Moving to Australia.....?

[karlitis]

My daughter has 3 degrees and is working on her masters. She has Australian/American citizenship. She is married to an American --he is finishing up his degree as well. We have family as well as property over in Australia. My daughter & son-in-law would like to move to Australia to live permanently. My daughter will not have a problem with this--my question is what will be needed for my son-in-law to move over to Australia with my daughter.
Thanks for any help .

[kendon19]

Your son-in-law applies for a Partner visa with your daughter as his sponsor. They can apply now while they're still offshore and must be offshore when the visa is granted. Alternatively, your SIL can come on a Tourist visa, and apply for an onshore visa but he wouldn't be able to work here until his partner visa is granted.
http://www.immi.gov.au/migrants/partners/partner/309-100/ Offshore
http://www.immi.gov.au/migrants/partners/partner/820-801/ Onshore

If they have plenty of relationship evidence (just being married isn't enough) and if he submits his medicals and PCCs at the same time as his visa application, he can reasonably expect to get his visa within a few weeks, so the offshore approach is best unless they're breaking their necks to get to Australia. Normally, a Partner visa is Provisional for 2 years and only becomes permanent if their relationship is still intact at that time. If however they have been married/de facto for 5 years or if they've been married/de facto for 2 years and have children together, his visa may be permanent from the outset.
The Partner Migration booklet explains the process and requirements. They should pay particular attention to 'Evidence that your relationship is genuine' on pages 38/39 - they can't submit too much! The stronger and more 'decision ready' the application - the faster it will be granted.
http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/booklets/1127.pdf