The 5 Biggest Mistakes Made on Partner Visa Applications

Love Written in the Sand

Partner Visa Refused ? Being able to live and be with your partner is one of the most fundamental human rights. However, if your love crosses international borders, you must obtain a partner visa to live legally with your partner in Australia. Unfortunately this means having the Australian government review your private relationship to decide whether you are a legitimate couple.

 

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Getting your partner visa application right is of the utmost importance to ensure that you and your loved one get to stay together in Australia. Partner visa refusal rates are high due to a great number of false partner visa applications. This makes it especially tough for genuine couples who just make small mistakes on their application and end up getting their visa refused.

Below we’ve outlined the five biggest mistakes to avoid when doing a partner visa application!

1. Getting the Relationship Statement Wrong

The Relationship Statement is one of the most important documents for a partner visa. This document details how you and your partner met, key events in your relationship, and future plans as a couple.  Most couples make this statement very brief as they don’t think the Department of Home Affairs want to hear the finer details of their love story. However, this is a huge mistake! To determine whether a relationship is genuine or not, case officers need to believe you sincerely love each other and are in a continuing relationship through your words.  Relationship Statements should be pages long and should be an in-depth insight into your relationship with your partner. Additionally, case officers can interpret your words in a different way to what you meant.  It’s a great idea to hire a migration agent to go over your relationship statement, to ensure you’re portraying your relationship in the best way possible.  

Heart Made from Book Pages

2. Failing to Disclose Important Information

It’s essential to disclose important information to the Department as soon as possible, before they dig it up themselves and reject your visa application. You must disclose to the Department any criminal convictions you have, no matter how minor they are or how long ago they happened. Another detail you have to disclose is if you have been married before. If you have been married before but are now divorced, it is vital that you provide the divorce certificate to the Department.  Trust us when we say you’re doing your visa application no favours if you fail to disclose these issues.

3. Inconsistencies Between Documents

You need to ensure the timelines across all your documents match up seamlessly and there are no inconsistencies. Inconsistent timelines are a major red flag for case officers as it tells them you could possibly be faking the relationship. To avoid these inconsistencies, sit down with your partner and work out a complete timeline of your relationship. Next go through all your documents to ensure all dates match up. For example if you rent your home together, check to see if your lease date matches up with the date you stated you moved in together. If you met through online dating go back to the start of your conversation and check the date the first message was sent. Getting the small details right will help your visa application enormously.  

Couple Moving in Together

4. Not Enough Evidence

Another big mistake that couples make is not providing enough or not providing a variety of relationship evidence. Partner visa applications require evidence across four main aspects of your life together: how you share your finances, how you share household matters, your social life as a couple, and evidence of your commitment to each other. Where couples go wrong here is by providing lots of photos together at events with family and friends, but do not provide joint bank statements or household bills. Remember that the Department needs to ensure you are share all aspects of your life together to make sure you are a real couple.    

5. Forgetting to Update the Department

Even after you lodged for you partner visa you can still make mistakes that lead to rejection. For example if you move house it is very important that both of the people in the couple update the Department. Otherwise if only one person updates their address, case officers may think you are no longer in a continuing relationship.

Couple Holding Hands

That’s all for this list, but there are still so many more mistakes that can be made on partner visas! If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed about your partner visa application, why not hire a migration agent to do it? They’re experts in Australian immigration and know exactly what to do and what evidence to provide.  It’s also important to have a migration agent on your side when it comes to updating, correcting, and seeking help with your application, as the Department will offer no help. You can book in for a free consultation with our migration agents here.

 

Book a free consultation today and let us help you find a way forward.