Australia
Defacto/Spouse Visa

To be eligible to apply for an Australian De Facto Visa you must be able to show that you have been in a de facto relationship for 12 months immediately prior to lodging your Oz visa application. Some of the factors that will be included in assessing your 12 month relationship include:

• Knowledge of each other’s personal circumstances;
• Joint finances such as any joint ownership of real estate, joint bank accounts or other major assets;
• The nature of your household, including living arrangements such as joint residential receipts or joint household accounts
• The social aspects of your relationship, provided in statements (statutory declarations) by parents, family members, relatives, friends and other interested parties;
• Joint membership of organisations or joint participation in sporting, social or other activities;
• Joint travel.

Note: Periods of 'dating' would not generally be considered to count towards the 12-month relationship requirement.

Although you may apply for an Australian Spouse Visa (de facto visa), your application is likely to be refused unless you are eligible for the requirement to be waived.

Yes. This requirement applies to applicants for all permanent and certain temporary visas who are in a de facto spouse relationship at the time of their application and the de facto spouse is included in their application.

However, migration regulations allow for the addition of a spouse to an application after the application has been lodged. You could therefore lodge your application after you have been in the relationship for one year or apply shortly before this time and add your spouse later if your application is still being processed.

If you were married outside of Australia and your marriage is valid in the country you were married, generally, your marriage will be recognised as valid under Australian law. There are some exceptions, such as same-sex, underage or polygamous marriages, which are not legal in Australia.

Our partner Traveltowork can open your Australian bank account before you leave home. Traveltowork partners ANZ and will provide you with your account details by email within 4-5 working days of your application. Once you arrive in Oz, you simply present your passport or driver’s licence at any ANZ branch to access your account. Apply now to get your account set up.

You will need an Australian Tax File Number (TFN) to work and pay tax in Oz.
With the Visa First Tax Saver Pack we’ll start organising your TFN before you leave home so you can start working and earning as soon as you arrive in Australia. Apply for your Tax File Number here.

Thousands of customers choose Visa First to organise their migration visas every year because:

• We make getting the visa you need fast and hassle-free.
• We are the only company with an online visa status engine which allows you to check the status of your visa 24/7. Check your status now.
• We’re visa experts and have organised over 130,000 visas for people like you.
• Our visa guarantee means no visa – no fee!*
• We don’t just do visas, we sort out everything you’ll need overseas – from accommodation, bank accounts, airport pick up, jobs and much more.

After four years as a permanent resident of Australia you can apply to become a citizen of Australia. The Australian Government allows for dual nationality, so you may be able to retain your current passport and jointly hold an Australian passport. Please check with the rules of your own country to ensure they also allow dual nationality.