Australia with US wife - Partner Visa wisdom needed :)

Hello everyone,

My wife and I currently live in the US. I'm Australian, she's American, and we've been married for a year, with an unwieldy amount of supporting evidence for our relationship, covering all four components required for the partner visa.

We're considering moving to Australia in 2-3 years and I was hoping to get a little head start, or at least start thinking about this process.

Some of the things we're trying to work out are:

• Whether or not we should try applying ourselves? It seems pretty straightforward.
• What an ideal time would be to start, given a firm plan of moving back but with a loose timeline of 2-3 years.
• If we do an onshore application (which appears to be processed faster), can we both leave Australia after the application and return to the US until approval?
• Are there set conditions for entry and when the visa is approved? For example, once she is approved, would we have to fulfill any minimum requirements, and is there a restriction on the amount of time that can lapse between approval and moving to Australia?

Apologies if these questions have been answered elsewhere. I am thoroughly happy to receive any links you think will help with my query, as the Department of Affairs website isn't the easiest site to gain insight from. Any other information you think might be handy for us would be most welcome.

Thank you so much in advance,
Pedro