Please note this is a excerpt taken from a earlier posting which i would like to provide a briefng for:-
You can't sponsor a fiance to Australia in the following cases:
1. Income requirements: you must have had a minimum income before tax of $35,000 per annum for the last 2 years and prove with Australian Taxation Return records to qualify as a sponsor under the family visa category (prospective spouse sub-class 300 visa as officially called or "Fiance Visa")
2. In the past 2 years, you must have suffered no periods of unemployment or sickness where you have collected Australian Social Security (Centrelink) benefits or that will disqualify you.
3. Not be a liable parent for child support, if you have under age kids ( under 18 years) from a previous marriage or that will go against you.
4. You must prove the "existence of a genuine relationship with intent to marry". There are no specific guidelines as to what is a sufficient amount of proof and that decision lies with the immigration case officer in our embassy in Moscow, who makes the decision.
Proof is defined as having copies of letters to each other over time, proof of phone calls to her with copies of phone bill records, proof of travel ( air ticket copies, accomodation receipts etc. to a personal visit to her country for a meeting), photos of you and her together and with family and friends over there ( the more the merrier), sworn statements from her friends, relatives about the nature of your relationship with her, "a notice of intent to marry form under Australian law with a wedding date booked and signed by you, her and an Australian marriage celebrant/priest who will perform the wedding.
The more proof you ahve the better..they will look at it.
5. Its a good idea to have known each other about 6 months and gone over to her country and stayed with her for at least a month or longer..they will never buy that a relationship was formed with a 1 week visit...take your long service leave and go for 2 months if you can and leave 1 month for when she comes out.
5. Standard of processing time for an Australian fiance visa is 5 to 7 months at best case.
6. She must pass police checks ( police clearance certificate form her country ) and health checks (Immi will send her to approved Doctors and clinics for x-rays and blood tests in her or a neighbouring country..they are mainly looking for AIDS and TB or past evidence off.
7. Seek advice of an Australian government approved migration lawyer and get them to do the paperwork and handle all the red tape..its not advised to do the papers yourself and then you have legal representation in case the application fails and you file for an appeal.
8. Appeals are costly..$2500 plus lawyer costs and take 6 months to be heard or longer with MRT(migration review tribunal)..to avoid an appeal or minimise its chances of happenning get an Government approved immigration lawyer to handle all the immigration paperwork.Appeals have been known to happen based on the smallest errors or ommissions in the immigration application paperwork.
9. The visa application will cost about $1500 aud plus her country costs for police certificate etc. and include medical checks but some services may charge more in her country for this.
10. Have about $500 us cash available to grease the palms of Government officials to get her side of the paperwork moving in her country..corruption is rife, especially in the Ukraine and it may be necessary to pay bribes to avoid long delays or waits on paperwork.
It can be done but you must follow the rules to the letter and use an immigration lawyer..Australian government has a list of approved migration lawyers of which you should use to avoid hassles!
This is my posting accordingly:-
I have been privy to the immense pressures and processes invovled in regards to partner sponsorship, as I myself am currently in the midst of having an application for sub class 457 approved, I must admit please take note of all of the requirements specified above, because believe me, there is by no means any chance of bypassing these requirements, my partner is from former East Germany, we have lived with each other for over a year and a half and have barely fufilled the above stated requirements, also please note do note take note of the shonky schemes that you may be enticed into, it will be a rude awakening when you are stopped in your tracks, by the immagration department with a huge loss to your bank account to boot, if there is any advice I can give you, that may ease these pressures, it this there are none, and this comming september visa regulations are predicted to become even more tightened. so start doing your homework.
This is my, aussiemans contribution to the forum and tomobunce has seconded it.
This is the reality for ALL Australian men thinking about applying and trying to get a fiance visa or spouse visa for ANY foreign girl to Australia.
These are the rules, pure and simple and there are no short cuts or exceptions.
I have done the fiance visa thing once in my life for Australia and succeeded because I followed all the rules and did what immigration department here, told me to do.
I can only give advice for Australia for Australian residents and citizens concerning our fiance and spouse visa regime which is the most diffiuclt in the world.
Failure to do things right by the book is very costly to the men here when it comes to this business!
Aussie guys have a good think before you embark on a search for a foreign girl and ask yourself this:
1. Do you meet the income and qualification requirements for a fiance visa ( subclass 302 prospective sposue visa ) or the even harder spouse visa ( marrying her in her country beforehand is a disaster for Australian men, your dead and buried before the application gets off the ground as you ahve to live with her in her country for 12 months as a co-habiting married couple before she will be even permitted to come to Australia for the sposue 457 visa )
2. Does your foreign girl meet the health requirements, clear criminal record and if previously married all the divorce paperwork in order before even applying for a fiance visa ( subclass 302 visa ) and if she got a kid you will need court papers and permission from her countries courts and the biological father before her kid will be let out of her country..a bloody red tape nightmare and if the natural father don't give permission for her kid to leave, you are stuffed! Australian immigration will not give her kid a visa to come here with your new bride to be if you don't have the necessary legal paperwork and permissions, no mother will leave her kid behind for you!
HAVE A GOOD THINK BEFORE YOU LEAP INTO THIS AS A BAD DECISION AND MISTAKE WILL BE VERY COSTLY, GUYS!
My friend married a girl from Poland 2 years ago. He is on Disability Pension (approx. 12.000$Au per annum)dose not own any assets propertys, etc. . First she arrived for 6 mth period and they got married. Got her pregnant meantime,she went back to Poland and returned to Aussie with her own two kids, one with some health issues, just before giving birth to third one. Now they all sitting on welfare payments and La dolce vita continues :-)). So it can be done guys!
Not on disability pension. Rules clearly state if you have been on any Centrelink ( Australian Social welfare/security ) within the previous 2 years of providing a sponsorship for a foreign fiance ( Aussie man has to sponsor and provide assurance of support agreement for 2 years ), you as the man don't qualify as a visa sponsor for the foreign girl.
Someone else in your family or a friend who has the necessary money and assets can sponsor your foreign fiance, but they agree to take financial responsibility for her for 2 years after she arrives and if it goes wrong and she leaves you, your poor friend has to repay the government for any Social Security payments she claims and pay for legal fees to apply to stay here or the deportation expenses if it fails.
What friend or other family member is going to stick there neck out and expose themselves to the risk of having to repay thousands of dollars to the government if it all goes wrong, which often happens.
You can't get married on a tourist visa in Australia. She would have to go back to her country and re-apply for a spouse visa ( 457 visa) and wait months to get it approved and trying to cheat the system this way, brings lots of expense, difficulties and headaches/heartaches!
She is from Poland too and Poland not part of FSU but EU but rules are still the same.
Poland has no reputation for scammer women and immigration scams and there is large Polish community existing in Australia too.
FSU women are discriminated against by Australian immigration because of scammers and all the immigration scams that have happenned here and been exposed, especially girls from Russia and Ukraine.
Don't try and shortcut or circumvent the rules of DIMA (Department of Immigration and Multi-cultural Affairs ) as you will pay dearly for this, and it will fail 99.9% of the time.
I am pretty sure he was on DSP and still is. In this case someone had sign the"assurance of support" agreement for him. Maybe she arrived on Fiance visa in the first place and then they got married. I didnt know that Australian Immigration are so sensitive towards girls from Russia or Ukraine.