Uploading evidence to our 820/801 Australian Partner Visa application
Last Updated on 8 May 2023
Collecting and organising evidence for your 820/801 Partner Visa is absolutely the most stressful part of the entire application, and this confusion is only magnified by the scarcity of information provided on the Home Affairs site.
If you’re struggling with your evidence, just know that you’re not alone! Callum and I had 5 years of documents and photos to include, and at times it felt like an impossible amount of information to convey to another human being. Still, we managed to find a way to tell our story with this evidence and my application was granted with no requests for additional information (and I went straight onto the 801 permanent visa without waiting on the 820).
It’s important to remember that there is no “one size fits all” document checklist and there is no single “right” way to upload things to this application. I might have filed documents under Evidence of Relationship that you think are better suited to Length of Relationship, and that’s entirely your call to make. This post is just an example of what the upload portal actually looks like and how we organised our documents— I hope it will help you find a way to tell your own unique story!
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.
Some background on us
If you haven’t been following along with all of my partner visa posts, Callum and I first started dating in 2015 after we met at Splendour in the Grass in Byron Bay. I’d already been living as a student in Sydney for nearly 3 years at that point (I’m originally from Seattle, USA), but he was living in Melbourne, which meant quite a lot of long drives and expensive flights during the first few months of our relationship.
When I graduated a few months later, I eagerly moved down to Melbourne, rented an apartment with Callum in the city, and got a Working Holiday Visa. About 7 months after that, I got a scholarship offer to do my PhD in Sydney, so we packed up and moved back to NSW together.
At the time of submitting our application (December 2018), we’d been together 3.5 years, lived together for 3, travelled to more than 20 countries together, combined our finances, been on overseas holidays with his and my family, and had really intertwined our lives in just about every possible way.
When the application was granted 19 months later (July 2020), I received the permanent 801 visa just 1 minute after the 820 temporary visa, completely bypassing the usual 2-year waiting period. We were never contacted by a CO and there were no requests for additional information, so I can assume our evidence was pretty thorough!
Important things to remember
- You are limited to 100 documents, and even though that sounds like heaps, it will go far quicker than you think! Group similar documents into a single PDF, copy and paste photos into a word document rather than uploading them individually, and make sure you upload the essential stuff first before you get to all the fluff.
- Your documents need to be under 5MB, which means you’ll want to compress large PDFs (SmallPDF only allows you to compress 2 documents an hour, but just clear your cookies to reset the counter) and avoid submitting unnecessarily high resolution images. This might also mean that you have to split PDFs into multiple parts (e.g. “Financial Documents 2015” and “Financial Documents 2016”, etc.).
- Give documents logical names, like “Joint Travel Photos 2015” so it’s easy for the CO to sift through your application (and also easy for you to reference specific documents in your statements).
- Upload documents for both you and your partner to the main application.
- You must submit and pay for your application before uploading any documents.
- You can continue uploading new documents to your application for as long as you want. It’s a good idea to provide ongoing evidence of your relationship (more photos, new lease, recent trips, etc) while you’re waiting to be approved!
Getting to the upload portal
Within your IMMI Account (on the My Applications page), select your partner visa application by clicking “View Details“. Under the “Actions” tab on the left hand side, select “Attach Documents“, which will take you to the upload portal. You’ll now see two different expandable sections, one with your name and one with your partner’s name.
I’ve gotten a lot of questions about this, so it’s probably good to reiterate that you will only be able to upload documents after you’ve submitted the online application and paid! As far as I can tell, there is no official time limit to upload documents, but it’s best to provide a complete application as quickly as possible just to avoid potential delays in processing.
To really give you an idea of the upload process and provide a bit more information about what you might want to submit, I’ve included all the evidence sections that are displayed as “Recommended” (even if I didn’t personally upload anything under that heading and even if they don’t apply to everyone), as well as the description provided by Home Affairs and some notes from me where clarification is necessary. Lastly, I’ve written out a complete list of all the evidence I uploaded to each section of my own application!
Applicant documents
Form 80 Personal Particulars for Character Assessment
Attach a completed and signed Personal particulars for character assessment form (Form 80).
My uploads
- FORM 80 Brooke: Uploaded as a single PDF (find the form here)
Character Assessment, Evidence of Intention to Obtain
Provide evidence of your intention to obtain the relevant character assessments. This may include a receipt for an application for a police check.
Notes from BB: You are required to supply a federal police check from every country you’ve lived in for more than 12 months in the last 10 years. If you have already paid for the checks and are just waiting on results, you can upload a receipt here (more info about the actual checks under “Character, Evidence of”). Read more about completing your AFP police check in this post and your FBI checks in this post.
Citizenship – Not Australian, Evidence of
Provide evidence of your citizenship of any country other than Australia. This may include your passport or proof of citizenship certificate issued by the country. Provide a scanned copy of your original document.
Notes from BB: There’s a little drop-box with options for this section, see the screenshot below.
My uploads
- PASSPORT BROOKE: Don’t worry about certifying this, a colour scan is perfectly acceptable for an online application
Photograph – Passport
Provide a recent passport photograph (45mm x 35mm). This should be of the head and shoulders only, and should show the person facing the camera, against a plain background and must be less than six months old. Print the name of the person on the back of the photograph.
My uploads
- PASSPORT PHOTO BROOKE: For $19, Auspost will send you a digital copy of your passport photo, perfectly sized for upload to your application
Character, Evidence of
If you have lived in Australia for a total of 12 months or more in the last 10 years (these 12 months are calculated cumulatively, not consecutively) you are required to provide an Australian Federal Police (AFP) clearance by completing a National Police Check Online Application Form. You also need to provide a similar police check from every country you’ve lived in for more than 12 months.
Notes from BB: Submitting these police checks at the time of application is referred to as “front loading” or having a “decision-ready application”, but it seems to have fallen out of fashion as wait times have gotten longer and longer. The original idea was that, by giving the CO everything they need to approve your application without any follow-up, you’d get a decision much quicker. Given that police and medical checks are only valid for one year and visa processing times often extend far beyond this, most applicants wait for the CO to request the checks rather than risking expiration (and having to re-do the expensive checks). After giving a lot of thought to this, we decided not “front load” our application and instead wait for some time to pass before completing these checks.
UPDATE: 6-7 months after submitting my application and this initial evidence, I completed police checks and uploaded them to this category. You can read more about completing your AFP police check in this post and your FBI checks in this post.
Registered Relationship, Evidence of
Provide evidence that your relationship is registered under a law of a state or territory prescribed in the Acts Interpretation (Registered Relationships) Regulations 2008 as a kind of relationship prescribed in those regulations.
My uploads
- RELATIONSHIP CERTIFICATE: A colour scan of our NSW Relationship Registration
Contact While Apart, Evidence of
Provide evidence of contact between you both while you were apart from each other.
Notes from BB: There’s a little drop-box with options for this section, see the screenshot below.
My uploads
- STATEMENT OF CONTACT WHILE APART: Just a written statement about me and Callum living together uninterrupted for our entire de facto relationship, providing dates of when we were long distance prior to moving in together and when we travelled separately on a few occasions
- CALENDAR OF VISITS: Print-outs from my iCal showing all the dates Callum and I saw each other before we moved in together as a de facto couple
- MESSAGES WHILE APART: 120 pages of iMessages between me and Callum during the times we travelled separately
Form 956 Advice by a Migration Agent/Exempt Person
Provide a completed and signed Form 956 Advice by a migration agent/exempt person of providing immigration assistance.Access to complete this form online may be available from the ‘Update details’ section in ImmiAccount.
Notes from BB: We chose not to use a migration agent, so we had nothing to include here.
Form 956A Appointment or Withdrawal of an Authorised Recipient
Provide a completed and signed Form 956A Appointment or withdrawal of an authorised recipient. Access to complete this form online may be available from the ‘Update details’ section in ImmiAccount.
Notes from BB: We completed the application on our own, so we did not need to submit this form.
Address – Residential, Evidence of
Provide evidence of your residential address. This may include your driver’s licence or utilities account.
Notes from BB: There’s a little drop-box with options for this section, see the screenshot below.
My uploads
- RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS BROOKE: Our current lease agreement with my name and two bills addressed to me at our address, combined in one PDF
Photograph – Other
Provide a recent photograph of the visa applicant (other than a passport photograph).
My uploads
- RECENT PHOTOS BROOKE
Military Discharge, Evidence of
Provide a certified copy of your military discharge.
Notes from BB: This didn’t apply to me, so I didn’t submit anything under this heading.
National Identity Document (other than Passport)
Provide a certified copy of your national identity card/s (other than your passport). You must provide a copy of both sides of each card.
My uploads
- SOCIAL SECURITY CARD BROOKE
Family Register and Composition Form (if applicable)
Provide evidence of your family composition. You can provide a copy of your family register book (if your country issues one). Applicants applying from China should provide a copy of their family register book (Hukou) and Form 54 Family Composition which can be found on the Department’s website. Applicants applying from Indonesia must provide a copy of their Family Card (Kartu Keluarga).
Notes from BB: It’s not common that people include this information, according to what I’ve read on the forums, so we left this section blank.
Travel Document
Provide evidence of your travel document. This may include a certified copy of the personal particulars/photo (bio-data) page. This is the page of the passport which shows the name and date of birth, passport number, issue and expiry date, and photograph of the holder. If you do not have a passport and are not able to obtain one, please provide a certified copy of your Document for Travel to Australia (DFTTA) or a Titre de Voyage (Convention Travel Document).
Notes from BB: There’s a little drop-box with options for this section, see the screenshot below.
My uploads
- PASSPORT BROOKE
Length of the De Facto Relationship, Evidence of
Provide evidence of the length of the de facto relationship.
Notes from BB: There’s a little drop-box with options for this section, see the screenshot below.
My uploads
- STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF PARTNER VISA: Stat dec from my mum about her staying in our shared apartment in 2015 and 2018, travelling with us over the years, Callum visiting her without me in America, etc
- 6 MONTH RELATIONSHIP UPDATE: About 6 months after submitting the application, I uploaded a PDF document with a cover letter detailing our previous 6 months together, a table of contents, and a bunch of new supporting documents, like photos, invitations, travel bookings, etc
Medical Examination, Evidence of Intention to Undergo
Provide evidence of your intention to undergo a medical examination. This may include a certified copy of your receipt for a medical examination.
Notes from BB: You are required to undergo a health check to make sure that you are not bringing any dangerous communicable diseases into Australia, but as with the police check, this is only valid for a year, so I decided to wait to submit mine.
UPDATE: I completed my health assessment about 6 months after submitting my visa, but BUPA automatically delivered my results to Home Affairs, so I never did upload anything here. To find out more about how to complete your own health check, read this post.
Nature of the Couple’s Household, Evidence of
Provide evidence of the nature of the couple’s household.
Notes from BB: There’s a little drop-box with options for this section, see the screenshot below.
My uploads
- EVIDENCE OF SHARED PET: Vet bills and receipt for the joint purchase of our cat, plus photos of us with our cat over the years
- BILLS AND MAIL ADDRESSED TO SHARED ADDRESSES: 2x pieces of mail addressed to me and 2x addressed to Callum at our shared address during every 6 month period of our relationship (showing consistent cohabitation)
- PHOTOS OF SHARED APARTMENT: Photos of our shared bedroom and other areas of our home on a single page
Form 888 Statutory Declaration by a Supporting Witness in Relation to a Partner Visa Application
Attach a completed and signed Statutory declaration by a supporting witness in relation to a Partner or Prospective Marriage visa application form (Form 888).
Notes from BB: You are required to include the name and details of at least 2 witnesses when completing your online application, but as I mentioned earlier, more is surely not a bad thing, so we uploaded 9 total stat decs from family and friends (find the form here and read more about it in this post)
My uploads
- FORM 888- Callum’s dad
- FORM 888- Callum’s mum
- FORM 888- Callum’s sister
- FORM 888- Our mutual friend
- FORM 888- Callum’s school friend
- FORM 888- Callum’s work colleague
- FORM 888- My friend
- FORM 888- My friend
- FORM 888- My work colleague
Relationship – Spouse, De Facto Partner, Evidence of
Provide evidence of your relationship with your spouse/de facto partner. This may include a certified copy of your marriage certificate, family book, household booklet or family composition evidence.
Notes from BB: There’s a little drop-box with options for this section, see the screenshot below.
My uploads
- APPLICATION COVER LETTER: I wrote a nice letter to our future CO explaining that we were waiting to undergo background and health checks until required and that we were happy to provide additional information as requested
- DEVELOPMENT OF RELATIONSHIP: I wrote about 6 pages on the history of our relationship, from when we met all the way through to our future plans together
- RELATIONSHIP STATEMENT CALLUM: Callum also wrote a similar statement (albeit much shorter) and signed it
- SOCIAL ASPECTS STATEMENT: I wrote about all the events we’ve attended together and the travel we’ve done as a couple over the years, referencing specific dates and photos contained in other attachments
- JOINT PHOTOS 2015: Collection of photos of me and Callum together in 2015, all with captions
- JOINT PHOTOS 2016: Collection of photos of me and Callum together in 2016, all with captions
- JOINT PHOTOS 2017: Collection of photos of me and Callum together in 2017, all with captions
- JOINT PHOTOS 2018: Collection of photos of me and Callum together in 2018, all with captions
- FACEBOOK SCREENSHOTS: Screenshots of statuses where we tagged each other, photos we were both in, posts between Callum and my mum, our relationship status, etc.
- JOINT TRAVEL BOOKINGS: 40 pages of plane tickets, train tickets, and other travel bookings from the 20 countries we’ve visited together
- JOINT EVENTS: A collection of Facebook invites, gig tickets, and invitations to events with both of our names on them
- FINANCIAL STATEMENT BROOKE: Statement from me about our joint accounts and joint savings goals
- FINANCIAL STATEMENT CALLUM: A signed statement from Callum about how we share finances, how he bought me a car, how he is saving for our house deposit
- JOINT EXPENSES: A collection of bills, travel bookings, and other expenses paid for by one of us, showing that we each contribute financially
- CAR: Receipt from the car Callum bought me, insurance policy with both names, receipt from the rego that I paid
Health, Evidence of
You are required to provide additional information as part of the health assessment process for your visa application. For more information about the exact documentation required, click on the Attach document link.
Notes from BB: You are required to undergo a health check to make sure that you are not bringing any dangerous communicable diseases into Australia, but as with the police check, this is only valid for a year, so I decided to wait to submit mine.
UPDATE: I completed my health assessment about 6 months after submitting my visa, but BUPA automatically delivered my results to Home Affairs, so I never did upload anything here. To find out more about how to complete your own health check, read this post.
Divorce/Separation, Evidence of
Provide evidence of your divorce or separation. This may include a certified copy of your divorce decree absolute or court documents.
Notes from BB: This didn’t apply to our situation, so there was nothing for me to upload under this heading.
Identity, Evidence of
Provide evidence of your identity. Provide a scanned copy of your original document.
My uploads
- AUSTRALIAN ID BROOKE: I scanned my Australian Driver Licence, student card, WWCC, and healthcare card onto a single page
Nature of the Couple’s Mutual Commitment to Each Other, Evidence of
Provide evidence of the nature of the couple’s mutual commitment to each other.
My uploads
- COMMITMENT STATEMENT BROOKE: Statement from me about our involvement with one another’s family and our long-terms goals together
- COMMITMENT STATEMENT CALLUM: Signed statement from Callum about our mutual commitment and future plans
- BENEFICIARY: Screenshot from both my Super and Callum’s Super showing the other as full beneficiary
- EMERGENCY CONTACT: Screenshot from my Uni account showing Callum as my emergency contact
- TATTOO PHOTO: Photo of the matching tattoos Callum and I got in Indonesia
- STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF PARTNER VISA: Stat dec from my dad detailing all the time he’s spent with Callum, either when we visited America or when we’ve travelled with him
- STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF PARTNER VISA: Stat dec from my stepmother about how she believes our relationship is genuine and how Callum is considered part of the family
- JOINT FAMILY PHOTOS: Collection of photos of me with Callum’s family and him with my family throughout the years, all with captions
- CHRISTMAS CARDS: Three years of Christmas cards sent out by my parents that have included a photo of me and Callum and have signed his name at the bottom as part of the “Brisbine family”
Change of Name, Evidence of
Provide evidence of any name change. This may include your marriage certificate or change of name certificate. Provide a scanned copy of your original document.
Notes from BB: This didn’t apply to our situation, so there was nothing for me to upload under this heading.
Couple are Living Together, Evidence of
Provide evidence that the couple are living together.
My uploads
- EVIDENCE OF COHABITATION STATEMENT: Details from me about the addresses we’ve lived at together and when we moved in
- BOND RECEIPTS: Official bond receipts with both of our names from all 3 properties we’ve lived at together
- LEASE AGREEMENTS: Signed lease agreements in both names for all 3 properties we’ve lived at together
- REAL ESTATE CORRESPONDENCE: A collection of letters and emails between us and the various agents we have had over the years
- CURRENT ADDRESS: Mail addressed jointly to me and Callum at our current property
Form 1221 Additional Personal Particulars Form
Provide a completed and signed Form 1221 Additional personal particulars information for applicants aged 18 years and over.
My uploads
- FORM 1221 BROOKE: Find the form here
Birth or Age, Evidence of
Provide a certified copy of your full birth certificate. If your country of birth does not issue birth certificates, provide written notification stating this, and provide your country’s equivalent documentation, such as secondary school certificate, family book extracts or family census register.
My uploads
- BIRTH CERTIFICATE BROOKE: Colour scan of my birth certificate
Military Service, Evidence of
Provide a certified copy of your military service record.
Notes from BB: This didn’t apply to me, so I didn’t upload anything under this heading.
Marriage, Evidence of
Provide evidence of marriage.
Notes from BB: This didn’t apply to our situation, so there was nothing for me to upload under this heading.
Sponsor documents
Form 40SP- Sponsorship for a Partner to Migrate to Australia
Attach a completed and signed Sponsorship for a partner to migrate to Australia form (Form 40SP).
Callum’s uploads
- FORM 40SP: Find the form here
Character Assessment, Evidence of Intention to Obtain
Provide evidence of your intention to obtain the relevant character assessments. This may include a receipt for an application for a police check.
Notes from BB: See my notes under this same heading in Applicant documents.
Citizenship – Australian, Evidence of
Provide evidence of Australian citizenship. For more detailed information on when and how you may have acquired Australian citizenship and the documents you will need to support your claim, use Tables A-E. You might be required to provide additional documents to those listed in the tables. Provide a scanned copy of your original document.
Callum’s uploads
- PASSPORT CALLUM: A colour scan is perfectly acceptable for an online application
Australian Permanent Residence, Evidence of
Provide evidence that the person supporting your application is an Australian permanent resident. This may include a certified copy of a Residence Certificate or letter/statement from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP).
Notes from BB: Callum is an Australian citizen by birth, so we didn’t submit anything under this heading.
Eligible New Zealand Citizen, Evidence of
Provide evidence that your sponsor is an eligible New Zealand citizen. This may include a certified copy of your sponsor’s New Zealand passport or proof of citizenship certificate.
Notes from BB: Callum is an Australian citizen by birth, so we didn’t submit anything under this heading.
Character, Evidence of
If you have lived in Australia for a total of 12 months or more in the last 10 years (these 12 months are calculated cumulatively, not consecutively) you are required to provide an Australian Federal Police (AFP) clearance by completing a National Police Check Online Application Form. You also need to provide a similar police check from every country you’ve lived in for more than 12 months.
Notes from BB: See my notes under this same heading in Applicant documents.
Address – Residential, Evidence of
Provide evidence of your residential address. This may include your driver’s licence or utilities account.
Callum’s uploads
- RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS CALLUM: Our current lease agreement with Callum’s name and two bills addressed to him at our address, combined in one PDF
National Identity Document (other than Passport)
Provide a certified copy of your national identity card/s (other than your passport). You must provide a copy of both sides of each card.
Notes from BB: We didn’t upload anything under this category.
Divorce/Separation, Evidence of
Provide evidence of your divorce or separation. This may include a certified copy of your divorce decree absolute or court documents.
Notes from BB: This didn’t apply to our situation, so there was nothing to upload under this heading.
Identity, Evidence of
Provide evidence of your identity. Provide a scanned copy of your original document.
Callum’s uploads
- AUSTRALIAN ID CALLUM: Scanned copy of Callum’s Australian Driver Licence, Medicare card, trade qualification, and credit card showing his name, all on a single page
Change of Name, Evidence of
Provide evidence of any name change. This may include your marriage certificate or change of name certificate. Provide a scanned copy of your original document.
Notes from BB: Callum hasn’t changed his name, so there was nothing to upload under this heading.
Birth or Age, Evidence of
Provide a certified copy of your full birth certificate. If your country of birth does not issue birth certificates, provide written notification stating this, and provide your country’s equivalent documentation, such as secondary school certificate, family book extracts or family census register.
