Australia Partner Migration Visa

Alhamdulillah, so grateful that now I officially have indefinite stay permit in Australia on a Partner Provisional visa. No more waiting, no more uncertainty (at least for now). I picked up the official letter at AVAC on Monday (two weeks ago), even though the permit has been issued since January.



I am married to an Indonesian who is an Australian permanent resident. In order to be able to live with my husband in Australia I needed a visa. The appropriate visa to apply for in when you are already married is a Partner Migration Visa (if you are just about to get married, you can apply for a Fiancee or Prospective Marriage visa). When you apply for a PMV, you are actually applying for two Subclass visa at the same time: 309 & 100. Subclass 309 is for the provisional visa (2 years probation), and subclass 100 for the permanent visa (permanent residency). You can apply for this visa onshore (in Australia) or offshore. I had to submit offshore because I had a "no further stay" condition on my passport. The expected waiting time for a decision on this visa takes about 6 months - 1 year. You can submit the application alone or with an agent. But I recommend doing it by yourself, it's cheaper. Offshore applications are submitted at Australian Visa Application Center at Plaza Asia (Jl. Jend. Sudirman).

The Australian embassy has a checklist of what documents that needs to be included in application. You can check it out here. I will review some of them below:
Birth certificate, marriage certificate, family card: I had these translated by a sworn translator. I used Business Advisory Indonesia service at Mayapada Tower fl. 11 (simply because I used to work at fl. 15). You can give them a call regarding price inquiries. List of other sworn translator from the Australian Embassy here
Evidence of relationship and communications: I submitted Facetime logs, phone logs, Skype logs (I forgot what program that I used), Facebook message print-out, selected emails, around 20 pictures of us from my trip to Australia in January 2012, our wedding, and night out with my friends. The evidence contributed half to two-thirds of my application's thickness.
Statement Declaration: Each of us made our own story of how we met. So, there should be two versions: from you and your spouse. But make sure both of your stories add up!
Statement from friends and relatives who know you both as a couple: We only submitted two stat decs from my husband's friends whom I met in January 2012. To my understanding, it is better if you can get minimum 2 Australian citizens or permanent residents to verify your relationship. And don't forget to attach certified copy of their ID or passport (and visa) on the stat decs.
You don't need to submit a health check result along with your application. Later on you will get a letter to do your health check at selected institutions.
Because there are soooo many forms to fill in, please take your time... be patient and careful when filling it. It will be worthwhile.
I recommend reading the information book before you go fill in the forms, to give you better understanding in preparing the application.

After you submit your application, you will get a notification email that the embassy has received your application. You will get a case file number and notification letter to do the health check up. Once you get a case file number, you can apply for a visitor visa to be able to stay with your spouse in Australia while your case is being processed in Indonesia.

Health check up can be done either in Indonesia or Australia. I did mine in Australia because when I was about to do health check in Indonesia I was on my period and my flight was exactly a week after (you can't go for a health check if you're on period, that's what the nurse said).

In some cases, interview is needed to further check whether your relationship is genuine. But alhamdulillah, in my case, interview wasn't needed.

Case officer should be assigned to you the latest 3 months after you apply. If by then you haven't heard anything from the embassy, just send them an email and they will definitely reply. My case officer never contacted me, until I got panicked on my 4-5 months of waiting time and finally sent them an email. About 3 days later I got a reply from my case officer saying that my my case is ready for finalization and needed me to be outside of Australia. After that, my waiting time is over. Lots and lots of thanks to my Lord.

So, here's my application timeline:
07-08-2012 > Application received by the embassy
31-08-2012 > Health check up at Medibank Parramatta, Sydney
02-01-2013 > Case officer notified that my case is ready for finalization (my case officer's first email to me, hadeehhh)
28-01-2013 > I arrived in Jakarta
29-01-2013 > Notified my case officer that I am already in Jakarta
30-01-2013 > Received email for my Partner visa grant

Good luck for those of you who are or will be going through this process! Should you need any help, you can send me email to dita.augyst@gmail.com.

*reposted from my old blog