What happened to the Partner Visa?
On the 28th of November the Australian government approved a new act in the Migration Amendment (Family Violence and Other Measures) Bill.
What that means, is that all partner visa sponsors will need to first be officially approved as sponsors before their partner can lodge his/her visa application.
Are the changes in effect already?
The changes are approved but not in effect yet. They could technically come into effect any day from today to 28 May 2018 (6 months after the bill has passed).
Once this new legislation receives the Governor General’s Royal assent, we will have more details on how the changes will be implemented and what that means exactly in relation to partner visa requirements.
What will happen once the changes are implemented?
There will be separate applications and assessments of the partner visa sponsor and the partner visa applicant. This is similar to many employer sponsored visas, where the company needs to be an approved sponsor before you can lodge your visa application.
What does this mean for couples thinking of applying soon?
It is still unclear whether it will be possible to lodge both applications (sponsorship and visa application) at the same time. This is particularly important for those applicants who are already in Australia and whose current visas are about to expire. If you have to wait for your partner to become an approved sponsor first before you can apply for your partner visa application, your might have to lodge the visa from outside of Australia (which would be a subclass 309 partner visa). If you apply while you are in Australia, you are applying for a partner visa – Subclass 820.
If this is the case, the applicant can apply from outside of Australia and needs to stay overseas until a decision is made on their partner visa application, which can take many months as per current processing times (anywhere between 17 to 25 months without your loved one).
Should the applicant meet the criteria for any other visa, he/she might apply for that visa to enter Australia and then apply for the partner visa while onshore.
What about the partner visa costs?
Again, there is no official information about this yet but having a separate partner visa sponsor application may also mean additional application fees. This would make the world’s most expensive partner visa even more expensive and put even more pressure on genuine couples.
Why these changes at all?
According to the government the reason for these changes is to better protect visa applicants from potentially violent partners.
Given the fact that there are already checks in place for visa sponsors, it remains unclear as to why exactly an additional challenge has had to be implemented making the process longer, more complicated and maybe even more expensive.
Want to apply for a partner visa soon and not sure what to do now?
Given the current situation, we strongly advise you to get in touch with us as soon as possible so we can help you lodge your partner visa before the change are implemented. This is especially the case if the visa applicant is already in Australia and his/her visa is about to expire soon (less than 6 months).
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