Tricky situation - help?

[Meisje]

Hi

I just came across these forums while searching for info on visas to Australia so am very happy. There's loads of great info here.

My tricky situation is this: my husband and I currently live in the Netherlands. He's Dutch and I'm Australian. Since living here (about 2 years) he has been the main money maker while I have been studying for my MA and working mainly freelance / part time . We want to move to Australia so we need to apply for a spouse visa. As I am the Australian and therefore the sponsor, I have to prove I can support him for two years. I have a checklist which says I need to provide one of the following for the past two years: overseas tax info; payslips; a letter from employer stating annual salary and length of employment; business documents or a letter from an accountant (the last I def don't have). As I said, my work here hasn't been full time so my earnings are definitely not enough to prove I can support us both in Australia. On top of that, I am on my 3rd job in 2 years. If I go further back into my work history, I earned good money - but the Aus. govt. only wants proof from the last 2 years.

We have quite a chunk of savings thanks to many years of saving. Could we use these savings instead of or in addition to my paltry work info? Also, what does the govt regard as a liveable income for 2 people? I'm wondering if we do go down the savings path, do we have enough in the eyes of the govt.?

Does anyone have any advice? Any is much appreciated.

Mei

[Baby75]

Hello

I always thought it was more important to prove the 12 month living together and have the evidence to back it up which im sure you have

Ild say they would take your savings in to account but im not sure my gut feeling says you'd be fine your DH is allowed work in Australia on his defacto visa


To be sure Ild ask an agent may be or hopefully some one who has done it will know do you have a co you could ask.

Good luck

[Bevdeforges]

The other factor is, are you planning on working when you go back to Oz? If your MA is in something that will give you a chance at a decent sort of job, you might be able to use that information to your advantage.

Or use that work history from before - so what if they only ask for the last 2 years, give 'em more. Heck, when I was going for my nationality here in France, the people at the Tribunal were appalled that I claimed not to have any bills I could show them made out to both my husband and me and that we didn't have a joint bank account. They told me to come back with "anything" I could find with both our names on it. Literally the only official paperwork I could find was the registration statement for our donkeys, where it states that I am co-owner at 50%.

No kidding, the clerks jumped on this and to this day I swear it's my donkeys registrations that got me my French nationality.

Give 'em the records from 3 or 4 years ago and your diploma for your MA. Offer them job ads from Oz that indicate what you will be making when you get back there. Get a little creative - it sure can't hurt!
Cheers,
Bev

[kaz101]

Hi Mei,

Welcome to the forum.

As Baby75 suggested I would consult with an agent since the first consultation is usually free. We have 2 agents who are occasionally on the forum - Alan Collett and Liana Allan, so you can check out the "Please read..." post for the migration agents associations and see of there is one near you in the Netherlands.

I know from personal experience that income is very important in Australia, much more so than savings and assets (they have recently changed the parents visa so that assets don't count when looking to support your parents!). Although as Bev said if you could prove the sort of job that you could get once you're here I would have thought that it would help your case.

Regards,
Karen