I figured this out on my own. Got a multiple entry visitor visa for my in-laws with 3 years validity and condition 8558 (max 12 months stay in 18 months period).
Here is how I went about applying for the Visa -
Sifting through the DIBP website and other forums did not give me a clear picture about how to apply. So I put myself in the COs position and thought about how I would scrutinize an application like mine. These are the questions I thought a CO would require answers to -
1. Why do you want to come to Australia?
2. Who are you?
3. Which part of Australia will you visit?
4. When will you come to Australia and how long do you intend to stay?
5. Do you have enough money to support your stay and travel in Australia?
6. What is the guarantee that you will go back to your home country?
Come to think of it, these are pretty standard questions, but what made it tricky for us was that we had not yet migrated to Australia and also had no job offers. Also we required a visa which would allow my in-laws to stay there for 6 months at a stretch instead of in chunks of 3 months.
Anyways, this is how I went about answering above questions with documents to back up my answers, though I am not sure what worked and what didn't. Got the visa, and I guess that's what matters in the end.
1. Why do you want to come to Australia?
- Applied online under the tourist stream and gave requirement of staying for 6 months. This (obviously) said that my in-laws wish to come to Australia for tourist activities. So the next question was, why do they need 6 months for tourist activities? Our requirement was that my in-laws could help us settle down and also take up tourist activities. I decided to be honest about that and asked my wife to prepare a letter stating that she requires her parents to help her settle down and that she also wants them to visit various tourist destinations in Australia. Six months would be ideal for this and would give them sufficient time. I called this a 'Covering Letter' instead of an 'Invitation Letter' since we were not in Australia. Don't know if it makes any difference.
Since my wife had given the covering letter, I had to give proof of her relationship with her parents. So uploaded wife's birth certificate and passport scans. Also uploaded wife's bank statement for 1 year and her PR Grant Notification.
2. Who are you?
- Provided identity documents for in-laws - Aadhaar Card (which is the national identity document for India) and Passport. I uploaded scans of notarized copies of both. Few forums mentioned that if color scans of original are provided, then notarization is not required, but I am not sure about this. For passport I did not provide scans of all pages, only the ones which have information - stamps, visas etc. I have heard that agents ask for copies of all pages (including blank) of the passport, but that is not required.
3. Which part of Australia will you visit?
- In the covering letter my wife mentioned that we would stay in Melbourne, however did not provide an address, as we did not have one. She mentioned that we would initially book a serviced apartment and later rent a place.
4. When will you come to Australia and how long do you intend to stay?
- My wife mentioned in her covering letter that her parents would stay for about 5 months and gave the month in which they would arrive in Australia. Did not mention exact dates as these were not finalized at the time of application.
5. Do you have enough money to support your stay and travel in Australia?
- This was a tricky question as 'enough' is relative. However this was the most important question, as my wife would not be supporting her parents. She specifically mentioned this in the covering letter. My in-laws are more than capable of supporting themselves, however the question 'How much is considered enough?' still needed to be answered. Since we were planning to migrate, we had spent many hours calculating estimated monthly expenses in Melbourne, and had a pretty good idea about how much two people would need in a month. So multiplied that amount by the no.of months, added some extra, and we had an amount which would be 'enough'. Note that this amount should also include air ticket costs for returning back to home country. If you don't have the monthly expense estimates with you, then there are a few website which do it for you and should give you a ballpark figure (eg -
https://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/melbourne ,
Cost of Living in Australia | Expat Arrivals ,
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?country=Australia)
For my in-laws I had provided 1 - year bank statements, though I believe 6 months statement is enough. The CO would want to check that you have not borrowed and deposited money in your account just for the visa application and I think 6 months statement should be enough. Also uploaded tax-returns for the past 3 years. If you are providing term deposit receipts then ideally these should be maturing before your intended date of travel.
6. What is the guarantee that you will go back to your home country?
- In order to prove that you will go back to your country you need to show that you have 'substantial reason' to return to your country. 'Substantial reason' can be in form of close relatives (like dependent children) or substantial assets in home country. In my case we provided the sale agreement and sale deed of my in-laws house in India. This proved to be enough.
Apart from this, the fact that my in-laws have/had visas for U.S and U.K and have never overstayed in those countries must have helped a lot.
Overall I think questions 5 & 6 are the most important which you need to answer carefully. One last thing, I completed medicals for my in-laws before applying for the visa via immi account. This was because I found from other forums that visas with stay period of more than 3 months need medicals.
I hope above information is useful for others who are in similar situation.
- dkmk
