The Partner Visa Australia Actually Tests

The partner visa Australia grants is a test of whether your life looks like the life of two people in love. That’s the whole partner visa, once you strip away the acronyms. A case officer reads through your bank statements, your lease, your photos and your written account of how you met. They’re looking for a household that would exist whether or not a visa was on the line. Understand that, and the rest of the process stops feeling like a bureaucratic obstacle course. It’s really a paperwork version of a question every couple can already answer. (If a relationship isn’t your route in, our guide to the 189 skilled visa covers the points-tested alternative.)

The two routes, and why the pathway you’re on barely changes what happens next

Two ways lead into a partner visa, and the difference between them is really just where you’re standing when you apply. If you’re already in Australia, you apply for the Subclass 820 (temporary) and Subclass 801 (permanent) together, as one combined application. People often shorthand this as the partner visa 820 801 process, and the shorthand is accurate: one application, two stages, one fee. If you’re outside Australia, the equivalent pair is Subclass 309 (provisional) and Subclass 100 (permanent), so offshore that’s the partner visa 309 100 pairing, with the same combined-fee structure as onshore. Onshore or offshore, the shape is identical: you lodge one application covering both a temporary and a permanent stage, you pay one fee that covers both, and the temporary visa carries you until the permanent one is assessed.

The 820 and 309 aren’t holding patterns you sit through passively. While you’re on the temporary visa, you can live, work and study in Australia, and travel in and out as often as you like. The visa also lets you apply for Medicare, Australia’s public health scheme, though Home Affairs says eligibility depends on your circumstances. If you qualify, you can also attend free English classes through the Adult Migrant English Program. It’s a genuinely functional visa, not a waiting room.

What a partner visa Australia application actually costs, and why the number just moved

The partner visa Australia cost question has one honest answer: it depends on the date you lodge, not the pathway. From 1 July 2026, the visa application charge for most applicants is AUD 11,710, whichever pathway you’re on. That single charge covers both the temporary and permanent stages, so there’s no second bill when the 801 or 100 stage is finally assessed. If you’re converting from a Prospective Marriage visa (Subclass 300), the charge drops to AUD 1,955. That’s the visa that lets you come to Australia to marry your partner, and the reduced fee is worth knowing about if a fiancé(e) visa is part of your actual plan rather than going straight for a partner visa.

That AUD 11,710 figure is the charge for the 2026-27 financial year, which began on 1 July 2026. It rose that day from roughly AUD 9,365, in line with the across-the-board visa fee increases that took effect then. Visa charges move on the financial year, not on a predictable schedule, so treat any figure you read anywhere, including here, as something to re-check against Home Affairs’ own visa pricing estimator before you rely on it for a real budget. Additional applicants add further charges on top of the base fee. Dependent children included on the same application are a common example.

The four things a case officer is actually looking for

Home Affairs doesn’t ask “are you a couple” as a single question. It asks about your relationship across four separate categories of evidence, and you’re expected to address all four, not just the ones that feel easiest.

Financial

Do you actually share money, or do you just live near each other? The evidence here covers joint ownership of property or major assets like cars, joint liabilities such as loans or insurance, operating a joint bank account for a reasonable stretch of time, sharing household bills, and any legal or financial commitments you’ve taken on together. A joint account you opened the week before lodging looks exactly like what it is. One you’ve had for two years tells a different story without you needing to say a word about it.

Nature of the household

Home Affairs’ own guidance for this category asks about your living arrangements, how you share housework, joint ownership or rental of your home, joint utility accounts and bills, joint responsibility for children, and mail addressed to both of you at the same address. In practice, a lease with both your names on it and the ordinary, unglamorous mechanics of running a home together carry the real weight.

Social

How does the world outside your relationship see you? This is evidence that you’re accepted as a couple socially: joint invitations, going out together, friends and family who know you as a pair, plus anything showing you’ve declared the relationship to a government body, workplace, or other institution, joint membership of clubs or organisations, and travelling together. One thing Home Affairs states plainly: statutory declarations from parents and friends alone are not normally enough on their own. They support the other evidence; they don’t replace it.

Commitment

This is the story, told properly: how, when and where you met, how the relationship developed, when you decided to marry or move in together, how you support each other financially, physically and emotionally, and what your plans actually are. It’s the one category that’s genuinely about narrative rather than documents, and it’s also the one couples most often under-invest in, because it feels less “official” than a bank statement. It shouldn’t. After a folder of financial paperwork, a case officer reading a vague, generic account notices the gap.

Each of these four sections on the actual application form has a 2,000-character limit for your own written answers. You don’t need to exhaustively document a decade together in 2,000 characters; you need to write the specific, true, checkable version of your story, and attach fuller supporting statements separately if there’s more to say. Every non-English document you submit needs an English translation attached alongside the original, whether it’s a marriage certificate or a foreign bank statement. If it’s translated inside Australia, it needs to be done by a NAATI-accredited translator.

De facto or married: the twelve-month question on a de facto partner visa Australia application

Married couples sometimes search for this as a spouse visa Australia application, though partner visa is Home Affairs’ own term, covering married and de facto couples under the same category. If you’re married, your marriage certificate is your core relationship evidence, and there’s no minimum length of time you need to have lived together before you can apply. If you’re in a de facto relationship, not married but living as a couple, you generally need to have been in that relationship, normally including living together, for the twelve months immediately before you lodge your application.

Real exceptions exist, and they matter. If your relationship is registered under an Australian state or territory relationship register, the twelve-month requirement doesn’t apply. Home Affairs can also consider compelling and compassionate circumstances as grounds to waive it; a couple who share a dependent child is a common example. If your situation involves a break in cohabitation, a recent registration, or anything that doesn’t fit neatly into “we’ve lived together for exactly a year,” this is genuinely worth a conversation with a registered migration agent before you assume either that you qualify or that you don’t.

