PARTNER VISA APPLICATIONS

1.Submitting your application before you get married

You don’t need to be married to submit an offshore partner visa (subclass 309), in some circumstances, you are eligible to apply on the basis of an intention to get married. This means that you will still meet the eligibility criteria if you are not legally married at the time you submit your application, but you must be married by the time your application is assessed by a case officer.

2.Registering your de facto relationship

There are two categories of eligible people to be eligible to apply for Partner Visa, you should either be a spouse or de facto relationship with your eligible sponsor.

What is a de facto relationship? (Section 5CB of Migration Act 1958)

• Not legally married to each other,
• Have a mutual commitment to a shared life to the exclusion of all others,
• The relationship between the parties is genuine and continuing,
• Live together or do not live separately and apart on a permanent basis, and
• Not related by family.

You should register your relationship. Some States in Australia have different residency requirements and it can take up to 6 weeks or longer to process your relationship registration and provide a certificate.

Please be aware that your de facto relationship must have existed for at least 12 months immediately before you lodge your application unless compelling and compassionate circumstances and time spend dating or in an online relationship might not count as de facto relationship.

3.Financial aspects of your relationship

Case officers will consider your financial aspects of the relationship. Usually, the applicant and their partner need to be able to prove that they share or pool their finances together.

You should provide the following evidence to indicate the financial aspects:

• Joint mortgage or lease documents
• Joint loan documents for major assets like homes, cars or major appliances
• Joint bank account statements -evidence that the accounts have been operated for a reasonable period would be given more weight
• Household bills in both names

It is highly suggested to provide evidence of joint bank account and evidence that both applicant and sponsor are actively using the account to pay for daily expenses.

In relation to the joint account, it is possible for both parties to have their own payment system and who pays for what but there must be written evidence of the sharing of expenses.  If a partner is financially dependent on the other, there should be evidence that the partner having access to the financial provider’s funds.

4.Social aspects of your relationship

The following are the evidence that you would have to provide to the Department:

• Joint invitations or evidence you go out together
• Proof you have friends in common
• Proof you have told government, public or commercial bodies about your relationship
• Proof you do joint sporting, cultural or social activities together
• Proof you travel together
• Statutory declarations from your partner’s parents, family members, relatives and friends about how they see your relationship.

Evidence in the forms of statutory declarations from family and friends are critical. We do not suggest submitting statutory declarations from close or immediate family members as some case officers tend to think that family members will provide a biased statement. We suggest providing statements from friends or work colleagues or even far relatives to provide statements about the relationship.

For instance, this is considered as good evidence to support your relationship:

• Photo evidence of couple socialising with different groups of people
• Travel documents such as flight tickets and hotel bookings
• Relationship certificates for de facto relationship.

5. Change of relationship with sponsor

How about if your relations break down due to death of your partner or family violence situations? You might still be eligible in those circumstances while the case assessor is considering your application and after granted the visa.

You must submit Form 1022 Notification of changes in circumstance to declare any changes

If your partner dies, you are still eligible if you lodged or granted subclass 820 or currently holding subclass 309 visa, but you must provide that your relationship would have continued if your partner was still alive and you have close ties with Australia.

If you or your dependent child are a victim of family violence, you can still receive your partner visa, if you can show your relationship has ended or your partner committed family violence against you or your dependent child.

6.Decision-ready applications

Our agents prefer submitting your application using the Department’s ImmiAccount.

When handling partner visa applications, our agents will make sure that the application is a ‘decision-ready’ visa applications as they are allocated and processed more quicker than incomplete visa applications. We normally include comprehensive documentation on supporting documents on the relationship and all other required documents to satisfy the migration regulations.

7.Permanent partner visa

When you are lodging a partner visa application and paying the visa application charge, you are in fact lodging a combined application for both temporary and permanent visas. (the Partner Visa subclass 820/801 (for onshore applicants) and 100/309 (for offshore applicants)

Generally speaking, the permanent visa can only be considered 2 years after you initially lodge your visa

Contact Us

Our team as Aussie Immigration Services has considerable expertise in dealing with partner visa applications. We will make sure that we will avoid any pitfalls in your way and will submit a decision-ready application so that your application will be processed more quickly and secure a successful outcome.

Like us on Facebook and complete a questionnaire with your information and intention at https://aussieimmigrationservices.mmportal.com.au/assessment.

We will contact you after reviewing the questionnaire response to arrange a brief face-to-face meeting.