Callum’s uploads
- BIRTH CERTIFICATE CALLUM: Colour scan of Callum’s Australian birth certificate
What’s next?
Your application is now complete (for the moment), so take a break and celebrate! As you wait for your application to be processed over the next year or two, though, you will need to upload additional documents. Specifically:
- COMPLETING YOUR HEALTH CHECK ASSESSMENT: 6 months after submitting my application, I completed my health assessment (BUPA automatically uploads the results to your application)
- COMPLETING AFP NATIONAL POLICE CHECKS (NPC): 7-8 months after submitting my application, I completed my AFP (Australian) and FBI (American) police checks and uploaded the results
- Updates on your relationship: 6, 12 & 18 months after submitting my application, I uploaded evidence of our continued relationship as a PDF letter, which included new photos, recent travel details, event invitations, and general updates from our relationship
- Information about changes in circumstance: you need to alert Home Affairs if your contact details change, your relationship ends, etc ASAP. If you and your partner move house together, make sure to update BOTH addresses!
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 the blog, 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
Jack
Hi Brooke,
Thank you so much for everything you’ve posted on here. Its been a real source of comfort for me and my partner. Just a quick one, did your sponsor (Callum) have to supply proof of income or anything like that?
Theo
Thank you Brooke! Just submitted my partner’s 820 visa application and your website was so useful!!! I used it like my check list! You deserve a medal!
brooke brisbine
TheoAH thank you so much, Theo! A big congratulations to you two 🙂
xx bb
Anonymous
TheoYes, I agree. Brooke’s website helped me enormously a few years ago. I hope she remains connected to Australia. If you explore Brooke’s website more broadly you will discover an incredible young lady who obviously has a passion for life, travel, adventure, hard work and most importantly, achievement, that most people don’t experience in a lifetime. She is extraordinary! Just amazing…she should be awarded an OAM for her services to the Australian community.
Grant Douglas
.
Anonymous
Hi Brooke, thank you so much for this very helpful site!!!
Just a couple questions:
I thought FORM 1221 was only IF you included an ADDITIONAL person own your application. Is that correct? Otherwise it seems to just repeat FORM 80.
For the Sponsor, I note that you uploaded FORM 40SP but isn’t the ONLINE form the same as that form?
Thank you!!
Theo
brooke brisbine
AnonymousHi Theo,
Yes, 40SP is literally just the online sponsor form. At the time I completed my application, they hadn’t fully phased out the form from recommended uploads, so I completed it just to be safe, but this was over 5 years ago now, so I’d imagine it’s completely obsolete!
Selina
Hi Brooke!
I’m just starting this process and I wanted to know how you collated photos? I want to match photos with bank transactions to create a timeline but I don’t know what the best format is to do this? PDF/excel etc?
This blog is amazing and will help so many people! Thanks for taking the time to do this.
Kind regards,
Selina
brooke brisbine
SelinaHi Selina,
I’d recommend using a Word doc and converting to PDF, it’s super basic, but it will do the job! You’re not being assessed on the most sophisticated formatting, so as long as you can clearly convey the necessary info, I’d suggest keeping it simple 🙂
Good luck!
xx bb
Mei
Hi Brooke,
I found your blog when I was looking for evidence that should be provided. Thank you for writing about your experience when applying for an Australian partner visa really detail. That’s helped me a lot when I’d to apply for a partner visa in a week haha. I feel like you guided me very detailed and well. And my temporary partner visa 820 was granted in 74 days. Just need to wait my 801 now.
I pray for you that you’ll always be healthy and happy. 🙂
Cheers,
brooke brisbine
MeiThanks so much for the sweet message, Mei! And congratulations on getting your 820 approved so quickly, that’s great news 🙂
Wishing you all the best on the next stages of this journey!
xx bb
Lewis
Hello Brooke,
I am not one to normally comment on anything social media/internet related BUT, this blog has been a god send.
I have just received my 801 visa grant in just 82 days, which is remarkable. What is even crazier is the 820 took only 41 days to arrive! However, I pestered immigration through the processing forms, questioning why I didn’t receive a ‘double award’ due to being married and with my partner for 5 years at the time of application. Otherwise, the ‘double award’ could have taken 41 days too!
Seriously, thank you so much. This made the applying for the partner visa so much easier and the amount of detail involved helped aid my anxiety around the process.
Congratulations on your receiving your PR and good luck in all your future endeavours.
All the best,
Lewis.
brooke brisbine
LewisLewis, WOW, that is such an incredible turn-around time on your application! It honestly makes me so happy that IMMI has sped the process up so much, it is an agonising wait and I know people who waited YEARS…
A massive congratulations and, I’m sure, a massive relief to you!
All the best,
xx bb
Madison
brooke brisbineThis is huge Lewis! Congrats!!
Brooke – have you heard of others who have bipassed having to do the full 801 application (which feels like the 820 all over again) by email IMMI asking to grant their 801 as they’ve been together long enough, and utilizing all the info in their 820 app?
brooke brisbine
MadisonHi Madison, that’s very much true– I got my 820 and 801 granted simultaneously because we’d been together for several years. It’s discussed in some of these posts, but I included a letter with my application that specifically requested the dual grant. I’ve heard of people NOT requesting it and it seems to be a gamble if the agent grants it to you automatically or not, but no one who’s asked (or followed up to ask) ever seems to have an issue, so it’s worth doing!
Hope that helps 🙂
xx bb
Dewi K
LewisHi Lewis,
Just wondering how did you “pester” the immigration? Is there any form that we can use to do this, or we can write a letter (explaining our relationship situation and hope for double awards) and attach it to the application?
Thanks in advance for your reply! 😊
Dina
Hello,
My name is Dina and I am doing the same thing! You have done a great job here! Just a question, do I have to upload the documents first and then I get the bridging visa?
Thank you so much! 🙏
Keely
Hey!! I’m not sure you’re still responding to comments left here, but I thought I’d give it a go as theres only so much googling a girl can do before she goes cross eyed!! I’m just wondering whether the sponsor needs to upload any evidence such as photos/ticket stubs etc, or can we just reference the evidence I upload for my partner part? I may get him to do a few photos, maybe his favourites or something just as an extra, but I’m concerned we have to do more than I think for the sponsor application. Thanks so much, and thanks so much for these blog posts… theyve been extremely helpful!
Keely xxx
brooke brisbine
KeelyHi Keely, as I’m sure you’ve figured out (I am SO incredibly sorry for the slow reply, it’s been a real year!), yes you can reference uploads from the main application, no need to re-upload.
Best of luck with everything!
xx bb
Sage
Hi Brooke I’m not sure where else to turn as I cant find anything online, my partner and I have moved but I only seem to be able to update my own address as I am the applicant. I’m not sure how to update my partner/sponsors address details.
brooke brisbine
SageHi Sage, I had difficulty with the same thing– I just uploaded a letter explaining the change of address!
Hope that helps 🙂
xx bb
Olivia
Hi Brooke. I’m applying for my partner visa at the moment, when I get to the end of the application there was a page to attach documents before I can pay. When I press Next a box pops up for me to give reasons why all required evidence hasn’t been submitted. Just wondering if this was the same for you? Would I not be able to submit any evidence after I pay? Many thanks!
Olivia
brooke brisbine
OliviaHi Olivia, as I’m sure you’ve figured out (I am SO incredibly sorry for the slow reply), yes you can still upload evidence after payment.
Best of luck with everything!
xx bb
Yamini
Hi Brooke!
Thank you so much for this helpful article. I recently submitted my partner visa application by following most of the information provided by you here.
Please assist us with the below query:
We have named the files, for example, Applicant_Passport & Sponsor_Passport, and while uploading there wasn’t a separate section with the Sponsor name to upload the documents, so we uploaded both Applicant & Sponsor documents to the primary partner visa application. After a day or two, Sponsor’s name appeared at the bottom of the “Attach document” page.
Do I have to upload the same documents to the Sponsor section again, don’t you think it will create duplicates and confuse the case officer? What should I do?
Please suggest.
Thanks
brooke brisbine
YaminiHi Yamini, as I’m sure you’ve figured out (I am SO incredibly sorry for the slow reply!), yes you only need to upload documents ONCE to the main application and not duplicates to the sponsor application as well.
Hope that helps someone!
xx bb
Nolwenn
Hi Brooke ! First I want to say a huge thank you for this blog, I submitted my application, but you attached evidences that I didn’t even think about it, so I will had more ☺️. So thank you thank you !!
However, I have a question, when I want to attach documents under my partner’s name, I don’t have any possibility. Does he has to have an immiaccount and do it on his account ? I’m very confused, I can do whatever I want under my name, but nothing under his name.
I will appreciate a lot your feedback ! 🥰
brooke brisbine
NolwennHi Nolwenn, you only need to upload evidence to your application, it will be considered across both yours and your partners’.
Hope that helps!
xx bb
Billie
Hi Brooke,
Firstly, I just wanted to thank you for allllllll this information! It has been such a huge help.
I just wanted to ask a couple questions please:
1 – Does my partner also need to undergo police and medical checks to support the Sponsorship for a Partner to Migrate to Australia application?
2 – STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF PARTNER VISA – When your mum signed this, was the signature witnessed and signed by a JP, or was your mum’s signature enough?
Thanks!
Billie
brooke brisbine
BillieHi Billie, so sorry for the delay in getting back to you, I’m sure this is too late to be helpful. But in case anyone else is reading, no you don’t need anyone to witness a letter from foreign family members.
Best of luck with everything!
xx bb
Simone
Hey
Thank you so much for this information it was such a great help and guidance going through our partner visa journey 🙏
Just wondering did you have to do the second stage of the visa, we had the first stage granted and have to do the second stage soon ehhhh do yoy have any tips ?
Thanks so much
brooke brisbine
SimoneHi Simone,
I didn’t personally have to go through the second application since my 820/801 came through at the same time, but I know others on here have, so perhaps someone can weigh in!
xx bb
Natalie
Hey Brooke,
I just wanted to say thank you so much for this blog it has been so much help while I complete my partner visa application. I have been living in Australia for about 4.5 years with my partner who I am now engaged to. I studied here on a student visa and have been on the post graduate visa for the last two years.
I do just have a question. I have completed the 27 pages of personal information and details for the first part of the application. However, unlike your application it wants me to submit all my documents before paying the application fee. Im, not sure if they have changed the rules on this. But I also don’t have the options to submit everything such as an Australian police check it only asks for my American FBI check ext. I am worried that if I submit my application without some of the major key items that you had listed I will get my application denied.
Im wondering if its because they have a lot of this information from my previous visas? Or they will just ask me for more information after I submit? Please let me know if you know anything about this or anyone who has had a similar experience!
Thank you so much!:)
Agustina
NatalieHI!! Did you ever find an answer to your question? I’m at the same stage currently and wondering how to move forward.
Anny
Hi Brooke,
I’ve found this super helpful for our Partner Visa Preparation. I have revisited this again after 6 months of lodging our Partner Visa 820. I have a question regarding the below:
“Updates on your relationship: 6, 12 & 18 months after submitting my application, I uploaded evidence of our continued relationship as a PDF letter, which included new photos, recent travel details, event invitations, and general updates from our relationship”
I wanted to ask how many pages was this PDF letter and how did you format it? I was going to include documents that I submitted in the beginning such as Joint Bank Statements, Joint Bills, Photos, Social Events, Text Messages/Calls during the 6 month period; but I’m afraid this will be alot of documents to fit into a single PDF Letter as you have mentioned.
Any insights into gathering 6 month relationship update would be great!
Thank you.
brooke brisbine
AnnyHi Anny, as I’m sure you’ve figured out (I am SO incredibly sorry for the slow reply, it’s been a real year!), you can format it however you choose. Mine was literally just a chronological account of the last few months and maybe a couple photos, just basically showing that the relationship was continuing.
Best of luck with everything!
xx bb
Lily
Hi Brooke,
Thank you for writing this blog it is extremely helpful. I am now preparing a Form 309 (offshore) so it is very similar to the onshore application. May I ask what documents need to be certified (as I need these to be done before a notary public).
Thank you!!
Lily xx
Joey
Hello Brooke! Thank you for all the helpful guides and tips! I appreciate you sharing all this infos.
I want to ask, I and my wife live in a house were renting from a private homeowner and all the bills are addressed to them but we are the one who pays them, how can I send them this evidence? any insights about this? Thank you and more blessings to you!
Cami
Hello Brooke! I just want to ask, do I need to get all the statements witnessed? e.g the financial aspect statement? Thank you xx
brooke brisbine
CamiHi Cami, as I’m sure you’ve figured out (I am SO incredibly sorry for the slow reply, it’s been a real year!), no you don’t need to have those statements witnessed.
Best of luck with everything!
xx bb
Luke
Hi Brooke,
My partner has just received her visa grant letter..
We applied back in May, however processing times are much faster atm due to the reduction
in applications during Covid… so we are quite lucky to have this finalized so soon!
I just wanted to stop by and leave a comment to thank you for providing this checklist.
You really helped us a lot!
Thank you,
Luke
brooke brisbine
LukeAmazing news, Luke! Congratulations to you both!!
xx bb
HARVI
THANK YOU VERY MUCH, YOU ARE A LEGEND. I WISH YOU HAPPY LIFE WITH CALLUM.
Anonymous
Hi Brooke,
I just wanna say I am super grateful for finding your blog. I am pretty sure you have helped so many applicants out there, including me.
I wish you all the best and Many Thanks again
Gracie
Alexia Castaneda Thiele
Hi Brooke,
Hope you are having a great week. I’m Lexiee,
Thank you for sharing your experience with us applying for the visa and for being very specific to every detail! very helpful, and I’m applying with the same visa you’ve applied for. and we just got Married last May 7, 2022. I just want to ask regarding the criminal record I need to provide, Is it only to the country I stayed more than 12 months? not all the countries I visited for a month or less than 12 months? We r very confused about this part, and for uploading a passport photo, is it just a single photo? because when I had my passport photo taken at Auspost, they gave us like six copies all together with the date taken and expiry?
Hope you can help me. Thank you so much!
brooke brisbine
Alexia Castaneda ThieleHi Alexia, as I’m sure you’ve figured out (I am SO incredibly sorry for the slow reply!), yes you only need the police check if you lived there LONGER than 12mo.
Best of luck with everything!
xx bb
Angie
Helllo Brooke,
Thank you very much for the amazing blog and share your experience. I just submitted my application last March 2022. I am still uploading evidence and one of my questions is regarding the form 40SP. The latest version is from 2014 and there is also a way to do it online. Do you know if there is any difference between them?
Also, this 40sp form says it needs to be done before lodging the application. What does that mean? I already paid for the application and right now I am in bridging Visa A.
I will appreciate lots your opinion.
brooke
AngieHi Angie,
In reality, the Form 40SP has been phased out, probably a long time ago– it’s essentially just a paper version of the sponsorship application that you already completed (or will complete soon) through IMMI. We filled it out just to be extra thorough, especially since there was still a specific area to upload within the evidence portal, but the general consensus among applicants is that it’s no longer a requirement.
My advice is to complete the old paper version and upload if you want to cover all of your bases, but don’t stress about it too much!
Hope that helps!
xx bb
Carl
Hi Brooke, Thank you so much for all of these articles – I am finding them incredibly helpful!
The birth certificate I have is an abbreviated one without my parents names on and not sure if I’ll have the full one. Do you know if this is a big problem?
I’m looking down the list of alternatives (family book, census etc) and I’m not familiar with any of these or what exactly would be required. Any support much appreciated!
Thanks
brooke
CarlHi Carl, so glad these posts are helpful to you!
I’m honestly not sure about the abbreviated birth certificate– perhaps another reader can chime in on their experience??
Best of luck!
xx bb
Erin
Hi Brooke,
I can’t thank you enough for this guide you have provided to all of us visa applicants for free! I couldn’t have done it without your blog.
My partner and I are having a baby together which you’d think would be evidence enough! However, I am in the process of uploading all the other evidence we have.
I noticed your dad and step mum provided stat decs in support of your relationship. Did they just follow the legal wording of a stat dec and create their own, or were these the form 888’s?
Thanks,
Erin xx
brooke brisbine
ErinHi Erin, thanks so much for your sweet comment! That means so much to me!
Exactly as you said, my parents just wrote letters somewhat in the format of a stat dec. Only Aussies can formally complete Form 888, so the letters from foreign family don’t count against your 2-minimum Form 888s, but they are still valuable additional evidence 🙂
Hope that helps & best of luck!
xx Brooke
Natalie
brooke brisbineQuick question in reference to Form 888 the foreign family members that did one for you, did they give an identification photo with it? I know they ask for a certified copy passport photo for Australian citizens or residents.
Thanks so much!
Nat xo
brooke brisbine
NatalieHi Natalie, as I’m sure you’ve figured out (I am SO incredibly sorry for the slow reply, it’s been a real year!), no you don’t need to include a photo. Technically foreign family can’t complete Form 888, so it’s just a signed letter that sort of mimics 888.
Best of luck with everything!
xx bb
Ka
Hi Brooke
Thanks for providing all these information + tips.
Really appreciate your post, it’s extremely helpful.
brooke brisbine
KaSo glad you found it helpful!
Best of luck to you and your partner 🙂
Elle
Hi Brooke,
I will never get tired of thanking you…your blog helped me a lot when I am just about to lodge my Partner application.
I got my permanent residency after a month of lodging my application…so we’re so happy.
Question is: when can I apply for citizenship? Do I have to wait for at least a year?
Thanks…
And stay safe.
brooke brisbine
ElleA massive congratulations, Elle!! So happy for you both, what an amazing outcome after just 1 month!
For citizenship, in brief: you need to have lived in Australia for the last 4 years and at least 1 of those years must be as a PR, so at minimum, you need to wait a full year from the date that you received your 801. Not long now!
Masoud
Hi Brooke,
I asked my friends to sign form 888, but they told me their pr visa are expired and they have applied for citizenship. so my question is can they sign form 888?
I would be grateful if you can help me
brooke brisbine
MasoudHi Masoud,
I’m not totally sure I understand; if your friend is a permanent resident, that should not “expire”. Until they are granted citizenship, they are still a permanent resident and therefore they should be able to complete Form 888 on your behalf.
Hope that helps!
Nadine
Hey Brooke
I just submitted my application but I didn’t see these sub category headers and uploaded everything under other document tab . I done the application at midnight but none of these sub folders were there. And I’m not sure if I’ll get penalised for not putting them in the correct folders. I’ve labelled each one as what they are to be clear and concise. You can’t un upload a document and I don’t know if I should re upload but then it’ll be all duplicates and more documents to look over
What would you recommend?
brooke brisbine
NadineHi Nadine,
To clarify, are you still unable to see the subcategories? If they never appeared on your application, I wonder if that’s a technical glitch…
Either way, though, I don’t believe you’d be penalised in any way for uploading as you have (so long as the documents are clearly labeled), so I wouldn’t stress too much! You can always upload a cover letter for your application and explain briefly how you’ve organised things– I actually did this to explain several things to the CO.
Hope that helps!
HIEN
HI BROOKE,
AMAZING BLOG! I’M USING THIS AS THE GUIDELINES! JUST WONDERING HOW MANY STATEMENTS DO YOU WRITE? I’M ONLY WRITING 1 RELATIONSHIP STATEMENT THAT INCLUDES THE FIVE PARTS. MOREOVER, HOW MANY PHOTOS ARE YOU UPLOADING?
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
brooke brisbine
HIENHello Hien, so glad you found this info helpful!
I wrote several statements to cover different parts of the relationship, but you can choose to structure your application however makes sense for you. The same goes for photos– there is no magic number, I just tried to upload a variety of photos across all months of our relationship, as well as travel photos, photos with family and friends, photos at home, etc to support the legitimacy of the relationship.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Rez
Hi Brooke,
It’s a wonderful blog. well done and many thanks for sharing your experience:)
Here is my question: do the main applicant and sponsor need to submit a separate application or there is only one application? if yes, does the sponsor need to submit the sponsorship application after submitting the main applicant’s application? We tried to proceed both together, but it wasn’t possible to proceed with the sponsorship application after stage 4, I guess we need to submit the main application first and then submit the sponsorship application. right?
Cheers,
Rez
brooke brisbine
RezHi Rez, so glad you found these posts helpful. To clarify, yes, there are 2 separate applications.
You can find information about the main application here: https://brookebeyond.com/completing-the-820-801-australian-partner-visa
AFTER submitting that, you then need to complete the sponsorship application: https://brookebeyond.com/sponsorship-for-a-partner-to-migrate-to-australia-820-visa
Hope that helps!