Who can actually sponsor you

The partner visa sponsor requirements start with citizenship or residency status, not income or assets. Your sponsor needs to be an Australian citizen, an Australian permanent resident, or an eligible New Zealand citizen. What trips people up is the sponsorship limitation rule sitting behind it. If your partner has sponsored someone on a partner visa before, or was themselves granted a partner visa through being sponsored, they generally must wait five years before they can sponsor again. That five years is counted from when the earlier application was lodged, not when it was granted and not from when that earlier relationship ended. Each person also faces a lifetime cap of two partner or prospective-marriage sponsorships. Home Affairs can waive the limitation where there are compelling circumstances affecting the sponsor, but this isn’t automatic. If your partner has a previous sponsorship in their history, it’s worth finding out early, not after you’ve built a case around an application that a limitation rule quietly disqualifies.

The honest version of how long this actually takes

Home Affairs won’t promise you a processing time, and it says so directly on its own pages: partner visa applicants may experience longer processing times than expected. Home Affairs does commit to one structural rule: for most couples, the permanent stage of your application, the 801 or the 100, can’t even be assessed until two years after you lodged the original combined application. The exception is a long-term relationship. If you had been together at least three years when you applied (two years if you share a dependent child), Home Affairs may grant the permanent visa sooner. Neither rule is a snapshot that will look outdated by the time you read this. Both are built into how the process works, and the two-year mark is the number worth anchoring your expectations to rather than any specific month count you might see quoted elsewhere.

Home Affairs processes applications according to a set of family visa processing priorities it updates periodically, and under the current direction onshore applications get higher priority than offshore ones. The department also provides a processing time guide tool that shows how recently decided applications have actually moved. That offers a far more current picture than any fixed figure a website, including this one, could publish and expect to stay accurate. Check that tool directly when you’re planning around a real date. And if the visa itself is only one part of a wider move, see what relocating from the UK to Australia actually involves alongside the paperwork.

When to bring in a migration agent

A partner visa Australia application doesn’t always need professional help. Most straightforward relationships don’t need it to put together a strong application: you’ve lived together for years, your finances are genuinely shared, and your friends and family have known about each other for a long time. It’s worth paying for a registered migration agent or migration lawyer anywhere your situation has a genuine wrinkle: a previous sponsorship in your partner’s history, a relationship that doesn’t cleanly clear the twelve-month de facto mark, a period of separation you need to explain, or a genuineness dispute where Home Affairs has raised doubts about the relationship itself. Nobody wants to be in that last situation, but some people are. These are exactly the circumstances where general guidance like this article stops being enough, and specific, qualified advice about your own case is worth what it costs.

Frequently asked questions

How much does an Australian partner visa cost in 2026?

From 1 July 2026, the application charge is AUD 11,710 for most applicants, covering both the temporary (820 or 309) and permanent (801 or 100) stages under one payment. Prospective Marriage visa holders converting to a partner visa pay a reduced AUD 1,955. Always confirm the current figure on Home Affairs’ own visa pricing estimator, since charges move on the financial year.

What’s the difference between the 820 and the 309 partner visa?

The 820 is the onshore temporary stage; you must be in Australia to apply, and it leads to the permanent 801. The 309 is the offshore equivalent, applied for from outside Australia, and it leads to the permanent 100. The relationship test, the evidence and the combined fee are the same either way. The main practical difference is where you are when you lodge, and Home Affairs gives onshore applications higher processing priority than offshore ones.

Do we need to have lived together for a year to qualify?

Only if you’re applying as a de facto couple rather than a married one. Married applicants don’t face a minimum cohabitation period. De facto applicants generally need twelve months together immediately before lodging, unless your relationship is registered under a state or territory relationship register, or Home Affairs accepts compelling and compassionate circumstances, such as a shared dependent child, as grounds for an exception.

How long does a partner visa actually take?

Home Affairs doesn’t publish a fixed promise, and explicitly warns that processing can take longer than expected. One rule is fixed for most couples: the permanent stage can’t be assessed until two years after you lodge the combined application. Couples already in a long-term relationship when they apply (three years together, or two with a shared dependent child) may be granted the permanent visa sooner. For a current estimate, use Home Affairs’ own processing time guide tool rather than relying on any figure quoted elsewhere, including this article.

Sources

• Australian Government Department of Home Affairs, Partner visa (Subclass 820, temporary)
• Australian Government Department of Home Affairs, Partner visa (Subclass 309/100, apply overseas)
• Australian Government Department of Home Affairs, Evidence of relationship
• Australian Government Department of Home Affairs, Financial aspect of the relationship
• Australian Government Department of Home Affairs, Social aspects of the relationship
• Australian Government Department of Home Affairs, Development of the relationship
• Australian Government Department of Home Affairs, Nature of household
• Australian Government Department of Home Affairs, Partner visa (Subclass 801, permanent)
• Australian Government Department of Home Affairs, Partner visa frequently asked questions (processing priority)
• Migration Regulations 1994, Federal Register of Legislation (regulations 1.03, 1.09A, 1.20J and 2.03A; Schedule 2, clause 801.221)

All Home Affairs sources and the Migration Regulations were re-checked on 9 October 2026. Visa application charges are set by financial year and change on 1 July; confirm the current figure using Home Affairs’ visa pricing estimator before budgeting around any number in this article. If your relationship history includes a previous sponsorship, a break in cohabitation, or a genuineness question raised by Home Affairs, speak to a registered migration agent about your specific circumstances rather than relying on general guidance.