FAMILY MIGRATION VISAS - INFORMATION ON LOCAL REQUIREMENTS AND PROCEDURES

MIGRATION

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Thank you for your interest in migrating to Australia.

This information is relevant to the following migration categories processed by the Tel Aviv Office.

Partner Migration

This information sheet contains very important information about the application process in Tel Aviv. Please read it carefully and follow the guidelines provided. This will enable you to:

better assess your eligibility for a migrant visa;
understand the application and local processing procedures;
avoid lengthy delays in the processing of your application; and
avoid unnecessary expenses/fees.

WHERE AND HOW MAY APPLICATIONS BE LODGED:

Applications for Partner visas (Subclasses 300, 309 and 100) must be lodged online through the Department's website.

Please note that for online applications you can upload a maximum of 60 attachments only.

HOW AND WHEN MUST THE PROCESSING FEE BE PAID:

Partner visa applications. Payment must be made by credit card during the online application process. The system will prompt you to pay the visa application charge before you are able to successfully lodge the application.

WHAT DOCUMENTS MUST BE LODGED WITH THE APPLICATION:

The simple answer is that you should be guided by the information provided in relevant forms and checklist. However, to assist in the speedy consideration of your application, we ask that you limit the documents and information you provide to that mentioned in this document. After the initial assessment of your application, we will let you know if you are required to provide any additional information or documents.

PARTNER/SPOUSE (INCLUDING DEFACTO AND SAME SEX PARTNERS) VISA - SUBCLASSES 100/309:

You may apply for this type of visa if you are legally married to, or living in a defacto relationship with your sponsor. You may also apply for this visa if you are not legally married to your sponsor but intend to do so before entering Australia.

In addition to the completed online sponsorship form and evidence of your sponsor's Australian citizenship or permanent residence status, you must also provide evidence that your relationship with your sponsor is genuine and continuing. This can normally be evidenced by providing your marriage certificate and other documentary evidence. The marriage certificate in itself is not sufficient evidence of a genuine and continuing relationship.

A decision as to whether the relationship is genuine and continuing will be made following careful assessment and consideration of all the circumstances and aspects of the relationship, including:

the financial aspects of the relationship, such as any joint ownership of property and joint liabilities, any significant pooling and financial resources, any legal obligations owed by one party in respect of the other party, and the basis of any sharing of day to day household expenses. Evidence may include joint loan agreements for real estate, cars, major household appliances and operation of joint bank accounts.

the nature of the household, such as any joint responsibilities for providing care or support of children, living arrangements of the parties, the length of time the parties have lived together, and the basis on which responsibility for housework is distributed. Evidence may include, joint ownership of residential property, joint residential leases, joint rental receipts and joint utilities accounts (electricity, gas, telephone), correspondence addressed to either or both parties at the same address, shared responsibility for children and household. For defacto applicants, it is normally expected that the couple have lived together for at least twelve months before the date of lodgement of the application.

the social aspects of the relationship, such as whether the parties present themselves as being married or in a defacto relationship, the assessment of friends and regular associates of the parties about the nature of their relationship and the basis on which the parties make plans for, or engage in, joint social activities. Evidence may include statements (preferably Statutory Declarations) of parents, family members, relatives, friends and other interested parties, joint membership of organisations or groups, documentary evidence of joint participation in sporting, cultural, social or other activities, joint travel and evidence that the relationship has been declared to other government bodies, including the Ministry of Interior, and commercial/public institutions or authorities and acceptance of these declarations by these bodies; and

the nature of the parties' commitment to each other, such as the length of the relationship, the length of time that the parties have lived together, the nature of any companionship and emotional support that the parties provide to each other, and whether the parties see their relationship as a long term relationship.

Please note that the above list is not exhaustive and is applied flexibly. You may lodge any other evidence in support of your application. If you are unable to provide all or some of the above evidence, please attach to your online application a statement outlining your circumstances.

You should also provide separate Statutory Declarations from you and your sponsor providing full background and history of your relationship and your future plans.

There is no need to provide any documentary evidence of your educational and employment background unless you are specifically requested to do so after lodging your application. However, you should answer the relevant questions in the application and sponsorship forms.

Your sponsor is not required to provide bank statements, payslips or evidence of their financial standing at the time of application. They must only provide correct answers to all questions in the sponsorship form. However, we reserve the right to request financial evidence during the processing of the application.

If your application is approved, you will be granted the relevant provisional subclass 309 or the permanent subclass 100 which will allow you to enter Australia with your sponsor.

Our visas are electronic and therefore, we do not insert visa labels in passports.

Partner provisional and permanent visas allow the holder to work in Australia.

PROSPECTIVE MARRIAGE (FIANCE) VISA - SUBCLASS 300:

This visa allows you to enter Australia and marry your fiancé/sponsor within the visa’s usual 9 months validity period. Please note that you must enter Australia with this visa before you marry your fiancé.

