Entering Aus pg on tourist visa and applying for partner visa onshore?

[TheBluthCompany]

It's complicated - Australian DH is applying for jobs in Australia (due to threatened redundancy and poor jobs prospects here). If he get's one in the next few weeks we would obviously want to move with him (me and our son). But, I will be very pregnant by then.

The options are 1, lodge partner visa here and then apply for a 12 month tourist visa to travel with him. Problem is the visa person at the high commission will only tell me that this is not an appropriate visa since I am not a tourist and so may get turned down.

Option 2, go on a tourist visa and lodge partner visa application onshore. Problem here is that since I can only travel until 36 weeks pregnant, I assume that to be believed at immigration I will need a return flight before 36 weeks and a visa only for these dates, which will only give me at most 4 weeks. Is this enough time to lodge my partner visa onshore and go onto a bridging visa? Will the fact that I cant get an x-ray during these 4 weeks (until after baby is born) delay the application? What would happen then - would I get deported?

I realise no one here is an expert - but since the high commission have not been very helpful I'm looking for any relevant experiences as I really dont know what to do. Thanks in advance :)

I'd say if your travel to Australia is to settle there, NEVER pretend you are a tourist. Immigration officials are not stupid, they will have handled people deliberately trying to circumvent procedures by using tourist visas many times and will be quite adept at picking you out of the crowds.

If you need a settlement visa to settle, then apply for one. There are many people who give birth without dads being present. It's of course not what you want, but if it means your husband getting a job and having to go ahead, in the long run, doing the right thing and following procedures will be the best option.

There must be a way to do it, as one of my Australian friends just moved home with her non-Australian fiancé - he's applied for a partner visa (which he's expecting to get some time next year) and entered Australia on a tourist visa.

No pregnancy issues obviously and he will have to leave the country to change his visa category (eg quick trip to NZ) but he's definitely there now.

Anyway, the NHS and Medicare have a reciprocal arrangement so I can't see why staying in Oz to have the baby would be a problem re your tourist status? As long as you can prove you're eligible for NHS care.

My DH (boyfriend at the time) entered on a tourist visa, applied for de-facto visa once in Aus and received it about three months later. He didnt need to leave and re-enter, just went to the visa processing place in Melbourne and got his passport updated.

Very easy!

the reciprocal arrangement doesn't cover pre-existing conditions.

turning up obviously pregnant on a tourist visa is asking for trouble.

Ok... I traveled to aus on this final migration on a tourist visa. We had our 457 lodged but not approved yet. Immigration understood that we had flights booked so they were fine. The problem with approval for your spouse visa is that I think approval for a offshore visa means you need to be off shore when its approved. You would have to fly to nz and back into aus to finalise your visa. We were meant to do this but immigration wiaved it for us. I add I was 16 weeks pg when we applied. For your medical I was also pg so didn't do chest X-ray but was given 6 months to get it done in after bub was born.

Also with dd 1 I left aus to go back to the uk when I was pg. I then went back to aus at 20 weeks pg. on a tourist visa to try and sort some stuff out. I intended to stay and have dd in aus. I did have dd in aus with reciprocal healthcare i went from a tourist visa onto a medical visa at 37 weeks as i couldn't fly home. I did have a jp act as my guarantor as I wasn't with the father of my daughter then. It wasn't i add an easy stress free process! You are eligible for reciprocal healthcare for pregnancy. Medicare stipulate that you cannot receive non essential healthcare. Big misconceptions about reciprocal health care! So you can't have a nose job for cosmetic reasons.. If you need health care its free if you are a British citizen. While on a 457 with reciprocal care our ds had multiple mris , lots and lots of drs appointments .. Etc as they were required on health grounds. So all were free. No private cover as you are pg.
I would be honest once dh gets a job and speak to immigration! You are a genuine wife not a Thai bride so there will be a way around it. We currently have a friend who left his wife, came to aus to meet up with an ex lady friend.. Now 12 months on tourist visas he is applying for a deafacto visa. All onshore. So there's a way i am sure

Google George Lombard. He is a highly regarded Migration Consultant. Very straight talker who will tell you - before charging you, what you should do.

I was advised by Australia house that it was fine to travel to Oz on a tourist visa while waiting for my spouse visa to finalise, was told I would have to go offshore in order to validate the spouse visa. My spousal visa was finalised two days before we flew so didn't have to go offshore after all. I wasn't pregnant though, so don't know anything about healthcare implications. Jude ask your CO how to proceed, ours was very helpful.

