Canadian Girlfriend, bringing her back to OZ...

[Danthemanz]

Hi!
Im an Australian who has been living in Europe for the last 2 years.
Ive met a Canadian/Portuguese girl who I have been living with for 18 months.
We are going to be leaving Europe in August for a huge overland trek to Australia where we plan to live for a couple of years.

I was wondering if anyone could give me advice on the visa situation.
I know she can get a working holiday visa, it appears she can also get a defacto visa.
Basically i dont know which ones you can apply for while in Oz. We have ALOT of visas etc to work out for our trip and it would be nice to just arrive in Oz on a tourist and work things out from there. We dont quite have enough proof for the 12 month requirement (although we have been together longer) for the defacto visa so its not really an option yet but by the time we get there it wont be an issue.

So if we got to Australia on a tourist visa (how long it that by the way, 3 months?) we could then apply for the defacto visa but what if it was rejected or something, can we still get the working holiday visa while in Australia? It would be nice to be able to start work right away if required too.

If we got the working holiday visa in July but wasnt entering Australia before December would it run out sooner or can you forward date it, if so by how much?

Sorry if it got confusing.

Thanks for your help.

Regards
Daniel Franklin

[kaz101]

Hi Daniel,

Welcome to the forum.

Have you checked out the "Please read...." post for the government website? The reason I ask is because they do say which visas you can apply for if you are in Australia and if you are outside Australia and that may help with some of your questions (Professionals and other Skilled Migrants - Workers - Visas & Immigration)

The ETA visitor visa is for 3 months, however if you check the website they also mention a tourist visa of up to 6 months (subclass 676).

Depending on where you are in Europe there may be local emigration expos where you can get free info, or of course you can always contact an agent since the first consultation tends to be free.

Regards,
Karen