Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney

Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney are lawyers who are engaged to run a partner visa matter, and My Migration Lawyers acts as Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney for married and de facto couples across Greater Sydney, the Illawarra, the Hunter and the rest of New South Wales. The firm's office is at Level 1, 60 Martin Place, Sydney NSW 2000, available by appointment, and every consultation is conducted by Zoom.

This article is about the work. It sets out what Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney do at each stage of a Subclass 820 and 801, Subclass 309 and 100 or Subclass 300 matter, which Sydney couples need that work most, how the NSW Relationships Register changes the position for de facto couples, and how My Migration Lawyers, led by Weiwei Zhang, Principal Lawyer, carries out that work for clients across the city and the state.

It is not a summary of the law. The criteria for each subclass are set out on the firm's partner visa lawyers service page, and the firm has published a separate article on how to choose a partner visa lawyer in Sydney for couples who are still comparing practitioners.

Where do Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney meet their clients?

Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney at My Migration Lawyers meet their clients by Zoom, and the firm's Martin Place office is used for appointments rather than as a place where the matter is decided. That arrangement is deliberate, and it reflects how a partner visa is actually processed.

Partner visa law is contained in the Migration Act 1958 and the Migration Regulations 1994. Both are Commonwealth instruments and both apply in exactly the same terms in Sydney, in Perth and in Hobart. The application is lodged through ImmiAccount, the Department of Home Affairs allocates it to a national processing centre, and the case officer who decides it may sit in any state. There is no Sydney partner visa office at which a couple can present themselves, and there is nothing a lawyer can do at a Department counter that cannot be done through the online account and the secure client portal.

For that reason Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney do not divide their clients by postcode. A couple in Parramatta, Bankstown, Liverpool or Blacktown, a couple in Auburn or Hurstville, a couple in Chatswood or on the Northern Beaches, a couple in the Inner West or in Penrith, and a couple in Wollongong or Newcastle all attend the same kind of consultation, exchange documents through the same portal and receive the same written letter of advice. Where one partner is overseas and the other is in Sydney, both join the same Zoom meeting from where they are.

The office matters for a different reason. It is the place where the firm is based, where original documents can be delivered by appointment when a matter requires it, and where the responsible lawyer sits. Couples who want to know that their lawyer is a real practice in a real place can find Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney at Martin Place. Couples who never want to travel into the city do not need to.

Which Sydney couples most often engage Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney?

The Sydney couples who most often engage Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney are couples in which one partner holds a temporary visa that is about to end, or has already ended, and the couple must decide within a short time whether a partner visa application can be made in Australia. Sydney's population of international students, visitor visa holders, working holiday makers and temporary workers produces these situations constantly, and the timing of each one is governed by the applicant's current visa rather than by the strength of the relationship.

The first situation is the student. A student visa holder living in the Inner West or in Hurstville who has formed a de facto relationship with an Australian citizen must decide whether to apply for a Subclass 820 before the student visa ends, whether the relationship yet satisfies section 5CB of the Migration Act, and whether the twelve month requirement in regulation 2.03A is met or can be avoided through registration. Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney are engaged to answer those questions in writing before a course ends, not after. The firm's guide to the Subclass 820 visa describes the pathway the student will usually follow.

The second situation is the visitor. A visitor visa holder who has come to Sydney to be with a partner may hold a visa with condition 8503, which prevents any further application in Australia unless the condition is waived under section 41(2A). Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney assess whether the waiver grounds exist before the couple do anything that would prejudice the position, and the firm's article on moving from a tourist visa to a partner visa explains why the order of steps matters so much.

The third situation is the working holiday maker or temporary worker, often in a regional placement in the Hunter or on the South Coast, whose visa expiry sets the deadline for the whole matter. Where the visa ends before the relationship reaches twelve months, Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney advise on registration, on compelling and compassionate circumstances, on marriage and on the consequences of each choice for the timing of lodgement.

The fourth situation is the couple whose applicant is already unlawful or on a bridging visa. That applicant faces the Schedule 3 criteria, and the compelling reasons submission that Schedule 3 requires is the reason many Sydney couples engage Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney at all. The fifth is the couple with an overseas partner, common in Bankstown, Auburn, Liverpool and Blacktown, where the applicant is in another country and the couple must choose between a Subclass 309 application offshore and a Subclass 300 Prospective Marriage visa. The sixth is the couple with a history: a previous refusal, a previous sponsorship or a family violence claim under Division 1.5. Each of these is ordinary work for Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney and none of them is a matter a couple should lodge without advice.

Does the NSW Relationships Register help a de facto couple engaging Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney?

Yes. The NSW Relationships Register is the single most useful local fact that Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney bring to a de facto matter. Regulation 2.03A of the Migration Regulations 1994 requires a de facto applicant to have been in the relationship for at least twelve months at the time of application. The requirement does not apply where the relationship is registered under a law of a State or Territory that is prescribed for the purpose, and the Relationships Register Act 2010 (NSW) is such a law.

