Completing the 820/801 Australian Partner Visa application online
Applying for the 820/801 Australian Partner Visa is a monumental task, but thankfully one whose rewards far outweigh any amount of effort (and lost sleep). This post is an attempt to provide future 820/801 Australian Partner Visa applicants with all the information I wish I had before I sat down to complete the online application!
As I worked my way through the online form, I took copious notes on what each section asked, as well as all the personal questions I had (and clarifications I found) for ambiguously worded instructions. Read on to learn about the entire online application process, from registering an ImmiAccount through to submitting the last question and paying the application fee.
Read my whole series on applying for the 820/801 Australian Partner Visa for more information about preparing your evidence, lodging your application, and the next steps. If you’re just beginning, start with this post to get an overview (and to read about our story). And, as always, please remember that I am not a migration agent or affiliated with Home Affairs in any way, so all the information provided in these posts and in the comments below is based entirely on my own experience and my own understanding of the application process.
How to begin your visa application online
The first thing you’ll need to do in order to start filling out an application for the 820/801 Partner Visa online is to register for an ImmiAccount (if you’ve applied for other Australian visas in the past, you can just log-in to your account here).
It only takes about 2 minutes to create the account, and you’ll be asked to give very basic personal information like your name, mobile, email address, and answers to 3 security questions of your choosing. After verifying the account from an email they will send you, log-in here.
Upon login, you should see a screen that says My applications (although there will be no entires in this section if you have yet to lodge any visa application in Australia). To create a new application for the 820/801 Partner Visa, click on the link that says New application in the upper left corner, select the Family tab, and then click Stage 1 – Partner or Prospective Marriage Visa (301,309/100,820/801).
This should bring you to an “ELodgement Page”, where the first screen contains links to the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Statement, asks you to agree to the terms via a tick box, and, most importantly, gives you a Transaction Reference Number (TRN). This is the number you will use to track the progress of your visa or cite your particular application in any communications with Home Affairs (the department that manages immigration).
What questions will you be asked
This is an overview of the questions that appear on the online application for the 820/801 Partner Visa. Questions may vary according to personal circumstances (i.e. your answers to previous questions), but this should give you a general idea of the information you will be asked to provide.
Application Context
This short section just asks a series of yes/no questions that will be used to build the rest of the application:
- Is the applicant currently outside Australia?
- Is the applicant currently holding a substantive visa? (basically any visa other than a bridging visa)
- Did the applicant arrive in Australia on a Prospective Marriage visa?
Primary Applicant
In this section, you will be asked to fill out personal information, including your full name, passport details, place of birth, and relationship status. This is where you will need to specify whether you are applying for the Partner Visa as a de-facto, engaged, or married couple, and reference the day your relationship began.
There is considerable debate over the exact date you should cite here (the day you began dating, the day you because exclusive, the day you moved in together…).
The consensus seems to be that you should provide whatever date makes the most sense for your situation and then include ample context later in the application that will justify your use of this particular date (read more about these dates below).
This section will also ask you to list any previous names (maiden name, etc) by which you have been known, your citizenship and any other passports you may hold, and to provide the details of other national identity documents that have been issued to you. This includes:
- Alien registration number
- Birth certificate
- Drivers licence
- Marriage certificate
- National Identity document
- Social security card
For any of these items, you’ll need to include your name as it appears on the document, the identification number, and country of issue.
Critical data confirmation
For this page, you will be asked to review some of your personal details (including name and passport information) and confirm that it is correct before proceeding.
Contact details
Indicate your “country of usual residence”, the Australian Government Office nearest to your location, residential and postal addresses, mobile, and email.
This question seems to trouble many people, as the wording of “usual residence” is somewhat vague, but a “usual resident” of Australia would be someone who has lived (or expects to live) here for a period of 12 months in a 16 month period. This requires you to have an Australian residential address (and evidence of this), and probably would not include someone who is here on a tourist visa.
Given that I had lived in Australia for 6 years at the time of application and had not been in my home country for a period of more than 3 weeks since I first moved, it seemed a bit ridiculous to call USA my “country of usual residence”, so I specified “Australia”.
