Would you like to help change the system?
One of the things I want to do is drive change so this never happens to anyone else, so below is a draft letter you can use if you want to join the fight to change our legislation. Not for my husband and me, as we have to battle the system as it is – but for all the couples yet to endure the system – let’s change it. One of these days it might be YOU in my shoes. That cute guy or gal you meet in Spain………. or Italy, or Canada or South Africa or Bali……..
Below is a draft letter you may like to use, or draft your own. If you are legal eagle who can recommend improvements, please do.
Snail mail addresses can be found at the link below.
If you are Australian – add your local MP if possible – contact details can be found here http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/index.htm
email to: chris.bowen.mp@aph.gov.au – Minister for Immigration & Citizenship
CC: senator.lundy@immi.gov.au – Parliamentary Secretary
r.mcclelland.mp@aph.gov.au - Attorney General
complaintsinfo@humanrights.gov.au - Australian Human Rights Commission
Dear Minister,
Partner Visas
I am extremely disappointed to learn Partner Visa application denials can be based on nothing more that a subjective assessment of the genuineness of a marriage or relationship.
I consider this approach to be a denial of Civil Rights enshrined under Articles 17 and 23 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). I am shocked that Australia would does not uphold the provisions of the ICCPR. I respectfully request that Australia introduce an amendment to the Immigration Act to ensure Partner Visas denials are based on substantiated facts only.
Regards,
Hi Robyn,
I have been reading your blog for a while now, though only found it after you’d thankfully got through this nasty system to the other side. I (Australian sponsor) and my husband (from a “high-risk” country) are currently battling the system ourselves.
I would like to do much to change the way things are. Have you heard the latest outrageous news? The government wants to increase partner visa fees yet again as of 1st January 2013, this time to $2700 offshore and $4000 onshore. To me this appears to be a clear a message to keep would-be immigrants out – who can afford such an “application fee”? It’s a fine as punishment for choosing a non-Australian partner, more like. The government prefers to spit on notions of humanity.
I would very much like to see a huge movement to change things, but this can’t happen until more Australians know how things are. This does have the potential to affect anbody these days, and if not people themselves then their children who are travelling more and more. I think if we started a campaign of information, getting stories published in newspapers and on current affairs programs, there would be a lot more outrage from everyday Australians. Right now, too few people know what the system will ask of them if they one day decide to go down this path, and they only find out when they’re already in their relationships with non-Australians. And by then it’s too late. If more people knew about the things we face, change could happen.
It would be great to have a discussion on things we could do to get the ball rolling. Feel free to contact me by email if this interests you on a deeper level (I hope my address shows up on your side!)
xx
Just dashing out to dinner, but will reply in detail tomorrow!
Hi again, sorry about yesterday.
I will email you, but I just wanted to publicly say raising awareness is one of the prime reasons I am writing the book. Elsewhere on this site I have said similar things – with the greater mobility of the global population, spouse/partner visas are becoming more usual each passing day.
I agree totally with your comment, “Right now, too few people know what the system will ask of them if they one day decide to go down this path, and they only find out when they’re already in their relationships with non-Australians. And by then it’s too late. If more people knew about the things we face, change could happen.” Exactly! People just do not expct the road blocks or to be treated like criminals!
Hi again,
Yes, I have been drawn to you for a while now because we appear to share much of the sentiments on this topic. I am absolutely serious about doing as much as I can to get involved with this issue and I hope that I can effect change in some way for the better. I have been dealing with this for almost five years now ever since I first realised how difficult this path would be (when I first met my husband). It’s taken almost all those five years to get to a stage where we could afford to apply and for our application to be taken seriously!
I think we will have very much to discuss, and I am greatly looking forward to your email.
xx
I hope your able to get through your problems. I don’t agree with the problems that some countries put on people, families and their relationship hardships. Good luck to you.
Thank you Penny. It is definitely my view that partner/spouse visas are a civil rights issue, not an immigration (per se) issue. Those rights are enshrined in the ICCPR and should be upheld by states that are signatories to the covenant.
Robyn,
I am sorry to read about your difficulties. I am a U.S. citizen married to a Canadian and when deciding where to settle, Canada was the better choice in terms of ease of system. Even then, the process took about a year and I was wary every time I had to re-enter after a visit with my family in the States. Border officials didn’t have to re-admit me even though R and I were married and my paperwork was in the system – and they made sure to remind me of the favor they were doing me every single time by letting me back in.
To emigrate to the U.S., my husband would have had an easier time going through his company with a work visa than trying to claim residency through being my husband.
I suppose their are “good” reasons for the “rules” but they often seem petty and arbitrary and not all inclined to look at the fact that real people’s lives are being impacted with casual disregard.
My mother-in-law recently married an American and they are trying to secure residency for her in the U.S. Because he is ex-military, he has access to free legal counsel through the Air Force, which may help expedite things. Regardless, he gets hassled by Canadian border guards when they come here and she gets hassled when they go to the U.S. Imagine. Two senior citizens just driving between one home and another.
My husband’s niece is engaged to an Australian and they are in Queensland, I think, right now. She hasn’t been hassled that I know of, but they are very young and in my reading, I have noticed that younger couples don’t meet with the same skepticism and barriers.
I wish you both luck.
Yes, it seems it is not just an Australian thing. Thank you for sharing your experiences, Annie – it all helps make us “real” instead of a faceless file.
Robyn,
Sorry about your difficulties. I’ve done some business-related, Visa-application work in the U.S. Often it seems like the rules are designed to deny. But if a spouse is in the U.S., the process leans in favor of a Visa. When families and personal safety are at risk, these turn red tape into trauma. I expect that, if the public knew of how gov’t policy impacted actual people and families, there would be support for altering the practices to avoid the separation that you’re dealing with.
I’ll keep up with your progress. I hope that you get a positive resolution soon.
Regards,
Robert
Thank you Robert. Yes it seems the rules here are designed to deny too. I don’t know about in the USAm but here it is a VERY subjective process. The delegated decision makers are not required to substantiate anything they say in the decision, it is all opinion based.
When an application is off-shore, there isn’t any consideration given, so I am told by people who know the system, to the wellbe=ing of the citizen (in this case me).
I am not sure the public in general care too much to be honest. Friends and family do, and people who work in this area do, but the public at large? We also fight prejudice, if you check out my Quizzically Musing page. Very sad.
Thank you for your support, especially from so far away!
Very strange indeed. I work in a hospital with computers a lot. Your problem cold have been caused by someone have the wrong computer screen up and typing in someone else info! In that case no one lied. But shouldn’t there be a way to challenge a decisioon based on inaccurate data? My precious wife is not from the US so you have my deepest sympathies. Take care.
No, Darryl. The person is named in the Decision Record and is known to us. It is just “the system” and how it works, unfortunately. It needs to be changed. The US system doesn’t seem to be nearly as bad, as far as I can tell from the given example of my friend who married an American.
Thanks for reading and I’m glad you have your precious wife by your side!