A prospective client contacted me
several months ago. His Filipino wife was in Australia on a visitor
visa (subclass 676 tourist visa), which had a “no further stay”
condition attached to it. This
condition prevents a visa holder from applying for multiple temporary
or permanent visas while they are in Australia. 'No Further Stay'
conditions include 8503, 8534 and 8535.
These are often applied to visa grants
from Third World countries if the visa holder is considered a flight
risk. In other words, they might continue to stay in Australia
without the proper visa. This prevents the applicant from making
another application for a visa while they are in Australia.
With this type of visa and condition,
the man’s wife now had to leave the country before her subclass 676
tourist visa expired. The problem for them was the she was pregnant
and was having some problems with her health, and her doctor did not
want her to travel.
She had to leave before the baby was
due, but it would be dangerous for her and her unborn child. This was
a very stressful situation for this couple to say the least.
Nevertheless, what can she do? It is possible to apply for a waiver
of the 8503, if there are compelling and compassionate
circumstances.
However, Australian immigration
authorities rarely grant waivers, especially if the application is
done improperly or poorly. Down Under Visa has had success with 8503
waivers before, and we believed that we could help this woman stay in
Australia.
Free
Advice?
Apparently, when
this bloke contacted me he was just looking for some free advice,
because he wanted to apply for the waiver by himself. He sent me a
copy of the cover letter he had written, and I told him frankly, that
he needed professional help.
I have yet to hear back from him.
There are two things that I find
disturbing about this man’s actions. Most importantly, why in God’s
name would he endanger his wife’s migration status when getting the
wavier was so crucial for her wellbeing and the baby? By trying to
take on something that was clearly beyond him, he was considerably
reducing their chance of success, as waivers are rarely granted, as I
said before.
Australian Migration Law is a
specialist area. Wouldn’t it make more sense to enlist the aid of
an expert and increase your chance of success? Down Under Visa has
actually had several lawyers as clients, because they were
intelligent enough to know when to use a specialist.
I can only think that he was just
trying to save some money. Which is why I ask, “How much is a visa
worth? What price do you put on keeping your wife out of immigration
detention? I’d like to think that immigration wouldn’t do that,
but they would be within their legal right to do so.
Alternatively, they could deport her
and they would have to wait several years for a permanent partner
visa, which could be refused. Either way, there is the possibility
that they could be apart for years, with no certainty of ever being
together in Australia. Is it really worth saving a little bit of
money for that?
The second point I would like to
make is that while we love helping folks, we are also running a
business to earn a living. We’re not giving out a lot of
information free, or we would be out of business. Although, out blog
post will give you some general knowledge of the issues you have with
getting a partner visa.
Down Under Visa is reasonably priced
and worth much more than our professional fees. Please don’t
hesitate to contact Jeff Harvie and Down Under Visa for any
immigration to Australia issue you have. Don’t try to do something
so important by yourself. Always insist on a Registered Migration
Agent!