Contact details for second stage permanent visa
This section just verifies a postal address and email address.
Authorised recipient
“Does the applicant authorise another person to receive written correspondence on their behalf?” This applies if you have a Migration Agent who will be processing the visa for you.
Migrating members of the family unit
In this section, you will be asked to add personal details for any family members who WILL BE migrating to Australia with you as part of this visa.
Those details include their relationship to you, name and passport information, place of birth, relationship status, citizenship, other national identity documents, and details of their dependency.
Non-migrating members of the family unit
For the purpose of both this question and the last question, a member of your family unit is defined as a partner or a child, but I believe it can also include dependent members of your extended family in some circumstances, as well. This question is asking you to provide all the same details as you provided in the last question for any such family members, this time including those who are NOT migrating with you (e.g. a child that isn’t migrating with you).
This is NOT the question where you need to provide details for your entire nuclear family (parents, siblings), but really only applies for dependent family that may in the future migrate to Australia. In my case, I did not include any family on this, as I have no non-migrating members of my family unit (nor do I have any migrating members).
Applicant’s immediate family members
Now you will need to provide basic information on your nuclear family, including parents, siblings (even half- or step-siblings), and children.
Add members of your family to the list by inputing their full name, DOB, relationship status (including date of marriage), and relationship to you. If the family member is not deceased, also include their country of residence and Australian immigration status (if this person does not hold any visa for Australia, just select “other”).
Sponsor
This section is basically a mirror of the personal information you provided for yourself in the “Primary Applicant” section (see above). The main piece of additional information is about the sponsor’s Australian citizenship: was it by birth, by grant, or are they an eligible NZ citizen?
Sponsor’s contact details
A mirror of the contact details you were asked to supply in the “Contact details” section above.
Sponsor’s immediate family members
Again, a mirror of the information you provided on your own nuclear family in the “Applicant’s immediate family members” section above, just for the sponsor’s family.
Relationship
Now, to the meat of the application! First, you will need to provide details of when and where you first met, the date a committed de-facto relationship began (or the date of your marriage), and the date you “committed to a shared life together to the exclusion of all others”. This is in addition to the date you began dating, which you supplied in the earlier “Primary Applicant” section.
I know these dates may seem incredibly similar (and for some people, the answer across multiple questions could be the same), but there are subtle and important differences in what is being asked. From what I understand, these questions are about the:
- Date you met (not a lot of ambiguity here)
- Date you began dating: this could be when you had your first date or when you started introducing each other as a boyfriend/girlfriend
- Date you committed to a shared life together: this may be when you became de-facto or even before, really when you became “exclusive” or when you would consider yourselves to be in a serious and committed relationship beyond just dating
- Date the de-facto relationship began: this is typically when you moved in together and began living “as a married couple” (regardless of whether you were married)
Every situation is different, and the reasoning that you use to assign dates to each of these milestones is far less important than the actual evidence that you provide to support your claim.
If you believe that you were committed and serious on the same DAY you began dating, for instance, you will need proof of this, which might mean submitting evidence of cohabitation, receipts of shared expenses, travel bookings together, correspondence between you, proof of a relationship with each others’ families, etc. It’s about telling the story of your relationship.
You are also asked Has the applicant lived separately and apart from the sponsor for any periods of time since committing to a shared life together to the exclusion of all others? and will need to provide a brief explanation of this.
Probably many couples will find that they were “serious and committed” before actually moving in together and becoming de-facto, so this is just a justification of why you did not live together in that period if you were indeed “committed”. In our case, I was finishing my Bachelor degree in NSW and so we lived separately for 3 months of the time that I would consider us to be “committed” before I was able to move to VIC and sign a lease with my partner.
I provided this explanation here, but I also included (later in the application) a bulk of evidence during that time to demonstrate the continued “commitment”, including plane tickets he bought for me to visit, emails between us, joint travel bookings, proof of financial support between us, photos of us together, event invites as a couple, and statutory declarations from mutual friends and his parents that we were committed in this time and had plans to live together as soon as I graduated. Basically, you need to provide as much evidence as possible to corroborate any claims you make about your situation.
