My Australian fiancé and his PR

[Sophietr]

Hi!
I'm a 21 year old Canadian citizen and i'm about to marry a 27 year old australian. We have been together for over a year and are currently living together. Of course when we're married i want to sponsor him so he can get his PR. He is currently on a two year working visa that will end in march 2018.

We're both pretty anxious about a possible refusal, what do you guys think our chances are?

We're planning to meet with an immigration lawyer very soon but what would you say our best course of action is?

Thanks in advance

 

[Bs65]

Why go with the expense of a lawyer when the process should be pretty straight forward as you have already been living together and can show proof plus plan to get married as well. Search examples on here about common law ( if living together for a year) where people have put together photos, letters from friends/ relatives, shared living arrangements such a leases/ banking and so on. Use same post marriage if you are planning to wait until then to supplement applying as married, should all be straight forward and plenty of forum members available to ask questions along the way for free.

 

[carolbb23]

Do not go to a lawyer unless you have serious redflags, which I think you don't. Everything is pretty straightforward. Just follow the guide and you'll be fine.

we used a lawyer and there was no red flags but she did good job we got everything in 17 months when we did our inland spousal sponsorship and we know people who used her and we did not have to worried about everything and screw up any paperwork they take care of everything

 

[spousalsponsee]

Hi!
I'm a 21 year old Canadian citizen and i'm about to marry a 27 year old australian. We have been together for over a year and are currently living together. Of course when we're married i want to sponsor him so he can get his PR. He is currently on a two year working visa that will end in march 2018.

We're both pretty anxious about a possible refusal, what do you guys think our chances are?

We're planning to meet with an immigration lawyer very soon but what would you say our best course of action is?

Thanks in advance

If you've been living together for over a year (and can prove it), you can sponsor him now as your common law partner.

Your risk of refusal is exceptionally low unless there are crucial factors you have missed out (eg serious criminality, historic immigration problems). Australia and Canada have very similar standards of living, income, social and political rights, so people tend not to commit fraud to move between them (as they gain little to nothing except the right to live with their partner).

Unless one of the situations above applies, your best course of action would be to drop the plan to use a lawyer, who will charge you a great deal of cash to change nothing.

 

[81jim]

I'd say your chances should be pretty good. You say you're about to get married, so I figure you've got it all planned out... how big will the wedding be? Will he have family coming over for it?

 

[Rob_TO]

Hi!
I'm a 21 year old Canadian citizen and i'm about to marry a 27 year old australian. We have been together for over a year and are currently living together. Of course when we're married i want to sponsor him so he can get his PR. He is currently on a two year working visa that will end in march 2018.

We're both pretty anxious about a possible refusal, what do you guys think our chances are?

We're planning to meet with an immigration lawyer very soon but what would you say our best course of action is?

Thanks in advance

PR apps for Australian citizens are usually approved with no problems. Chance of refusal is incredibly small, and more for cases with criminality or other legal issues.

As mentioned if you've lived together for a year and have proof of it, you can apply now as common-law partner. Although waiting until married will make app a bit easier since you don't need to worry about 1-yr cohabitation proof.

Using a lawyer would be a complete waste of money. Not recommended at all unless you guys are incapable of filling out forms, or just have too much money and you don't know what to do with it. Too many times we've seen on this forum lawyers screwing up apps and slowing down the process. Save your money and ask any questions you have on the process or when filling in the app package, to this forum.

 

[carolbb23]

PR apps for Australian citizens are usually approved with no problems. Chance of refusal is incredibly small, and more for cases with criminality or other legal issues.

As mentioned if you've lived together for a year and have proof of it, you can apply now as common-law partner. Although waiting until married will make app a bit easier since you don't need to worry about 1-yr cohabitation proof.

Using a lawyer would be a complete waste of money. Not recommended at all unless you guys are incapable of filling out forms, or just have too much money and you don't know what to do with it. Too many times we've seen on this forum lawyers screwing up apps and slowing down the process. Save your money and ask any questions you have on the process or when filling in the app package, to this forum.

our lawyer never screw us up

 

[spousalsponsee]

our lawyer never screw us up

Rob_TO didn't say that all lawyers screw up all applications. It's just, that's the only thing they can do. Most apps, a lawyer makes no difference. Some apps, a lawyer makes things go horribly wrong. A vanishingly small number, a lawyer can be needed to handle complex issues. For most straight-forward cases, they can't make the process go any better, easier, smoother, or faster. The applicants still need to provide all the same info, all the same proof, and it'll be assessed in the same timeframe. The only thing the lawyer adds to is the cost, because you're paying for an extremely expensive education to read out the same questions to you that you still need to answer.

 

[kcward7]

Rob_TO didn't say that all lawyers screw up all applications. It's just, that's the only thing they can do. Most apps, a lawyer makes no difference. Some apps, a lawyer makes things go horribly wrong. A vanishingly small number, a lawyer can be needed to handle complex issues. For most straight-forward cases, they can't make the process go any better, easier, smoother, or faster. The applicants still need to provide all the same info, all the same proof, and it'll be assessed in the same timeframe. The only thing the lawyer adds to is the cost, because you're paying for an extremely expensive education to read out the same questions to you that you still need to answer.

I have a lawyer for a simple, straightforward case and I pretty much (in hindsight) agree with this 100%.

The only thing it really made a huge difference with is they did all the forms and filling out and blah blah which took a lot of time off of us - but you can pay a lawyer to do just the forms and not retain them (way cheaper).

Between this forum and Facebook there's so many resources out there to help without an attorney

 

[Rob_TO]

our lawyer never screw us up

They didn't make your process any quicker either.

 

[carolbb23]

They didn't make your process any quicker either.

Our journey started in Dec 15 2015 on April 28,2017 my husband had his landing interview at CIC Etobicoke took us 17 months instead of 26 months but me and the lawyer worked together

 

[kcward7]

Our journey started in Dec 15 2015 on April 28,2017 my husband had his landing interview at CIC Etobicoke took us 17 months instead of 26 months but me and the lawyer worked together

That does not indicate your application moved faster than 26 months BECAUSE of the lawyer.

It's just like now for both inland and outland applications, they estimate to complete 80% of cases in 12 months. There are many people who will see decisions made much faster than that, and many of these people will not have legal counsel.

The only real time saver with a lawyer is before you submit - saving time you would have to spend on putting an application together.

 

[carolbb23]

The reason we used her becsuse people we know who used her were all successful and she's been in the business for 30 years plus my husband is from Portugal which is visa exempt and my husband believe pay someone let them do the paper work and do it good

 

[Rob_TO]

Our journey started in Dec 15 2015 on April 28,2017 my husband had his landing interview at CIC Etobicoke took us 17 months instead of 26 months but me and the lawyer worked together

Many people that didn't use a lawyer finished processing quicker than 17 months. Whether you used the lawyer or not, as long as app was filled in correctly your time would have been identical.

If you were unable to fill in the forms on your own for whatever reason, then it's probably best you had the paid help. However to most people, this would not be required and really offers no advantage.

 

[kcward7]

The reason we used her becsuse people we know who used her were all successful and she's been in the business for 30 years plus my husband is from Portugal which is visa exempt and my husband believe pay someone let them do the paper work and do it good

Which is awesome - we hired a lawyer too - but the main point here is that it is a personal decision and it does not speed up the process; nor is it necessary for most spousal applications (barring any complicated/extreme cases)