Brooke
Lucy
Hi Brooke,
I wanted to say THANK YOU for this post. It has been my holy grail while preparing to apply for my partner visa. I have also gotten fully sucked into your blog and instagram since you and your partners story is so similar to mine! American/Australian couple who have been together for 4 years and traveling full-time. We even recently lived in a Promaster van in the USA and Canada just like yours for the last 2 years! (we named her Sheila)
I did have a question regarding the partner visa that I’d love your input on. I am trying hard not to upload items twice as I want to make it really clear for the CO and not cluttered. However, this means I’m having a hard time thinking of something to include for “Length of De Facto Relationship” – of course I have 4 years of leases and bills and bank statements but thats all being uploaded under “Couple are Living Together” and “Relationship, de facto partner, evidence of” Same goes for photos and messages to each other. It feels like a silly thing to be stumped on but should I just upload things twice?
Thanks!
Lucy
PS if you ever want a working holiday visa in Canada, I would be happy to give you some tips on it. I never thought it was possible but found a cool loophole for Americans! Also, lived in Japan.
brooke brisbine
LucyHi Lucy,
So happy to hear this post has been helpful to you! And how amazing that our stories are so similar, I love that!
I felt the same way about duplicate content (that it was added clutter to an already busy application), and worried myself silly over it– which you definitely don’t need to do! I had to look back at my notes, but I uploaded a letter from my mum that validated how long we’d been together and then another statement from me at 6 month providing an update. You might also include a statement about the history of your relationship here. Nothing very fancy and probably nothing that was the deciding factor on our application, because ultimately the CO will see ALL the other evidence that points to your length of relationship and consider that in its entirety rather than only what you’ve uploaded under this heading.
Best of luck!
And YES, I would be super interested in this Canadian visa loophole, as we’d love to drive the van through Canada after we get back from South America!
xx Brooke
Maddy
Hi Brooke,
Thank you so so much for your helpful blog! It’s really made this process so much clearer for me and my partner and taken some of the stress off.
I’m from Seattle as well and we’re applying together here in Sydney.
We have been sharing the work load and split up the 5 different statements. I wrote about the nature of household, social aspects and commitment statement. He wrote the history/development statement and financial aspects. I’ve read that the Sponsor application asks for these same things again. Did you and your partner upload two separate statements for each category? Or did you refer to the one upload in each application’s respective box?
Hope that makes sense
Thanks again
Maddy
brooke brisbine
MaddyHi Maddy,
Ideally, you would write the statements for your application and he would write them for his sponsorship application– the department wants to hear from each of you in your own words. That being said, you don’t both need to write enormous statements! If you write yours as separate documents, then he should be fine to just stay within the 2000 limit on the actual application and give a brief overview, referencing evidence that you uploaded in your application.
Hope that makes sense!
-Brooke
Emily
Hi Brooke,
I am not sure this will get to you or if you are even still looking at this but I am having a little trouble collecting my thoughts for my partner’s 801 visa. I am in the process of collecting stuff for it and I am blanking hard on how I went about it with the 820.. I was wondering if you could tell me what exactly needs to witnessed by a JP? I am using the online application so I am aware that colored scans of ID’s is accepted so does that mean only all statutory declarations are requested to be witnessed? Is there more I should be getting signed?
Thanks, Emily
brooke brisbine
EmilyHi Emily,
Unfortunately I am not the best person to help with the 801 application, since both my 820 and 801 were granted simultaneously…
If it’s like the 820, though, I can tell you that nothing really needs to be witnessed by a JP (except Form 888), which means a colour scan of ID and a copy of your statements is more than enough! If you’ve been asked to do a legal stat dec, obviously that would need to be signed, but the statements for 820 aren’t required to be stat decs so you may be able to submit as just letters.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Anonymous
brooke brisbineDear, just wanna drop you a deep thank you message! I get my de facto visa granted, it means a lot to us. After reading your blog, we are inspired and have a clearer picture on the documents. Enjoy your trip and stay safe
Xoxo
brooke brisbine
AnonymousThat’s fantastic, congratulations!! So glad these posts were helpful 🙂
Kyle Dahdona
When you say you did EVENTS: A collection of Facebook invites. How did you do this? Me and my wife have been to a lot of events but I’m not sure how to show Facebook events?
Thanks love the Blog as well
brooke brisbine
Kyle DahdonaHi Kyle,
I just took screenshots from Facebook of all the events we’d both clicked “attending” on over the years, including my friends’ birthdays or parties he’d organised, etc.
Hope that helps!
Kanchan Lama
Hi Brooke,
I hope you are doing well.
I came across your blog regarding partner Visa when I was applying for the visa for myself and my partner. I love everything you have put out in your blog.
I wanted your help with the visa application.
I wanted to upload more evidence for my partner visa in my Immi-account, but I couldn’t upload it anymore.
Before accessing my account, my partner got a notification that I was granted an 820 Visa, and it’s been only 6 months since we applied for the visa.
I haven’t uploaded documents regarding our relationships, such as our joint photos and trips and other things, which is the most important part of uploading the evidence. I am scared that my visa application will be accessed by only these documents which don’t prove half of my relationship with my partner.
I read from your blog that after 6months, you uploaded some documents after 6months of your application.
I wanted to know if you had the same trouble uploading more documents to your portal.
I will be looking forward to your reply.
Thank you for taking the time to look through my mail.
hope you are staying safe in this pandemic.
stay safe.
Takecare
Kind Regards,
Kanchan Lama
brooke brisbine
Kanchan LamaHi Kanchan,
It sounds like you’ve already been granted the 820, so I wouldn’t stress at all! You will need to upload more evidence for the 801, so you can add those missing documents– but if it was enough to approve your 820, then you’re probably in a pretty good position for the 801.
Wishing you luck!
Marc
Kanchan LamaI am also in this position. It does not let me upload anything more, after I was granted my 820 visa eight months after applying (the 820 and 801 are both applied for at the same time).
From what I can tell, I think as the 820 has been finalised, that application is closed. Maybe they now have enough information to make decision, or, they open a separate application/page/portal to add additional things to, possibly near the end of the two years?
Great blog BTW. 🙂
Tim
Hi Brooke, I am the sponsor for the applicant and was wanting to know your thoughts on the character reference side do you think i will need to do a US FBI check? I lived in America for 2 years for a job but that was never going to be permanent.
Thanks! your blog has been an amazing help.
Tim
brooke brisbine
TimHi Tim,
Yes, you definitely need to do an FBI check. They are required for any applicant OR sponsor who has lived in the US for a period of 12+ months in the last 10 years.
Check out this post for info on doing the FBI check: https://brookebeyond.com/fbi-police-checks-for-americans-applying-for-the-820-801-australian-partner-visa
Cass
Hi there Brooke…
Just wanted to say a huge thank you to you and your partner for creating this blog. My Japanese wife and I decided that we’d finally come and live back in Australia permanently after living many years in Thailand. We started to upload documents and fill in forms etc about three months ago, submitting our application in mid-June. We found your articles very helpful in making sure we covered all the bases.
So, we ended up uploading about 70 attachments, did police checks for Japan, Thailand and Australia, did the medical last week, and were ready to settle in for the 24 to 27 months waiting time quoted on the website…
Quite amazingly and a lovely surprise for us, today, after only two and half months after submitting the application, we received my wife’s Temporary 820 visa, followed immediately by her Permanent 801 visa today. Somehow, we managed to get to the top of the list 😉
All I can say is that for sure it pays to be thorough, detailed and accurate, no matter how many times it seems repetitive and tiresome; just do it, and there you go, sometimes good things happen.
We both thank you again for your help in getting this all done… Hope you are well in these strange times!
Cass and Ikumi.
brooke brisbine
CassHi Cass & Ikumi, WOW!
Thank you so much for your lovely message and for sharing your experience with everyone– I know it’s always inspiring to hear some applications are granted within 2.5 months! You’re absolutely right that it pays to be thorough and submit a complete application.
Congratulations on such a wonderful outcome, wishing you both all the best xx
Pablo
Hi Brooke,
My Visa 309 was just approved today! (August 10, 2021). I am a Canadian, in Toronto, who applied for the 309 (overseas provisional partner visa) on June 1, 2021. The Consulate followed up with a request for information on July 9, 2021. After my partner and I submitted the additional information on August 9, 2021, the Consulate approved the visa the very next day!
Thank you so much for your wonderful blog post. It helped me so much during my application process.
Regards,
Pablo
brooke brisbine
PabloCongratulations, Pablo!
Thanks for sharing your experience, that’s wonderful.
Georgia Hammersley
Hi Brooke,
Thank you for all the information above – it has been so helpful to my own Partner Visa application. I was just hoping you could possibly help. Under, ‘Relationship – Spouse, De Facto, Evidence of’, my portal only lets me upload one document. After that, that category goes into ‘Received’ and I can no longer upload further evidence to that section. I am confused how you were able to upload so many different documents under that section. Any advice would be much appreciated!
Thanks, Georgia
brooke brisbine
Georgia HammersleyHi Georgia,
I wonder if that’s a system glitch? I’m not sure why you’d be getting that message and not being able to upload further documents.
Perhaps someone else who’s seen the upload portal more recently than me can answer?
Rebecca Cuthbertson
Hey Brooke!
Your page is so amazing! It’s clearly been so helpful for people for years now. I (American) am about to be applying for a partner visa with my (Australian) partner. I’m currently figuring out statutory declarations. I have both of my (American) parents living in Australia but they are US citizens. If they fill out a statutory declaration form (888), do you know if it would be valid since they live here, or invalid because they are not Australian citizens? Also, for my partner’s parents and friends who ARE citizens of Australia, do you know where I can find a full list of people able to witness the declaration? We all live in Alice Springs, where there is no JP, but there is a Commissioner for Oaths. Just wondering it they can sign off on this just the same as a JP?
Thanks for any help you can provide!
Rebecca
brooke brisbine
Rebecca CuthbertsonHi Rebecca,
So sorry for my delayed response, possibly you’ve already figured out that only a Aus citizen or permanent resident can complete the Form 888, so that would dictate whether your parents are eligible.
If you’ve solved the JP issue, please share your experience with other readers who may be having a similar issue in Alice!
Thanks,
Brooke
Pablo
Brooke,
Thank you for this amazing post. It has been very helpful with my partner visa application process. My partner, who lives in Brisbane, and I, who lives in Toronto, have been doing long distance since August 2018. We met while playing water polo during the Gay Games in Paris. We submitted our application in early June 2021 and have already heard back from the Case Officer requesting some more information. Fingers crossed that the application will be processed quickly.
Pablo
brooke brisbine
PabloHi Pablo,
What an amazing story! I sincerely hope you’ve had good news in the months since this comment, come back and let us know how you’re going 🙂
Brooke
Jonathan
Hi Brooke,
Thanks so much for your effort and information. I followed your guide, have received my Visa lately and wanted to say it was extremely helpful.
Do you know if I should be aware of any rights/important information as a permanent resident?
Do you plan to become an Australian citizen? Have any guidance or information about this process?
Thanks again and all the best !!!
Jonathan
brooke brisbine
JonathanThanks for the comment, Jonathon!
The most important right for PRs is Medicare, as far as I’m concerned. That’s incredibly valuable!
Hatty Bell
Hi Brooke,
Just wanted to say a MASSIVE thank you for putting this blog post out into the world. I was losing my mind over the visa application process when I stumbled across your blog post!
I followed it pretty much to the letter with the information I had which definitely wasn’t as extensive as yours (hello…120 pages of photos! Wow!) and my 820 was granted in 5 and a half weeks! I’m amazed!
Thank you again, you have no idea how helpful this information has been.
Hatty
brooke brisbine
Hatty BellAn enormous congratulations again on your visa, Hatty xx
Pablo
Hi Brooke,
Wow, thank you for such a thorough and informative blog post! I’m in the process of applying for the partner visa from overseas. My koala bear and I have been together since August 2018. We met while playing water polo in Paris. I was trying to figure out where to upload my support documents so it was a relief to hear that I can do it once I’ve made my payment.
Your personal examples of what you used for evidence was very helpful too. You’ve give me some extra ideas on what to attach to the application!
Best of luck on your PhD or you may finished it by now!
brooke brisbine
PabloHi Pablo,
As you may have guessed from my very late reply on your last comment, I am extremely behind in my administrative duties on this site! In my defence, there were 182 comments and it felt somewhat overwhelming.
I’ve finished my PhD by now, yes, and I believe you’ve been granted your visa, so congratulations all around xx
Brooke
Karlien Breukelman
Hi all
RE filling out Form 80 which is in Pdf format…Its password protected, So when I try to fill it in with Adobe Acrobat Reader its not letting me. I guess best is to print it and fill it in by hand then? Unless if someone here knows how to convert or unblock the pdf so I can type in the answers? If I convert it to Word it gets messed up and if I reconvert it back to pdf then its still messed up.
Thanks
Tom
Karlien BreukelmanHi, I just ran into this problem and found a solution! maybe too late for you but it might help others. The department won’t accept an encrypted form, but their forms are already encrypted! If you try to upload those you will get an error message suggesting you have to “print” the form an scan it in. However, that would waste a lot of paper.
Here’s the solution. You can remove the encryption very simply. Use the PDF programme to fill in and sign the form. Then select PRINT and then instead of choosing a physical printer, you can choose something like “print to PDF” in the dropdown menu, and then it gives you an option to save with a new file name. This basically saves a new copy of the completed form, without the encryption. You can then upload this form.
Incidentally for my visa I use a free programme called PDF Xchange Editor – it’s not perfect but it works OK and allows me to insert a scanned pic of my signature to sign documents. However for this solution, I think any PDF editor would work.
I hope that helps!
Jack
Hi Brooke, thanks to this blog our subclass 820 temporary partner visa was granted. The information provided was a massive help so thank u!! one question i have is that to receive the subclass 801 permanent visa do i have to upload any more information/documents or do i just have to wait the 24 months from the first application?
Thanks again, Jack
brooke brisbine
JackHi Jack,
So sorry for my delayed response, but perhaps you might be able to share your experience now and answer your own question (since I didn’t apply for the 801, I don’t actually know!)
Molly
Heyyy I am in the process of applying for my partner visa online and ive found your blog so helpful!! I’m reading so many different stuff about forms you have to fill out and getting so confused but the online application includes all the forms I thought? Did you guys get asked to fill in any extra forms ? I have so many questions and feel like I have no one to talk to !!!
brooke brisbine
MollyHi Molly,
So sorry for my age-long reply, hope you were able to submit your visa? Let me know if you still have questions!
xx Brooke
chantal roosen
Hi Brooke!
Wow this is amazing, we basically had all our documents ready to go but this just helped me so much to organise it all! So thank you so so so much!
Just one quick question, did you get every single statement signed by a JP? (like statement of contact while apart etc)
Thanks in advance!
brooke brisbine
chantal roosenHi Chantal, so glad you found these posts helpful!
I actually had NOTHING signed by a JP (other than the Form 888s from friends and family)– all my own statements were unofficial letters that I typed and signed.
Hope that helps 🙂
-Brooke
kayla
hello! gosh this information has been EXTREMELY helpful whilst getting together our evidence to apply for this visa! i just wanted to clarify something. i am from the US and my partner from australia. if i want to get a stat dec filled out from a member of my family back home, can i send them an australian stat dec? or do they have to find an american one to fill out and send here? also, when you said you wrote a statement detailing your relationship, did it have to be officialized in any way? or did you just write it out in a word document and sign it?
thanks so so so much for your help!!
brooke brisbine
kaylaHi Kayla,
None of your US friends/family will be able to complete an Australian stat dec– however, you can definitely have them write a formal letter supporting your application and submit this! It won’t count as a Form 888 and won’t hold quite the same weight as a stat dec, but it is STILL valuable and I’d encourage you to do it (I submitted 3 from US family!).
As for my personal statements, I just typed them and signed at the bottom (i.e. not a stat dec).
Hope that helps 🙂
-Brooke
Howard
Hi Brooke, very helpful blog – some observations that think would really help others if you were to update this:
1) I think it is worth making VERY clear that you cannot delete files once they are uploaded, as immi hides this information. Would suggest stating that in bold next to the “limited to 100 documents” in “Important things to remember”. Just caught me out after using 10% of my limit on one section :-|. Worth suggesting they read the “There are specific quality and formatting requirements when scanning documents” link where this is covered as well.
2) Some sections seem to be missing under your applicant evidence, including two big ones:
– Marriage, Evidence of
Options are “marriage Certificate”, “notice of intended marriage”, marriage registration document”, “photographs of ceremony”
– Visa for country of residence (and right to return)
Options are: “visa documentation” and “ABTC evidence of authority to reside and work”
– Social aspects of the relationship, Evidence
Options are: “photograph – other”, “statutory declarations”, “cultural, community, religious or sporting membership”, “declaration of relationship tih governement authorities”, “Invitations – joint”, “Record of joint friends and social networks”, “record of social events and activities”, “travel itinerary – joint”
– Financial aspects of the relationship, Evidence of
Options are: “Financial statements – Joint”, “Asset ownership documentation – joint”, “household bills and expenses – joint”, “legal documentation – joint”, “liabilioty documentation – joint”, property ownership documention – joint”
Tuner
Hi Brooke,
Thanks alot for these information you’ve made time to put out. Just so you know, I am overseas but my partner is in Australia … Here’s my question, On applying for the 820, would they request for phone records with my partner? Because we’ve been talking more over the phone these days and we barely have time for chats because we both get busy with work in the day.
brooke brisbine
TunerHi Tuner,
You can supply whatever information you want to prove that you’re in communication, it certainly does not HAVE to be chat records. You don’t even have to supply phone records if you have other evidence, but I’d definitely recommend it since you’re apart on a more long-term basis and therefore they will need to really verify an ongoing relationship.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Carly Owen
Hey Brooke!
Thank you so much for your help, this is so detailed much more than the Immi site!
I just had a question please, the stat dec for the sponsor to fill out, did you include this and under what category?
Also I missed my contacts employment details in the 1221 form, I don’t know how! eeeek! and I already uploaded it. I am going to just re- upload the whole form I think, and maybe write a note explaining why there are two uploads, you think this would be ok?
Thank you again for all you help, you are the best! Best of luck to you 🙏🏻
brooke brisbine
Carly OwenHi Carly, so happy to hear you found these posts helpful!
Which stat dec are you referring to– the statements made by the sponsor?
Also, yes, I think it will be totally fine to just upload a new version of the form and a note explaining the mistake.
Best of luck with everything 🙂
-Brooke
Carly
brooke brisbineHi Brooke,
Thank you for your reply 🙂
This is a link to the Sponsor Stat Dec Form -https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/form-listing/forms/stat_dec_sponsor.pdf
I came across it searching in the Immi departmental forms, not sure it is a requirement but but my partner filled this out and has also written statements.
Thank you
Carly
brooke brisbine
CarlyHi Carly,
I don’t believe we ever completed this, but it could be a new requirement…or perhaps an old one. Either way, never hurts to be thorough, so probably good that you submitted it!
Best of luck 🙂
-Brooke
Sarah
Hi Brooke !
I don’t know how to thank you for these information ! Everything is so useful, you’ve saved me (and probably all of us) days of work ! It’s such a long a stressful process to do everything yourself and I’m so grateful that you are sharing this with us. I was literally crying in front of my computer not knowing where to start anymore and then I found your blog ! You gave me some hope haha !
Thank you so so so so much !!!!!!!!
– Sarah
brooke brisbine
SarahHi Sarah! I can totally relate to the feeling of crying at the computer trying to figure out this visa, so I’m really happy to hear all this information has been helpful to you 🙂
Best of luck with the application!
-Brooke
mia
hi brooke.
hope you have wonderful day.
just want to know how you manage to put all picture in 1 folder sorting by year? did you scan one by one and put in pdf? or you convert to other file? I cant do it because the file still over 5mb. can you tell me how you doing and manage your picture?
thank for your support.
brooke brisbine
miaHi Mia,
I personally dragged JPEGs into a word document and then used smallpdf.com to compress the file. If it’s still not compressing below 5mb, then you have too many photos and you should either remove some or split into 2 separate word documents before compressing.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Antonella
Hi Brooke, Thanks so much for all of this information that makes everything more clear and easy!
Can you guide me on the APPLICATION COVER LETTER you wrote? Besides what you put on the post about the medical exams and police checks… Writing is not my passion haha
Thanks in advance !
brooke brisbine
AntonellaHi Antonella, so happy to hear you found these posts helpful!
Don’t stress about not being too into the writing aspect, it really doesn’t need to be anything fancy, just informative and honest 🙂 As you mentioned, I specified in the cover letter that I was planning to do the medical and police check after some time, and other than that gave just an extremely brief summary of how long we’d been together and on what basis we were applying (de facto, having lived together for 3+ years). I also made an explicit request that both my 820 and 801 be granted simultaneously on the grounds of a long-term relationship. I don’t know that it’s necessarily required to request this, but I’d heard of couples who WERE eligible not automatically getting it and having to send a bunch of emails after their 820 came through, so I just wanted to be super clear from the outset.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Romy
Hi Brooke,
Thank you so much for this amazing job you’ve done! You made our application way easier and also less stressful!
I was wondering how many photos did you put in each document (like joint photos 2017, 2016, etc)? I have no idea if it’s something like 15 photos or more like 50 photos?