And now, the fun bit of putting your entire relationship under the microscope! You are given these instructions and then asked to describe the major aspects of your relationship in the boxes provided (2000 character limit):
In the following questions, details of the relationship between the applicant and sponsor must be provided and should form the basis of the applicant’s claim that their relationship with their sponsor is genuine and continuing. The information provided also needs to be supported by relevant evidence. This evidence may be such things as photographs, receipts, bills, legal documents or anything else to demonstrate the nature of the relationship the applicant has with their sponsor. This evidence can be uploaded after the submission of this application.
- Financial aspects of the relationship: How do you pay for food/bills/rent/mortgage? Do you have joint assets or financial responsibilities? How do you share money? How do you support one another during times of financial hardship? Do you have shared assets?
- Nature of the household: How do you share cooking/cleaning/shopping/house maintenance responsibilities? Do you rent or own a home together? What is your living situation (e.g. housemates, living with family, etc)?
- Social aspects of the relationship: Do you attend social events together or travel together? Do your friends and family have knowledge of your relationship? How have you made your relationship “official” (e.g. marriage, de-facto registration, facebook, etc)?
- Nature of the commitment: How have you provided emotional support to one another? What are your future plans together? How have your lives become intertwined? How have you committed to one another (e.g. will, beneficiary of super, marriage, de-facto registration)?
- Development of the relationship: When did you become committed and how has your relationship progressed? What are your future plans together?
Obviously, 2,000 characters isn’t an enormous amount of space to discuss your unique situation, so I would definitely recommend writing longer, more detailed explanations for each of these aspects of your relationship on a stat dec and uploading them as a piece of evidence later. If you want to do this, you can just write “see XXX document for full statement” in the boxes provided on the application to refer the CO to your longer statement.
Supporting witnesses
In this section, you will need to add basic information (name, DOB, occupation, relationship to applicant, years known) and contact details (address, email, mobile) for at least two different supporting witnesses who have a personal knowledge of, and are willing to speak to Home Affairs about the nature of, your relationship.
We actually specified 9 people who later completed Form 888s, since we figured having more friends and family willing to speak on our behalf was nothing but positive! You can attach Form 888 Statutory Declarations from these witnesses in the evidence section.
Previous relationships
You’re asked to indicate whether you’ve been in any previous relationships with anyone other than your sponsor— specifically, this is asking whether you’ve been married or in a de facto relationship with another partner.
If you’ve had a serious girlfriend/boyfriend in the past but never registered the relationship as de facto or listed yourself as “de facto” on a tax form/visa/etc, you can probably just say no to this.
Sponsor’s previous relationships
As with the previous section, you now need to indicate whether the sponsor has been in a previous marriage or de facto relationship with anyone other than you, whether they have ever sponsored a previous partner/spouse for this visa, or whether they have ever been sponsored by a previous partner/spouse for this visa.
Presumably, there will be follow-up questions if you answer yes to any of these statements.
Interpreter services
Tick yes if you require the assistance of an interpreter in any future communications with Home Affairs.
Countries resided/visited
“Have any of the applicants lived in a country for more than 12 months cumulatively in the past 10 years?” Here, just provide details (address and dates) of everywhere you’ve lived for more than a year.
The second section of this question will likely take a bit more time, as you are asked to provide dates of travel for every single country you have visited in the last 10 years. I’d suggest making a table in Word with all of your travel dates so you can easily copy this onto the application and then attach it to Form 80 later (there is super limited space on the form).
Visa history
Just a few quick questions about if you’ve ever had a visa cancelled or been refused entry into Australia for any reason.
Interestingly enough, I do know a couple who successfully got their partner visa even after the guy had been deported from Australia for illegally overstaying his visa, so there are ways to deal with every situation!
Character declarations
This section is a long series of yes/no questions regarding any criminal convictions/charges that have been brought against you, any activities that you’ve been involved in that could possibly be perceived as a threat to Australia (e.g. explosives training, military service), whether you’ve overstayed a visa or been deported from any country, etc.
The questions are all pretty straightforward, but you’ll likely want to speak to a migration agent or lawyer for help with your application if you had to answer “yes” to any of the above.
