Spouse Visa info?

[sheffield_neil]

Hello,
I am from the UK and my partner is Australian.
We have been dating since February 2006 and lived together between December 2006 - December 2007 (over 12 months) before her visa ran out and she had to return to Australia.
The reason I am writing is because I am concerned on 2 fronts:
On the 12 month rule it states "your partner must show a mutual commitment to a shared life as husband and wife to the exclusion of all others."
We lived together in my house, which had rooms rented out to other people. It made sense for her to move into my house rather than us renting a separate one. She paid for some bills and we shared the same room and opened up a joint bank account together and we have declarations from people regarding our relationship.
Would this be considered OK for the 12 month requirement?
Also, we can only now apply for the Visa as she has only just got a job and although we were ready to file the visa for 3 months we had to wait for her to get a job on order to be able to sponsor me. Is this gap too much? We have been in contact daily by phone calls, email, messenger, Facebook etc. Will they take into account the gap was due to the fact that she had to meet the Sponsor Conditions and hence it took 3-4 months?
We would go for the Prospective Marriage Visa, but we want to get married in Australia in August 2009 – past the 9 month mark.
Any help gratefully received with thanks

[kaz101]

Hi Neil,

Welcome to the forum.

I would suggest talking to an agent on this one since most of us are just sharing what we went through when we moved over here. We have 2 agents on the forum Liana Allan and Alan Collett if you want to contact them, so try one of the expos in the UK. The first consultation is usually free.

Regards,
Karen