Expensive love!

I’m reading on the Australian government website about visas that I can apply to after my working holiday visa expires. Not just for fun because if Luke and I want to do this without getting married in such an unromantic circumstances  we have to think about keeping evidence of our relationship, about living together and how to show the government that this is a real relationship. If I understood everything right we are counted as a de facto relationship after living together for 12 months. After this time period we can apply for a temporary partner visa that I have to be on for 2 years until we can apply for a permanent partner visa. Applying for a temporary partner visa cost $2960 (about 17 600 kroner) if I’m on the working holiday visa I just got granted for one year. It applying overseas after my working holiday visa expires the cost goes down to $1995 (about 11 800kroner). The temporary visa is allowing me to stay in Australia with working rights while they are processing our application for a permanent visa. But it is a lot of money for a visa, and in addition to plane tickets back and forth this relationship is not cheap. Even though I know how much this relationship will cost and how much I have to sacrifice (and how much Luke already has sacrificed by quitting his job and moving to Norway for 4 months without a job) there is no doubt that I’m willing to try it. I believe in this, and I know Luke does too. In this case we need the money ( as I have said before, money and love is important in life) but we will gladly spend it in order to be together!

PS this is only my understanding of the government web page, it might not be correctly interpreted.