Thank you so so much ☺️
brooke brisbine
RomyHi Romy,
It’s entirely up to you, but we put around 20 photos in each of our documents. I think it’s just important to show a variety, so I wouldn’t submit 6 photos from the same family event– rather show some photos with different friends, family, different trips, weekends, events, etc.
Hope that helps 🙂
-Brooke
juliana
Hi Brooke,
I and my husband are in USA currently and since I am an Australian I am sponsoring my husband for 309/100 visa online. When you paid for the visa, were the evidence upload boxes enabled right after payment? I made a payment but I haven’t been able to upload any documents yet. Did that happen to you too? Did you have to wait to upload the documents at all after payment? The recommended categories are inaccessible. The only category I can upload to is the” OTHER” section, the rests are all disabled as of now. Is that normal? I think I am getting a heart attack.
I would really appreciate if you can give some inputs regarding it.
Thank you
Has anyone experienced something like this before?
brooke brisbine
julianaHi Juliana,
Hopefully this problem has resolved since you originally asked your question? But as you probably found out, the payment has to be processed before you gain access to the uploads portal. Any update as to whether this was the case for you??
Best of luck!
-Brooke
Johanna
Hi Brooke!
I just have two questions for my partner visa application and I would be really happy to get some clarification as this process is sometimes a bit confusing. The statements the applicant and the sponsor writes eg statement about financial aspects, social aspects, household etc, do these have to be statutory declarations meaning you sign them and then have your JP sign them aswell?
Also, as only Australian citizens can complete form 888 I was just wondering whether I could include another statement (not 888) from both my parents who are Swedish to support our proof. I am going have 10 form 888 by aus citizens but was wondering if there is any point to also add my parents statements or if they are not “worth anything” cause they are in Sweden.
Thanks for an awesome blog that has helped me heaps 🙂
brooke brisbine
JohannaHi Johanna,
Apologies for the delayed reply, but no, you do not need to have the statements signed by a JP. These are informal statements about your relationship that are basically just an extension of the online application, so there’s no need to provide further certification on them (i.e. you already signed on the application that everything provided is true and honest).
As for the letter from your parents– absolutely! I had my American family write and sign informal letters to support our application. They don’t take the place of Form 888 (you still need these from Australians, which it sounds like you’ve sorted), but I think the letters make a very valuable addition!
Hope that helps 🙂
-Brooke
Vincent
Hello Brooke,
First of all thank you for providing one of the most comprehensive websites of information I’ve found on this topic.
I had a quick question: For the Sponsor Application Evidence, is an Australian Passport sufficient for Evidence of Citizenship?
My australian partner does not have a birth certificate but does have her Australian Passport. I am wondering if she needs to dreg up her Australian Citizenship Certificate (from over 40 years ago) or if her passport is proof of citizenship (like it would be here in the states.) What do you think?
brooke brisbine
VincentHi Vincent,
We uploaded both Callum’s birth certificate and his passport in the interest of completeness, but I think you’re right that a passport is valid proof of citizenship and should be fine!
-Brooke
Emma
Okay so now I am super confused
Now that our 820 has been approved we can’t upload anything until another 2 years, which is when we apply for the 801? Can we apply for the 801 now or do we have to wait the two years?
Thanks in advance!
brooke brisbine
EmmaHi Emma,
Yes, you need to wait 2 years to be eligible for the 801– just before that 2-year mark, you can apply.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Emma
Hi Brooke, my partner and I have just been granted our temporary partner visa yay! (11months after applying)
Just a question, how long do we have before they will decide on the permanent partner visa? We will keep uploading evidence throughout this period
Is there anything else we need to be doing whilst we wait?
Thanks!
brooke brisbine
EmmaHi Emma,
I can’t give you a super specific answer here since I had my temporary and permanent granted on the same day, BUT I do know there is a 2-year waiting period between the two visas (for anyone who didn’t have them granted together). Usually a few months before that 2-year mark you can start preparing the application and evidence.
Best of luck 🙂
-Brooke
Mel
Hi Brooke
My partner and I applied for his visa (300) December 3rd 2018
We have gone through an agent, although i feel as though they dont fo enough.
My partner is ftom Afghanistan but resides and works in the UEA.
I have visited 3 times as i cant always get a chance to leave.
Both of us lost a parent each this year.
We have submitted everything.
I just returned home from being in the UEA for a month.
We decided not to wait any longer to get married and we married over there.
The agent has requested that the application be changed to a partner visa.
We have been waiting 22 months now
I wanted to ask you if you had to or your partner had to have an interview.
Also why do you think its taking do long for us.
Im an Australian born citizen.
Im really lost without him, my health is suffering.
Is there anything you can Jeetho me with to hurry it up.
I appreciate you
Thanks so much
Mel
brooke brisbine
MelHi Mel,
I’m so sorry to hear you guys have been waiting for nearly 2 years– it does seem like an awfully long time for an offshore application, so hopefully that means you’re close. I can imagine this is a very challenging time to be away from your partner, and surely the government has to know that.
We did not have to do an interview, but that’s highly dependent upon personal circumstances. Have you been updating the application with current evidence? Have you had any contact with a CO? I think it would be worth contacting Home Affairs and/or uploading a letter to your application explaining that you are really suffering without your partner, it’s no guarantee, but always worth a try.
I hope you’ll be receiving good news soon, please come back and let me know how you go.
xx Brooke
Jaya
Hi Brooke,
Thank you so much for your blog! I’m so blown away by the clear and precise manner you’ve presented such a complicated content!!
Can you give me some advice about form 80. Question 47/48 asks for personal contact details of people the applicant knows in Australia. The thing is, my husband and I have been married 10 years and we lived in England. We visit Australia often over those 10 years because my whole family is in Australia. So ‘personal contact’ my husband would have is nearly 60 personal contacts (30 just my extended family!). How did you fill this part in? Did you include every single person (but it asks for their DOB, country of birth, address- all of which are hard to get from 40 friends (aka – personal contacts). Any tips with how you went about it. Thanks
Jaya
brooke brisbine
JayaHi Jaya,
Thank you so much for the lovely comment! Of course it would be impossible to include all people you know in Australia under this question, so really you’re just picking 2 people (who also fill out Form 888) as your main contacts. I used my partner’s parents here, but it’s not hugely important, since you’re also uploading Form 888s later and you might choose to do far more than just the minimum 2– we did 9.
Hope that helps 🙂
-Brooke
Sam
Hey Brooke – firstly, I wanted to thank you for this! It has been extremely helpful! I had a few questions – when your mom made her stat dec saying for proof of the length of your relationship, did she have to get it certified? Did all your stat decs have to get certified (besides the 888, which I know needs to).
brooke brisbine
SamHi Sam, thank you for the lovely comment 🙂
Non-Aussie family and friends can’t actually complete a stat dec, so I just had them write and sign informal letters (no need to get them witnessed because it won’t be recognised in Aus anyway). The ONLY documents in my entire application that were certified were the Form 888s.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Beth
Hi Brooke,
Firstly thank you for this information its been a great help to me.
I just have a couple questions if you don’t mind. When I was answering the initial questions on the partner visa application (before i submitted and paid for it), it asked me 5 questions, about the nature of the commitment, nature of household, social aspect, financial aspects and so on. So I put for those questions “See attached file etc etc..”
I am now on the page of uploading documents and it has upload categories such as ‘Nature of the couple’s household, Evidence of’ and ‘Nature of the couple’s mutual commitment to each other, Evidence of’. Do I just put the same statements here as i did on the previous questions and upload them twice? Hope that makes sense!
Q2. It wants me to upload a form 40SP but I cant find that anywhere online and your link doesnt work anymore. I read somewhere online that they dont require a form anymore because thats what the questions at the beginning of the application are. Do you know anything about this?
Thanks so much in advance, Beth 🙂
brooke brisbine
BethHi Beth,
So happy to hear you found these posts helpful!
I’m not sure I totally understand your question– did you write just one big relationship statement addressing all of the aspects of the relationship and you’re now wondering if you should upload that same statement under multiple categories? I personally wrote all my statements separately so I could upload them to each individual category without doubling up (but also still making it clear to the CO that I addressed all 5 categories). However, other readers have done a single statement, so I suppose it’s a matter of personal preference.
As for 40SP, I think this form is being phased out. My link breaks every couple months as it disappears from different webpages, so I believe it’s now been replaced by the online sponsorship application.
Hope that helps 🙂
-Brooke
Johana
Hi Brooke, I found extremely useful all the information you provided, thanks a lot! huge thanks 🙂 🙂
I literally just finished uploading all my documents and hope for the best, I just have a question that you might know how to answer.
Is there a final submit button to press or something? how can I be sure that all is done and received? I received a bridge visa to me email from the moment I made the payment, that was a couple of days ago, is that it? Does that mean that my application was received and everything is in order? I am very concerned that I have uploaded all the documents on time, but forgetting a final step, like a confirmation or something like that, or the menu will always be open and available as it is now to keep uploading new evidence? Help me pleaseeeee mi current student visa expires tonight midnight.
Thanks again for everything, extremely clear and easy to understand.
brooke brisbine
JohanaHi Johana,
If you received the bridging visa, you can be confident that your application was received! Now you just need to go in and upload documents– throughout the entire wait, you should be updating your application with new evidence. Don’t worry, the upload portal never closes 🙂
Best of luck with everything!
-Brooke
Viv
Hi Brooke,
I can’t thank you enough for taking the time to develop such an in depth guide to applying for a partner visa. This has honestly been such a great reference tool.
I have a question in regards to the statements written to explain each situation/evidence provided. I’m the Sponsor and not currently working (thanks covid!) so will be doing the majority of the collating and writing the application, I know you wrote a lengthy Development Statement and Callum wrote a shorter Relationship Statement for your uploads in Relationship – Spouse, De Facto Partner, Evidence of; do you think it matters that everything will mostly be written by the Sponsor instead of the applicant? Should I be writing in a third person voice for these? I’m way more finicky about the details of the application and that our statements articulate exactly what we want it to say then my partner is!
Do you recommend having individual Relationship, Financial and Commitment statements or could a joint statement suffice? How are they listed in the drop down menu?
What did you include in your cover letter to the CO?
Did you upload your passport twice? I know you’ve previously said not to double up on evidence but looks like you had to as they were exact questions.
One of our Form 888 is from a family member whose apartment we live in so have no formal lease. Do you think it’s ok to reference her Form 888 that states we live in her place etc. in lieu of a lease?
Thanks!
brooke brisbine
VivHi Viv,
Thank you so much for the lovely comment, I’m so happy to hear these posts have been helpful to you!
I don’t think it’s an issue if you, as the sponsor, write longer statement and your partner just writes a few shorter supplementary statements (they’ll definitely still want to hear from both of you!). I did choose to write in third person for clarity and I think it makes the most sense, but it’s up to you.
I also wrote separate statements for each category so that it was really clear I covered all of the 5 aspects– I know other couples have written joint statements and it was fine, it was just easier in my brain to approach each topic in a new statement.
As for the cover letter, I just specified in the letter how long we’d been together and that we were hoping to receive the 820 and 801 grant simultaneously through the “long-term relationship” exception. I also wrote that we were waiting 6 months to submit police and health checks– if you’re submitting a 100% complete application, it could be useful to draw the CO’s attention to that! At the bottom, I put our contact details and we signed/dated.
I think my passport was the only thing I uploaded twice: once under “Travel Document” and once under “Citizenship– Not Australian, Evidence of”.
I wouldn’t worry too much about not having a physical lease if you can prove you live together through other means (such as a Form 888 stat dec), and especially if you’ve had a lease together in the past. For the last 6 months, Callum and I have been renting an apartment from his parents, so we also didn’t have an official lease. I intended to upload bank statements showing that we were jointly paying his parents each month, but the visa was granted before I had a chance! That could be another option for you to show cohabitation, if you’re both transferring rent money to family.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Viv
brooke brisbineThanks for the quick response Brooke!
Can I confirm when you say you “wrote seperate statements for each category” that both you and Callum wrote a statement for each category or do you mean you made each category have a statement as explanation?
We’ve never had a lease together (our time living together in Ireland was too short to bother) and we don’t pay rent here. We do have a joint account and can easily explain how each of us has supported the other financially at different times and we have plenty of mail/bills (individually and together) addressed to us here. I’m sure what we have will be fine.
Thanks again!
brooke brisbine
VivHi Viv,
Sorry about that! To clarify, I meant that I wrote a statement for each of the 5 relationship aspects rather than combining them into a single statement. I also wrote my statements independently of my partner’s– I believe they want to hear from each person in the relationship.
In your case, joint bills/mail and the Form 888 supporting that you live together should certainly be enough! You might include some personal touches like a photo of your shared bedroom, but that’s certainly up to you.
-Brooke
Hannah
Hi Brooke!
Thank you so much for all of this helpful information. My husband is wanting us to move back to Australia, and this has been so helpful. I am from Nashville and have been so overwhelmed with this process, but your step-by-step has really helped. My husband is saying I need a cover letter… any advice for when writing one? I am not a good writer haha and am trying to figure out what to write! If this is not needed, please let me know and that’d be a great relief!
brooke brisbine
HannahHi Hannah,
I personally did write a cover letter, but it’s not an actual requirement. I just specified in the letter how long we’d been together and that we were hoping to receive the 820 and 801 grant simultaneously through the “long-term relationship” exception. I also wrote that we were waiting 6 months to submit police and health checks– if you’re submitting a 100% complete application, it could be useful to draw the CO’s attention to that!
Don’t stress too much about the actual writing, just keep it short and to the point 🙂
-Brooke
Lou
Hi Brooke,
Thank you for your great help!
Can I please ask, is the parts that are written in italics in this post, what is actually in the online application?
Did you get your birth certificate certified in Australia?
Thanks
brooke brisbine
LouHi Lou,
That’s exactly right, the italicised bits are copied exactly from the upload section of your application.
Also, your birth certificate doesn’t need to be certified, a colour scan will do (same for your passport, etc). The ONLY documents required to be certified are the Form 888s filled out by your friends and family.
-Brooke
Lou
Hi Brooke, thank you so much for your posts!
I have a questions I was wondering if you could please help with. Do all of the ID’s need to be certified by an authorised witness in Australia?
My birth certificate is stamped and signed by the Swedish department that issues the birth certificate. Do you think this will be ok?
From your experience, is it necessary to have a national ID other than the Passport?
brooke brisbine
LouHi again Lou,
None of the IDs need to be certified, only uploaded as a clear, legible, colour scan 🙂
The only exception is sometimes documents in another language need to be translated and certified, but any ID or certificates in English do not require certification.
I personally uploaded my passport, birth certificate, and Australian driver licence, so I’d say that’s as much ID as you need.
Hope that helps 🙂
-Brooke
Anonymous
Thanks for the input Brooke.Such a relief knowing uploading evidences is not that hard with your help.🤩👍
Sherr
sherr
Hi Brooke thank you so much. your blog was so helpful in our visa application. Just wondering what would we upload if we don’t have any lease agreements ,household bills in our names together in the same address as couple living together, evidence of? And should we upload Contact while apart, evidence of even if we’re only apart 2 weeks every month due to work schedule 2:2? Woukd really appreciate your help.
brooke brisbine
sherrHi Sherr, that’s so lovely to hear!
If you and your partner are living together with family or friends, you can ask someone to write a stat dec on your behalf. You can also attach photos of your shared room and a statement explaining your specific living situation. Without knowing much more about it, those are just some generic recommendations!
If you are apart 2 weeks every month due to work schedule, you probably don’t need to show text messages from every single month (although you might choose to attach them and/or phone records for a few months). I’d say it’s probably more important in that instance to provide evidence that you’re apart FOR WORK (i.e. not by choice) and that you are definitely living together while not working.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Lachy
Hi Brooke,
Thanks for all your information unfortunately my wife and I found it too late as we had already applied for our visa before reading. However, it is good to read over all your information to reassure we’ve been doing things right.
The immigration website currently shows 16-22months processing times, previously it was 12-18. I have been hearing a few stories of people getting their first (temp) visa granted with 6 months! In your experience and all your reader’s experiences, have you got many examples where the applications were granted well within the estimated time frame?
Do you know what, if anything, we can do to help get seen quicker than their given estimates (ie have all documents, health exam and afl checks uploaded)?
Many thanks,
Lachy
brooke brisbine
LachyHi Lachy,
Based on comments from readers, it’s not unheard of to have your visa granted in under 12 months (some as little as 6 months), but I’d say that you absolutely need a “decision ready” application (ALL health and police checks completed) to make this a possibility. I’ve also heard that it can be helpful to write a cover letter (for your CO) describing that your application is ready to be approved– who knows if it does actually make a difference, but I wrote a cover letter requesting a simultaneous grant of 820/801 just to be completely clear about what I wanted. Submitting a letter to say that your application is decision ready certainly couldn’t hurt!
Again, this is based on reader comments, but it is my understanding that usually those having their 820/801 granted simultaneously might wait a bit longer for approval, while those just eligible for the 820 will have it granted sooner (and then have to wait 2 years for the 801). Hope that makes sense.
Basically, the best thing you can do is just have a 100% complete application! I have posts on both the health check and AFP check, so consider getting started on those now.
Wishing you and your wife a smooth, speedy visa process 🙂
-Brooke
george
Hi brooke,
My partner and I are looking for ideas of what to upload for ‘evidence of couple living together’ as we live with my parents and do not have lease agreements or bills addressed to the both of us which makes it really hard.
We have mail addressed to each of us at this same address however need further evidence
Any help would be appreciated
Thanks!
brooke brisbine
georgeHi George,
I’d recommend uploading some mail addressed to each of you (anything official is best, like a bank statement or rego notice), a statement written by you or your partner about your living situation, a stat dec from your parents confirming that situation, and maybe some photos of your shared room.
I think there are many people in your same situation (and actually my partner and I were renting an apartment owned by his parents for the last 8 months before the visa was granted, so we also had no shared lease and it was fine).
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Angus
Hi Brooke!
Thanks for your detailed information on your partner visa application. My wife and I have found this incredibly useful, and are very grateful for you providing all of this for free.
I just had one question, when you speak of ‘statements’ from your partner and yourself regarding household duties etc, are these just signed letters, or official statutory declarations?
Thanks in advance!
Angus
brooke brisbine
AngusHi Angus,
So glad you and your wife found these posts helpful! We personally just wrote and signed letters as our statements rather than doing official stat decs and this seemed to be fine!
-Brooke
Guru
wow!! Thank you so much for this information this is so helpful. I am currently doing a PhD as well in Sydney and will be applying for the partner visa soon. Discovering your website has made my day and its a great help. All the positive vibes for you.
brooke brisbine
GuruHi Guru,
So happy to hear these posts have been helpful to you!
Wishing you lots of luck on your application and your PhD (we must be crazy to have done both at the same time, I swear this application is LIKE a PhD!).
-Brooke 🙂
Gurpreet Singh
brooke brisbineHi Brooke,
Congratulations on getting your Visa. I got a bit late in filing my visa with over load of work from my PhD and casual teaching. I was just wondering if you included dates in your joint photos with your partner? I was just compiling my photos. Many thanks for the amazing work you have done.
brooke brisbine
Gurpreet SinghHi Gurpreet, I can certainly relate, having completed my application while also doing a PhD and teaching! It’s a full work load, for sure…
Yes, I did include dates, but usually just the month and year to give some context. I’d imagine this is helpful for the CO!
-Brooke
Jennifer Charbonneau
Hi Brooke. I have to admit, you are so helpful! I do have some questions as well. I have sent my application and paid for it about a month and a bit ago, I haven’t been able to do anything regarding my application as I have been stupidly busy and pretty pregnant, which worries me as I have to hurry and upload all pf the files. Is there a time limit?
brooke brisbine
Jennifer CharbonneauHi Jennifer,
No stress, there is no official “time limit” as such. Just get things uploaded within the next few months and it should be fine– there’s essentially no chance a CO is going to look at your application within the first couple months of submitting anyway, so as long as you get it completed before Home Affairs reviews it, you’re fine 🙂
-Brooke
Mylene
Hi Brooke ! Thank you so much for all the help you’re providing !!! This blog has been like a Bible to me. You’re a legend !!!!!!
However there are a few things I can’t figure out !! I lodged and paid my application already and am now uploading the supporting documents, but I can’t find in which section I should upload the evidences for the social aspects of the relationship. I can’t see anything named like it !! Is it going in “others” then ??
Also I have been writing only one big statement covering all the different categories (commitment, development of the relationship, social aspects, financial aspects, periods of separation etc etc…). Should I re-upload the stat dec in each category or again, in “others” at the end ?
It seems like some documents are asked in different sections (like our civil partnership certificate, it could fit in “Registered relationship, Evidence of” but also “Relationship – Spouse, De facto Partner, Evidence of” and “Length of the de facto relationship, Evidence of”. It’s so confusing !!!
