Guide

Partner visa evidence

A partner visa application is decided on evidence. The Migration Regulations set out four aspects of a relationship a decision-maker must consider. This guide explains each one and what speaks to it.

General information, not legal advice. This page sets out how the law generally applies. It does not take account of your circumstances, and you should get advice about your own situation before acting on it. The official sources this page is written from are listed on it; where they differ from anything here, they are the authority.

In short

A decision-maker must consider all the circumstances of your relationship, including four particular aspects: the financial aspects, the nature of your household, the social aspects and the nature of your commitment to each other. Evidence covering all four, across the life of the relationship, does more work than a thick bundle covering one.

Start with the timeline: when you met, when the relationship became exclusive, when you began living together and any period apart. Everything you gather afterwards has a place to sit.

The four aspects

The Migration Regulations 1994 tell the decision-maker to consider all of the circumstances of the relationship, including a listed set of matters. Regulation 1.09A sets them out for de facto partners; regulation 1.15A is the equivalent provision for married couples. The Department of Home Affairs asks for evidence under the same four headings, and the question underneath all of them is whether the relationship is genuine and continuing.

Being thin on one aspect is not fatal in itself. It does mean the application should explain why, rather than leave the decision-maker to guess.

The financial aspects

The Regulations point to joint ownership of major assets, joint liabilities, how far you pool resources, any legal obligation one of you owes the other, and how you share day-to-day expenses. Many genuine couples keep their money separate. Show the arrangement you have, rather than opening a joint account a month before you lodge.

Joint account statements over a long period, used by both of you
A lease, mortgage or loan in both names, or the record of how you divide rent and bills where only one name is on the account
A major purchase made together, and who contributed what
Insurance, superannuation or other nominations naming the other person
Regular transfers between your accounts, with a note on what each was for

The nature of your household

How you run a home together: your living arrangements, how you share the housework and any joint responsibility for children. People under-document it; the records are dull and easy to throw away. One utility bill proves an address for a month, a year of them proves a household.

A residential lease or mortgage document naming both of you
Utility, internet or council accounts at the address across several billing periods
Mail sent to each of you there by unrelated senders
Driver licences, bank records or electoral enrolment showing the shared address
A short written account of how you divide cooking, cleaning, shopping and the care of any children

The social aspects

Whether you represent yourselves to others as a couple, what your friends and acquaintances understand the relationship to be, and how you plan social activities together. Photographs belong here. Twenty captioned with the date, the place and who is in the frame are easier to rely on than two hundred with no labels.

Photographs from across the relationship, in different places, captioned with date, location and who is in them
Invitations, cards or event bookings addressed to both of you
Travel and accommodation bookings in both names
Evidence that you have met each other's families and that they know the relationship
Statements from people who have seen you together as a couple

The nature of your commitment

The duration of the relationship, how long you have lived together, the companionship and emotional support you draw from each other, and whether you see the relationship as long-term. This aspect documents least well, which is why your own statements carry so much of it.

A statement from each of you setting out the history of the relationship
A will, an enduring power of attorney, or a beneficiary nomination naming your partner
Messages, call records or letters covering any period you spent apart
Plans that reach forward: a lease signed for the year ahead, a joint loan application, arrangements for a move

Statements, and Form 888

The first statement is the one each of you writes: how you met, how the relationship developed, how you live now and what you intend. Write them separately, in your own words. Two statements matching word for word read as one statement signed twice.

The second is Form 888, the Department’s supporting statement in relation to a Partner or Prospective Marriage visa application. It is completed by someone who knows you both and the history of your relationship and is at least 18. They are asked how they know you, how often they have been in contact, and whether they believe the relationship is genuine and continuing and why. They also give evidence of their own identity and, where it applies, of Australian citizenship or permanent residence. Use the current version from the Department’s form listing: the form has changed over the years, including its title and how it is signed.

Where what you lodge must be a Commonwealth statutory declaration, there are three ways to make one and each is equally valid: on the approved form before an authorised witness; on the approved form observed by an authorised witness over a video link; or digitally through myGov using myID, with no witness. The Statutory Declarations Regulations 2023 set out who may witness one, and making a false statement in a statutory declaration is a criminal offence.

Do not draft your witnesses’ statements for them. Five statements in one voice tell the decision-maker something, and it is not what you intended.

The mistakes that weaken an application

A genuine relationship can still produce a weak application. These are the problems to look for before you lodge.

Volume instead of relevance. Nobody finds the two documents that mattered in an unsorted bundle of hundreds of pages. Sort by aspect and label each item: what it is, whose it is, what it shows.
Gaps in the timeline. If you lived apart for eight months, say so and show how you kept in contact. A gap the Department finds for itself is worse than one you explain.
Evidence that all begins the month before lodgement. If the earliest joint document is dated four weeks before you applied, the bundle raises the question it was meant to answer.
Leaving out the difficult facts. A previous marriage, a separation, an earlier refusal, a condition breached. Better in your own words than discovered.
Treating the temporary stage as the end. If you applied in Australia, the permanent stage is assessed later and looks at the relationship as it stands then.

Giving false or misleading information, or a bogus document, can affect this application and later ones. If something in your history worries you, get advice before you lodge.

Common questions

How much evidence is enough?

There is no set number of documents. The Regulations list matters the decision-maker must consider, not a quantity to be met. What counts is coverage: something for each aspect, spread across the whole period of the relationship.

Our finances are separate. Is that a problem?

It is not fatal. Many couples keep separate accounts, particularly where one partner has arrived recently. Explain the arrangement you have, show how you share day-to-day costs, and cover the other three aspects well.

Do our documents need to be in English?

Documents that are not in English generally need an English translation. The Department publishes what it accepts and who may translate, so check that before you pay for translations.

What happens if the application is refused?

Where a decision carries review rights, the decision record states them and states the time limit that applies to you. That limit is strict and in migration matters the Administrative Review Tribunal cannot extend it. Read the decision record first, then see what to do in the first days after a visa refusal.

Not sure where your evidence is thin

If you would rather someone looked at the bundle before it goes in, we can go through the four aspects with you.

Official sources

An illustration of planning a way forward.

From first question to a clear plan

The same three steps, whatever the matter is.

01 Understand

Tell us about your situation and the decision or application involved.

02 Organise

Gather the documents and the questions relevant to your consultation.

03 Plan

Discuss the available options and the next steps with the legal team.