Visa immigration costs

[Peter Arnold]

Hi guys, I've been off the air for a while, but have been keeping up the relationship with my lady in Shenyang. I have discovered that I could bring her to Australia, as I have a substantial amount of money in the bank. So I do not need records of regular work for the past 2 years or own a house. That was news to me. Now my lady wants to know  how much it will cost for me to bring her here in terms of Visa costs and other hidden legal costs. I think the Spouse visa cost( 40SP) is $1735. So if someone could help me, or steers me to something on the forum where it has already been discussed, I would be up for medicals as well,
Thanks,
Peter

[David E]

Peter

Once you have paid the Aus Immigration fees there is not a lot more to spend.

Of course, if you wish to use an Immigration lawyer to do all your paperwork, that will cost you about $2000 ish

There will also be some fees for translation and notarising some documents from Chinese to English (I paid about 2500 RMB all up)

Her medical will cost 1200 RMB...same for any children involved.

Other than that...just the airfare to Aus !!!

David

ps...the spouse visa you will apply for is 309. ....40 SP is only one small part of the 309 package.

And I dont know who told you about the financial requirements, but having just gone through the whole process, I can tell you for certain that whatever you have in the Bank is very useful...but they INSIST on seeing what regular income you have to support a wife. If your Financial holdings provide enough income to demonstrate this, then you should be OK without regular income...but it is by no means certain.

I would suggest you need to show at least 40 to 50 K as an investment income (before tax)......which suggests you need at least a million in the Bank.....but an Immig Lawyer will tell you with more certainty than me.

[Peter Arnold]

Hi David, Thanks for your reply. I spoke to a guy from immigration the other day. I may call again. It's hard to get all the information off the web site. I will sit down and go through all the relevant threads and see what it will cost from the Chinese side for marriage documents etc, etc.
Thanks again,
Peter

[john1964]

Just a heads up for you guys applying for the 309 visa,,DIAC has increased the application fee to $ 1,995.00, Bloody Government.

[Jason B]

Bloody hell, up by nearly 300 dollars.  Must be the carbon tax...........

Current conversion (12/07/2011)  $1995.00 AUD = 13,642.44 CNY - enough to make you cry.........do not forget to add the other costs as well, getting translations done etc........but believe me it is worth it in the end........

[john1964]

Jason, You are right about the other costs , Chnlove, 14 months, Air fare/accommodation/ Visa/ Immigration lawyer/ Computer/ Spending money in China. Gifts,,$ 30,000 or there about so far, But is she worth it ,,,,, You know the answer to that  question     John.

[David E]

Jase

When I started my relationship with Ming, the Aussie dollar was at 47 cents to the greenback....a trip to China then was a seriously expensive deal !!! Thank goodness that we now are over parity, which gets it all back into reality.

As regards the Immig fees...what other organisation can simply put up its prices, without telling anyone, without giving a damm anyway...and to top it all, all the fees we pay are non-refundable if we get rejected.

When you consider that last year, 2.7 MILLION applications for various visas were received by the Immig Dept....that represents an income of about 3 BILLION dollars...and for this we get crap service.......but we dont have any choices do we...pay up and grin and bear it !!!!

John...I am sure that you are both better prepared for the Consulate questions this time...wish you good luck and success.

Pete...the appeals process is always available to you in Aus...but dont get your hopes up if you decide to try it !!!! It is a miserable, long-winded, gut wrenching process that will leave you poorer, sadder and exhausted...without any guarantee of success !!! I have an Aussie friend who's girlfriend they rejected for a fiance visa......he is 1 year into the appeals process, has spent $12,000 on Lawyers and aint got nowhere yet !!!!