I hope you will be able to help 🙂 Thanks again !
brooke brisbine
MyleneHi Mylene, thank you so much for the lovely comment! So happy to hear these posts helped you 🙂
I personally uploaded my “social aspects” under “Relationship – Spouse, De Facto Partner, Evidence of”. There’s no specific place to put this stuff, so just choose a logical category.
I probably wouldn’t recommend writing one large statement, since the actual online application asks for 5 separate statements. It’s up to you, and it might be fine, but I think it’s safer to write separate statements addressing each specific aspect of the relationship. This also saves the repetition 🙂
I agree it’s SO confusing knowing which category to put certain evidence in… I’d just suggest choosing one spot, knowing that the CO will look at it regardless of what category it’s in and know that it covers multiple types of evidence (e.g. that your civil partnership is evidence of both commitment and length of relationship). In that particular instance, I’d upload to the most specific category, which is “Registered relationship, Evidence of”, just so it’s super easy for them to find.
Hope that helps 🙂
-Brooke
Emma
Hi Brooke,
my partner and I have been contacted and asked to provide certain additional information which we have completed. My question is, will they contact us again if anything is still missing or not uploaded? or they won’t give us another chance?
Just also wanted to say thankyou for all that you do on this blog, you have no idea how helpful reading it has been!
brooke brisbine
EmmaHi Emma,
I can’t personally comment on this, but maybe another reader will be able to weigh in!
Best of luck to you guys, and so sorry I couldn’t be more helpful.
-Brooke
Maria
brooke brisbineHi, Emma and Brooke!
I was asked for extra documentation twice, separate times. So I believe if they do need some extra documents after the first request, they will simply contact you again. If extra proof has been provided within dead line given, you should have no reason to worry. I was not contacted directly again, simply received a grant of visa few weeks ago.
Ps: Brooke, thank you for your blog, it has been very helpful. Truly nice things to do! 🙂
brooke brisbine
MariaThanks so much for sharing your experience, Maria!
Great to hear that even if you are asked to supply extra documentation, it’s a quick and easy process. I’m sure that will reassure many readers 🙂
-Brooke
phoebe Wang
Hi Brooke,
Thank you for writing such a helpful blog. I am also in the process of submitting documents. I have two questions to ask.
1. Citizenship – Australian, Evidence of (the sponsor): upload the Australian Passport and Australian citizenship certificate? I’m not sure about the use of table A-E? What doc should upload on this?
2. Photograph – Passport(Applicant): Print the name of the person on the back of the photograph.
My photograph finds the JP certifies the photo. The name is handwriting not print. I’m confused.
Thanks so much for your help!
Cheers,
Phoebe
brooke brisbine
phoebe WangHi Phoebe,
1. If your partner has an Australian passport, that’s all you need to upload. I think tables A-E are just about proving citizenship if you weren’t born in Australia and don’t have a passport (e.g. if the sponsor previously got their citizenship through a work sponsorship, but didn’t actually apply for a physical passport at that time).
2. These instructions are copied directly from Home Affairs, but they are super misleading… you obviously don’t need to print OR handwrite anything on the back of the photo when you are applying online, that is ONLY for paper applications. You also do not need it certified, just scan the photo.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
KC
Hi Brooke,
Thanks so much for all this information. I’m just about to start the process and it’s so overwhelming but we’re aiming to submit next month – I’m glad I found your website. I have a question about the application though, my partner and I live together now but he travelled a lot for a work which is not really more than 2-3 weeks at a time. Do I still need to give details about those particular travel periods? (Since there’s quite a bunch of them). Also for the “Date applicant and sponsor committed to a shared life together to the exclusion of all others” – is this the date we became boyfriend/girlfriend even if I haven’t lived in Australia yet during this date?
Thanks so much and I really appreciate your help! I hope your permanent partner visa gets approved soon.
brooke brisbine
KCHi KC, so glad to hear you found these posts helpful!
I would recommend providing information about his travel. It really don’t believe it will be an issue since it’s for work, but you should still explain the situation and provide evidence that you were in contact while he was away.
As for the date, that’s a bit open to interpretation. This is how I understand the dates:
– 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)
Hope that provides a bit of clarity!
-Brooke
KC
KCThanks Brooke! That’s very helpful. Did you have to certify your relationship statements? Which documents did you get certified (besides Form 888 for the witnesses)?
brooke brisbine
KCHi KC,
Literally the only certified documents we submitted were the Form 888s (and the witnesses got these certified, so we didn’t have to do that). We just signed and dated our statements.
-Brooke
KC
brooke brisbineThanks so much, Brooke! We have finally submitted and are still in the process of uploading everything. Hopefully, no one looks at it soon! Just a quick question, is it necessary to inform them about a casual job that I got after submitting? Or is the “notification of changes in circumstances”, just for relationship breakdowns, or having babies, etc?
brooke brisbine
KCHi KC,
Congratulations, that’s a huge milestone!
I don’t believe it’s necessary to notify them of a change in employment (I didn’t!), I think that’s more for change in address or more serious developments like those you listed.
Good luck with it all 🙂
-Brooke
Emily
Hey Brooke,
Love your blog. It has been so incredibly helpful to get my head around this process.
Just out of curiosity, did you refer to particular pieces of evidence in your statements? Like “we travelled to xyz, please see these docs in upload”.
If you did, did your sponsor do the same thing in his, or was his statements more or less that with no references to uploaded evidence.
Thanks!!
brooke brisbine
EmilyHi Emily,
So glad it’s been helpful to you! Yes, I referenced specific evidence within my statements to help support some of the dates and information. My partner’s statement was much less detailed, so as not to be repetitive (and also because he’s not as pedantic as I am lol).
Hope that helps 🙂
-Brooke
Emma
Hi Brooke.
My partner and I are compiling our own relationship statement and within these statements we have covered the aspects of our relationship.
Should we still do a seperate statement/stat dec for the main aspects under each heading, or just use the relationship statement as evidence. I just feel as though we will be doubling up.
Thanks in advance!
brooke brisbine
EmmaHi Emma,
Since there are separate text boxes on the online application for each of the relationship aspects, we thought it would be best to write separate statements for each of the categories. Yes there is some crossover, but it’s how Home Affairs has actually asked the question, so in my opinion, separate statements fulfil the requirement more completely.
Hope that make sense!
-Brooke
Meghan
Hi Brooke. This blog has been amazing. I don’t think I have EVER commented on anything online but this information has been so much help. I have just started to gather all the evidence. Omg it feels never ending. Just curious, how long after you applied for the visa did you upload and submit the second part? I know you have a lot of time but I feel like I need to get it done so fast. I also have some dates wrong in the initial part of the visa ( which is now submitted ) I found a form that you can fill out for incorrect information. I was just going to fill that in and attach it to the next part of the application. Did you have any issues where you wrote in something wrong accidentally? My husband and I have been together almost 6 years but have been travelling for those 6 years. It feels almost impossible to get all the dates correct. Thanks in advance!
brooke brisbine
MeghanHi Meghan, thank you so much for the thoughtful comment, you don’t know how much that means!
When you say the “second part”, do you mean the uploads section? If so, I did it as quickly as possible, but there is no official “deadline” to submit evidence by. A CO won’t be looking at the application anytime soon, so as long as you get stuff up there in a semi-timely fashion, that’s good enough. And you should continue adding to the evidence throughout the waiting period, too!
As for the dates, yes, I would DEFINITELY recommend submitting a form to correct the dates ASAP because that is definitely something Home Affairs looks at. The fact that you made a mistake isn’t an issue, just make sure you explain so they know it was a genuine mistake 🙂 Digging through old visa application for a WHV I had about 5 years ago, I actually found that I wrote “single” instead of “de facto”, even though my partner and I were living together and sharing all finances at the time. I submitted a form and a long letter explaining the error, so I think these things DO happen!
Hope that helps, best of luck to you and your husband!
-Brooke
Allie
Hi Brooke! YOur website is wonderful and you’re helping so many others in your similar situation make something that seems impossible just a bit easier!!
I have just hit submit for the application and paid and am now uploading all of the evidence that I’ve compiled! YAY!
I just have a quick question regarding the “Document type” and “description” that you’ve put for some of the uploaded evidence categories.. For example, I am from the U.S. and like you asked several of my family members to write letters to testify to my relationship with my partner here in Australia as they’ve met him.. And now I am uploading those statements and don’t know whether to put them under “other” and then title them “Statement in support of partner visa” or should I list them under “statutory declaration” ??
Similarly, when I am uploading a collection of bills or other joint photos or joint lease agreement emails that all have multiple pages combined into a single PDF, are you uploading these under the document type that they are most closely associated with such as utility bill or lease agreement or photo-other, or are you uploading them as “other” and then giving them a description??
I hope that question makes sense… I just can’t for the life of me figure out what’s the easiest way as the immi account and website don’t seem to make it at all easy for you!
Thanks so much for your help!
Cheers,
Allie
brooke brisbine
AllieHi Allie,
So sorry it’s taken me so long to respond, but thank you for the lovely comment! AND a big congratulations on finally hitting submit, what a milestone!!
There’s not really a specific “right” place to put those letters. If you look at my evidence checklist, I put letters in a few different places (I think “Length of Relationship” and “Mutual Commitment”, from memory) just based on what I thought the content was speaking to more. BUT I think this is totally up to you, put the letters wherever they make sense! The CO will look at everything anyway and since this is extra (not required evidence), they won’t be *expecting* it in any one location more than another.
If I grouped different types of documents together (bills and a lease, for instance), I would have personally put them under “other” and explained in the description. You can probably see this in my document checklist– I used that “other” categorisation quite a lot! Again, I don’t think it matters too much as long as there is some sense behind the choice and it’s easy enough for the CO to decipher (although with “required” evidence, it’s definitely better to use the actual categorisation labels whenever possible, since a CO might quickly scan to see if the app is complete).
I really hope that makes sense! I agree the upload process is super confusing and there’s probably a million ways to do it, none of which is necessarily “right” or “best”. Good luck 🙂
-Brooke
Hope that helps!
Sharmaine
Hi Brooke , I love your blog <3 it really helped me and my husband a lot 🙂 Today we have a wonderful news my Partner Visa (820) got granted today , I just want to ask If you know what’s the next step ? Or the immigration will tell us ? Thank you Brooke 💕 Take care always
brooke brisbine
SharmaineHi Sharmaine, what fantastic news!!
You guys applied at the end of last year, if I remember correctly, so that is such a wonderful, quick outcome for you! Well deserved 🙂
I can’t comment (at least not from experience) on what happens beyond the 820 visa, but from what other readers have said, you need to keep gathering evidence during this time and you’ll be notified a little ahead of the 2 year mark when you are eligible to submit documents in support of the 801 Permanent Partner Visa.
**If any other reader wants to jump in here and comment with their own experience, please do!
Congratulations again to you and your husband, Sharmaine.
-Brooke
Sharmaine
brooke brisbineThank you Brooke 🤗 Yes we applied last year around October, we didn’t expect to get the results fast we thought it will take about 2 years for the Temporary 820 . Hopefully you’ll get yours soon 😇
brooke brisbine
SharmaineThank you, Sharmaine, I certainly hope so! But good to hear that applications are being processed quicker, I’m sure other readers will be VERY relieved to hear that 🙂
xx Brooke
Charis
Hi Brooke,
I am the sponsor for the VISA and recently learnt that I upload my documents to my partner who is the applicants immi account as I thought I had to create my own linked account.
The category heading under my name don’t match what you had for sponsor for e.g. Address – Residential, Evidence of, Birth or Age, Evidence of do these just go under “other?”
brooke brisbine
CharisHi Charis,
Yes, you can upload everything (for the applicant AND sponsor) to the main application on IMMI. There should be a section for Applicant Documents and Sponsor Documents as shown in this post.
Hmm, I’m not sure why your upload categories would be different– you’re definitely looking at the main application, not the sponsor application? Do you see ANY “Recommended” documents listed? Categories like “Birth or Age, Evidence of” should apply to everyone, so it’s strange that they aren’t showing on your application.
Obviously it’s hard because I don’t know why your application would look so different and I can’t see what it does look like, but I’d like to help you figure it out if I can!
-Brooke
Emily McLennan
Hey Brooke,
I can’t say how much I have appreciated your blog. It’s given me a clear idea of what I need to get together, and some of it I never even thought about. I do have one question that I’m hoping you can help with – you say you had 120 pages of imessage convos in one pdf. How were you able to compress it so small? ATM, I have only been taking screenshots of my messages and putting about 9 messages to a page and my document size is ridiculous. Any suggestions or tips?
Thanks so much!
brooke brisbine
Emily McLennanHi Emily,
That’s so nice to hear, thank you so much for the thoughtful comment!
As for the messages, I actually copied them directly out of iMessage on my computer– do you have a mac? Definitely taking screenshots of each individual message is going to be tedious and quickly exceed 5mb, so it’s best to find a way to actually copy the text instead. There is sometimes an option to export messages to like a Word or Text file? You could also try that!
Hope that helps 🙂
-Brooke
Ella
Thanks so much for your detailed reply above – it all makes total sense! I had no idea the upload screen was as you’ve described – so thank you for the warning! I can now start to collate everything and start the process – you’re a star! I wish you all the best with your future adventures, your blog, and of course with your life in Australia. Sending you all the happiness in the world!
Ella and Kyra x
brooke brisbine
EllaHi Ella & Kyra,
I know it seems totally illogical, it definitely confused me too! I thought I had everything organised until I got to the upload screen and was like “oh, what?”…
Wishing you girls a super swift application process and lots of luck with it all 🙂
-Brooke
Emma
Hi Brooke, thankyou for your help with previous questions- i just have a few more lol!
-For the four main aspects of relationship, we are going to do a written statement for each of our situation- so my question is do we do that as a statutory declaration? which statutory declaration form do we use? and we will both sign it at the bottom? or we just do a normal statement and name and sign?
-I am confused with form 47SP. Is this a requirement if we have lodged our application through Immi in the first place? I have filled out form 40SP as the sponsor but was a little confused with 47SP
Thanks again!
brooke brisbine
EmmaHi Emma,
Since you’re not required to write a statement for each aspect of the relationship (you’re only required to write those 2000 character-responses on the online app), these are extra and therefore there aren’t any official guidelines. Some people do write them as stat decs, others (like me) just wrote and signed letters– it’s up to you! But there is no official form or format.
Further to that question, Home Affairs does recommend that you and your partner write your own statements. We ended up signing a few things together, like the cover letter and update letters, but Home Affairs really wants to hear from each of you, in your own words (that’s why the sponsorship application has the same 2000-character response boxes as the main app). So I’d recommend writing your own statements on financial, social, etc from your own perspective.
You don’t need to do 47SP, and you can read more about why here: https://brookebeyond.com/820-801-visa-faq-top-10-most-common-questions-about-the-australian-partner-visa-with-full-answers#7_%7C_Form_47SP
Hope that helps 🙂
-Brooke
Gabriella
Hi Brooke! Of course, thank you again for this awesome resource.
I am wondering how they go about reaching out to you to ask for the medical test and police reports to be done? I submitted my application about a year ago, and have noticed the last few times I logged on to Immi Accounts that there is a little tab saying that I need to get my medical test and where I can do that. It’s possible it’s been there all along but I’m not sure.
Is THAT my cue to get it done or do I wait for someone to reach out via email or something?
Thank you so much for your input! xx
brooke brisbine
GabriellaHi Gabriella,
It’s definitely possible that the alert on IMMI to do your medical exam has been there for a while. I noticed this alert within a few days of submitting my application and many readers have reported the same thing. I think it’s just an automated message!
It’s up to you whether you want to actually wait for a CO to ask you for those checks or if you want to get your application fully ready to be approved, which might speed things up for you (since you won’t need to go back and forth with the CO or wait to get these checks done). Given that you applied over a year ago, it’s probably reasonable to think your visa will be granted within the next 12 months– meaning a health check and police check would still be valid if you did them now. Up to you, though! I did my checks around the 6-9mo mark because I thought I was within 12mo of approval, but sadly I’m still waiting, so I’ll end up having to redo them..
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Jay
Hi Brooke, extremely helpful post! I was wondering if you printed all of your filled out forms, then scanned them into PDFs again after signing the relevant pages. Currently I’m just printing and scanning only the pages for signatures and reattaching them to the rest of the PDF. I then thought that this may not be ideal as I’m effectively leaving the other pages editable. Do you know what the requirements are in relation to this? Thanks for your help! Jay
brooke brisbine
JayHi Jay,
I personally printed forms, completed them in hard-copy, and then scanned them back onto the computer– but I know a lot of other readers did exactly what you did (just printed the signature page and did the rest online), so I think either is fine!
-Brooke
Ella
Hi Brooke,
Firstly – what an amazing blog. Thank you so much for all this information. My girlfriend and I are starting to gather information on this process ready to submit early next year and we are honestly in awe of all your hard work and the time it must have taken you to create these detailed blogs for everyone – being able to read your experience and guide us through ours honestly means so much to us. You are a human ANGEL. Thank you!
I do however have a couple of questions…
Question 1: You have previously mentioned that when writing the 5 statements, you wrote “please see evidence in document…..”. However, you write and submit your 5 statements before you upload your evidence, so how did you know what the document was going to be called? Were you able to go back to your application to edit the statements or did you have all your evidence and titled PDFs ready before you even submitted the first part of the application?
Question 2: You have said how important it is to collate evidence under the 5 main headings – Finance, Nature of household, Nature of commitment, Social Aspects and Development of relationship. However, in your blog you have written how you had other titles (such as title Contact While Apart) with separate PDFs in it including ‘Statement of contact’, ‘calendar visits’ and ‘messages’. Did you therefore create your own titles similar to the main headings (that’s how you came up with Contact While Apart or did you submit a PDF called ‘Contact While Apart’ under Nature of Commitment etc)? It’s annoying I can’t get to the evidence submission section until after I have submitted and paid for the initial section, as I am unsure what it looks like and if there are set titles to upload my PDFs to or if i make these up by labeling my PDFs with certain names.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much,
Ella
brooke brisbine
EllaHi Ella,
Thank you so much for the lovely comment, all the hard work was truly worthwhile to be able to save other couples the stress and anxiety I experienced around this visa process!
To answer your first question, I personally had all my PDFs ready to go before I submitted the application, but I know this is not the case for many people (nor does it need to be). In that instance, I’d just say make up a logical name for the document and make sure you give your statement that title when you upload. It’s not a huge deal what you want to call it, as long as the CO knows where to find it!
I know it is SO annoying that the partner visa process requires the collation of evidence under 5 categories, which then AREN’T the categories you upload under… The upload screen is organised exactly as described in this post, not necessarily by the 5 aspects of the relationship, so it’s not always straightforward where to submit evidence of social commitment, for instance. This is somewhat at your own discretion. When you are planning out all your evidence, you NEED to make sure you are fulfilling each of the 5 categories (writing specific statements for each will help you think of what to include), but then it’s not as important exactly where you attach it on the upload portal if there isn’t a designated spot– which, as you’ve noticed, there often isn’t.
Contact While Apart, for example, is a specific category on the upload portal, not something I created. All the titles displayed on this post are directly from IMMI, and the lesser titles written as bullet points (eg. MESSAGES) represent discrete documents that I uploaded. You can give your PDF whatever name you want, but you will upload it under a category heading (the big titles in this post) and describe it by selecting an option from a dropdown menu (I screenshoted these and included them in the post, but note that you’ll often have to use “other”).
Does that make sense?? Let me know!
-Brooke
Mariana Mimura
Hi Brooke,
All this information are so helpful. I’ll apply for my visa in a couple of weeks, just wondering when you write the 4 pillar of the relationship, did you write a letter from you and your partner and add the evidences in the same document or made different uploads?\
brooke brisbine
Mariana MimuraHi Mariana,
Thanks for the comment! I uploaded the documents exactly as described in this post, so each bullet point was a separate upload. Sometimes one upload did contain multiple pieces of evidence, but it’s not that I put ALL financial evidence in one upload, if that makes sense?
-Brooke
Matthew
Hi Brooke,
Have you been approved yet ? I think you may have submitted the same time as me or thereabouts I have legit been waiting for about 16 months now! Complements on the exceptional blog, it’s super informative and has been invaluable to me thank you so much!
Best Wishes,
Matthew
brooke brisbine
MatthewHi Matthew,
Sounds like we must have submitted around a similar time– I’ve been waiting 19 months now and NADA. Based on the BVB I was issued at the start of the year (and now can’t use because of COVID), I don’t expect to get my visa before December. Hopefully yours will be quicker!
Thanks so much for the lovely comment 🙂
-Brooke
Emma
Hi Brooke, thankyou for all of the helpful information.
My partner (applicant) has been in Australia permanently with me since applying for the partner visa in November last year. However because he had to travel back home under family circumstances his bridging visa did not come into place until March this year. He is unemployed at the moment as it has been difficult to get a job with COVID.
My question, if i am signing a statutory dec (sponsor) and describing financial commitments, does it matter if he is not contributing to our joint bank account? and if i write this in the stat dec, and he gets a job within the next few months, do i need to complete another stat dec?
