Which partner visa applies to you?
Where you are standing on the day you apply decides it, more than anything about your relationship. You must be inside Australia to lodge the 820, and outside it to lodge the 309 or the 300. That is not a preference the Department can be talked out of.
| Visa | Where you must be | Who it is for | What happens next |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subclass 820 → 801 Partner visa, applied for in Australia | You must be in Australia when you apply | You are already here, married to or in a de facto relationship with an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen. | The 820 lets you live, work and study here while the permanent 801 is assessed, about two years after you applied. |
| Subclass 309 → 100 Partner visa, applied for outside Australia | You must be outside Australia when you apply | You are overseas, married to or in a de facto relationship with an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen. | The 309 lets you move here and live, work and study while the permanent 100 is assessed, about two years after you applied. |
| Subclass 300 Prospective Marriage visa | You must be outside Australia when you apply | You intend to marry an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen, and you have met each other in person as adults. | It runs 9 to 15 months from grant. You marry within that time, then apply for the 820 and 801 from inside Australia — at a much lower charge, because you have already paid most of it. |
Is the temporary visa a separate application?
No. You apply for the temporary and the permanent visa together, in one application, for one charge. This is the single most misunderstood thing about partner visas, and getting it wrong changes what you expect to happen and when.
The permanent stage becomes assessable two years after the day you applied — not two years after the temporary visa was granted, which for many people is a very different date. When it arrives you provide fresh evidence that the relationship is still going, rather than starting again. In some cases where the couple were already in a long-term relationship at the time of applying, the Department may grant the permanent visa without that wait.
The charge is paid in full when you lodge, and it covers both stages. It is generally not refunded if the application is refused, which is the practical reason the evidence is worth assembling properly before lodgement rather than after a request for more information. One exception is worth knowing: someone who came to Australia on a Prospective Marriage visa pays a much smaller charge for the onshore partner visa, because most of it was paid the first time. The current amounts are on the Department's own page.
What counts as proof of a relationship?
Four things, and the Department names them itself: your finances, your household, your social life, and your commitment to each other. A decision-maker who has never met you is asking whether two lives have actually been combined, and documents are the only way they can see it.
Finances
That you share money rather than live side by side. Joint bank statements, a joint lease or mortgage, loans for a car or a house in both names, household bills carrying both of you.
Your household
That you run a home together. Who does what around the house, written down. Bills, mail and email addressed to you both, documents showing your living arrangements, and anything showing joint responsibility for children.
Social matters
That other people know. Two written statements from witnesses over 18 who know you both and know about the relationship, usually on the Department’s Form 888. Plus joint invitations, shared friends, travel together, and having told banks, employers and government you are a couple.
Commitment
That this is meant to last. Knowing each other’s background and family, having combined your personal affairs, staying in touch when apart, and not being related. Wills count here.
And the part people leave until last
The Department also asks you to tell it, in writing, the history of the relationship. Not a form — a written account. It asks about:
- How, when and where you first met
- How the relationship developed
- When you moved in together, got engaged, or married
- What you do together
- Time you have spent apart
- The significant events in the relationship
- Your plans for the future
Written honestly, including the difficult parts and the time apart, it is often what makes a file make sense. Written as a paragraph of adjectives, it does nothing. The witness statements are a similar case: two people over 18 who know you both, usually on Form 888.
What is asked of your partner?
More than signing a form. An Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen, aged 18 or over. The Department has to approve them, and they cannot be swapped later. Two of the requirements below exist to protect the person being sponsored rather than the Department, which is worth knowing if they come as a surprise.
They are checked, not just named
Most sponsors have to meet the character requirement. That means a complete-disclosure National Police Certificate from the Australian Federal Police — a state police check or a standard-disclosure one is not accepted — plus an overseas police certificate from every country they have spent 12 months or more in over the last 10 years since turning 16.
You are entitled to be told
A sponsor must give written consent for the Department to disclose convictions for relevant offences to the applicant. Refusing the police check, or refusing that consent, is itself a reason the sponsorship may not be approved. This rule exists to protect the person being sponsored.
They agree to support you
A sponsor undertakes to support you and any family members included in the application, financially and with accommodation. Sponsorship costs nothing itself, and it runs for two years from the grant of the temporary visa, or from your next arrival if you were outside Australia at grant.
The same person, for two years
You cannot change sponsors. Whoever sponsors you when you apply has to be the same person sponsoring you for two years after the temporary visa is granted. They can withdraw sponsorship at any time before the permanent visa is decided.
- It would be their third time sponsoring a partner or a fiancé
- They have sponsored another partner within the last 5 years
- They were themselves sponsored as a partner within the last 5 years
- They hold a Contributory Parent visa granted less than 5 years ago and you were their partner before it was granted
- You and your sponsor have a child who is dependent on both of you
- Their previous partner died
- Their previous partner left, and there are children dependent on them for care
- Your relationship with them is longstanding
These are exceptions rather than defaults, and whether one applies to you is exactly the kind of thing worth establishing before any money is spent. The Department sets all of it out under the "For Sponsors" view of its subclass 820 page.
How long will it take?
Nobody can give you a date, and the Department says its own partner visa times vary and often run longer than people expect. What can be said is the order it works in, which since 25 July 2026 has been set by Ministerial Direction 117, replacing Ministerial Direction 102.
Applications made while the applicant is in Australia, for a visa that can be granted while they are in Australia — which in practice means the onshore subclass 820 and 801.
Applications where the applicant is outside Australia when they apply, or has to be outside Australia when the visa is granted — the subclass 300, and the subclass 309 and 100.
That difference is worth weighing before you decide where to apply from, alongside everything else that decides it. An application may be prioritised where it involves special circumstances of a compassionate nature and there are compelling reasons to depart from the order. The Department says plainly that most such requests cannot be approved, and that it will only consider one where the application is already complete. And priority is only queue position: every requirement still has to be met, and the Department still decides. Read the current family visa processing priorities.
What happens to the visa if the relationship ends?
It does not automatically end with it. There are three situations in which a partner visa application can continue, and the first exists so that nobody has to stay in a violent relationship in order to keep a visa.
The relationship ended because of family violence
The family violence provisions can allow the permanent visa to still be granted. The Department first has to be satisfied the relationship was genuine before it ended, then assesses the family violence claim; if it is not satisfied, it refers the claim to an independent expert whose opinion it must accept. It says openly that gathering this evidence is hard and that it will give you more time.
Your sponsoring partner died
The application can continue. This is one of the situations the Department names itself as a reason a partner visa application survives the end of the relationship.
You have a child together
Where you and the sponsoring partner have a child and share access and parental responsibility, the application may also be able to continue.
The Department sets out the whole process, including what evidence it asks for and what happens if it is not satisfied, on its family violence provisions page for partner visa applicants, with more support listed under domestic and family violence and your visa. If this is your situation, it is worth talking to someone before you tell anyone anything — including before you withdraw an application.
Partner visas, answered plainly.
Bring your dates, not your paperwork.
When you met, when you moved in, when you married if you did, where each of you is now, and whether either of you has been through this before. That is enough for Jenny to say which visa is yours, what evidence it will actually take, and when the honest answer is that it is too early to apply.
Indicative guidance only, not migration advice. Your details stay private.
Written and checked by Jenny Satya Graha, Registered Migration Agent MARN 0429372. Every requirement, evidence category and sponsorship rule on this page was checked against the Department of Home Affairs on 23 August 2026. Criteria and charges are set by the Australian Government and change often. Check the Department's own pages for partner visas applied for in Australia, partner visas applied for overseas and the Prospective Marriage visa to confirm anything above, including the eligibility requirements that apply to you.