Why You Should Never Rush Your Australian Partner Visa

COVID-19 has impacted every facet of our lives and each day, we are all faced with new and different challenges.

In my humble opinion, nothing impacts us more as humans than our ability to be with the ones we love and for those reading this, perhaps you are in the middle of navigating through what can already seem as confusing and overwhelming Partner visa criteria and procedural requirements.

Many of you may even be considering submitting your applications much sooner than what you originally had anticipated, fuelled by the uncertainty of the ongoing and far-reaching impact of COVID-19 and wanting to get some sense of control back by lodging your visa.

However, the one thing I want to make clear to all of you is NEVER RUSH INTO APPLYING FOR AN AUSTRALIAN PARTNER VISA.

Why?

Because of what is known as Time of Application (TOA) criteria.

TOA means that when your application is submitted it is ‘date stamped’ and even though it may take two years for your application to be assessed, when the case is eventually opened by the department, the case officer will, figuratively speaking, go ‘back to the date of the application’ and assess whether or not the four aspects of your relationship demonstrate that you were in a de facto, or married relationship at the time of application (for those applying for the 820 or 309).

When couples run into problems with Partner visas, it rarely revolves around their facts at the Time of Decision (TOD). This is logical though right? If an application takes 24+ months to process, assuming the couple continues to maintain their relationship, in 2 years time they would have naturally accumulated more evidence (i.e. lived together longer, more joint bills, deeper pooling of their finances, purchases more things together, taken more holidays, etc). These are all clear positives, however, they do not necessarily solve or help to strengthen the TOA facts of the relationship.

Now, there is, of course, a bit of a balancing act here.

On the one hand, you're trying to submit a partner visa either to keep your partner lawfully in the country or looking to get it in the queue if you apply from offshore.

But on the other hand, you don't want to bring the assessment of ‘time of application’ in your relationship unnecessarily too soon in your timeline.

The rule of thumb is, and this is something that I talk about with all couples, the longer that you can wait to apply for a partner visa, the stronger your relationship will naturally be.

Of course, there are benefits to applying for a Partner visa (i.e. Work Rights once on the bridging visa and access to Medicare), and there are certain situations where couples are forced to submit quickly (i.e. a visa expiring and lack of alternative options).

However, all I am encouraging you to do is weigh up the requirements, look at your evidence & four aspects, consider your personal circumstances, and ultimately make a decision that gives your Partner visa application the best possible chance for chance for approval.