Thanks in advance!
Anonymous
EmmaI was also wondering- we are currently filling out forms such as personal particulars for assessment at the moment (and we are writing that he is currently unemployed), if we submit that form and he gets a job soon, do we have to fill out form again.
brooke brisbine
AnonymousHmm, that’s a good question! My employment has also changed since I filled out those forms, but maybe that’s something a CO could ask for if it was an issue?
-Brooke
brooke brisbine
EmmaHi Emma,
There is absolutely no requirement that you be contributing equally to a joint bank account– in fact, if you are supporting your partner through this unemployment, that probably says MORE about your commitment to each other! Write the stat dec describing things exactly as they are, the ways in which you are supporting each other, even if it’s not financially equal at the moment.
If the situation changes and you want to provide the CO with more current info, you can definitely complete another stat dec 3-6 months from now.
Hope that helps 🙂
-Brooke
Emma
Hi Brooke,
Thanks for these great informative posts!
I am a bit confused about the process though. When you initial apply, you said you had to make 2,000 statements about the 5 aspects of the relationship, pay and then later on upload evidence. Did you upload the evidence under each section, or did you actually upload the evidence like the above post describes?
I hope that made sense.
brooke brisbine
EmmaHi Emma,
I actually uploaded evidence as this post describes, not necessarily under the “5 aspects of the relationship”. Annoying, I know, but that’s how it’s organised on IMMI!
Brooke
Alba
Hi Brooke!
Thanks so much for your amazing tips and for taking the time to share this with us.
I do have a question! How did you get so many photos in one PDF that isn’t too big?
I started doing some in pages and was soon up to 23MB.
Then I did export it and tried to make it smaller, also in Adobe Acrobat, but unfortunately the file was still too big.. any tips?
Thanks heaps!
brooke brisbine
AlbaHi Alba,
You definitely need to limit the number of photos in each PDF, because even compressed, it can easily be too large to upload. My best advice is to break photos apart into multiple documents AND seriously limit repetitive photos. For example, maybe you upload Travel Photos 2019 as a single document, and rather than uploading dozens of photos from a single trip, just pick 1-2 from each country or city or weekend away. It doesn’t need to be comprehensive of every second spent together, just an indication that you have been together at that time. You might also have Travel Photos 2018, Photos with Family, Photos with Friends, etc, and these could all be separate PDFs.
I hope that helps!
-Brooke
Tim Langerman
Hi Brooke! Hope you’re well!
Might be a silly questions but with so much information just wanted to confirm – when applying for the Australian Police Clearance certs, do you have to get your fingerprints taken and submit these in addition to the application form, or is it just the simples application with a name search?
brooke brisbine
Tim LangermanHi Tim,
Not a silly question at all, lots of people have asked this 🙂 Thankfully, there’s no need to submit fingerprints for an AFP check. You can read about the requirements here, it’s super simple and all online: https://brookebeyond.com/completing-afp-national-police-checks-npc-for-your-820-801-australian-partner-visa
-Brooke
Sandra Berndt
Dear Brooke,
Did you fill out Form 80 with a pen and signed or on the computer?
Thank you very much.
Regards, Sandra
brooke brisbine
Sandra BerndtHi Sandra,
I personally filled out all the forms with a pen and scanned them onto the computer, but a lot of readers have filled them out completely on the computer and I’m not sure it much matters (as long as you physically sign).
Brooke
Dan
Hey Brooke,
This has been such a useful resource for my partner and I, thanks so much!
I have a few questions about the second part of the process, the 801 application.
Are the documents required all the same? We haven’t been apart since being here so have nothing for that section. Also, do we need to add additional statement when submitting the evidence like before?
Do I need new police and health checks? Do we need to out our registered relationship document in again or will they recognise that from the 820 application?
Finally, does my partner need to do an application like last time or is it just mine this time?
Thanks for your help,
Dan
brooke brisbine
DanHi Dan,
Unfortunately I can’t really answer questions about the 801 since I haven’t done it myself!
Best of luck, and sorry I couldn’t be more helpful.
-Brooke
chris
Hi Brooke ,
its me again and 1 more question
4. regarding orm 80 and 1221?
Are they mandatory or optional ? Do we have to fill out the forms ? or do it later when CO asks?
Chris
brooke brisbine
chrisHi Chris,
I’m going to refer you to this post (#6) for more info on Form 80 and 1221, since it’s not a super straight answer: https://brookebeyond.com/820-801-visa-faq-top-10-most-common-questions-about-the-australian-partner-visa-with-full-answers 🙂
-Brooke
chris
Dear Brooke,
Thanks for all your information and it helped us tremendously whilst working on my partner’s application .
Got a few questions and hoped you can help me with the following :
1. Statutory Declaration Forms. When we submitted the application last year , there are word limits on 4 questions hence i created a word with more details in there in addressing question . Just wanted to confirm if i need to have the word document witnessed or certified, or we can directly update the document to the application
2. Do i as a sponsor need to provide police check as well? i am australian citizen .
3. 888 witness forms . My partner told me that only PR holder or Australian citizens can fill out the forms to witness our relationship , is it correct?
Many thanks
Chris
brooke brisbine
chrisHi Chris,
1. There does not appear to be any official requirement to certify these, so it’s up to you.
2. Usually the sponsor does also need to provide a police check, but it’s very quick and easy to get, so you can always wait to be asked. On the other hand, it’s only ~$40, so it might be worth just doing now.
3. That’s correct, only citizens or PRs can complete Form 888 on your behalf. If you want to submit statements from your partner’s non-Aussie family, they can just write and sign letters as additional evidence (but not as fulfilment of the requirement to submit at least 2x Form 888s).
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Mel
Hi Brooke,
Thanks for all this information!
I was just wondering if you blacked out your credit card details when you submitted your credit card statement as evidence?
Thanks,
Mel 🙂
brooke brisbine
MelHi Mel,
Yes, I redacted any bank details that I didn’t want shared 🙂
Brooke
Saul Brehme
Hi Brooke,
Thank you for writting such a helpful blog. I am currently collecting all my data together so that its much easiar to upload all at once. However regarding double uploads, I notice that under each drop down box more often than not youll see “stat dec” for example its under “social aspects of the relationship” and “Couple living together evidence” and I just wanted to know that we only need to upload our stat decs once. mine and my partners under either heading?
I really dont want to over upload the attachments with doubles of our Stat decs.
I hope that makes sense.
All the best,
Saul Brehme
brooke brisbine
Saul BrehmeHi Saul,
You shouldn’t upload the exact same stat dec multiple times, but it’s likely that you and your partner will have multiple stat decs (or statements that aren’t official stat decs) to upload for various aspects of the relationship. These are just an extension of the online application that asked for you to write about financial, social, etc, and it’s probably best to keep them separated out as such rather than combining into a single document.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Sandra Berndt
Hi Brooke, your blog is amazing. Beautifully written and very helpful. I have a question about your statements. Did you write your statements in Word with your signature ? Or did you write a proper Statutory Declaration which you can download on the internet? Where it says “I, Sandra Berndt, of (address), in the occupation of (job title) declare that…” and did you upload it under Statutory declaration or Other (Specify). Thank you very much for your help. Sandra
brooke brisbine
Sandra BerndtHi Sandra,
I personally just wrote the statements in Word and signed them, but it’s totally up to you!
Hope that helps 🙂
-Brooke
Sandra Berndt
brooke brisbineHi Brooke,
Great thank you very much. That helped me a lot.
My partner filled out a Stat Dec today and I will write mine as a Word Document and sign them, like you did.
Did you write different dates on your statements or on each statement the same date? We lodged our application already beginning of March and I haven’t uploaded my statements yet. Would you use a date from last month for example or just use todays date? Thank you soooo much for your help.
Sandra
brooke brisbine
Sandra BerndtHi Sandra,
I just wrote the actual date on each statement, so they differed by a couple days from each other– but I don’t think it much matters either way 🙂
Best of luck with the application!
-Brooke
Sandra Berndt
brooke brisbineThank you very very much Brooke. Helped me a lot. Have a lovely day, Sandra
Juan David
Hi Brooke, hope all is well.
Thanks for this amazing blog I am following absolutely everything you said.
I have a question related to the Joint collection photo albums. I am struggling creating the document that is suppose to have all pictures of my partner and I. I know there is a limit of 5MB for each document you upload but there are so many pictures and I dont know how necessary is to put as many as possible.
The questions that come to my mind related to this problem are:
how many pictures are enough (my partner and I have been together for more than 2 years) we have thousands of pictures.
how many pictures per moment. Lets say the same night we went out I took pictures with different friends of my partner.
How good the quality of this pictures need to be. If I reduce the quality of the pictures I will be able to upload more of them in the same document but then our faces are going to be distorted. Is still obvious that is my partner and I but I dont know if the CO will understand that.
Thanks in advance,
brooke brisbine
Juan DavidHi Juan,
Let me start off by saying that you absolutely do not have to get every photo of you and your partner into one single 5mb document. You’ll probably find that uploading about 10 different documents with photos to your application solves a lot of your problems. For instance, I uploaded Travel Photos 2015, Travel Photos 2016, Travel Photos 2017, etc; I also uploaded Photos with Family and Photos with Friends, but you can organise the photos however you see fit.
Secondly, there is no recommended number of photos, so just keep in mind that while you do want to show travel/social events/friends/family etc WITH your partner, you don’t want to make a CO look at 500 photos from every single time you and your partner have EVER done ANYTHING together. It’s just too much. My personal advice would be to choose maybe several dozen photos with friends and family, plus photos of just the two of you together, from each of the last 2+ years of your relationship (i.e. some older, some in the middle, some more recent). Enough to show that you are consistently doing things together and really are a couple, but not so many that Home Affairs is seeing a play-by-play of every dinner date you’ve been on.
As for the compression, don’t compress them to the point where they are unrecognisable. At that point, you need to break the photos up into multiple documents to get a smaller size. Compressing once on the SmallPDF website didn’t distort my photos, so I still think that’s a good option. And p.s. I usually write captions of who is in the photos and when/where it was taken.
I hope that helps a bit!!
-Brooke
MJ
Hi Brooke! Your blog surely helped a lot! Thank you! I just have a quick question, how do I regularly update the application after I lodged it? Do I replace the attachment or just add a new one? For example, for proof of bills, do I replace it with a new file? Thank you Brooke! 🙂
brooke brisbine
MJHi MJ, great to hear you found the blog helpful!
You can’t remove previous uploads, so you can just upload new information throughout the waiting period. I personally uploaded new evidence (like photos, bills, updates) after 6 months and then again after 18 months, but you can do whatever makes the most sense for your relationship 🙂
-Brooke
Charlotte
Hi Brooke, your website is so useful! Thank you.
Im wondering if you uploaded the same thing multiple times or just once? For example I am married and so have provided my marriage certificate as evidence of this but then it’s also asked for evidence of change of name. Should I upload it again here…?
brooke brisbine
CharlotteHi Charlotte,
Usually I would say probably don’t upload duplicate documents (just to save uploads and also not make your CO look at the same thing 5 times), BUT in the situation where there is basically only one document that proves you are married AND had a legal name change, it might be necessary just to put it in both places.
Hope that helps 🙂
-Brooke
Tim Langerman
Hi Brooke!
Thanks for the detailed guide, it was very insightful and helped with a few documents we were missing. I had a quick question if you wouldn’t mind?
I noticed when you were talking about your uploads, in particular in the Relationship – Spice, De Facto.. evidence, you said you uploaded a document that stated your development of the relationship or the social aspects statement, I wanted to know, is this instead of those questions on the required relationship statement document or are these in addition to this?
Thanks for the help in advance!
brooke brisbine
Tim LangermanHi Tim, glad you found this helpful!
Yes, those statements were instead of the questions on the application– since the application limits your response to 2000 characters, I needed to upload additional Word documents to cover everything. You can read a bit more about it in this post: https://brookebeyond.com/820-801-visa-faq-top-10-most-common-questions-about-the-australian-partner-visa-with-full-answers#3_%7C_Formatting_statements_about_your_relationship
Hope that answers your question 🙂
-Brooke
Laura Stokes
Hi Brooke,
What a wonderful and insightful website you have. Full of great information. Just a few questions I had about my process.
– What will happen if you run out of attachment spaces? I see my helpful boyfriend has been doing some upload and has used an entire space just for 1 invite image. Now I’m nervous I will run out of space. Can we get more the 100 attachments?
– I am currently on Visa BVB and will hopefully get onto my 820 on June 2021. Do we get more attachment space then? Does anything major happen when you go from the BVB visa to the 820?
– My partner also has repeatedly used the same document (example: tenancy agreement) in different sections. Is this a massive waste of space and attachments?
Thanks so much if you can help. This is yes, very stressful
brooke brisbine
Laura StokesHi Laura,
So glad the blog was helpful to you! I’ll do my best to answer your questions:
– I don’t think there’s a way to get additional uploads for the application, so try to combine documents wherever possible. If you really get into trouble, I know some people have started uploading things to the sponsor application. I don’t know if this is encouraged, but it’s an option!
– I am STILL sadly waiting for my 820, so I can’t personally comment on what happens after you get the 820. I know you need to upload additional evidence at this stage, but I can’t say for sure if there will be additional spaces to do so.
– It is probably not a great idea to use the same document multiple times. The same CO is looking at everything and they surely know enough about these applications to understand that a tenancy agreement uploaded as evidence of cohabitation might also speak to the length of the relationship, commitment, etc. In future, probably avoid double uploads 🙂
Hope that helps!!
-Brooke
Daniel
Hi Brooke,
My wife has just applied for the partner 820 visa last week and want to say your resources here have been very helpful!
We have paid the fee and received the email saying she is now on Bridging Visa A, and the application has a status of “Received”. However I am expecting a message from Immi saying that the application has been successful and she is now on the “Partner visa (subclass 820)” (allowing her to work, study, etc). Is this correct or can she go ahead and find a job now? If we do need a confirmation from Immi that the 820 visa has been granted before she can work and study, how long does it usually take?
Thank you,
brooke brisbine
DanielHi Daniel,
As soon as your wife received her Bridging Visa A, she was eligible to work and study. She will be waiting 1-3 years for the 820 visa to be granted and then a further 2 years after that for the 801 (some people are eligible for a simultaneous grant of the 820/801, but everyone has to wait for their 820 to be processed). Sadly, there is no way to say how long this will take. I’ve had readers on this site get theirs after 12 months, while I recently heard of someone waiting 34 months– every situation is different.
At any rate, she does NOT have to wait for the 820 to be approved before she can start looking for a job or begin working– BVA comes with work rights 🙂
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Justine
Hi Brooke, thank you so much for taking the time to write such helpful content. It helped me a lot.
My question is: which document HAVE to be certified, except for the form 888.
Many thanks
Justine
brooke brisbine
JustineHi Justine,
Assuming you’re completing the application online, ONLY Form 888 has to be certified. Some people choose to certify their statements, but it isn’t required.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Gae
Hi Brooke,
Just to clarify, I can submit the application and pay then start uploading all the information?
Did you work on the application online while collecting your evidence or wait until you had everything organized then so the application and upload your evidence.
Thanks,
Gae
brooke brisbine
GaeHi Gae, that’s exactly right: submit the application, pay the fee, then start uploading.
I personally had most stuff organised before I submitted so I could upload my evidence quickly, but I’m not sure it much matters– there’s no deadline to upload evidence, and although sooner is better (to a degree), the CO doesn’t look at it for AGES so it’s not like the difference of a month really matters.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Michael Bienick
Hey Brooke, I’m a US citizen and just lodged my pertinent visa and have just started to upload my documents. After two dayS my immi account said actions required: health examination. Do I lodge a document stating I will do one when requested or do it now bc it says action required? Thanks so much for your time!!
brooke brisbine
Michael BienickHi Michael, I got the same notification on my IMMI within a couple days of submitting. I personally waited 6 months before doing it because of the 12-month expiry, but it’s up to you if you want to do it right away or wait (less chance of having to do it twice).
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Stephen
Dear Brooke, thanks for the elaborate information. It so explanatory and clear. However I would like to know how these form are signed. For instance form 47sp. I understand it is filled online via immi account, do you do electronic signatures or I print out the forms and pen the signature. I am hope my question is clear. Thank you.
brooke brisbine
StephenHi Stephen,
I personally printed forms, completed them in hard-copy, and then scanned them back onto the computer–but it might also be fine to do them online, I can’t say for sure.
As a side note, I don’t believe 47SP is a required form. Have a look at this post: https://brookebeyond.com/820-801-visa-faq-top-10-most-common-questions-about-the-australian-partner-visa-with-full-answers
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Kate
Dear Brooke, thank you so much for such an informative answer. It definitely makes sense to just include a few bookings because indeed, all of them are under one of our names, never both.
All the best to you, keep up the amazing job you are doing with the blog.
-Kate.
brooke brisbine
KateSo glad that helped, Kate!
Best of luck with everything, and keep well.
-Brooke
Kate
Hi Brooke!
Like everyone else, i want to thank you immensely for all the work you’ve put in to help people. Your guide to uploading evidence is tremendously helpful.
I’ve been putting together all the tickets, hotel bookings and just wondered if you had all the physical tickets at the time of applying since you said it was 40 pages of tickets all together but i already have over 40 pages for just one trip! 🙂 We’ve been putting confirmations from email which sometimes come up as 4 pages per ticket… and the same for booking.com hotel confirmations. I wonder if i should take screenshots from the apps or just get rid of nonessential parts of the ticket (even though it will be not complete then). Many many thanks.
brooke brisbine
KateHi Kate, thank you so much for the lovely comment!
I only included a few tickets from each trip, just to illustrate that we were travelling together. It’s certainly up to you how you’d like to do it, but we’ve done about 25 countries together, so including every ticket would be overwhelming– and 40 pages just for one trip does sound like possibly a bit much… They don’t need to see every single second of the trip, just a few tickets and/or photos to show that you were together.
Again, up to you, but I also don’t necessarily know that including 4 pages of Booking.com confirmations for every single night of a trip is super helpful, unless it shows both of your names to prove you were both travelling together. Otherwise, maybe just including a FEW flights, hotel bookings, tours etc. And absolutely get rid of the non-essential parts of the tickets, Home Affairs probably doesn’t need to see the directions to an Airbnb or the fine print on your flight, just give them proof that you were both travelling and that’s enough 🙂
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Chloe
Dear Brooke,
Thank you so much for putting this blog together. I just finished uploading my evidence and your blog was an excellent point of reference throughout the entire process! Wishing you all the best xx Chloe
brooke brisbine
ChloeHi Chloe,
Thanks for the lovely message, so glad to hear you found this blog helpful 🙂
-Brooke
Floria
Thank you so much for you instruction, you are a true life saver!
brooke brisbine
FloriaYou’re so welcome, Floria!
Morag
Hey Brooke, how were you able to compress your PDFs containing a lot of images into smaller than 5mbs?! I tried using the one that you linked to but it didn’t make it nearly small enough. I am so stuck on this and it is really slowing down my upload process 🙁
I appreciate your blog it has been so helpful! Thank you!
Morag
brooke brisbine
MoragHi Morag,
My first recommendation would be to split the photos across multiple documents. For example, instead of uploading Travel Photos as one PDF, upload Travel Photos 2014, Travel Photos 2015, Travel Photos 2016 etc as separate PDFs. If you can’t get the PDF below 5mb, you probably have too many photos in there.
The second option is to upload the compressed PDF onto SmallPDF and RE-compress the PDF further. It might make photos too blurry to be useful, though, so splitting photos into different documents is a better Plan A.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Bijay Tamang
MoragHi Morag
You can use Adobe Acrobat DC to compress these files under 5MB. When u download this app it allows you to use it free for 7 days. And then cost you $14 a month. Am pretty sure you would be able to upload all evidences within a month. Then u can unsubscribe the app if u dont want anymore…
And Brooke
Thank you so much for your kind info. all over pages.
I have seen all of your blogs regarding this Partner Visa. Moreover, i have even print it out all of your blog so i don’t have to search on website ever and again..
It really helped me to work out on my application and was able to submit successfully on February.
Thanks Brook……..
And stay safe……..
Bijay , Perth WA
brooke brisbine
Bijay TamangThanks for the comment, Bijay!
Andrew
Hi Brooke,
I must congratulate and commend you on this magnificent website. It is extremely resourceful and provides a lot of valuable insights for applicants.
I am an Australian citizen living overseas with my spouse and our children preparing to submit their 820/801 Australian partner visa application. We will do this online and understand that supporting documents/evidence will need to be submitted later. However, would my spouse and I, as the sponsor, also need to upload completed Forms 80, 1221 and 40SP? Apologies if you have already responded to similar queries in the past. Many thanks
brooke brisbine
AndrewHi Andrew, thank you so much for the thoughtful comment, it’s always nice to hear that people are finding these posts useful!
