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| Adoption, Child Dependent or Spouse Visa; Which one should I choose? | |
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| Topic Started: Apr 9 2010, 11:30:21 AM (583 Views) | |
| marccr | Apr 9 2010, 11:30:21 AM Post #1 |
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Piker
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Hello, I know you are not lawyers and after reading many of these posts, realize you are quite familliar with the system and I would most appreciate any advice you can give. I'm an American citizen married to an Australian citizen for 5 years now and we live in U.S. with my daughter who is 16. We have lived her since we got married. My daughter would like to go to an Australian University and stay near my husbands adult children and grandchildren. Do I apply for a spouse visa and add her on? I do plan to visit Au. and I don't think I can make it a full move for now. She however will. I hear if I apply this way, since I'm married 5 years, I can receive a permanent residency and since she is on the same visa, she will also and will be entitled to get the same tuition rate as a domestic student. I do like how this would give me the option of moving to Australia in the future. Or would it be easier and possible to have my husband adopt her (her biological father has died) and then she becomes a citizen immediately and wouldn't have to worry about having to get a return visa. In addition, because she likes the exchange possiblity of going to an England university for a year, she wouldn't have to worry about her permanent residency being a citizen. I looked through some of the paperwork and not sure if this can be done. My third option would be to have her apply as a Dependent Child. I'm not sure this can be done either since my husband or I wouldn't be living in Australia when this was granted. I'm thinking from my little knowledge you might need to live there as a sponsor to a dependent child. Any help you can give me, would be appreciated. Thanks, Marilynn |
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| blarg | Apr 9 2010, 12:09:00 PM Post #2 |
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True Blue Mate
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Welcome! There are pros and cons to each. The spouse visa you'd really want to be looking at moving to Australia in the near future. The application fees for this visa are in the neighbourhood of $2500, and that's without a migration agent. You'd get PR, but if you weren't in Australia, or able to demonstrate continuing ties to Australia, then you'd have difficulty obtaining a return resident visa after 5 years. I suppose your husband being aussie and your daughter (possibly) living here could work, but I personally wouldn't want to depend on this, because if that PR visa were to expire and you had no return resident visa, it's gone. That's an expensive 5 year option. This essentially means you'd want to be moving here in the next 4 years or so. The pro of course is that you both get residency out of it instead of just your daughter, but it's all wasted if you aren't planning on living here soon. And the con is that your daughter has PR, and then essentially needs to live here for 4 years to become a citizen. If you were to go the adoption route, that'd be easier. The adoption route is probably the best out of those to me, because it would get your daughter straight to where she needs to go with minimum fuss. The downside is that it doesn't end up covering you, but if you do ever plan to move here you can always go for a spouse visa at that point. This essentially means you can address just the situation at hand without being pressured to move here if you don't want to do that this instant. The Dependent Child visa is less attractive, but I don't know much about it. I'd think that they'd be just looking at it and wondering why she doesn't just live in the US with you guys if she's your dependent. I'm no expert, but I don't see it fitting your situation very well on the surface. Even if you're planning to move here soon, getting citizenship for your daughter pretty much right out of the gate is likely to be quite worth while, especially if she's interested in going to other commonwealth countries. If it were me, I'd do the adoption route, get the daughter sorted, then when (if?) I was ready to move over, I'd look at a spouse visa at that time. That's just me, and I don't know your whole situation, and lastly, this isn't advice. My advice is to call immigration and talk it over as well to make sure you're not missing any options, or misinterpreting some that do apply to your situation. Hope this helps. 
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| marccr | Apr 9 2010, 01:46:23 PM Post #3 |
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Piker
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Wow, you are absolutely amazing. I like your thought process. You are right about wanting to take care of my daughter first and be able to take care of low univ. fees. Because I'm not ready to commit living there full time, you are right again about possibly losing the P.R. I'm not quite sure how the adoption works. I think I need to get her adopted here and then Australia would recognize that. I love the idea that she becomes a citizen immediatly and it sounds like it is cheaper than the other route as well although I haven't checked the fees. I thank you so much for replying so quickly and concisely. I didn't expect this from a blog site. You are a great help. Cheers, Marccr |
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| blarg | Apr 9 2010, 04:25:31 PM Post #4 |
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True Blue Mate
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No worries! We'd love to hear how you go with it all.
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| AmbroseChick | Apr 14 2010, 01:12:23 AM Post #5 |
True Blue Mate
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I would recommend the adoption route as well. Even though my Australian husband has been sole provider to my children (his step-children) for more then 7 years, it was still a big effort to get my son here (even with my ex's permission). Had my husband been able to adopt my son, none of the issues that we confronted would have even existed. It might also be cheaper given that your daughter's biological father has passed away. Best of luck. |
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| marccr | Apr 22 2010, 11:20:20 AM Post #6 |
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Piker
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Hello, I've been dealing with the immigration and it seems from what I've read that if my husband adopts my daughter, I must either relinquish all my rights as a parent or divorce him so he has sole rights to her, in order for her to be eligible for the adoption visa. I was wondering if anyone has done the step parent adoption here (U.S.) and applied for an adoption visa for their child to Australia. I thought it was going to be easy and now I'm not so sure. I looked up the immigration booklet number 2 and it did say that Australia frowns on adoptions of relatives. Would that be the case for a parent adopting their step child? Any thoughts, would be appreciated. Thanks so much, |
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| TerritorianTori | Apr 23 2010, 12:16:00 PM Post #7 |
Dance to disco
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I don't have any personal experience with step-parent adoptions, but... as I understand it, the adoption visa is meant for people who are already living in Australia and wish to bring in an adoptive child from overseas. However, you and your husband are living in the US, with no immediate plans to relocate to Australia, so maybe that wouldn't apply to you? If he were to adopt your daughter through the US system (not the Australian one), wouldn't she then qualify for Australian citizenship right away, without the need for an adoption visa? Yes, the adoption laws here are rather restrictive. 
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