Partner visa declarations
This page is another series of declarations, mostly just to grant Home Affairs access to your records from other government departments and to consent to the use of this information in assessing your visa.
Declarations
The final page of the online application (!!!) is a series of declarations about the honesty of information you’ve included, your understanding of the visa grant process, and your agreement to the Australian Values statement (you can see the whole Life in Australia booklet here, but basically it just talks about the respect, equality, and freedoms that all Australians are entitled to regardless of gender, religion, race, etc..).
From here, you have the opportunity to review all of your responses on a single page before actually hitting submit, which I would recommend doing yourself and having your partner do, just to make sure there’s nothing you missed.
Paying for your application
Now that you’ve actually submitted your 820/801 Partner Visa application, you are directed to pay the associated fee, which was $7,160AUD as of December 2018.
You can pay the application fee using a credit card, debit card, or PayPal, all of which incur fees of 1-1.32%, but if you have an Australian bank account, I would highly recommend using BPAY instead to save yourself some money (1.32% was $95!!). The BPAY payments might take a day to be processed and linked to your application (mine happened in about 6 hours), so it’s imperative that you submit the payment within 3 days of your application to avoid unnecessary lag and potential cancellation.
They will give you the Biller Code and Biller Reference when you select this option at the end of the application, so it’s quite easy to manage.
What’s next?
The next step is for your partner to complete the Sponsorship for a Partner to Migrate to Australia form, which can also be done in IMMI, and then uploading evidence:
- SPONSORSHIP FOR A PARTNER TO MIGRATE TO AUSTRALIA: COMPLETING THE SPONSOR SECTION OF THE 820/801
- UPLOADING EVIDENCE TO OUR 820/801 AUSTRALIAN PARTNER VISA APPLICATION
I hope this information has been helpful and I wish you so much luck on your Australian Partner Visa journey! Feel free to ask any questions below and I will do my very best to answer them.
* I am not a migration agent or affiliated with Home Affairs in any way, so all the information provided in these posts and in the comments below is based entirely on my own experience and my own understanding of the application process.
If you found this post helpful and want to contribute to some of the costs associated with running BrookeAroundTown.com, I would be infinitely grateful!
You can use the PayPal button below to donate whatever you feel this information is worth. If you aren’t able, don’t worry— I will always keep my posts free and accessible for everyone!
UPDATE: A MASSIVE THANK YOU to everyone who’s commented to let me know that you found these posts helpful— I can’t tell you how much it means to me to read your success stories! I worked incredibly hard to compile all of this information (while getting my PhD & teaching), but it’s genuinely been worth it to make even a small difference for my fellow immigrants.
More importantly, though, THANK YOU to everyone who has shared their own experience or answered questions for other readers in the comments below! We are building a wonderful & supportive community of Partner Visa applicants here, and every comment and question is a resource for others.
If you felt like these posts helped with your application, I’d encourage you to come back after your visa is granted (or even after various milestones) and let us all know what happened— it might mean the world to someone else struggling with this process! Best wishes to you all xx bb
The Comments
Eva Duerkop
Hi Brooke,
thanks so much for your guide – this is so helpful! I have two questions for you:
1. Were you able to talk to a migrant agent for free? I read somewhere that some give advice as volunteers.
2. In the section ‘Applicant’s Immediate Family Members’ I have entered my parents and my brothers details but I don’t understand what to choose for my brother’s relationship status as it only lets me choose: De facto, Divorced, Engaged, Married, Never Married, Seperated, Widowed. One of my brother has a girlfriend and my other brother is single..
Thanks again!
brooke brisbine
Eva DuerkopHi Eva, glad you found it helpfuL!
1. I never spoke to a migration agent nor heard of it being free in 2018 when I was applying, but it’s possible this is a new thing, so I’d say go for it– that’s an excellent way to get current advice!
2. For both of your brothers, you would select “never married”. It’s weird language, but that’s the “single” option (and even though one has a girlfriend, unless they are de facto, it’s still legally considered single).
