Moving to Australia

by Joan
(Rankin Inlet Canada)

I am a Canadian whose common law will soon be moving to Australia to work there. My question is, how long can I visit him or will I be allowed to visit for an indefinite amount of time as he will be working in Australia?

Joan Kalaserk

Response to: Moving to Australia

Hi Joan,

You don't give enough information about the arrangements your partner has made. "Working in Australia" can mean a lot of different things from an immigration law point of view. What visa exactly does he have? Is he moving to Australia permanently?

I suspect, what your partner is doing has nothing to do with you at this stage.

The immigration laws treat you like any other tourist. See the website of the Australian Department Of Immigration and Citizenship:


I am guessing that your partner has been granted temporary residency. Employer sponsorship arrangements start out as some form of temporary residency.

If he was a permanent resident or Australian citizen then you could apply for temporary residency yourself. Temporary residency allows you to stay and work in Australia for two years, after which you can apply for permanent residency.

Just follow the "Family Members" link on the government website above to find out more. I find it to be a very user friendly and informative site. (By the way, what you call "common law" is referred to as "de facto" in Australia.)

Assuming he is not a permanent resident yet I can only repeat what's already on my website.

An electronic visa (ETA) allows you to stay for 3 months. If you want to stay longer you need to go through another application process.

You can apply online to get a 6 month travel visa for Australia. It can be extended to 12 months once you are here. Just follow the different links on that page to find out how it all works. For Canadians it really is just a simple formality.

If you want to work yourself and are under 30 you can get the Australian Working Holiday Visa for one year. And if you do seasonal work in remote areas for at least 3 months out of the 12 you can apply for another year.

So in short:
With the Australia travel visa you can stay up to 12 months.
With the Australia work visa you can stay up to 24 months.

You may also want to do more reading on the website of the Australian Department Of Immigration and Citizenship.

Check out their information for Workers. You may have the option to get sponsored and get a temporary residency visa yourself.

Hope that helps.