The Australian De Facto Visa is a popular visa for those overseas candidates who are in a de facto relationship with an Australian Citizen or permanent resident.
To qualify for an Australian de facto visa, you need to provide evidence that you are in a ‘real’ relationship and not simply using the de facto status as a means to gaining an Australian Visa.
One of the ways in which the Australian Migration department validates the legitimacy of a relationship is by having a one-year relationship requirement as a condition of application.
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The one year de facto relationship requirement is a criterion that must be met by applicants for the following visas who claim to be in a de facto relationship:
To satisfy this requirement, the couple must demonstrate that they have been in a de facto relationship for at least 12 months before the visa application is made. For migration purposes, a person is in a de facto relationship with another person if they:
Living together is regarded as a common element in most on-going relationships. It is recognised that, for various reasons, couples may sometimes have to live apart. Provided the separation is temporary and the couple had, at some point since the commencement of the relationship lived together, their relationship might still satisfy the requirements of a de facto relationship.
For this reason, the one-year relationship criterion does not require the couple to have physically lived together for the entire 12 months, but rather to have been in a de facto relationship for that period.
Partners who are currently not living together may be required to provide additional evidence that they are not living separately and apart on a permanent basis in order to satisfy the requirements of a de facto relationship.
You Might Be Interested In April 20, 2008 January 18, 2010 August 5, 2022 August 7, 2024When submitting evidence of a de facto relationship, applicants must be able to demonstrate that their relationship has existed for at least one year before the application is made. Evidence may include but is not limited to:
The history of the relationship through a signed statement regarding:
Financial aspects of the relationship, such as:
The nature of the household, such as:
Social context, such as:
The couple’s commitment to each other, such as:
Now let’s dig into some examples of the types of evidence you can prepare in support of your Australian De Facto Visa Application. Collating your evidence for an Australian de facto visa is not an easy task, however, to help you get started, we have included a collection of tips to assist you on your way.
Don’t have a joint lease? Bills? Did you travel together for a year or live with your parents? Did one of you support the other? Relax.
Very meticulously go through bank statements, for at least the past 12 months you have been together. Whether you paid bills, rented a campervan, paid for a flight to see your partner, bought them a Christmas present, paid for insurance, groceries, rent and so on, even if you don’t have the actual bill/piece of paper that says you did, it will be on your statement.
Highlight each relevant purchase/payment and put a one or two-word description next to it. If you are in this situation, then definitely write a declaration that explains it all. You can also provide some bills (say one or both of your names aren’t on it) and include them in this section—your CO could match the billing date to when the payments were made in the bank statement.
Bills and even grocery stores also have “codes” that can be matched. ATM withdrawals will also have a location near them which can be matched to things you say in statements (eg: my BF and I travelled to NSW together… oh look there is an ATM withdrawal from NSW at the same date they went…get where I am going with this?)
You will be surprised as to how much stuff is on your bank statements—one idea to do while you are highlighting is, for example, if you find a purchase of a present your partner gave you try to find the card or the letter that came with it… copy it and provide it with your application.
Bank statements can also serve to show you have been living together even if your names weren’t on the lease—if your billing addresses are where you both lived, make a note of that in the stat dec for this section to bring the CO’s attention to it.
– Receipt for a computer you might have bought together
– Documents showing joint bank account and online banking accounts
– Bank statements showing transfers between accounts
– Receipts from Australia Post, money spent on sending letters and packages to partners family
– Receipt for registering domestic relationship
– Receipt for English classes
– Receipt for working holiday visa
Nature of the household is evidence that you and your partner share responsibilities within your household. This includes things like living arrangements, housework, joint ownership of your house, joint responsibility for bills, and correspondence addressed to both you and your partner at the same address.
The Nature of the household section is probably the most straightforward when it comes to your de facto partner application.
Write a statement as to who did what in the house, who paid for what (see partner migration booklet linked at the bottom of this article), get bills together (if you have them, if not refer back to the financial tips), and correspondence addressed to both of you if you have it.
Consider including letters and cards given to you by your partner or your partner’s family.
You can get cards together, ticket stubs etc. You may have already shown joint travel in your financial section if you used bank statements.
Need to include itemised phone bills?
Put a key at the top to what each number is (eg: Daves work number, Jackie’s house number). Remember, these CAN be hard to get and you might have to pay for them depending on your company and how far back you need to go.
Need to show your intent that the relationship will last—if you are planning on getting a house together, you can include a quote from a bank for a mortgage.
The one-year relationship requirement does not apply if the applicant can establish that:
No. You can apply for a visa even if you have been in a de facto relationship for less than one year. However, your application is likely to be refused unless:
If your relationship has been on a more casual basis you are unlikely to be able to establish that you are in a de facto relationship. This may be the case if, for example, during your travel, you shared accommodation but you each paid your own expenses, were not committed to a mutually exclusive relationship and made no long-term plans for your future until recently.
To be considered a de facto couple for migration purposes, you must not be related by family and be able to demonstrate that:
The factors that might be taken into account by the Department in assessing whether you are in a de facto relationship include the history of the relationship, social and financial aspects of the relationship, the nature of the household and your commitment to each other. The one year de facto relationship will only commence from the time you can demonstrate you are in an established de facto relationship.
Despite not living together for one year, your partner may still be eligible for a partner visa. It is expected that couples will have physically lived together at some time since they committed to the relationship. However, it is recognised that couples may be physically apart for periods of time, for example, due to work or travel commitments, yet remain in a genuine and continuing relationship and are committed to a shared life to the exclusion of all others.
In assessing whether you are in a de facto relationship, the Department may take into account a number of factors other than periods of physical cohabitation such as the history of the relationship, social and financial aspects of the relationship, the nature of the household and your commitment to each other.
Your partner might be exempt from the one-year requirement if she/he can demonstrate compelling and compassionate circumstances or one of the other exemptions outlined in this fact sheet.
Compelling and compassionate circumstances may exist if you and your partner are both parents of the child (for example, through birth or adoption) and the child is dependent on you.
No. In order to be in a de facto relationship, you must be able to demonstrate that you have met and have lived together, even if you later lived apart temporarily. The one-year relationship requirement will only commence once you have established a de facto relationship.
No, provided you can show that you were in a de facto relationship with your partner at the time she/he was granted the permanent humanitarian visa and this was declared to the Department at the time.
Currently, only the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria have laws in place allowing a relationship to be registered in accordance with the Acts Interpretation Act (Registered Relationship) Regulations.
You should contact the relevant authorities in your state or territory for information about how to register your relationship.
There is no clear definition of compelling and compassionate circumstances as it requires an assessment of the individual circumstances of the case.
Compelling and compassionate circumstances may include, but are not limited to, applicants who have a dependent child of the relationship or where the laws of the applicant’s country of residence in the one year prior to making the visa application prohibit de facto relationships.
If you have your own tips, please consider contributing by adding your comments in the comment form below.
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