Proving that a Relationship Exists

image sourced from google images

Every time I think about my status in Australia I get a knot in my stomach. My pulse picks up and I can have as many as ten tabs open in my web browser on the topic.

I’m here on a visitor visa. It’s my third. I first entered Australia on 15 October 2008 with an ETA (Electronic Travel Authorization?), then I extended it online by another three months. So that’s six months in Australia. Instead of taking the risk to extend the visa another time, I went back home for about two weeks in mid-April. In two weeks, it’d have been a total of nine months.

I need three more months to be able to apply for a de facto spouse visa. That is a visa based on the relationship I have with The Murloc. I haven’t had a “real” job, I don’t have any uni qualifications, and therefore I don’t have skills that I could use to enter on a Skilled Migrant visa. It’s really too expensive for me to enroll in university here without much financial aid from my mother, and even then I am required to take a foundation year course (which runs up to AUD20,000 depending on the uni) because I don’t have ‘A’ level certification or a diploma. Therefore, a de facto spouse visa seems the logical way to go.

I’m nervous. There’re many documents we will need to submit to the Immigration department to prove that our relationship is genuine and committed for a long time to come. As I agonized over what we’ll have to gather as “evidence”, The Murloc summarized it all with one sentence, “You’re being forced to quantify a relationship with dates and joint-name bills… which most people don’t have to.”

I understand that the Immigration department need us to do this. They need to see proof, to know that I’m not a mail order bride, nor did I bribe this man so that I can seek a new life in their country. But goddamnnit it’s hard.

I have a task (or two) that I need done in Singapore. One of which would be getting a certificate of No Criminal Conviction. My only issue with it is that I have to pay by a bank draft, and I’m not entirely sure about it. I need to call DBS tomorrow, as what I can glean of it through the iBanking service, is that I need to collect it from one of its branches, which I obviously cannot do. Can I send my application to a friend in Singapore, and trust him/her to pick the draft up and hand it to the police? Is that even allowed?

So many questions.

That we met online probably doesn’t help. Despite the increasing occurrences of such couples I don’t think the Immigration department see quite so often. How can we prove it? With screenshots? Will guild chat logs count as “evidence”?

I almost feel like I have to present a case before panel of judges in court…

… which is probably not too far from the truth anyway.