In practice this means that a Sydney de facto couple who have lived together for a shorter period, and who register their relationship on the NSW Relationships Register before the Subclass 820 application is lodged, are not required to show twelve months. Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney raise registration at the first consultation in every de facto matter where the twelve month point is in doubt, because registration takes time, the applicant's visa may not wait, and the registration certificate must exist at the date of application rather than at the date of decision.

Registration removes the twelve month requirement and nothing else. The couple must still be in a de facto relationship within section 5CB of the Migration Act 1958, which means a mutual commitment to a shared life to the exclusion of all others, a relationship that is genuine and continuing, and a couple who live together or do not live separately and apart on a permanent basis. The Department still assesses the four aspects in regulation 1.09A. Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney tell couples this plainly, because a registered relationship with no evidence behind it is refused in the same way as an unregistered one. The firm's article on de facto partner visas in Australia sets out how registration and evidence work together.

Registration is a NSW process and it has its own eligibility rules, including that at least one party lives in New South Wales and that neither party is married or registered elsewhere. Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney do not complete the registration for the couple, but the firm advises on whether registration is available, on how it fits into the timetable of the visa application, and on what the couple should hold before the application is lodged.

What happens in the first consultation with Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney?

The first consultation with Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney at My Migration Lawyers is a Zoom meeting in which the lawyer takes the history of both parties and the relationship, and it is followed by a written letter of advice and a document checklist. The consultation is where the matter is diagnosed. Nothing is lodged, and nothing is drafted, until the letter of advice has been delivered and the couple have read it.

Before the consultation the firm runs a Visa Entitlement Verification Online check on the applicant and obtains the immigration history itself. Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney do not rely on the applicant's recollection of what visa they hold, what conditions it carries or when it ends, because those details decide whether a Subclass 820 application can be made in Australia at all. Where the applicant has held a bridging visa, the firm identifies which one, because the position of a Bridging Visa A holder and the position of an unlawful non-citizen are different at every stage.

In the consultation itself Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney ask about every previous visa application in Australia or elsewhere, every refusal and every cancellation, and every statement made to any immigration authority. Public interest criterion 4020 allows a visa to be refused for a bogus document or for false or misleading information in the current application or in an earlier one, and a criterion 4020 problem the lawyer does not know about cannot be managed. The sponsor is asked about previous sponsorships, because regulation 1.20J allows only two partner sponsorships in a lifetime and requires them to be at least five years apart unless the limitation is waived, and the sponsor is asked about criminal history, because Division 1.4B of the Regulations bears on sponsorship approval where there is a conviction for a registrable offence. The firm's article on partner visa sponsorship limitations explains why the sponsor's history is checked first.

The letter of advice that follows sets out the subclass Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney recommend, the criteria that will be in issue, the evidence that will be required under each of the four aspects, any submission that must be drafted, the risks that remain, and the fixed fee for the matter as recorded in the costs agreement. The document checklist is specific to the couple rather than a generic list.

How do Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney decide between Subclass 820, Subclass 309 and Subclass 300?

Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney decide between the subclasses on the basis of where the applicant is, what visa the applicant holds, whether the couple are married or de facto, and what the couple can prove at the date of application. The choice is made once. A partner visa application cannot be converted into a different subclass after lodgement, and a wrong choice costs the couple a second application and a second application charge.

The Subclass 820 and Subclass 801 combination is for an applicant who is in Australia and is able to apply here. Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney confirm that the applicant either holds a substantive visa without a no further stay condition, or holds a substantive visa with condition 8503 that has been waived, or does not hold a substantive visa and can meet or be excused from Schedule 3. The Subclass 820 is the temporary stage and the Subclass 801 is the permanent stage, and both are applied for in the one application. The firm's article on the difference between the Subclass 820 and the Subclass 801 explains how the two stages relate.

The Subclass 309 and Subclass 100 combination is for an applicant who is outside Australia at the time of application. Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney use it where the applicant has never come to Australia, where the applicant is in Australia on a visa that cannot support an onshore application and is willing to depart, or where the couple would prefer to avoid Schedule 3 altogether by lodging offshore. The sponsor remains in Sydney throughout, and the evidence is prepared in the same way as an onshore matter.

The Subclass 300 Prospective Marriage visa is for a couple who intend to marry but are not yet married and are not in a de facto relationship that would satisfy section 5CB. It is lodged offshore, and after the applicant enters Australia and the marriage takes place the applicant then applies for the Subclass 820. Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney recommend it where a couple have a genuine intention to marry, have met face to face as the criteria require, and cannot yet meet the de facto definition because they have not lived together.