Hope that helps 🙂
-Brooke
Eva Duerkop
brooke brisbineThanks so much for your help Brooke! 😀
I have a couple of friends who could fill out a supporting witness document in Germany apart from my Australian witness. Since they are not Australian citizens/ permanent residents, do you think they could still use the same form and just attach their german passports/ID’s?
brooke
Eva DuerkopHi Eva,
Just to clarify, only Australians can complete the 888. You can absolutely still include support letters from foreign friends and family, but it won’t count towards your Form 888 requirement– I just had my family write and sign a letter (nothing official, but I think it still helps!).
Hope that makes sense 🙂
xx bb
Cara
Hi Brooke. I would like to say thank you. Your blog has been a lifesaver for us in applying 820 and 801. I finally got my permanent residency (801) granted few days before Christmas. We did DIY application with all the help of your guide. God Bless you.
brooke brisbine
CaraCongratulations, Cara!
And thank you so much for the thoughtful message, I’m so happy to hear this information was helpful!
David
Hi Brooke. I wanted to say a huge thank you for this website!!! It guided me all the way from working out which visa my now-wife should be apply for, all the way to which button to press to upload the evidence documents. The process would have been so much more stressful without this guide.
As an indication for others, we applied onshore in Jun 2021 (after arriving earlier that month on a tourist visa with an exemption), and received the 820 visa 2.5month later.
Thanks again!!!
brooke brisbine
DavidHi David, thanks so much for the lovely comment and congratulations on such a quick outcome!
Wish you both all the best x
Maddy
Hi Brooke ,
I had submitted my application and then uploaded my evidences. However, my partner’s docs and application is under way and will be submitting it now – 4 weeks after my application has been submitted. Will this create an issue ? Also, I had submitted an initial application with evidences supporting it only 2 weeks after my application (took some time to verify everything ).
Cheers,
Maddy
brooke brisbine
MaddyHi Maddy,
To clarify, your partner is submitting their sponsorship application 4 weeks after you submitted your initial application? That should not be an issue. Ideally, your partner needs to submit as soon as possible to avoid delays in processing, but the department is still reviewing the initial application first (for now), so 4 weeks shouldn’t really make a difference.
Best of luck!
Tom
Hi Brooke,
I’ve just arrived in Australia and once i make it through quarantine, ill be moving in with my partner!
I just wanted to message and say a huge thankyou. The information you provided allowed me to get my application together in a short amount of time and in turn allowed me to be here much sooner than I otherwise would!
I can’t wait to get my life here started and you had a massive part to play in that, as you have for countless others.
Not all heroes wear capes!
Thanks again,
Tom
brooke brisbine
TomHi Tom,
Wow, thank you so much for this wonderful comment! It means a lot to know these guides are helping people, it’s worth it for the satisfaction alone.
Wishing you and your partner all the best on your next adventure, together 🙂
Brooke
Filomena Nigro
My visa was just approved, after only 3 months. I cannot put into words the help that your website provided for this process, I will be eternally thankful!
Cheers,
Filomena
Kay
Hey Brooke!
Thank you so much for all the painstakingly gathered information. Absolute legend. Also, if you’re Dr Brooke now, congratulations! If you’re still doing your PhD, hold on to the pain, it goes away immediately the first time you’re officially Dr Brooke.
Before I start, I want to apologise if I’m repeating this question. I read through a majority of comments, but your blog seems pretty popular (unsurprisingly!) and the list of comments is quite long.
So I’m an onshore applicant, haven’t left Australia (even on holiday) since entering in Feb 2018. Met my partner May 2019 and we’ve been living together since Feb 2020. My current visa expires Nov 2022.
Now, I was wondering how long it took from the time you first started the application to submitting the last document? I get that the process continues after you’ve actually submitted the online application, so I’m including that period as well in the above?
I’m only asking to know how long before the expiry of my current visa I should be starting the application. I’m hearing from friends that I should be giving myself a 6-month window, but there are some advising just a month. So it’s all up in the air.
I was also wondering about the ‘long-term relationship’ requirement. I get that there’s a possibility of a Permanent Visa being granted almost immediately if the relationship has existed for 3 years. But does the 3 year timeline include the dating phase or does it begin when we had moved in together?
