help with defacto visa submission

Hi everyone, thanks in advance for your help.

My boyfriend/partner has both canadian and Australian citizenship and we have decided to move to Aus, and I am applying for the defacto visa (been living together 17 months). I'm in the process of getting everything in order for my submission and want to make sure i'm not taking it too lightly, but i'm honestly finding the application to be fairly straight forward.

Does anyone know what are the most common reasons why an application gets denied or what information gets rejected? Is the gov't stickier with the 'proof' of the relationship, or is there something else?

I have no criminal background, i have money in the bank, i'm a working professional. . . any tips on how to make this a smooth process is greatly appreciated! Especially on the tips of proving our relationship (ie submit pictures? etc).

I don't want to over complicate the situation, but i certainly want this to go quickly!

Thanks much!
Lisa

PS - do the local police forward off the fingerprints directly to the RCMP? I can't figure out where to get form C-216C, i'm hoping its at the police station . . .

Hi Lisa,

I submitted my de facto application in Feb of this year in person in Melbourne (which is where my Aussie bf and I are living). I had a massive amount of evidence and the agent that I sat with made me take half of it out. To be fair, I erred on the side of too much proof, which is best.

I can tell you that what I was required to leave in was proof of cohabitation for each month that we lived together. If you have bills in both your names or any mail that shows you share the same address, include it. Proof of a social life together is also key, so put in any wedding invitations with both your names on it, or proof of vacations that you have taken together. For example, when we were living in Canada we went to see my sister in the Rockies so I included those plane tickets and pictures of us with my sister. For the financial aspect, my bf was the beneficiary on my life insurance policy so I sent a copy of that and I provided statements from our joint bank account.

A few pictures of you together are a good idea, esp. ones that are date stamped, but the most important thing is having proof of cohabitation for 12 consecutive months.

As for going quickly, I understand that it will take about 6 months for you to be approved if you apply from overseas. I applied in person at the Melbourne immigration office and it took 3 months.

The Aus Federal Police and RCMP do not forward fingerprints/criminal record checks between their offices. You will have to obtain them separately, get them certified and send them in. The Aus Federal Police site has lots of information. (http://www.afp.gov.au/what-we-do/police ... ngerprints)

The police certificates took forever for me, because it took ages for the approval to come from Canada in the mail. Get anything that requires overseas mailing done first! It takes ages. As for which fingerprint forms, just read both the Aus and RCMP requirements on fingerprint checks as I know they explain what forms to use on their sites.

In summary, the most common reason an application gets denied is if you can't prove living together for 12 continuous months. If you don't have that, they won't look at your application.

Good luck, let me know if you have more questions, I know I had a lot of questions when I was applying!

Emmy