Subclass 820, 801, 309, 100 and 300.

One application, decided in two stages.

You lodge once and pay once. The Department first decides the temporary visa – the 820 if you applied in Australia, the 309 if you applied outside it. Later, on the same application, it decides the permanent one, the 801 or the 100.

The second decision is usually made about two years after you lodged. Until then you are on the temporary visa with full work rights.

cl 820.211, 801.221, 309.211, 100.221

No. The visa is open to a spouse or a de facto partner, and the two are treated the same way once you qualify.

The difference is what you have to show at the start. A married couple has a marriage certificate. A de facto couple generally has to show the relationship has already run for at least 12 months before applying.

Migration Act 1958 ss.5F, 5CB · reg 2.03A

Not necessarily.

The 12-month requirement does not apply at all if your relationship is registered under a State or Territory relationship register. Registration is a straightforward administrative step in most States, and it removes the requirement outright.

Separately, the requirement can be set aside where you can establish compelling and compassionate circumstances. That is a higher bar, and it depends on your facts.

reg 2.03A(3)(b) and (5)

Usually, but there are limits. Check them before you spend anything.

Your sponsor must generally not have sponsored more than one other partner before you. If they have sponsored someone, at least five years must have passed since that application was made. And if your sponsor themselves came to Australia on a partner visa, five years must have passed since that application too.

There are also limits where a sponsor has convictions for certain offences, and a separate prohibition where the sponsor holds a Woman at Risk visa granted in defined circumstances.

reg 1.20J; cl 820.211(2B)

Four things, set out in the Regulations:

• the financial aspects of the relationship – joint assets and liabilities, pooling of resources, how you split day-to-day expenses;
• the nature of the household – living arrangements, how you share the housework, joint responsibility for children;
• the social aspects – whether you present yourselves to other people as a couple, what your friends understand the relationship to be, how you plan and spend time together;
• the nature of your commitment to each other, including how long it has run.

The Minister must consider all the circumstances of the relationship; these four are the matters the Regulations name. This is the part that decides most partner applications.

reg 1.15A(3)

Not necessarily. The statutory wording is that you either live together or do not live separately and apart on a permanent basis.

Couples are apart for all sorts of ordinary reasons – work, study, caring for family, a visa that has not been granted yet. The question is whether the separation is permanent, and whether you can show why you are apart and what keeps the relationship going while you are.

Migration Act 1958 ss.5F(2)(d), 5CB(2)(c)

There is no number.

Evidence spread across all four factors counts for more than a stack in one. Ten bank statements and nothing else is a thin application; a smaller set covering money, household, social life and commitment is stronger.

Documents created at the time carry more weight than documents assembled afterwards, so start keeping things early.

Tell your agent about it early. Almost everything is easier to deal with before it is put to you by a delegate.

What does damage a case is a document or a statement that turns out to be false or misleading in a material particular. That engages public interest criterion 4020, and it can carry a bar on further visas.

Schedule 4, PIC 4020

Possibly, but this is the hardest situation in partner migration. Get advice before you lodge.

If you apply onshore without holding a substantive visa, you have to satisfy Schedule 3 criteria 3001, 3003 and 3004 – unless the Minister is satisfied there are compelling reasons for not applying them.

Those criteria are difficult to meet on their own terms, so most cases of this kind turn on whether compelling reasons can be made out. It is very fact-specific, and the material has to be assembled properly.

cl 820.211(2)(d)(ii) · Schedule 3 criteria 3001, 3003, 3004

Generally the permanent stage is decided about two years after you lodged the application. Until then you hold the 820, which lets you work and study.

But that wait does not apply at all if, when you applied, you were already in a long-term partner relationship – three years together, or two years if you have a dependent child together. Couples who qualify can be granted the permanent visa without the two-year wait.

cl 801.221(2)(d) and (6A) · reg 1.03 “long-term partner relationship”

Yes. The 820 is a temporary visa with work rights, and it stays in effect until the permanent stage is decided.

Where you were when you applied. The 309 and 100 are the offshore pair; the 820 and 801 are the onshore pair. The relationship test is the same.

The practical difference is what you can do while you wait. An 820 holder is in Australia with work rights. A 309 applicant is generally outside Australia until the provisional visa is granted.

cl 309.211, 100.221

Yes, the subclass 300 Prospective Marriage visa. It is for people who intend to marry an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen.

You must be at least 18, you and your fiancé must have met in person as adults and know each other personally, you must genuinely intend to marry, and you must intend the marriage to take place during the visa period. There must also be no impediment to the marriage under Australian law.

The visa runs for at least 9 months and not more than 15 from the date of grant. Once you marry, you apply for the partner visa.

cl 300.211–300.216, 300.221A, 300.511

For the subclass 300, yes. You must have met in person since each of you turned 18, and you must be known to each other personally. An online relationship, however genuine, does not satisfy that clause on its own.

cl 300.214

Ordinarily the permanent visa cannot be granted, because you have to still be the spouse or de facto partner of the sponsor when it is decided.

There are defined exceptions. The permanent visa can still be granted if your sponsor has died and you satisfy the Minister the relationship would have continued; and it can still be granted where the relationship has ended but you or a child have experienced family violence committed by the sponsor. There is also provision dealing with children of the relationship.

If any of that is your situation, get advice before you do anything else, including before you tell the Department.

cl 801.221(5), (6)

If you are in immediate danger, call 000.

For confidential support at any hour, 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) is the national counselling service.

On the visa side, the law does not require you to stay in the relationship to keep your pathway to permanent residence. Where the relationship has ended and you have experienced family violence from your sponsor, the permanent visa can still be granted. When a person is taken to have experienced family violence is defined in the Regulations – it covers, among other things, an injunction granted under the Family Law Act 1975 and certain court orders, as well as claims supported in the way the Regulations specify.

We have not set out the evidence requirements here. Speak to someone – us, another registered agent, or a lawyer.

reg 1.23 · cl 801.221(6)

Read the decision letter and note the date you received it. Most partner refusals carry a right of merits review at the Administrative Review Tribunal, and the time limits are set by law, counted in days, and generally cannot be extended.

Partner refusals are often about whether the relationship was accepted as genuine, which means the review is largely about evidence and explanation. That is work a registered migration agent is authorised to do.

Bring the letter in with its date as early as you can.