility conditions?

• If you are officially married, you must provide certified (and if necessary translated) copies of the marriage documents to the immigration department.
• You must be able to prove that your De Facto relationship is genuine and continuous. To prove that your relationship is genuine, you can provide some documents such as:  statement of a shared bank account, a copy of a shared lease contract,  birth certificate of any children that you might have etc..
• You must be in that relationship for at least 12 months. Thus not only you must prove that  you are in a serious relationship, but also you are (or have been) living with each other and the relationship has been going for at least 12 months.
• Your partner must sponsor you. If he or she removes their sponsorship, you visa will be avoided.
• You can apply for a De Facto visa only if your partner is of opposite sex!

How it works?

Once you finish preparing the documents and filling-in the forms, you will be able to lodge your application. You  may lodge your application online or via post (see  http://immi.gov.au).  Depending on the sufficiency of the documents, your country of origin, your health and character conditions and any other issues involved, you application will normally take three to six months to process.

If your eligibility for a De Facto visa is approved, you will be asked to pass medical and character tests. A medical test is to make sure that you do not have a contagious disease such as AIDS, Hepatitis or TB.  The character test is mainly involved in providing police clearance and passing a security check. That’s why your country of origin may affect your visa time line. If your country of origin is considered as a High Risk country, your security check may take longer.

Your permanent residency

After two years living happily in Australia, you will be able to apply for your permanent residency visa. At this stage, the status of your relationship is assessed again. If no suspicious thing is found, you will be granted a Permanent Residency Visa.

Breaking up

If you are already on a De Facto visa but your relationship ends, you must notify the department of immigration about that. However, it does not mean that you must go back home. Under some circumstances, for example if you have been target of violence, you might be granted with a visa to stay in Australia.

Tips:

• If you don’t have a common bank statement, try to find any bills, invoices, thickets (e.g. plain ticket), paper of reservations (e.g. hotel reservation under your names) etc. that demonstrates that you have been together for 12 months.
• If you don’t have shared lease contract or something like that, you may be provide department of immigration with your shared photos. Have you travelled with each other before? So you must have some photos together.
• Write down some clear statements about your relationship such as when did it start, when did you move in, who did what and so on. Then get them signed by your neighbors or trusted persons such as a post office or a lawyer etc..
• You may be invited for interview. If you are interviewed, tell your case officer exactly same things that you have declared in your papers. The best thing to recall what you have said is to tell the truth!

Reference

Visa and immigration conditions change from time to time. It is advised that you check the web site of Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC). Please see http://www.immi.gov.au/migrants/partners/partner/309-100/eligibility-defacto.htm