Awww how sweetly wonderful. Congratulations! 
We did talk to an immigration lawyer back before she came here this time, and the impression we got is that once she is already in the country, and got into the country in the first place legally, then if we get married, and can convince them that it’s an actual marriage, we’re pretty much in good shape.
If she hadn’t been able to find a job which would get her an employment visa, our backup plan was for her to stay the 90 days of immigration visa, 90 days of grace period, and then just go ahead and get married, after which apparently they would be extremely unlikely to throw her out, and we’d have plenty of time to work everything out.
Oh, and I have too many people who I really would want to be at my wedding to have a destination wedding. We’re considering various schemes such as: have a super-tiny wedding with no ceremony, then a big “we got married” party in the US (functioning as the wedding for purposes of guests and so forth) and an equivalent party in Australia.
Thanks for all the good wishes, everyone.
Congratulations, Max and Araminty! I wish you guys all the best.
When you have the wedding (or, when you have at least one of your weddings), let us know and please post pics!
I grew up in Darwin, but was living in/around Melbourne until moving here in March.
Thanks for the congrats, everyone. I was utterly suprised and delighted at MaxTheVool’s proposal, and it was fun breaking the news to his family at my first Thanksgiving. The immigration stuff, and the wedding stuff, is too much to think of right now, so I’m just enjoying the swoony love for the moment…
Best of luck and congratulations to both of you!
That is made of awesome. May you have many happy years together!