Thank you everyone for your advice. I will look up that migration agent thanks MrRected as I think it will be worth it even if it does cost money.

As some have said I was told by one person at the high commission that it was fine to go as a tourist after lodging my partner visa here (just have to pop to nz when it is approved) but another told me it might get turned down as it was not an appropriate visa and so wouldn't tell me how being pregnant might also affect my chances. So that way seems quite risky where as entering on a tourist visa might be 'safer' - we could easily be visiting DHs family before baby arrives so cant see how they would question it really.

I will check that our specialsubject - I think medicare would cover it as it is essential treatment as chloeb said.

The process takes 9 months here so it's just not realistic (emotionally or financially) for me to stay if he goes. As chloeb said, im not a thai bride - we've been together 10 years so there must be a way!

Hope we get to aus in the end!!

good luck in whatever happens - and do get it sorted before you go, can't imagine doing that flight while worrying that you might be sent straight back.

My DH has pr for Australia, and like you, due to redundancy we decided to move quickly in 2011. I wasn't pregnant (but have multiple health issues) & DS was 3 so we wanted to move as a family.

We used a migration agent & came over on 3m tourist visas with travel health insurance, registered with Medicare straight away & applied for pr on spousal visa after a couple of months. We went onto bridging visas which gave us all the rights of pr except I wasn't allowed to work. As I had return tickets to the UK I had to apply for an alternative bridging visa to allow me to travel/return to Aus. The bridging visa gave us the same rights to health care as a pr visa & mine took 12m to finalise, purely due to the volume they were processing. I didn't have to leave Aus to activate the visa change.

As you've been together 10y, there shouldn't be any problem with you getting sponsorship - you need supportive letters confirming you're a legitimate couple. You would be able to access healthcare, just not sure how much you'd need to pay. I know that our private health fund had a 12m waiting for obs/gynae. Re: the chest xray, you can choose to have it during pregnancy or wait until after the birth while your application is processing.. I found the waiting very stressful & doing it onshore has lead to delays in me getting my qualifications recognised due to not being allowed to work for 15m so in hindsight it might have been easier to apply while in the UK, but practically it was better to move as a family.

Good luck with it all!

If you are going on a tourist visa, wouldn't that be an ETA or eVisitor (or whatever they're called these days)? If so, the validity is usually just a standard 3 months, so there wouldn't be an expectation that you would have an end date that matched an outward flight that matched < 36wks pregnant. You can apply for that online.

It wouldn't hurt to have a return flight. Either up your credit card (or skip the Migration Agent fees!) buy the cheapest fully refundable flights you can find, or ones that can be cancelled with a nominal fee that you're ok with. If you can I would at least get your son one too, and maybe your DH. Just because flashing all your return tickets will just get a glance and a nod, and flashing only yours may get follow up questions (ie what is happening with your son etc). Which you can probably come up with answers to, but if you're nervous, the less questions the better. Refundable ones are generally changeable ones, and it's not unusual that someone might want a ticket with flexibility (if they even notice the ticket fare type).

If you're having problems getting answers from the High Commission, could you write a list of questions and get a friend or family of your DH to call the Immigration Dept in Australia for you? Probably waiting lines as long, but might give better insight. In particular, I think they would be the best ones to clarify the situation with x-rays once you have the spouse visa lodged.

I know you feel you're being a bit sneaky with it all, and in some ways you are. But it may well have been the case that you were going for a visit, but then decided to stay for the birth, dh job etc once there. Ultimately you are a legitimate spouse of an Australian citizen, with one child already and one on the way. You really aren't the fish they want to fry.

Best of luck x

Thanks so much redvelvetpoppy and dumdedah - that's very useful. I called a migration agent and she told me (for free) that the best thing was an evisitor and then apply onshore and said we shouldn't have any problems with that and assured me that we weren't breaking the law or anything!

I didn't realise it would be a standard 3 months and thought they would also ask about TB risk etc (which might be higher as I've lived in central africa - although clearly I do not have TB!) but I've now got the evisitor visa and it was super easy!

Hadn't though about getting DH return flights too, think that might be a good idea and I didn't realise you could get refundable ones - will look into that thanks :)