# Supporting witness relating to a partner visa application



## probe (Jul 9, 2009)

Hi,

I am confused by one of the requirements fo Partner Visa applications.

This is the requirement:

*At least two statutory declarations, preferably from individuals who are Australian citizens or permanent residents and who have personal knowledge of your spouse relationship and support your claim that the relationship is genuine and continuing.*

I and my spouse don't have any common friends who are Australian Citizens or Permanent residents. We can never fulfill this requirement. 

Is this requiement only for the onshore Partner Visa Applicants?

My spouse is a Offshore applicant. Is there an alternative for Offshore applicants?

Thank you.


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## castleofnew (Nov 10, 2008)

probe said:


> Hi,
> 
> I am confused by one of the requirements fo Partner Visa applications.
> 
> ...


Hi, which one of you is Australian?
You can get family members to do your stat dec. My boyfriend is an Ozzie so we got his Mum to do one and we also have an Australian friend who lives in England who did one for us.

If you don't have any ozzie family members I think that you can submit stat decs from your own family and friends that aren't Australian but I think that you have to submit quite a few as supporting evidence. ( i'm not overally sure about this) 

I have applied Offshore. You also need to make sure that you get the people who write these stat decs for you birth certificate/passport (copies) certified.

Hope that helps if you read through some of the older posts they may be bale to help you as I think that I read somwhere that one person didn't have any ozzie citizens to write stat decs.

Hope that helps.


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## probe (Jul 9, 2009)

I am the Australian. 

I read the information given in Form 888. This is what it says:

_If you are outside Australia and are unable to get an Australian
citizen or Australian permanent resident to complete a
statutory declaration in support of your relationship with your
partner, you may obtain statements from people who know
you and your sponsor. Such statements are not statutory
declarations under Australian law. However, in accordance
with policy, they should be witnessed or certified according to
the legal practices of the relevant country. Failing that, they
should be witnessed by a person whose occupation or
qualification is comparable to those listed above. This person
should sign, date and specify their occupation at the bottom
of the statement._

The question that is worrying me now is; should the statements given by non-Australians be written in Form 888 or can they be written on plain paper and certified according to the legal practice in my partners country?


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## castleofnew (Nov 10, 2008)

probe said:


> I am the Australian.
> 
> I read the information given in Form 888. This is what it says:
> 
> ...



I think that you should do 2 on the form 888 it's basically a similar format. For mine and my patners stat decs I downloaded the foramt from the australian government website which is basically a similar format. I can't really remember whats on 888. 
I think the person just has to give their own details and write some info about you. Just make sure you get their birth certificate/passport certified and that you have a witness too from the list that your allowed and maybes put a cover note with them explaining that they are not ozzie citiizens. 

And then include more statements from your family and friends that could be written on paper. and certified and witnessed too. I think that would be OK.


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## cowboy (Oct 22, 2009)

I had all my statutory declarations done on Form 888. I reasoned that the familiarity of the form for the purpose entailed would fit with my whole application. The fact that some done by Americans are not "legally" a statutory declaration under Australian Law does not change the purpose or intent of the documents. It just means they have no legal bearing. Perhaps it has something to do with legal jurisdictions, and the Australian gov't can't hold a foreign citizen in their home country to any legal standard for the purpose of the document.

It is still a document that says "I have known these folks for X number of years and believe their relationship to be genuine", which is really what the DIAC is after.

All things being equal, better to use a legal form without the legal standing, than to use no form at all with no legal standing.

Of course, I haven't gotten my visa yet, either.


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## verynewuser (Jan 5, 2016)

same question


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