Thank you so much for all the work you’re putting into this. If you’re PhD is in Law, you could consider becoming a Migration agent, you have got quite the headstart already! 🙂
brooke brisbine
KayHi Kay, thank you so much for the lovely comment! I did made it through my PhD and am now Dr Brooke (yay), so now the pain is just a distant memory 🙂
Truthfully, I took an extremely long time with this application– every time I sat down to start working on it, I’d get overwhelmed and decide to put it off (since I had an active student visa and therefore wasn’t in an actual time crunch). Once I started the application online instead of just researching it, it probably took about 6 months until I submitted the final document (not counting regular updates that I uploaded at 6mo, 12mo and 18mo). If you’re organised, it’s absolutely possible to do it quicker, but don’t underestimate just how much there is to do.. it is no small undertaking, and doing it in a month would be wildly stressful for most people.
As for the long-term exception, it requires that you have been de facto for 3+ years, not just dating– if you considered your relationship de facto prior to moving in together (and have compelling evidence to support that), then it’s possible you’d be eligible, but certainly not a guarantee.
Hope that helps 🙂
-Brooke
Emma
Hi Brooke, as with all the other comments, thank you SO SO much. It has been an enormous headache filling out the application, and at the 11th hour I’ve come across your TREMENDOUS blog, and my blood pressure is decreasing by the minute!
Almost ready to submit the application, and your blog and answers to other comments/qs has helped with almost all aspects, so thank you so much.
There is is one particular question I’d love your opinion on: My partner is Australian and I’m from the UK. Have visited for short tourist visits over the 6 years we’ve been together. I arrived in Feb for another visit, but due to covid, I’ve been here since (on 2 separate tourist visas). So that trip has been (just) under 12 months, and cumulatively, with the other trips to Aus over the past 6 years, it of course adds up to over 12 months. So I technically live here as I’ve been here for nearly a year, but on tourist visas, so I’m confused as to whether I say I’ve lived in another country for over 12 months in the past 10 years… because I’ve been on tourist visas, and technically I’ve been visiting all those times. And technically I’m still visiting now haha! Just a really long Covid holiday…
I’m tempted to write NO to that question, as this particular long 11 month trip doesn’t add up to a year, so I’m tempted to write no to having lived in Aus for 12 months in the 10 year period.
But I’d be keen to hear your opinion on that one.
I hope that makes sense…
You are a true hero to us all. SO much thanks xxxxxxxxx
brooke brisbine
EmmaHi Emma, thank you so much for your thoughtful comment, it means a lot to know that these posts are helping other couples!
Yours is certainly a grey area in terms of whether you’ve been here 12 months, as it’s under a year right now but will surely be 12 months before they assess your application…
With that in mind, I’d probably write ‘yes’ and plan to submit the Aus police check (required if you’ve lived here for more than 12 months), just to be safe. You can explain the circumstances in a letter that you attach to your application, but I can’t imagine there’s any issue with answering ‘yes’ if it’s technically not a full year YET, while answering ‘no’ might delay your application if they ask you to do the police check later on.
Hope that helps, best of luck with it all!
-Brooke
Charmaine
Hi Brooke.
Wow. You’re incredibly generous in writing this blog and replying to all the Qs. I wonder if you have any advice for us… My wife and I live in the UK (I’m Australian, she is British). We’ve been married here 13 years and I now have UK citizenship too. We’ve decided that want to move back to Australia this year – do you think there is anything wrong with us moving back on a tourist visa and lodging an onshore application when we get there? Would we be ok to be honest about that? or do we need to lodge offshore and wait for the year or two that it takes to get the visa before we move there?
Thanks!!
brooke brisbine
CharmaineHi Charmaine, so wonderful to hear that you’ve found these posts helpful!
Technically speaking, you aren’t meant to enter Aus on a tourist visa if the intent is to stay permanently, BUT I know heaps of people do it with no issue. In fact, there are definitely readers on here who’ve done that very thing. I’m not sure if they disclosed the intent to apply for PR when coming through immigration on the tourist visa, though– hoping someone else reading this comment might be able to share their experience???