In addition to the completed online sponsorship form and evidence of your sponsor's Australian citizenship or permanent resident status, you must also provide evidence that you have genuine intention to marry your sponsor within the validity of your visa (normally nine months) and that you, and your sponsor, genuinely intend to live together as spouses.

Please note that for your application to be successful both you and your sponsor must in most cases be at least 18 years old at the time of your intended marriage. In addition, you must both satisfy the decision-maker that there is no impediment to your marriage under Australian law. If one of the parties is either under the age of 18 or not free to marry, please contact our office for further information before you lodging your application.

In support of your application, you should provide the following documentary evidence:

evidence that you and your sponsor have met and are known to each other personally as adults. This may include evidence of correspondence, joint photographs with friends, family etc.

evidence that you and your sponsor genuinely intend to marry within the visa period. In support, you should provide evidence that arrangements have been made for the wedding ceremony to take place in Australia. That is, you must provide a signed and dated letter (on letterhead) from the authorised marriage celebrant who will conduct the ceremony. The letter must include:

- the date (or date range) and the venue of the marriage ceremony

- confirmation that a Notice of Intended Marriage (NOIM) has been lodged with the celebrant.

evidence that you, and your sponsor, genuinely intend to live together as spouses. This may include all or some of the documentary evidence required in respect of defacto marriage relationships (see above). However, if you cannot provide such evidence (because you have known your sponsor for a short period), this does not mean that your application will be rejected. The decision-maker will take into consideration all aspects of the application before making a decision.

If your application is approved, you will be granted a subclass 300 prospective marriage visa which allows you to travel to, enter and remain in Australia for 9 months from the date of grant. After marrying your sponsor (and while your visa is still in effect), you should apply for further visas to allow you to remain in Australia. Please refer to your migration booklet for further information about the conditions of this visa and further processing requirements after arrival in Australia.

Our visas are electronic and therefore, we do not insert visa labels in passports.

There is no need to provide any documentary evidence of your employment and educational background unless you are specifically requested to do so after lodging your application. However, you should answer these questions on the application form.

WHAT HAPPENS TO THE APPLICATION AFTER IT IS LODGED:

The initial assessment of your application can take several weeks to complete. After the initial assessment of your application, we will write to you regarding any outstanding issues. This may include inviting you to provide additional information and documents, attend an interview, or undergo the necessary health and character checks, if they are outstanding.

Please also keep our office informed of any change in your circumstances, including change of address (use form 929 - CHANGE OF ADDRESS), or if you are leaving the country for more than two weeks.

Once all the requirements are met and your visa is granted, we will let you know by email. If your application is refused, we will provide you with a detailed decision-record, including the legal criteria you did not meet, the reasons for the decision and your options.

CERTIFICATION OF DOCUMENTS

You are not required to provide certified copies of any of the documents with your application. However, we reserve the right to request to see originals or certified copies following the initial assessment of the application. We will provide you with further information if it becomes necessary for you to provide originals or certified copies.

STATUTORY DECLARATIONS IN SUPPORT OF THE APPLICATION

Australian Statutory Declarations (i.e. form 888) must be witnessed by a Consular Officer at the Australian Embassy or a JP in Australia. Only Australian citizens or Australian permanent residents should sign Australian Statutory Declarations. Israeli and other witnesses/supporters should make their declarations under local laws (eg under Israeli Law) by providing an Affidavit (i.e Tatshir תצהיר). This form/Tatshir is prepared and witnessed by a local practising lawyer. The Affidavit may be provided in English and if it is in Hebrew, it must be translated by a Notary.

If you are an Australian citizen or an Australian permanent resident and wish to sign your Statutory Declaration at our office, please contact our Passports/Consular Section directly on (03) 6935000. Please note that the Passports/Consular Section is different to the Visa, Immigration and Citizenship Section and cannot reply to any visa related inquiries. They will only witness your signature on the Statutory Declaration.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENTS

All identity documents (i.e. birth, adoption, marriage, divorce, death, and discharge from the Army) must have a certified English translation by a notary or an accredited Australian NAATI translator. You may select your NAATI translator by the language services they provide, including Hebrew and Arabic. Some of them may be operating from offices outside Australia, including Israel (See: NAATI)

To save you money and time, other documents should not be translated unless you are specifically requested to do so after you lodge the application.

If your documents have been translated/certified by an authorised body or person in a country other than Australia, Israel or the Palestinian Authority, they will be accepted only if the translations/certifications have been verified by the Embassy or Consulate of that country or the Australian Embassy in the particular country.

Please note that our Visa and Immigration Office is unable to provide translating services or recommend translators.

Please not that you are not required to provide the original translations with your application. Copies of the original translations will be sufficient for the lodgement of the application. However, we reserve the right to request the original translations following the initial assessment of your application.

THE HEALTH REQUIREMENT

All migrants to Australia must undergo health checks with Embassy doctors. However, we strongly recommend that you do not undergo the health checks before you lodge your application and invited to do so by our office. This is because:

The validity of the health checks is normally 6-12 months. If for any reason the processing of your application takes longer than usual, the validity of your visa (i.e. the date by which you must enter Australia after the grant of the visa) will be restricted to the validity of the health checks. This might not suite your travel plans;
If your application is refused on other grounds, there is no refund of the fees you paid for the health checks;
If we receive your health check results and we are unable to match them to an active application, the results will be archived. Retrieving them after you lodge your application will take some time and will result in processing delays.