As for your query about Form 80, 1221, and 40SP– there is some debate. I’d recommend having a look at this post for more information:https://brookebeyond.com/820-801-visa-faq-top-10-most-common-questions-about-the-australian-partner-visa-with-full-answers
In brief, these forms probably aren’t required for an online application. However, most people submit them anyway since they are still listed as “recommended” under the uploads portal, and it’s just easier to do a few extra forms than worry about the completeness of your application.
Hope that answers your question!
-Brooke
IB
Thanks for this resource, it’s really helpful – and reassuring, during what is a stressful process!
My question is: there seems to be a lot of overlap in the questions/categories, and so potentially a lot of places where the same evidence might be uploaded. For example, scans of travel tickets could equally be evidence of the fact that you travel as a couple, but also evidence of the length of the relationship. Did you find yourself reusing elements of the same evidence (maybe rearranged & combined) in multiple places?
Thanks 🙂
brooke brisbine
IBHi IB, thanks for the comment, glad to hear these posts have been helpful!
Yes, there’s certainly a lot of overlap between categories and you could reasonably include one item in any of 3 or 4 other categories sometimes, but I’d discourage you from actually uploading duplicates. You’ll blow through your max uploads very quickly and it’s just not necessary– the CO assessing your application will recognise that things have significance in multiple aspects of the relationship, ESPECIALLY if you draw attention to it in your statements.
I’d recommend trying to find unique evidence for each category wherever possible, and then just refer to things in your statement to really bring it all together. This post talks a bit about that: https://brookebeyond.com/820-801-australian-partner-visa-evidence
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Vivian
HI Brooke, your blog is super helpful for our visa application and I know I’m not alone. This is such a pain and causes a lot of frustrations for me and my partner…… I got one question, as we have paid on July 2019 and right now the processing time is between 14 to 20 months. Does this count from the date of submission which was July 2019 or when the status changed? I get a bit confused as my status right now is still remaining “received” and my partner’s status is “submitted” which nothing has changed. Do you think I can conduct police check and health check soon? Thanks a lot!
brooke brisbine
VivianHi Vivian,
Unfortunately, I have absolutely no idea how long it will take for your application to be approved, I’ve heard vastly differing timeframes from people even in these blog comments, so it’s clear that there is little consistency between cases. I hope it will be quick for you!
However, do not fret that your application says “received” and your partner’s says “submitted”. I had this same question and called Home Affairs to clarify that, for whatever reason, this is just how they are displayed online. Both have been received, don’t worry!
-Brooke
Anonymous
Hello Brooke
I totally admire the detail, substance and coherence of your blog. When there is logical sequencing, it makes life so much easier. I’ve perused multiple blogs and articles-even from migration agents and lawyers – but yours stands out a mile for its quality, detail and sincerity. Many thanks – and multiple blessings for the invaluable help it has and will continue to provide.
I am at stage 2 – Permanent Partner visa (810). Have you any specific advice to offer for this submission? Does the documentation at this stage have to be as multiple, detailed and intense? Details are already on record for when /where we met, personal history etc. Do they look at the past submissions or expect chapter and verse all over again?
I have a deadline for submission and am walking the tightrope. I’d welcome any input from you.
Thanks and regards
Charmaine
brooke brisbine
AnonymousHi Charmaine, thank you so much for the lovely message, that means a lot to hear that you’ve found these posts so helpful!
A big congratulations also on making it to Stage 2! You’re ahead of me (waiting on Stage 1 for 15 months now), so I can’t actually offer any advice from personal experience.
Sorry I can’t be more helpful, but best of luck with your application– so close now!
-Brooke
Yatin. Nagpal
Hi brooke i forgot to ask i also upload my passport photo
Is that a prroblem
brooke brisbine
Yatin. NagpalHi Yatin,
If I understand your question, you forgot to upload your passport photo? You should certainly do this through the upload portal, as it is a requirement.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Yatin. Nagpal
Hey brooke
When it ask for sponser immidiate family
I mentioned everyone with their first n last naMes
I was going through everything and realised I didn’t enter their middle name
My question is should i fix it or it doesn’t really matter
Thanks
brooke brisbine
Yatin. NagpalHi Yatin, if you are able to update with middle names, probably a good idea just to be safe. I would assume they do want that information.
-Brooke
Serk
Hi Brooke,
This has been great help, thanks for taking the time to detail out your process.
All the best with your application.
brooke brisbine
SerkThank you, Serk, same to you!
-Brooke
Kamila
Hi Brooke
Your blog is helpful, Many thanks for that Brooke 🙂
I was wondering if I have to print (I am the applicant) my name at the back of the photgraph, my application is through immi account.
Thank you in advance 🙂
brooke brisbine
KamilaHi Kamila, you’re very welcome 🙂
The requirement to write your name on the back of the photo only applies for paper applications, so just upload the passport photo online as is.
-Brooke
Kamila
Hi Brooke,
I was wondering how many photos do I need to upload. I have got a 35X45 size photo but not sure if I have to upload two or one.
thank you in advance 🙂
Kamila
brooke brisbine
KamilaHi Kamila,
For the online application, you only need to upload one passport photo. The requirement of two photos is for paper applications.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Alex Haigh
This is incredible, thanks so much 🙂
brooke brisbine
Alex HaighYou’re so welcome 🙂
-Brooke
Sam
Hi Brooke,
Thanks so much for your help! This is truly amazing.
Is the Form 1221 mandatory? What is the purpose of this form?
Thanks
Sam
brooke brisbine
SamHi Sam,
Have a look at this post, it should answer your question: https://brookebeyond.com/820-801-visa-faq-top-10-most-common-questions-about-the-australian-partner-visa-with-full-answers
In brief, Form 1221 is to collect personal details from the applicant and it is “recommended”.
-Brooke
Ritchelle N
Hello Brooke, Thanks for this helpful information. I would like to ask if you scanned all the passport pages or just the bio page? Thanks for your reply.
brooke brisbine
Ritchelle NHi Ritchelle,
Just the bio page with photo and personal details.
-Brooke
Abu
Hi Brooke,
First of all thank you very much for sharing your experience. It’s very helpful. I just had one quick question. Now they have two options one for the applicant and one for the sponsor. My question is can you apply first as an applicant and get a bridging visa and then your sponsor can apply? Or your sponsor apply first and that sponsorship gets approved and then you become eligible to apply? I would appreciate a reply.
Kind regards,
Abu
brooke brisbine
AbuHi Abu,
At present, the APPLICANT submits their application first and then the sponsor submits an application, linked to the applicant’s. There has been a lot of talk about having the sponsor apply and get approved prior to the applicant submitting anything, but as of March 2020, this has not gone through.
Hope that makes sense!
-Brooke
William
Hi Brook,
In view of the world’s most expensive (if not the most tedious) partner visa application, your magnificent posts on this topic is certainly a great and timely help to people like us who have a tight budget to bring their partners back to Australia.
I must express my gratitude and deep appreciation for your kindness and hard work in preparing these amazing posts. I am sure many people will benefit greatly from these posts in future.
I rarely post any comments after reading websites but I have to post one here – I am greatly impressed by the skill and efforts you present the subject materials on these posts.
It is always a joyful experience to meet kind and pleasant people in this world !
brooke brisbine
WilliamHi William, thank you so much for the wonderful comment, it is feedback like this that encourages me to write these posts!!
Wishing you and your partner all the best in the visa application process and your life here in Australia.
-Brooke
YATIN NAGPAL
Hi brooke
I have submitted my visa day before yesterday because of your help as i read all comments and replies from your website and it cleared all my doubts
i am still in the process of submitting documents
I just wanna ask is that okay if i submit my docs in a week
and it is received and come up with a flag as i have to do my health examinations ..In your vlog it says they last for a year so you did it later but did the flag came up on your profile staight away or after a while..
Thanks
brooke brisbine
YATIN NAGPALHi Yatin, happy to hear these posts and comments were helpful to you!
There is no deadline for uploading evidence. It’s recommended to do it sooner rather than later, but if it takes a few weeks to organise, that does not necessarily affect the timeline (the visa is lodged as soon as you pay the fee, not when all the evidence is uploaded).
The flag came up on my profile right away for the health exam, but I waited 6 months to do it. I am now concerned I will have to do a second exam, because I have an active BVB with travel rights until December 2020, so I know my visa won’t be granted until after my health exam has expired. It’s up to you when you want to get the exam, though, because plenty of visa applications are granted in 18 months. A couple just today commented on one of my posts saying their visa was granted after 16 months.
-Brooke
Kamila
Hi Brooke,
Your blog is so helpful thank you so much!
brooke brisbine
KamilaHi Kamila, you are so welcome!
Glad I could help 🙂
-Brooke
Alana
Hi Brooke,
Your blog has been a go to while I’m getting this visa completed – seriously, thank you!
Just wondering how you got your American document’s certified? My partner’s British and I’m getting conflicting information while trying to find out.
Thanks in advance
brooke brisbine
AlanaHi Alana, so glad to hear you’ve found these posts helpful!
I actually don’t believe I needed to get any of my American documents certified. Exactly what documents do you mean?
-Brooke
Alana Reilly
brooke brisbineHi Brooke,
I’m referring to birth certificates, UK passport etc. I might have it completely wrong but I thought all scans of official had to be certified?
Thanks again
Alana
brooke brisbine
Alana ReillyHi Alana,
Good news: As long as you upload a clear colour scan of the passport, birth certificate, etc, it does NOT need to be certified. This is for online applications only.
-Brooke
Ear Joiner
brooke brisbineHi Brooke,
Thanks for taking the time and effort to go through with this. It’s nice to see people succeed without migration agents.
I wonder if I could get your advice or that of others on applying as a subsequent entrant on my partner’s skilled visa. Do you have any idea if it as strongly assessed? We’ve been together for 18 months and have evidence of living together more than a year. However we only set up a joint bank account last month. I don’t know if submitting a joint account only a month old helps or hinders an application. Any ideas?
brooke brisbine
Ear JoinerHi Joe,
Obviously I don’t have personal experience with the skilled visa, but hopefully another reader might be able to comment!
As for the bank account, it’s my opinion that having joint accounts/assets is valuable no matter the duration, since it shows you are actively combining finances. I wouldn’t imagine that having a new joint account would be any worse than no joint account at all– bearing in mind that having a joint account isn’t a requirement, it’s just ONE way you can demonstrate the financial aspects of the relationship. Heaps of couples who’ve been together for 30 years still keep their finances separate, so this one financial aspect is never going to make or break an application.
Hope that helps (and hopefully someone else can weigh in on your specific query)!
-Brooke
may
Hello dear Brooke,
I’ve uploaded my photos onto a word document and they still are large files despite that.
Though I managed to reduce the size and now face the worry that the quality of the photos are poor. Do you think they want clarity – not sure how that could be possible with a file size of less than 5mb
brooke brisbine
mayHi May,
Is the photo quality poor on the documents you’ve compressed? I found that mine was still fine even down to 5MB, but if you’re having trouble, I’d suggest splitting the word document into 2 parts (e.g. Travel Photos part 1 and Travel Photos part 2) so you can upload separately and keep each document at 5MB rather than compressing all of the photos to the point of being blurry.
-Brooke
M
Hello dear Brooke,
I had a question about photos.
I’ve uploaded most of my photos onto a word document and saved it as PDF document but it has lost its quality in the process. Do you think that image quality is a priority. There really is no other way to upload photos with such restricted mb allowances.
Thank you.
brooke brisbine
MHi M,
In this instance, I’d suggest splitting the photos across multiple word documents. It doesn’t matter if the photos are not perfect quality, but if the CO can’t tell who is in it or where you are, then what’s the point? Try doing things like “Travel Photos part 1” and “Travel Photos part 2” or “Photos with family” and “Photos with friends”, etc.
-Brooke
Bijay Tamang
Hi Brooke
On sponsor’s application do we need to go for form 80 and 1221 as well because i can see them on portal where we upload an evidence. How long after we need to submit sponsor’s application from the date of main application submitted?
And can u please tell me about statutory declaration on evidence page. Do we need to provide that one as well?
Thanks
Bijay
brooke brisbine
Bijay TamangHi Bijay,
There’s some debate as to whether Form 80 and 1221 are necessary, since they are basically repeats of information already provided in the online application, but since there is no clear answer on the Home Affairs website, I’d recommend submitting them just to be safe. Better to do a little extra work even if it’s unnecessary rather than risk your visa being delayed because of missing information!
-Brooke
Kim
Hi Brooke,
Have you reached the 801 stage yet? 🙂 I am currently processing my 801 visa and I was asked to attach the same things again (Contact while Apart, Financial Aspect, Social Aspect, etc) Do I need to reattach again the docs and photos I submitted in 820 application? Or just the updated docs and evidences since my 820 visa was granted?
I’m really confused. Also, great job with your blogs! You’re def an angel to lots of people like me. 🙂
brooke brisbine
KimHi Kim,
I am still awaiting my 820, so I haven’t gone through the process of adding new information for the 801, but I suspect it would be evidence in each of those categories SINCE your initial submission, i.e. confirming you and your partner are still together.
Sorry I can’t be more helpful, but best of luck with everything– so close now!
-Brooke
Abdel
Hello, this guide has been very helpful to us.
We just paid for subclass 300 visa, and something came up that’s heavily confusing me.
My partner (the sponsor) hasn’t filled the sponsor application yet.
However, under the documents section, there are 2 expandable sections, one that has my name (the applicant), and another that has my partner’s name (the sponsor).
Does this mean we have to submit both sets of documents practically twice, on my application and on her sponsorship application?
brooke brisbine
AbdelHi Abdel,
I believe you just upload documents once to your application (as the applicant) for both you and your partner. You don’t need to upload all the same documents to the separate sponsorship application, just make sure you upload all relevant applicant and sponsor documents to the MAIN application.
Hope that makes sense!
-Brooke
Grant Douglas
Thanks Brooke and Lil.
Cheers
Grant
Abigail
Hi Brooke,
Thank you for writing this series of posts regarding the Australian Partner Visa Application. Such a great guide indeed!
I think someone has already asked this before but I couldn’t find the question/comment. I want to clarify about your added statements regarding: the financial aspect of the relationship, the nature of your commitment, the development of your relationship, etc… Did you write statements/details on a regular word document and sign&date it yourself? Or did you put it on a Stat Dec form and have it signed&dated by someone?
brooke brisbine
AbigailHi Abigail,
I personally just wrote statements in a Word doc and signed them, but I know others have had them officially witnessed by a JP. There’s no official requirement here, so it’s up to you. Of course, it’s never going to hurt to have things witnessed!
Best of luck with everything 🙂
-Brooke
Sam
Hey Brooke, thank you so much this is a m a z i n g ! ! !
Just a quick question re. travel bookings. Did you just combine several travel booking pdfs or did you use a snipping tool to copy and a paste relevant sections and annotate them?
Also did you you have travel bookings with travel photos? Or were these complete seperate?
Many thanks!
brooke brisbine
SamHi Sam, happy to hear it’s been helpful 🙂
I personally uploaded travel bookings and photos separately because we had a lot, but it’s up to you.
I also combined travel bookings into a big PDF and annotated them, highlighting the name, dates, which of us paid, etc.
Hope that answers your question, and good luck with everything!
-Brooke
Anonymous
Hi Nel:
So long you have submitted the documents you have to wait for the status, they is nothing you can do. If there is any problem the officer will get in touch with you.
From my experience give them enough documents. This will expedite the process.
Hope this helps.
Madeleine.
Grant Douglas
Thanks Brooke
Good advice…I will do the same with any photos I attach ie., support them with other evidence.
Once again thanks,
Grant
Nel
Brooke a big thanks to your very informative and detailed blog…It really helped me.
I have already lodged my application last Dec 12, 2019 (Patner Visa) and was given Bridging Visa A.
Thank You so much!
Can I just ask a question.
When it comes to “Sponsorship” application. My partner completed and submitted his sponsorship application last Dec 13, 2019 and up to now 24th of January 2020 the status is still “submitted”. Is that normal or there will be or should be other status for the sponsor’s application?
If anyone there can answer my question I will appreciate it very much
THANKS IN ADVANCE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE
brooke brisbine
NelHi Nel,
I had this EXACT same question when we submitted the main application and the sponsorship application! I actually called Home Affairs about it last year and they assured me that this is normal– for some reason, the sponsorship application only ever says “submitted”, but it’s been received just like the main application!
Hope that helps 🙂
-Brooke
Nel
brooke brisbineThankz Brooke…I am planning to call the Immigration..
You are really a big help…
More power to your Blogs
And thanks again….
Grant Douglas
Hi Brooke,
First of all I hope your visa application gets approved soon because you deserve it. I am an Australian citizen and I am going through the partner visa process and as an Australian I would award you a visa and Australian Citizenship in a heartbeat because of your selfless attitude & the outstanding effort you have made to help so many. Truly amazing…you’re a gem, thank you so much on behalf of everyone.
I do have one question which relates to uploading photos. I understand about combining photos but whenever I go to upload a photo into a PDF, for example, the photo’s location and date disappears. I would imagine that it is very important to be able to display the location and date of a photo. In my iPad photo album the date and location are there but when I export it those details disappear. Can you comment on this please? I understand I could caption a photo but how do I prove to Home Affairs when and where a photo has been taken if these details do not appear? I hope you understand what I mean?
Thanks again,
Grant
brooke brisbine
Grant DouglasHi Grant,
Thank you so much for the thoughtful message, it’s always wonderful to hear that these posts are helping others apply for PR! I just wanted to create the resource that I wish I’d had 🙂
As for the photos, I’m actually not sure how to retain the date and time stamp– possibly some other readers might know and comment on this thread??
I didn’t worry about it on my application, just including data and time information in the caption. As you said, this isn’t as concrete as including an actual stamp, but there was a lot of other evidence with dates (ex. flights and travel bookings) that sort of builds the story and provides context around the photos.
Hope that helps a small bit, sorry I couldn’t answer your exact question!
-Brooke
Lil
Grant DouglasHi Grant,
I went into my google and icloud photos and used the sniping tool to basically screenshot the whole thing which has the date and location of photos taken. Although i made separate documents for holidays, this way the dept can see the location and dates of other activities we have done throughout our relationship that we may not have tickets and booking documents for.
Hope this helps!
brooke brisbine
LilThanks for chiming in, Lil 🙂
Hope this helps, Grant!
Sharmaine
hi brooke 🙂 Your blog has been really a big help me and my husband just lodge our partner visa onshore on October and I just want to ask if the immigration will send an email that my bridging visa A is already active? My tourist visa just recently expired Um will I be expecting a confirmation email from the immigration about my bridging visa A being active already? Hope to hear from you thank you Brooke 💕
brooke brisbine
SharmaineHi Sharmaine,
I can’t remember if I got another email about my BVA being active, but you should be able to check the status of your BVA on your IMMI account!
-Brooke
yatin
hi brooke
my wife is an Australian citizen and i just want to know if i need to do a police check before submitting the application or after when we apply coz i can do mine late but not sure about my wife
thaNKS
brooke brisbine
yatinHi Yatin,
Have a look at this post, hopefully it will answer some of your questions: https://brookebeyond.com/completing-afp-national-police-checks-npc-for-your-820-801-australian-partner-visa
-Brooke
Lina
Hello, Brooke,
Thank you again for your blog! And for all your replies to everyone! They are so helpful!
I’m trying to stop procrastinating and finish gathering all the evidence before applying for the visa. And there is another question I have, would be amazing if you could give your opinion on it.
So if my husband and I do not have joint bank account, should we upload bank statements from our bank accounts with descriptions, showing that we both contribute financially? If yes, should those bank statements be for the period of us being married or longer?say from the day we became de facto? Should I show like everything here? Or highlight only certain purchases, payments that refer to the case (like groceries, something for children, presents, etc.)..can I just completely skip this part?:)..
Thank you again, Brooke!
Kind regards
brooke brisbine
LinaHi Lina,
It’s probably a good idea to include at least SOME bank statements if you don’t have joint accounts, but it’s unlikely the CO would look at years and years of statements, so it’s totally up to you how many statements you want to include. Assuming you have other joint assets, this is only a small piece of the “financial aspects” evidence requirement.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Laura Simpson
Hi Brooke,
Just wanted to say how massively helpful I have found your posts! I am currently in the process of collecting documents and info to apply for the partnership visa and all of the information I have found has been minimal or confusing. The details you have included and the way you have laid it out is a life saver.
brooke brisbine
Laura SimpsonHi Laura, thanks for the lovely message! So happy to hear you found this helpful 🙂
Best of luck with your visa!
-Brooke
Trang
HI Brooke,
Thanks so much for such an immensely helpful blog.
I’m wondering about when the bridging visa A is granted. Would it be granted right after you submit your 820/801 visa online and pay? or does it have to wait after your partner complete his sponsor application? Thanks again.
brooke brisbine
TrangHi Trang,
At the moment, the BVA is issued after you submit and pay for the main application (usually within a few days).
