September 11, 2007 herald sun
TENS of thousands of Aussies are finding love overseas each year and bringing their partners home, new figures show.
The Immigration Department issued about 40,000 spouse visas last year, up 7000 on 2004-05.
The size of the intake is staggering when it is noted that the total number of marriages conducted in Australia annually is little more than 100,000.
The top source country for spouses in 2006-07 was Britain with 5085 visas, down by about 400 on the previous year.
Next were China (4124) and India (3095), which recorded big increases on the numbers in 2004-05, according to data obtained by the Herald Sun ...
New life: Arun Bopaiah had no one in Australia so he returned to his native India two years ago and married Divya Ganapathy as plenty of other Aussies find love overseas. Picture: Ian Currie
