Are you eligible for an Australian partner visa?
There are different options to obtain an Australian partner visa depending a number of factors such as whether you and your Australian partner are married / in de facto relationship or intending to getting married, and also whether you are located in Australia or in your home country.
Generally speaking to be eligible for a Partner visa (onshore Partner visa 820/801, or offshore Partner Visa 309/100), you need to be married to, or in a de facto relationship (at least 12 months relationship, or if not, ensuring that your relationship is registered under state law) with an Australian citizen, Australian permanent resident or an eligible New Zealand citizen. If neither of these fits you and you are planning to get married with Australian partner, you may wish to apply for a prospective marriage visa 300 instead of Partner Visa.
If you’re unsure about the eligibility of your current situation, you can always contact a registered migration agent at Ausdirect Migration.
Australian Partner Visa Document Checklist
Your IDs and Immigration History
You will need to provide a range of your IDs such as Passport, Driver Licence, and also your visa application history for Australia. You may also need to check your current visa status if you are in Australia to ensure your rights and obligations attached to the current visa.
Things can get tricky if you don’t have any substantive visa and or if you had any refusal or cancellation in the past, please do consult a registered migration agent at Ausdirect Migration.
Your relationship history
As part of the application, you will need to provide the details of your relationship history with your sponsor such as when you firstly met, how your relationship develops, the date you decided to enter an exclusive relationship, when you both started living together, and the plan of your future etc. You and your sponsor will also need to provide some brief information regarding your previous relationship histories especially when it’s related to any previous sponsorship.
Police clearance and health examination
Before the visa can be granted, you will need to provide police clearances from any country you have resided for 12 months plus in the last 10 years. You will also be required to undertake a health examination through one of the Department of Home Affairs’ approved panel physicians or clinics.
How please bear in mind that both the police and medical clearances are only valid for 12 months. Given the current processing times (which changes from time to time) we recommend consult your migration agent to determine the best time to make such arrangements.
Relationship documents for Partner Visa
Make sure all your supporting documents are in order as your relationship will be assessed from the following 4 key perspectives. Keep in mind that everything you provide is to prove that you are in a genuine and continuing relationship.
Financial aspects of our relationship
-
Do you have joint bank statements?
One of the important ways to help prove your relationship is by opening and using a joint bank account with your sponsor. If you can submit bank statements that show in both of your names, along with a history of transactions, this will strengthen your application.
-
Have you or do you transfer fund to each other on a regular basis?
This is particularly useful if you had live apart from each other for a period of time and you were sending money from one to another. For the period when you are living together, providing a joint bank account would be a better option. And any further evidence to show you are providing financial support to each other (and/or family members) that would be helpful.
-
Do you have any joint liabilities such as shared loans or insurance policies in both names?
If you are repaying a joint loan together such as car loan or home loan, or insurance policies such as car insurance, home and content insurance in both names.
-
What else do you both own together financially?
Any proof of any joint financial ownership such as financial investment such as government bond, shares and investment fund can all help in strengthening your application.
Household responsibilities
-
Do you have joint home ownership or are both your names on the lease?
If both of you jointly owned your home or investment property, you may provide the property title documents. Or if you’re renting a property, you can provide the lease instead. If required, you may speak to the real estate agent and enquire about having both names assigned to the lease. This can be a very powerful step in proving a genuine relationship.
Also you may provide joint utilities bills such as gas, electricity and telephone bills.
- Do you have any correspondence sent to the same address?
Any letters, post cards or statements sent to the same address can be used as proof of your living together.
-
Do you have children and is there joint responsibility?
If you have children or have adopted a child, you can provide the children’s birth certificates / custody documents that have both of your names.
Social aspects of our relationship
-
How many witness do you need to prove your relationship?
There are no specific restriction for how many witness you will need, but at a minimum you will need to provide 2 statutory declarations. (form 888 is designed for this purpose). You may wish to provide more witness statements to further strengthen your application, you may discuss with your registered migration agent in detail.
-
888 Statutory Declaration form:
At least two 888 statutory declaration forms from friends or family that support your claim of having a genuine and continuing relationship.
-
Proof of your joint travels and events:
If you and your partner have gone on any international or domestic trips together in the past, you may provide such evidence including itineraries and hotel bookings as a proof of relationship. Furthermore any evidence of attending music events, sports activities, cultural and social activities together will be helpful.
-
Documents to show you have declared your relationship.
Any formal government documents that can show you have declared your relationship such as Centrelink letters, letters from government bodies address to both you and your partner, tax return documents.
-
Do you have any photos or joint invitations?
Photos (20-30 would be good) and joint wedding/birthday invitations are all great ways to help support your application.
-
Does Facebook matter for partner visa application?
It’s also important to show that you have a genuine relationship with your partner on social media. You are not required to use social media or use evidence on social media such as Facebook to prove your relationship. However if you do use social media, it’s always a good idea to make sure the information on the facebook can correctly reflect your relationship.
Nature of the mutual commitment
- How do you maintain contact during any time of separation?
Correspondence (g. letters, cards, emails, texts) and itemised phone accounts showing that you and your spouse/partner maintained contact during any periods of separation.
-
Last will and testament
You can have your wills prepared by a solicitor, or use a Will Kit for couples (these are commonly sold at news-agencies).
-
Superannuation beneficiary
You may nominate your partner as the beneficiary of your superannuation.
-
A long-term relationship or an intention of a long-term relationship
You can provide any evidence of existing long term relationship such as proof of living tother, joint financials and children etc. Or you can also provide evidence of plans to be in a long-term relationship such as Notice of Intention of Marriage, evidence of a pregnancy or plans to start a business together etc.
Is there a perfect document checklist for Partner Visa application?
We hope the above can help you to understand the general expectation of the range of evidence can be provided to support the partner visa application. You may have noticed that there is so much to consider when applying for a partner visa. The immigration department are very strict in assessing partner visas and very thorough in evaluating every piece of information provided and require lots of information for the relationship history.
There is not a perfect document checklist for a partner visa application. Every relationship and every family is unique. The ultimate documents should be provided really depend on your specific circumstances. Have an experienced registered migration agent to assist you would be one of the best options. Their professional immigration advice can be really critical to the success of visa applications.
Ausdirect Migration has very solid experience in managing partner visa applications for clients. Over the years we have handled many very complex cases and successfully helped the clients family secure their visas in very challenging circumstances.
Call Us
Leave a Message