Alongside the subclass decision, Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney decide the timing. A student whose visa ends in a few months, a working holiday maker with a fixed departure date and a visitor with a short stay each have a window in which the application must be lodged or the onshore pathway is lost. The firm sets that timetable in the letter of advice and works backwards from it.

How do Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney turn a couple's documents into a file the Department can assess?

Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney turn a couple's documents into a file the Department can assess by sorting every document under one of the four aspects in regulation 1.15A or regulation 1.09A, identifying what each aspect lacks, and having the couple explain in their own statements what the documents cannot show. The Department does not assess a partner visa by counting pages. It assesses whether the evidence, read as a whole, shows a relationship that is genuine and continuing.

The financial aspect asks how the couple share their money and their obligations. Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney look for the joint account, the joint lease or mortgage, the bills in both names, the transfers between the parties and the evidence of who pays for what. Where a Sydney couple keep separate finances, as many do, the statements say so and explain the arrangement honestly. A claimed joint account that the bank statements do not support is worse than no joint account at all.

The nature of the household asks how the couple live. Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney look for evidence of the shared address in both names, the arrangements for children, the division of the work of the home and the routine of daily life. Couples in Sydney often live with parents or in shared housing because of the cost of the city, and the firm documents that reality rather than pretending to a household the couple do not have. The firm's guide to partner visa relationship evidence describes the evidence the Department gives weight to under each aspect.

The social aspect asks whether the couple present as a couple to the people around them. Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney gather Form 888 statements from Australian citizens and permanent residents who know the couple, together with photographs across the life of the relationship, joint invitations, joint travel and evidence of shared friendships. The firm's guide to Form 888 statements explains that a witness who describes what they have seen is useful and a witness who repeats a template is not.

The nature of the commitment asks how long the couple have been together, how they support each other and what they intend for the future. Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney look for wills, superannuation nominations, insurance beneficiaries, the terms of the couple's plans and the way each party describes the other. Where the couple have been apart, the firm documents the contact between them, because separation is not fatal but an unexplained separation is damaging.

The statements sit above the documents. Each party writes their own account, and Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney review it against the forms, the other party's account and the documents, correct errors in dates and places, remove anything the evidence does not support, and return it to the party to confirm that every sentence is true. The firm's guide to the partner visa relationship statement shows how a strong statement is organised. The last step before lodgement is a consistency review of the whole file, because an inconsistency between two honest documents is the most common reason a genuine relationship is doubted.

Which legal submissions do Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney draft?

Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney draft a legal submission wherever a criterion in the Migration Regulations 1994 must be addressed by argument and evidence rather than by a form, and the Sydney matters that most often require one are Schedule 3, condition 8503, regulation 1.20J, criterion 4020 and family violence. Each submission addresses the exact criterion. A submission that argues in general terms that the couple are genuine and deserve a visa does not assist the decision maker and is not what Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney are engaged to produce.

The Schedule 3 submission is the most common. An applicant who does not hold a substantive visa at the time of the Subclass 820 application must satisfy criteria 3001, 3003 and 3004 unless the Minister is satisfied that there are compelling reasons for not applying them. Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney set out those reasons with evidence: how the applicant came to be without a visa, the length and depth of the relationship, any Australian citizen children, the hardship the sponsor would face if the applicant had to depart, and any other circumstance that bears on the discretion. The firm's page on Schedule 3 waivers explains the criteria, and the firm's article on Schedule 3 partner visa waivers shows how the submission is organised.

The condition 8503 waiver request comes before the partner visa application, not with it. Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney prepare the request under section 41(2A) on the basis of compelling and compassionate circumstances that arose after the visa was granted and were beyond the applicant's control. The partner visa application is lodged only once the waiver is granted, because an application made while the condition stands is not a valid application.

The regulation 1.20J submission addresses the sponsor. Where the sponsor has sponsored a partner before, or was themselves sponsored as a partner within the last five years, Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney set out the compelling circumstances affecting the sponsor: the death of a former partner, the breakdown of a former relationship through no fault of the sponsor, dependent children of the present relationship, or the long duration of the present relationship. The submission rests on the sponsor's own evidence.

The criterion 4020 response is prepared where the applicant has given false or misleading information or a bogus document in this or an earlier application, whether or not the Department has yet raised it. Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney take full instructions, make the disclosure, and address the waiver where compelling or compassionate circumstances affecting an Australian citizen or permanent resident exist. The family violence claim under Division 1.5 is prepared where the relationship has ended because the sponsor committed family violence, using either judicially determined evidence or the non-judicial evidence the Regulations prescribe. The firm's page on the family violence provisions explains both routes. In each case the client decides which claims are advanced and the firm presents the client's own account in the form the law requires.

What do Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney do between lodgement and the Subclass 801 stage?

Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney remain responsible for the matter after lodgement, and the period between lodgement and the Subclass 801 stage is managed as part of the same engagement. Most partner visa matters produce at least one contact from the Department during this period, and the way that contact is handled is as important as the quality of the original file.

The first task is the bridging visa. A Subclass 820 applicant who held a substantive visa at lodgement is granted a Bridging Visa A that takes effect when that visa ends. Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney confirm the grant, read the conditions and advise on work, study and travel. The firm's article on work rights while the Subclass 820 is pending covers the usual questions, and the firm advises on the Bridging Visa B that an applicant must hold before leaving Australia to visit family overseas.

The second task is health and character. Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney arrange the health examination, obtain the Australian Federal Police check and any overseas police certificates the applicant's history requires, and lodge them without waiting to be asked. The third task is the Department's correspondence. A request for further information under section 56 of the Migration Act 1958 carries a short and strictly applied deadline, and the firm prepares the response with the same discipline as the original application. A natural justice letter under section 57 tells the couple that the Department holds adverse information it intends to rely on, and the response to it is the most important piece of writing in the matter. The firm's guide to responding to a section 57 natural justice letter explains what such a letter means and what a response must do.

The fourth task is change of circumstances. Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney advise the couple which changes must be notified on Form 1022, including a change of address in Sydney or a move to another state, the birth of a child, a new passport or a change in the relationship, and lodge the notification promptly. The fifth task is the second stage. The Subclass 801 is assessed two years from the date of the Subclass 820 application, and the Department asks for updated evidence that the relationship is continuing. Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney calendar that date, collect the updated evidence under the four aspects and manage the second stage without the couple having to start again.

What happens if the Department refuses the visa, and how do Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney respond?

If the Department refuses the visa, Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney read the decision record on the day it arrives, advise the couple on review at the Administrative Review Tribunal, and lodge the review application within the deadline stated in the refusal notice. That deadline is short, it is strictly applied and it cannot be extended. My Migration Lawyers treats every refusal notice as urgent.

The decision record is the starting point. Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney identify each finding the delegate made against the couple, whether it concerned a criterion such as Schedule 3 or the twelve month requirement, or the genuineness of the relationship under the four aspects, or the sponsor's eligibility. Review at the Tribunal is a fresh consideration of the application, and the Tribunal can receive further evidence, so the firm's work on review is to meet each adverse finding with the evidence and the argument the delegate did not have. The firm's guide to the options after a partner visa refusal sets out the review pathway.

Where the couple were not represented at the primary stage, Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney are often engaged for the first time at this point, and the firm accepts review matters in that position. The firm's article on what to expect at the Administrative Review Tribunal after a refusal describes the hearing. Where the refusal followed a section 57 letter that was answered without advice, the firm reads the response that was given alongside the decision, because the Tribunal will read both.

A refused applicant in Sydney also has a bridging visa question. Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney confirm that the applicant remains lawful while the review is on foot and advise on what the bridging visa permits. Where the refusal stands and the applicant has a later opportunity to apply again, the firm advises on how that later application must be prepared in light of the refusal, and the firm's article on Subclass 820 visa refusals explains the most common reasons a Subclass 820 is refused in the first place.

How My Migration Lawyers acts as Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney

My Migration Lawyers acts as Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney from Level 1, 60 Martin Place, Sydney NSW 2000, for couples across Greater Sydney, the Illawarra, the Hunter, regional New South Wales, the rest of Australia and overseas. The firm's partner visa work is led by Weiwei Zhang, Principal Lawyer, who is responsible for the assessment, the letter of advice and the legal submissions on each matter.

The firm acts in many matters of exactly this type: Subclass 820 and 801 applications by students, visitor visa holders, working holiday makers and temporary workers in Sydney, Subclass 309 and 100 applications for partners overseas, Subclass 300 Prospective Marriage visa applications, second stage Subclass 801 assessments, and matters complicated by Schedule 3, condition 8503, regulation 1.20J, criterion 4020, a previous refusal, a short de facto relationship or family violence. Complex matters are handled as ordinary work, and My Migration Lawyers is equipped to run them.

On each matter the firm runs the Visa Entitlement Verification Online check and obtains the immigration history itself, delivers a written letter of advice and a document checklist after the consultation, advises on the NSW Relationships Register where it helps, plans the evidence under the four aspects, reviews and corrects the couple's own statements, drafts the submissions the matter requires, lodges the application, answers every Department request and calendars the Subclass 801 stage. Fees are fixed per matter and set out in a costs agreement. Documents are exchanged through a secure client portal, and a couple in Newcastle or Wollongong receives the same service as a couple who walk past the Martin Place office each day.

Couples who want Partner Visa Lawyers Sydney to assess their matter can request a consultation with My Migration Lawyers through the firm's online form. The firm's Subclass 820 visa page covers the onshore pathway that most Sydney partner visa applicants follow.