Subclass 309/100 is a two-stage visa application that allows an offshore foreign spouse or partner of an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen the opportunity to live in Australia, indefinitely.
To be approved for sponsorship, your sponsor must be:
In addition to the above, you are barred from sponsoring you if:
unless compelling and compassionate circumstances applies.
You must be the spouse or de facto partner of an:
To be eligible for an 100 visa, you must:
There are 4 main aspects of the relationship that the Department of Home Affairs will consider when assessing any partner visa application:
Under this section, you can provide facts and evidence of your financial commitment to each other.
In this section, you can provide evidence of any joint responsibility for the care and support of children, your living arrangements and sharing of the responsibility for housework.
In this section, you can outline important social aspects of your relationship, including opinion of your family, friends and acquaintances about the nature of your relationship.
In this section, you can outline significant events in your lives during which you have relied on each other for support and future plans together.
Ideally, we recommend that you apply for an Onshore Partner Visa. However, you may not always be eligible for this. This could be due to many factors, including:
If you are unable to apply for an 820 visa, we recommend that you apply for Subclass 309/100 or Prospective Marriage Visa, if you meet the visa eligibility criteria.
*Please note that this is general advise only. Please reach out to us for a comprehensive consultation, based on your circumstances.
Partner Visa may seem easy, but we’ve seen many applications refused, due to issues that they weren’t aware of!
Although forgetting to lodge your sponsorship application might not lead to a visa refusal, this can increase your visa application processing time.
If you are in Australia and you have a visa with condition 8503, you will not be able to apply for a partner visa onshore, unless if the condition was waived.
Applying for a partner visa does not cancel your current visa. Your current visa remains valid until it expires. This could lead to non-compliance to your current visa.
If you do not have a valid visa when applying for a Partner visa, you are subjected to Schedule 3. Your partner visa will only be successful if compelling circumstances applies to you.
If you have had a previous refusal in your bridging visa, you may be barred from applying for other visas. While exemptions do apply for Partner Visa, this may only be granted, in certain circumstances.
If your relationship breaks down whilst applying/holding on to a Temporary Partner Visa, you may not be eligible for a Permanent Partner Visa, unless if specific circumstances apply.
Under PIC 4020, a visa might be refused if bogus documents or information that is false or misleading is given to the Department or the AAT. If there is any false or misleading information in your visa application, this can lead to complications.
The 12 months of de-facto relationship requirement does not apply if you have registered your relationship with an Australian authority such as a registry of births, deaths and marriages
Getting the Permanent Partner (Migrant) Visa (subclass 100) is a three-stage process which goes as follows:
STEP 1: Apply and be granted a Subclass 309
To begin your permanent residency journey, you begin with by applying for a Subclass 309 Temporary Partner Visa.
STEP 2: Wait for Visa Grant
Once you have applied for Subclass 309, wait for the Department to respond with any documents that they require to process your application.
Once the Department is satisfied that you have met all the criteria for a Subclass 309 grant, they will grant the Subclass 309 Visa Application. Alternatively, if you have been in a long-term relationship before you lodge your 309 (temporary) application, the permanent Partner (Migrant) visa (subclass 100) may be granted immediately along with the temporary Partner (Provisional) visa (subclass 309).
STEP 3: Apply for Permanent Partner Visa
You are eligible to apply for the permanent Partner (Migrant) visa (subclass 100) two years from the lodgement of your temporary Partner (Provisional) visa (subclass 309). Your provisional visa must be granted before applying for a permanent partner visa.
You can be sponsored by your current partner if they have only sponsored one partner in the last five years. If they have sponsored more than one partner for a partner visa, they may be able to sponsor you, unless compelling reasons apply in your case.
If you have been in a long-term relationship before you lodge your 309 (temporary) application, the permanent Partner (Migrant) visa (subclass 100) may be granted immediately along with the temporary Partner (Provisional) visa (subclass 309). Alternatively, we can assist you with creating a decision ready application at the time of lodgement to reduce delays in processing your application.
Children under the age of 18 will be considered dependent, and therefore be included in your partner visa application. Children over 18 may be included if they are dependent on your or is incapacitated and is substantially reliant on you.
No, you are not required to apply for a travel ban exemption if you have an approved partner visa to travel to Australia.
You are able to visit your partner, if you have an approved visa to travel to Australia.
You may be able to get married during your visa processing, if you had applied as de-facto, as soon as you satisfy de-facto requirements at the time of lodgement of your visa application (12 months of living together or have a relationship certificate). We strongly recommend that you consult with us before getting married.
When you apply for a partner/ spouse visa, you are taken to have applied for both the temporary and the permanent partner visas together.
Therefore, you are not required to pay any additional visa fees when lodging your permanent partner visa application. However, you will need to make a separate application for the permanent partner visa application.
We have summarised a cost estimate for a Partner Visa application as below.
75% of applications are processed in 20 months
90% of applications are processed in 32 months
75% of applications are processed in: 18 months
90% of applications are processed in: 29 months
PROCESSING TIME FOR PERMANENT PARTNER VISA
As part of efforts to reduce the size of permanent partner visa caseload, older and more complex permanent Partner cases are now being processed. These cases take longer to finalise and are impacting published processing times.
MORE PLACEMENTS FOR PARTNER VISA
In the recent Budget, the government announced that the higher annual intake of Family visa grants (including Partner Visa) to be 77,300 which accounts for nearly 49% of the entire migration program.
PARTNER VISA GRANT
If you have applied outside Australia for a Partner (subclass 309) visa and you are in Australia during the COVID-19 concession period, you can be granted a visa in Australia if you meet all other visa criteria.
The COVID-19 concession period started on 1 February 2020 and is ongoing. However, this is subject to change without notice.
Unit 7, 242-224 Caroline Springs Blvd
Caroline Springs VIC 3023
18 Tambling Terrace
Lyons, NT- 0810