Josiah
Hi Brooke
This blog has been SO helpful for us as we are walking through our application. I did have one question that I am trying to find the answer for. I am Canadian and live right on the Canada/US border. For the past few years we usually travel from Canada to the US once a week (for gas or visiting family / friends). I am trying to figure out if I am going to need to document every single trip to the states on the page that asks me to document trips visiting other countries. Any chance you have insight on this?
Thanks so much
brooke brisbine
JosiahHi Josiah,
Technically yes, they want you to document every single time you’ve visited another country– that seems insanely tedious in your case, so you might be able to write a letter explaining the circumstances, but I’d imagine the CO will still say it needs to be recorded. Ugh!
Best of luck 🙂
-Brooke
Peace Perth
Hi Brooke,
Thankyou so much for your amazing work here, it really make easy to lodge our visa and heaps of congratulations on your visa grant
My partner applied for 801/820 combined on September 2020 and got Bridging Visa straight away. He didn’t submit health check yet since it will be too quick and application is showing wait time is 21 to 28 months
My question is, when will temporary partner visa granted? Is this wait time is actually for temp visa?
Your information will be so helpful, do we need to do health check straight away after lodging application?
Thankyou so much
Peace
brooke brisbine
Peace PerthHi Peace, thank you so much for the lovely comment, so happy to hear these posts have been helpful!
Unfortunately, it’s pretty impossible to guess when the 820 visa will be granted– it varies widely based on personal circumstances. I have readers who’ve had it granted around 6 months and others who’ve waited 3 years, so it’s hardly consistent. That estimated wait time (21-28 months) is for 75% of visas to be finalised, meaning there are still some that take longer, as well as ones that are processed much quicker.
I personally waited 6 months to do my health check since the chances of having the visa approved without having to do a second check (since it’s only valid for 12 months) was pretty good at that stage. Up to you, though, as some visas are not granted within 18 months and you’ll usually end up repeating the check in that instance.
Hope that helps 🙂
-Brooke
Tyler Middleton
Hi Brooke,
My wife and I are now emabrking on the partner visa journey! We have a baby on the way and hoping to get through the visa which will be massively helped by your site. So much info and makes the appplication seem less daunting. 1 quick question for now ( im sure there will be more in the near future!), at what stage can my wife apply for medicare? From what i can gather we do the first part of the application (nearly finished), Pay for the application, upload supporting documents and then she can aply for medicare?
Really appreciate everything you have put of your site, we would all be lost without it!
– Ty
brooke brisbine
Tyler MiddletonHi Tyler,
That’s correct, as soon as you’ve submitted and paid for the application, she will be eligible to apply for Medicare! I have some very basic instructions in this post: https://brookebeyond.com/australian-permanent-residency-through-820-801-partner-visa
Hope that helps, and best of luck with the application!
-Brooke
Vincent
Hi Brooke,
Your posts and this site are really fantastic! I was feeling a bit lost when researching the application process and this is the light at the end of the tunnel. I really appreciate your sharing and advice to all of us.
In fact, I had been together with my partner since 2014 when we were both overseas. Unfortunately, we do not really have any solid proof of living together for that period before 2018. After that, we moved to Sydney and lived together since Apr 2018. We are now planning to apply for this 820/801 visa since my partner’s 485 visa is expiring Jun 2021. I just came out with this question when reading your comments on the loophole “to getting around the standard 2-year wait is either being de facto with your partner 3+ years at the time of application”.
So did you actually submit both stage 1 & stage 2 applications at the same time, with the condition that after spending 3 years together with your partner? In this case, you actually got both 801/820 granted? So come back to our scenario, it is better to submit our applications for both stage 1 & 2 next Apr (fulfilling 3 years together requirement)?
Appreciate your advice.
Thank you very much.
Best Regards
Vincent
brooke brisbine
VincentHi Vincent,
So glad to hear you found these posts helpful! I did have both my 820 and 801 granted simultaneously, but you don’t have to complete multiple applications for this if you meet the 3+ year exemption (which you do). You just apply for the 820/801 as every single other applicant does, but instead of having to submit additional information at the 2 year mark, your 801 should just be granted at the same time as your 820.
