Can we get a 12 month Tourist Visa to Australia from the Philippines? A one year stay?

Can we get a 12 month Tourist Visa to Australia from the Philippines?

Is a one year Australian Tourist Visa from the Philippines realistic?

Can we stay together for 12 months?

One Year Australian Tourist Visas – Do they exist?

Can we get an Australian Tourist Visa (aka Visitor Visa) for your lady from the Philippines, China, Thailand, Vietnam or Cambodia for one year? Can we get a 12 month Tourist Visa to Australia so we can spend all that time living together?

Or we want to establish a de facto relationship, which means we have to live together for 12 months under the same roof with no gaps!

Actually, NOT TRUE!

Yes, you need to be in a de facto relationship for 12 months. But you CAN have time apart during that time, and basically you NEED to anyway. One year tourist visas for ordinary people simply don’t exist! For a wealthy person from Japan or Europe? Well, maybe. But what normal person takes a one year holiday! Wish I could! And tourist visa are designed for visiting. People from the less-developed countries definitely don’t take 12 month holidays!

IF you have a Registered Relationship Certificate? Yes, this will shorten the time required to be in the relationship to approximately 6 months. But the issue of whether you can have breaks in that time still remains. What is more realistic is a Multiple-Entry Tourist Visa. These are not so hard to get (mostly) these days. That means you get to stay for three months (on a multiple-entry tourist visa), and then have to fly back home. But you may then return again. Great for when you want to visit more than once, and yes it DOES allow you time together to establish a de facto relationship.

So no, you don’t need to be together for 12 months with no gaps or breaks in that time. You may have time apart during the 12 months (or lesser time with a registered relationship certificate) if you need to. You just need to ensure that your de facto shared-life relationship continues, and that you are only apart as long as you need to. This is OK under the rules, as long as you can otherwise show the existence of a committed relationship. And you need to START the relationship by setting up a home together.

Don’t get your hopes up and try to get a 12 month Tourist Visa to Australia, or more than likely you will just face a visa refusal!

Who are Down Under Visa? Who is Jeff Harvie?

Jeff Harvie and the Down Under Visa team have been doing this for a lot of years! Down Under Visa have brought thousands of couples to Australia from South East Asia over the years. Mostly from the Philippines, but we help increasing numbers of couples where the visa applicant is from China, Thailand, Vietnam or Cambodia.

And what this means is we see a lot of success….and we also see failures when people go it alone after talking to their mate, or their relative, or that minimal-care-no-responsibility Facebook group run by Steve and Maribeth based on their own visa application! One application, and they feel qualified to advise others! It’s not even LEGAL to do that!

Want to bring your sweetheart to Australia from The Philippines, China, Thailand, Vietnam or Cambodia? Get a FREE VISA ASSESSMENT today! It will take you five minutes.

Jeff Harvie is a Registered Migration Agent from Australia, but resident in Philippines since 2010 with his Filipina wife Mila and large extended family. Experienced with the Philippines culture, cross-cultural relationships and bureaucracy as well as Australian visas and Australian Migration Law, he writes with authority and fortunately with enough informality and humour that the average Aussie gets it!