The system is very efficient and you can normally arrange an appointment with one of the Embassy doctors within less than a week.

When it becomes necessary, we will invite you to undergo the necessary health checks and will provide you with relevant instructions.

The Embassy panel doctor will send or transmit the results directly to our office. The panel doctor is not allowed to give you the results unless prior written approval is received from our office. Approval would be given only in exceptional circumstances involving compassionate and/or compelling circumstances.

THE CHARACTER REQUIREMENT:

Like the health requirement, the character requirement is only one of the criteria that must be met before a visa is granted. If you meet the character criteria but fail to meet one of the other criteria your application will be rejected.

You and your sponsor/partner must provide a police certificate of no criminal record from each country where you have lived or stayed in for any reason for an aggregate period of 12 months or more during the last 10 years. For an Israeli Crimianl History Certificate תעודת מידע פלילי , please apply online on the website of the Israeli police or at the police station nearest to you. Please take with you your ID/passport and ask the police to send the certificate directly to our office.

See: How to obtain police certificates/clearances

The Israeli police will not give you the Crimianl History Certificate תעודת מידע פלילי but will forward it directly to our office where it will be added to your application. Please do not apply for the Israeli police certificate before you lodge your application. The average processing time for obtaining an Israeli police certificate is 4-5 weeks only.

The turnaround time for obtaining a police clearance from other countries can vary significantly between countries and therefore, you should consider applying for the police clearance from other countries as soon as you decide that you wish to apply for migration. This may reduce the processing time of your application.

HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO PROCESS MY APPLICATION?

Processing time can vary significantly depending on the circumstances of each application. See: Current global processing time standards

Actual processing time may change depending on a number of factors, including global application rates, the progress of active applications on a global basis and changing priorities by the Government. Additionally, incomplete or complex applications can take longer to process. Our office will endeavour to finalise the application as quickly as possible. All non-citizens applying for visas to enter Australia are considered on an individual basis and against legal requirements set out in Australia’s migration legislation. Currently the department receives more applications than places available in the family stream of the annual migration program. In order to be fair to all clients, applications are processed in order of the date of lodgement. Given this, some cases may not be finalised as quickly as clients or the Department would want.

You can assist us to process your application within processing time standards if you lodge a well documented and complete application. However, the processing time might be much longer if there is need to interview sponsors in Australia, or there are complications in respect of the health and character requirements. You are therefore reminded that you should not finalise your affairs or make final travel arrangements before you receive written advice from our office that your application has been approved and visa granted.

CAN I VISIT MY PARTNER DURING THE PROCESSING OF MY APPLICATION?

If you wish to visit Australia during the processing of your partner migration application, you should obtain a visitor visa after you lodge your partner migration visa application. The grant of a visitor visa is not automatic and decisions will be made on a case by case basis taking into consideration all circumstances.

If you are granted a visitor visa during the processing of your partner migration visa application you should note the following:

The visitor visa does not allow any work in Australia whether paid or unpaid;
As a holder of a visitor visa, you are not eligible to Social Security benefits in Australia or other services and benefits offered to Australian citizens and Australian permanent residents;
If you are in Australia on a visitor visa when your subclass partner migration visa is ready for finalisation, you will be invited to depart Australia within 28 days to allow the grant of the visa. This is because it is not legally possible to grant a Partner (Provisional/ Permanent) or Prospective Marriage visa while you are physically in Australia. Travelling to neighbouring countries (e.g. New Zealand, Thailand or Fiji) is possible. You will not be required to return to Israel.

NOTIFICATION OF DECISION:

When a decision on your application is made on your partner migration application you will receive a Visa Grant Notification letter/email from our office. Our visas are electronic and clients are not required to have visa labels in their passports. The airline company will verify the visa status at the time of check-in.

If your application is rejected, the letter/email will indicate the reasons for the decision and whether you can seek a review of the decision.

Please remember that you should not finalise any of your affairs in your country or make final travel arrangements before you receive written advice that your application has been approved and a visa granted.

VISA VALIDITY

Partner (marriage and defacto) visas must normally be used for initial entry into Australia within 12 months from the date of your health examination or the date your police clearance was issued, whichever is the earlier. However, and on the basis of a medical opinion from our Medical Unit in Australia, the validity of the visa may be restricted to a shorter period.

Prospective marriage visas must normally be used for initial entry into Australia within 9-12 months from the date of visa grant or the date of your health examination or the date your police clearance was issued, whichever is the earliest. However, and on the basis of a medical opinion from our Medical Unit in Australia, the validity of the visa may be restricted to a shorter period.

Holders of the above visas may travel to Australia with a one-way ticket.

We hope that you find this document useful and helpful in understanding the application process.