I hope this makes sense… basically, there is no “stage 1 application” and “stage 2 application”, just a single 820/801 application that everyone completes and then some additional steps specifically for the 801 at the 2-year mark that SOME applicants have to do while others (me, you) will avoid.
-Brooke
Vincent
brooke brisbineDear Brooke,
Thanks so much for your fast response. Really appreciated.
I have this question is mainly due to the visa category listed on the Immi website. When I log in to start a new application & choose the type of visa, there are two different types to choose from under the “Family” tab. One type is listed as “Stage 1 – Partner or Prospective Marriage Visa (300,309/100,820/801)”; another one is “Stage 2 – Permanent Partner Visa Assessment (100,801)”. So how did you manage this?
Appreciate your advice.
Thank you very much.
Vincent
brooke brisbine
VincentHi Vincent,
Those who meet the long-term exemption NEVER have to complete anything for Stage 2, including this application. You ONLY have to complete Stage 1 and then you should have both visas granted simultaneously!
Best of luck 🙂
-Brooke
Maeve
brooke brisbineHi Brooke,
Your blog has been a life saver to me and my friends, thanks!
I applied for my partner vis Oct 2019 ( still waiting)
However I applied for the visa through my partners immi account, should I try to rectify this?
Thanks
Maeve
brooke brisbine
MaeveHi Maeve,
I think it’s fine at this stage to keep your application where it is– I don’t know how you’d fix that without completely redoing the application and it’s been over a year, so probably just leave it. As long as everything has been completed correctly (sponsorship application, etc), I can’t imagine it will be a major issue!
-Brooke
JENALYN OXNAM
Hi Brooke,
Currently stuck in “Have any of the applicants lived in a country for more than 12 months…?”question. I have never lived in another country other than where I am right now. Should I tick YES?
Aside from that, I have used the 5 boxes for the details of the relationship and it did not exceed more than 2000 characters each box, would that be okay? A little bit worried that it may be looking so brief.
Thank you in advance for your help.
Regards,
Jen
brooke brisbine
JENALYN OXNAMHi Jen,
Wherever you’re currently living, it sounds like it’s been longer than 12 months, so definitely answer YES to that question. As for the relationship details, I’d probably be a little concerned about being so brief, but if your evidence is strong without needing a lot of written explanation, technically you’ve still met the requirements for the application (i.e. there’s no official minimum word limit on those statements).
Hope that helps 🙂
-Brooke
Joana Cerejo
Hi Brooke,
hope you’re good! As you’ve hear many times before, this website is absolutely incredible and I am really grateful to you to put it all together for us! I’ll be sure to contribute to it, because your work is truly remarkable for a lot of people.
Anyway, me and my partner are putting together our statements and at the moment we have:
– Financial statement
– Household statement
– Social statement
– Nature of commitment statement
These ones we wrote together as one document for each category so we’re thinking we would both sign them. Is this okay or do we need one each?
Regarding the development of the relationship statement is this the famous “Relationship timeline” that we both individually have to write? This was my understanding so I was thinking of having 2 separate documents on this box and just 1 on the other boxes. Is this possible? Or is the “Relationship timeline” something different that will be asked later in the application? (Can’t move forward so it is difficult to see what comes next)
We’ve been putting together documents for a long time but just logged in yesterday and seeing how IMMI organizes the application is a bit different.
Again, thanks a lot for your work! You’re a star!
Joana
brooke brisbine
Joana CerejoHi Joana,
So sorry it took me this long to get back to you, but thank you for the lovely comment 🙂
I was under the impression that you each needed to write your own statements, but I’ve heard from readers on this blog that they did exactly what you’ve done and it was fine, so it sounds like a matter of personal preference! Both signing would be a good idea, though.
The development of your relationship is just the entire story of your lives together/your relationship timeline, so if you’re writing this as a separate statement (which I’d recommend), you can just refer the CO to that document rather than writing the whole thing in the box on the application. There is no other spot to write this in the application, but you will obviously upload it to the evidence section after you’ve submitted. I hope that answers your question!
Best of luck with it all xx
-Brooke