Situation

John and Marisa met on the internet back in 2012, after a few months of chatting online, they decided to meet in person, John travelled to Philippines and Marisa met him at the Manila airport. They spent a few weeks together, but then John had to travel back to Australia due to work commitments. Although the long distance was making the relationship difficult, they continued chatting and video calling each other every day. 6 months later John decided to take time of work in visit Marisa again, this time around it was a shorter visit, but nonetheless they treasured every moment spent together travelling around Philippines visiting Marisa’s family and friends.

John visited Marisa on another 3 occasions, before John proposed to Marisa and they decided that they would like to take their relationship on another level and apply for Australian visa. When John visited VisaEnvoy migration agent, he was quite unaware of the visa options and the process ahead.

Although John and Marisa have been together for several years already, they did not keep any evidence that could support their visa application, as they were unaware of Partner or Prospective Marriage visa requirements.

Solution

VisaEnvoy registered migration agent and John sat together and explored the options on how to obtain the required documents. The plan was to contact western union, as John has made a fair few money transfers over the years to financially assist Marisa and pay school fees and uniforms for her children. John would also send money to Marisa to pay for rent and other basic household expenses.

John and Marisa maintained daily contact through various platforms over the years – both John and Marisa had to dig through their computers and extract the logs of conversation to prove the ongoing communication.

John went to his tourist agent and asked for the record of his flights to Philippines, luckily, he purchased all the tickets through the same agent, so it was not an issue. Marisa, the applicant has found some photos taken by her relatives and friends while John was visiting her, so it was also added to visa application.

Couple’s relatives and friends were more than happy to write statements in support of their relationship, as both partners were in their 40’s and looking for true love.

Migration agent stressed the importance of lodging the “decision ready” visa application and asked John and Marisa to discuss the plans for the wedding and obtain Notice of Intention to Get Married from the marriage celebrant, as this is one of the requirements for Prospective Marriage Visa (visa applicant needs to get married within 9 months from the moment of arrival to Australia).

A month later, John came to the office with dozens of original documents and an USB stick containing thousands of pages of communication history and many other documents in support of their visa application.

Visa Application and sponsorship were drafted, legal submission and list of attachments prepared and John and Marisa gave us the green light to lodge the application. Once the application was lodged it was “decision ready” – the department prefers such applications, as everything is in order, attachments are numbered and the applicable criteria for visa grant addressed. John and Marisa understood that our job was to assist the delegate of the department, by making their job easier, but also to remove the burden and stress that long distance relationship was putting on the happy couple.

A month after the visa was lodged, the delegate requested, medical examination to be completed, police clearances and 2 other original documents to be provided. VisaEnvoy assisted Marisa to undergo medical examination and provide police clearances and the other requested documents in a manner specified by the delegate from the overseas post.

Visa Granted

Prospective Marriage Visa was granted a month later and Marisa joined John in Australia within 4 months from the date of visa application. VisaEnvoy would like stress that processing time is around 12 months for Prospective Marriage Visa subclass 300 and by no means we would like to imply that all visa applications will be dealt in the same time frame, but rather to highlight the importance of organising the visa application properly and in that way ensuring that visa application is processed as quickly as possible.

This visa grant is a testimony that Department of Immigration and Border Protection appreciates “decision ready” visa applications, where documents are not left unnamed and when it is not clear how are they related to criteria for the visa. Well written submission has assisted the delegate to see the correlation between the supporting documents and visa grant criteria and makes the decision on the basis of the documents before him/her.