Subclass 820/801 is a two-stage visa application that are designed to allow a foreign partner of an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen, currently in Australia, to continue to live in Australia, indefinitely.
To be approved as a partner visa sponsor, the sponsor must be:
In addition to the above, the Department may also bar the Australian Partner from sponsoring you if:
Unless compelling and compassionate circumstances apply.
To be eligible for a Subclass 820/801 application, you must:
If you are in a de-facto relationship, your relationship must have existed for at least 12 months immediately before you apply for the visa. This criterion will not apply if you:
To be eligible for an 801 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 the above circumstances apply to you, we recommend that you apply for Subclass 309/100 or a Prospective Marriage Visa, if you meet the eligibility criteria.
Partner Visa may seem easy, but we’ve seen many applications refused, due to issues that they weren’t aware of!
Many applicants are not aware that you are required to apply for a sponsorship application, after lodging a Temporary Partner Visa. Although this 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 automatically cancel your current visa. Your current visa remains valid until it expires. This could lead to non-compliance to your current visa, putting your partner visa application in jeopardy!
If you do not have a valid visa when applying for a Partner visa, this can lead to your partner being subjected to Schedule 3. This means your partner visa will only be successful if compelling circumstances apply to your case.
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
Apply for a Subclass 820 Visa
To begin your permanent residency journey, you begin with by applying for a Subclass 820 Temporary Partner Visa.
Apply and be granted a Subclass 820
Once you have applied for Subclass 820, 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, they will grant the Subclass 820 Visa.
Alternatively, if you have been in a long-term relationship before you lodge your 820 (temporary) application, the permanent Partner (Migrant) visa (subclass 801) may be granted immediately along with the temporary Partner (Provisional) visa (subclass 820).
Apply for Permanent Partner Visa
You are eligible to apply for the Permanent Partner (Migrant) visa (subclass 801) two years from the date of lodgement of your Subclass 820 visa. Once this is granted, you will become a permanent resident in Australia.
The Department may bar your partner from sponsoring you if:
Unless compelling and compassionate circumstances apply.
If you have been in a long-term relationship before you lodge your temporary partner visa, the permanent partner visa may be granted immediately along with the temporary visa.
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.
If you are offshore, you are able to visit your partner, if you have an approved visa to travel to Australia. If you are in Australia, you have validly applied for a Subclass 820, you can continue to stay back in Australia with your partner.
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.
We have summarised a cost estimate for a Partner Visa application as below. When you apply for a partner 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.
75% of applications are processed in: 21 months
90% of applications are processed in: 33 months
75% of applications are processed in: 12 months
90% of applications are processed in: 21 months
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.
As part of the Federal Budget, the Government announced that it will implement reforms to strengthen the integration outcomes of the Partner program soon. These include:
ENGLISH REQUIREMENT
The English language requirement may be met by demonstrating that the person has made a ‘reasonable effort’ to learn English, or demonstrating an existing level of English, for example Functional English.
THE NEW SPONSORSHIP FRAMEWORK
The new sponsorship framework will separate the sponsorship and visa application into two separate processes. The sponsorship application will be assessed separately and will need to be approved before a valid Partner visa application can be lodged.
In addition to the above, The Department can also:
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