-Brooke
Tamara
Hi Brooke,
Thanks for the post! It is such a stressful process. I was wondering, when you got the police checks done for Australia and America, did you need to travel to both countries just to get them done? I thought they needed fingerprints and such and Australia didn’t do the American police checks. Thanks!
brooke brisbine
TamaraHi Tamara, happy to help!
You don’t need to be in the country to request a police check. This post will walk you through the very easy online process for a NPC in Australia:
As for American checks, I’m still working on getting the FBI post up, but basically you need to complete a form online and then mail in a hard copy of fingerprints. You can pay to have these taken at police stations in Australia or even learn to do them yourself (just send in like 5 forms, in case they reject the fingerprints on the first couple forms).
-Brooke
John And Lena Percival
Hi Brooke,thanks so much for your excellent information we are just about to apply for an onshore spouse visa,and we want to be sure to get it right.I have just one query.we understand that once we have applied and payed the fee will immigration notify us straight away that my wife is now on a bridging visa. Kind Regards Lena and John.
brooke brisbine
John And Lena PercivalHi Lena and John,
Yes, as soon as you submit and pay for the application, the BVA will be issued, usually within a couple days. It will become active whenever your wife’s current visa expires.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Sophia
Hi, as a sponsor for my defacto partner’s visa, I am required to fill out Form 40SP – Sponsorship for a partner to migrate to Australia. All the links lead me to Form 40 Sponsorship for migration to Australia(parent, aged dependent relative, remaining relative, carer), which specifically tells me NOT to fill out said form if the visa application is for a defacto partner. I feel at an impasse and am not sure how to proceed. Thank-you for your time and assistance in this matter. Sophia
brooke brisbine
SophiaHi Sophia,
The links to this form keep breaking and I’m constantly updating them, which makes me think that Home Affairs might be phasing it out completely… I still completed one anyway, just to be safe. I’ll update the links in this post, and here’s the right form: http://www.fenfeivisa.net/Upload/40SP.pdf
-Brooke
Kace
Hi Brooke,
A massive thank you for what you have done here. We have just submitted the application and pay for it and almost done with submission of the documents/ evidences but for some reason I got stuck on this passport-photo. How did you actually scanned your passport size photo?
We went to Australia post and I let them took a photo of myself (passport size) now, we got the actual photo but we’re having trouble scanning them in Office works. Every time we scanned them either as jpg or pdf it would always give us the result of the big background of an A4 with the photo at the end of the corner. If you know what I mean. I think I’m really having a big problem with this. Your thoughts about this will be highly appreciated.
brooke brisbine
KaceHi Kace,
Seeing as you already have the physical photo, I won’t suggest getting the digital photo from the Post Office (this would have been a bit easier). You can just crop the scanned file you have– save as JPEG and then crop it down. If you are having issues with this, sometimes it works to drag the photo into Powerpoint, crop it down there, and then right click “save as file”.
Good luck and congrats on being so close 🙂
-Brooke
Haeirn
Hi Brooke!
Thanks for your forums – they’re super helpful! 😀
I have a question regarding what’s relevant or not when it comes to providing evidences though.
My partner and I started living together in June 2019 (in Australia), so that’s when our de-facto relationship started as well. Before we combined our addresses in June, I had visited him in Australia for about 2 months and I had went back to Korea to finish up my final semester in uni (for approximately 4 months).
So to summarise this:
Visited him in Aus for 2 months -> Went back to Korea for 4 months -> Went back to Aus/de-facto starts
Whilst I was visiting him for 2 months in Australia, however, I had sometimes transferred him money to help pay his rent etc. And when I was back in Korea, I had regularly sent some of my funds in my bank to his bank account in Australia so that it would be easy for me to transfer money once we made joint bank accounts in Australia. (Since I used paypal to do this, I couldn’t send lots of money at once)
My question is that if I should also include those evidences before the de-facto relationship started ( me transferring my funds to him, supporting him to pay his rent etc.)
I’m not sure if this evidence is relevant considering the fact that our de facto status started from later in June. Or I’m a bit concerned providing this evidence might confuse CO as I had sent him big money for multiple times whilst we were apart in different countries.
Let me know how you think.
Thanks so much!
Haerin
brooke brisbine
HaeirnHi Haerin,
In my opinion, you should probably include these money transfers; even if they were before your started living together “de facto”, they do speak to the length of your relationship. You can explain in a letter or statement about sending this money and supporting your partner, which is definitely good evidence of commitment!
Hope that helps, and good luck 🙂
-Brooke
Seline
Hey Brooke, thanks so much for this article! Mission impossible of applying for a partner visa by ourselves became more possible with all the information you provide. Awesome!
May I still ask you a question? There’s those 5 questions in the form about finances, commitment, development etc… How brief can I keep it there? Since I’ll upload a relationship statement with all those details, I don’t really want to repeat myself. How did you do that? And for the statment, did you just write a word document converted into a PDF? There’s no form for it, right?
Another question: do they really want to have the whole chat conversation? In our case our main communication channel is via IG and unfortunately there’s no easy way to just extract it. So I had to take screenshots. We have 10 thousands of messages, obviously I couldn’t take shots of everything. Whenever we were apart (which was quite often, as I work abroad) I took a few screenshots from our conversations. In the end I’ve got like 50 pages and that’s probably not even 1%. What’s your opinion, how much do they really want to see?
Sorry for bothering you with those questions.
Thanks a lot in advance for your help.
brooke brisbine
SelineHi Seline,
You have a couple options when it comes to those 5 questions, and it just depends on how much info you want to provide:
– keep your whole answer under 2000 characters and not upload any statement
– just say “see xxx document in uploads” and refer them directly to your longer statement in uploads
– write a brief summary statement in the boxes and then refer them to your longer statement in uploads
Honestly, I doubt they are going to read through thousands of pages of message transcripts anyway, so I feel like a selective sample is adequate. As long as they can look at your evidence and know that you were still “together” and in contact even when you were away, that’s all that matters, not every detail of the convo.
Hope that helps 🙂
-Brooke
Seline
brooke brisbineHey Brooke, thanks a lot for your reply. An update from my side, I lodged the application and have uploaded most of the attachments. Still finalizing it though.
Also I applied for the BVB as I still work in Bali next year and got a multiple entries for a whole year granted. Pretty cool.
May I ask you about the sponsor’s application? The form 40SP somehow doesn’t really look like it’s the right one for the partner visa. Also I read somewhere that the sponsor has to apply online? If so, does he have to open his own account or will that be through mine?
Thanks in advance for your reply.
Seline
brooke brisbine
SelineHi Seline,
You’re right that the sponsor needs to submit an application online, which can be done through your IMMI account. Have a look at this post: https://brookebeyond.com/sponsorship-for-a-partner-to-migrate-to-australia-820-visa
The 40SP is a repeat of a lot of the same questions, but most people complete it anyway just to be on the safe side. The links to this form keep breaking and I’m constantly updating them on my site, which makes me think that Home Affairs might be phasing it out completely… I’ll update the links in this post again, and here’s the right form: http://www.fenfeivisa.net/Upload/40SP.pdf
-Brooke
ching
Hi Brooke,
Thank you very much for your sharing! I am applying mine soon too! I have a question : do I need to supply documents e.g. payslips/contracts photocopies for form 80? and form 1221? Thanks 🙂
Cheers,
Ching
brooke brisbine
chingHi Ching, happy to help 🙂
I didn’t attach any supporting documents to the form, I don’t believe that’s required.
-Brooke
Steele
Hi Brooke!
What an outstanding blog. The information is so helpful. My partner is Canadian and she has been putting in so much work and uploading so many photos and proof of our relationship and hadn’t realised that she has exceeded her 100 limit. Unfortunately she still has some of the recommended forms still to post. What advice would you have for us? Not sure if the Home Affairs dept will assist in allowing us to delete some docs. She was uploading each individual photo and not like you suggested putting them on word docs. I’d be really appreciative for any advice you may have. What a stressful time. Thanks so much.
brooke brisbine
SteeleHi Steele,
I think you should be able to attach some documents to the sponsor application if you go over the limit on the main application– I hope that works for you! If you do end up speaking to Home Affairs, let us know what they say, it might be helpful for other people in the future.
Best of luck with it!
-Brooke
Jelly
Hello Brooke,
Your blog had helped me a lot of preparing my onshore application but I still has some questions for you especially for form 80 and 1221.
Form 80 Question no. 28 Are you applying for a temporary visa? I am very confused bec I am applying both 820 and 801 which means I want to stay in Australia permanently. Do you know the answer to this? Thank you
Form 1221: Question 34: Details of your journey to Australia If you:
have applied for visitor visa?
have applied for business visa?
have applied for migration visa?
are a student, academic, researcher or fellow?
Question 43 Give details of how you intend to use the knowledge/ skills/ research obtained once you depart Australia
Question 44 ARe there any details you would like taken into consideration?
Do I have to write something on those sections?
Your inputs will be highly appreciated?
brooke brisbine
JellyHi Jelly,
Form 80, Q28: this is a permanent visa, so no
Form 1221, Q34: this is a migration visa
Form 1221, Q43: you are applying for a migration visa, so you do not need to answer that
Form 1221, Q44: only if you have something to add, this isn’t required
-Brooke
Bijay
brooke brisbineHi Brooke,
How about if i am a student in Australia
Do i still need to select ‘have applied for Migration visa’ or ‘are a student, academic researcher or fellow’…
And how about Q. No 43 if student!!!
Thanks
brooke brisbine
BijayHi Bijay,
If you are applying for a partner visa, you are applying to MIGRATE, not to study. It doesn’t matter if you are already studying on a student visa, that’s not the purpose of the 820/801, so you select “migration”.
-Brooke
Annie Genesin
Hi Brooke 🙂 firstly I just want to thank you for giving so many people advice and replying to every one – you really have helped me (even though I feel I have a pretty good understanding of the visa process) and many other people feel a lot of ease over the whole thing! You’re the best so thank you
I’m not sure if you’ve covered this anywhere, but how did you acquire an FBI check? My partner applying for the visa is also American and we live in Australia. Did you fill out an online form and attach fingerprints to it? How did you get the fingerprints from America? This is the one thing that I’ve been avoiding haha. Would love to hear your insight 🙂
brooke brisbine
Annie GenesinHi Annie, thank you so much for the kind message!
I have actually just gotten around to doing the FBI check myself, so I’m still in the process of writing everything up. Basically you need to fill out some info at this site (https://www.edo.cjis.gov/#/) and pay the $18USD fee. Then you need to have fingerprints taken on the fingerprinting card (https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/standard-fingerprint-form-fd-258-1.pdf/view) and mail them to the FBI. It is a slow process– I put it off for ages too, so I definitely understand!
Depending on where you are, the police station can do fingerprints, but they might charge for it (sometimes $100+) and it can take months to get an appointment. Plan ahead or do them yourself, just make sure to send in a few copies of the form in case they don’t like your prints on one.
-Brooke
Sarah
Hi Brooke, this information has been exceedingly helpful, I am referring to it whilst helping my partner do his Defacto Visa. He has just been approved for the bridging visa and we are now in the midst of uploading all the documents needed. We were curious as to how long yours took to be accepted and if you had to provide any more additional information?
Thank you!
Sarah xx
brooke brisbine
SarahHi Sarah,
I submitted my application 1 year ago today and I have yet to hear anything back from Home Affairs, not even a request for additional information. Every visa is different, of course, but things aren’t moving very quickly these days for most people.
-Brooke
Madeleine
Hi All:
I think it will be helpful if i just put here my two cents worth of input. I got my visa after a 4 months and 5 day wait.
Firstly, thanks should go to Brooke for the invaluable posts in her blog.
Secondly, if your documents are insufficient the Officer will contact you to let you know. So. don’t worry about what should be uploaded and what not. The officers are also very kind ache helpful people. Just make sure that you submit the correct visa because no refund will be given back!
I hope my reply here helps to put everyone to ease and relax mood!
Submit your applications and just wait.
Take care.
Madeleine
brooke brisbine
MadeleineThanks so much for the update, Madeleine, I really appreciate you sharing your experience!
imogen
MadeleineHi Madeline,
Congrats on getting your visa! Just wondered if you applied onshore, from Aus? 4 months is so fast! I’ve applied from Australia and its saying 22-29 months…
Imogen
brooke brisbine
imogenHi Imogen,
I’ll let Madeleine comment on her own visa approval and personal circumstances, but I just wanted to chime in to say that onshore processing seems to be A LOT slower than offshore based on all the blog comments I’ve gotten.
I just got a multiple-entry BVB granted for 12 months (I only applied for 1 month), which means there’s zero chance of my visa being granted sooner than 24 months– and it could be longer. Not to say your own application will take so long, but it’s definitely the trend 🙁
Best of luck with everything!
-Brooke
Anonymous
imogenHi Imogen:
I applied from offshore since we are residing overseas. I have yet to activate my PR and would do so next month when our girl starts university.
The immigration Officer that handled our case is very kind and friendly.
I cannot explain why ours are so quick but we were just lucky. They will get in touch if they need anything from you.
All the best.
Thank you.
Madeleine
Miriam
Hi again Brooke!
Looked through your old replies and saw you just had American family sign/date letters. Feel free to disregard my question. Thanks again for this incredible information–I’m sure the people commenting are just a fraction of those you’ve helped. Cheers!
brooke brisbine
MiriamHi Mariam, thanks for the lovely comment and I’m glad to hear you found the info you were looking for in the comments! It just goes to show that everyone is wondering the same things, we are all going through this together 🙂
Best of luck with everything!
-Brooke
Miriam
Hi Brooke,
Thanks so much for all of this incredible information. It’s made a stressful process so much clearer and easier! Just had one quick question: I’d like to get a stat dec from my mom in the US about our relationship, but unsure how to go about this, since I’m not familiar with the process for getting a statement witnessed back home. Was wondering how you went about getting witnessed stat decs from your American family members?
Thanks again! You are a lifesaver xx
Imogen
Hi Brooke!
Firstly, as everyone else always tells you, this guide has been invaluable for me during the chaotic visa application process – thank you for the amazing detail and constant help you offer everyone!
I am just uploading our evidence, and printed out a Form 80, and form 1221 which I, the applicant need to complete, and then the 40SP form for my boyfriend, the sponsor. I was just looking over his form, and it says on the front page that I, his partner, need to complete a form 47SP ‘Application for migration to Australia by a partner’ – did you do this form aswell? This is the first I’ve seen of it i’m pretty sure…
Thanks in advance!
Imogen
brooke brisbine
ImogenHi Imogen,
You are so welcome, I’m just happy to hear that you’ve found these posts helpful 🙂
I’m pretty sure the form you’re talking about is the paper version of the application you would have completed online, so you don’t need to complete it unless you’re applying through the mail. In fact, I think the 40SP is the paper version of the online sponsorship application, but because it’s still listed in IMMI as a recommended document, most people complete it just to be on the safe side.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Imogen Hansen
brooke brisbineAhh I see! You know everything! So impressive.
Thank you again!
Imogen
Lil
Hey Brooke,
I just wanted to say a MASSIVE thank you for your page, ive found it so helpful and the amount of information you have put on here is fantastic. Iam currently filling out my paperwork ready to apply for a partner visa in a few weeks time. One question i did have, how did you compile your emails/texts ? Im trying to think of the easiest way.. or is it a case of screenshot and emailing them to myself to put together? seems like so much work! Any further advice would be greatly appreciated 🙂 Lil xx
brooke brisbine
LilHi Lil,
So happy to hear this info has been helpful to you 🙂
As for submitting conversations and message logs, I copied and pasted Facebook messenger chats and text messages (through iMessage on my Mac) into a word document, and then just uploaded that. I only did it for periods of time we were apart (like if I travelled somewhere without my partner for a few weeks), otherwise it would be a LOT to upload.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Lil
brooke brisbineI was thinking if you have to upload everyday messages that would take forever!! Luckily weve only been apart oncve so should be too much work to put those chats together 🙂 thanks again!! x
Fiona
Wow, this has been so amazingly helpful! Reading all of your blogs with the different steps for this visa process has given me so much peace of mind and confidence during the application process. I just submitted and paid for my partner visa yesterday, and have already uploaded 90% of my evidence, all thanks to you Brooke! I also found the info on enrolling for Medicare very straightforward and helpful, and that process went exactly how you described. I am so grateful to you for sharing your experiences with this process and it’s so beautiful to see how many lives you’ve touched. I have also been encouraged by reading other people’s comments because it shows me that we’re not alone. It’s hard for most people to relate to the partner visa process, so it has meant a lot to me to hear your journey. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for providing this resource to all of us, and I wish you all the best with your visa process!
brooke brisbine
FionaFiona, thank you so much for the absolutely beautiful comment <3
I love getting messages like this and I am so proud of the little community that has started to form in the comments of these posts! I know exactly what you mean, the process is stressful and confusing and it can start to feel a bit impossible sometimes, but talking to other people who are/have gone through the exact same thing makes it all seem possible again. We'll get there in the end!
So happy to hear you submitted your visa, wishing you and your partner a short wait 🙂
-Brooke
Bijay
Hi Brooke
My name is Bijay and i am currently working on the same visa. All of the information you provided on this page was really helpful. I have got some few more questions that`s really putting me on confusion. Is there any other online forms that need to be filled up except form 80, 1221, 888 ,40sp and 47sp. And when we submit those two 1221 and 80 forms, under which section we need to upload on portal? Do we need to certify all documents as well? I read on your article that you print all of the imessages on phone. Is it like taking all screenshots or something else? How many pp size photos do we need to get for sponsor and applicant
Thanks
brooke brisbine
BijayHi Bijay, I’m glad to hear these posts have been helpful!
To answer some of your questions:
– There is a specific heading for both Form 80 and Form 1221 (they have their own sections)
– You need Form 888s certified, but very few other documents. Colour scans of documents do not need to be certified.
– I took screenshots of my iMessages and also used my Mac to copy large chunks of iMessages into Word documents, but you can do whatever you want, there is no requirement for how to present this evidence!
– If you are completing your application online (which I assume you are, if you’re reading this post), you just need one digital copy of the passport photo. As I mention in the post: For $19, Auspost will send you a digital copy of your passport photo, perfectly sized for upload to your application
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Bijay
brooke brisbineThank you so much brooke.
Will be in touch soon with all of you guys who have been posting different queries on this page
That`s really helpful.
brooke brisbine
BijayThanks, Bijay!
Grace
Hi Brooke!
I cannot tell you how amazingly helpful your website has been during this process.. thankyou so much for uploading this and keeping me sane.
I am in Australia about to submit by 820/801 Australian partner visa application. Am i right in saying that as soon as i submit and pay for this i am granted a Bridging Visa? Before my partner has submitted his sponsor application and before i have uploaded any documents? Will the bridging visa will be granted to me as soon as my current WHV ends?
Thanks!
brooke brisbine
GraceHi Grace, thank you so much for the wonderful message, I’m so happy you’ve found the blog helpful!
Yes, as soon as you submit and pay for the visa, regardless of what documents have been uploaded, you will be granted the BVA. Just like you said, it will only activate when your WHV ends, but it is “issued” to you immediately.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Bijay
brooke brisbineHi brooke
How about student visa? Am currently studying and my student visa expires on March. As you said once you apply for partner visa, you will be straight given the BVA. So do i need to go back my college or i can stop attending class? How about working rights on BVA? Is it gonna be full time or gonna apply same like previous visa.
Thanks
brooke brisbine
BijayHello again Bijay,
As soon as you apply for the Partner Visa, your BVA is GRANTED (but not necessarily ACTIVE). It will become ACTIVE once your student visa expires in March.
As for work rights, I can’t say for certain because I am not a migration agent, but I can tell you that my BVA includes full work and study rights with no limitations.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Bijay
brooke brisbineThanks brooke for your information
Cody Byrne
Hey Brooke, thanks heaps for your post. My wife and I just moved from America to Perth about 3 months ago. We’ve just finished the application and will be uploading documents but I had a quick question..
As far as the police check goes, can you do an online check from America (since we haven’t lived in Australia for more than 12 months)? Not sure how that all would work..
Just curious as well if you applied onshore or offshore?
Thanks!
Cody
brooke brisbine
Cody ByrneHi Cody,
Just to clarify, are you asking about an FBI police check for America? These have to be mailed in, unfortunately, since you need to have fingerprints taken. I will try and post about it soon, because there are a few steps!
As for my application, I applied onshore.
Best of luck with the visa 🙂
-Brooke
Julia
Hey Brooke.
My Aussie husband and I have spent the last few months prepping for our application and have written all of our statements (relationship history, financial, household, social, and commitment) that we will upload with our evidence. We have begun the online application and it’s asking us to write the same thing in those “2000-character” boxes.
When you filled in these boxes, what did you write? As in, did you write the same thing that you wrote in your statements that you later uploaded with the evidence? Or did you write something different, almost like two separate statements?
Any help here would be appreciated.
Cheers,
Julia.
brooke brisbine
JuliaHi Julia,
If my statement was under 2000 characters, I pasted it into the box. If not (and this was the case for all but one, if I remember correctly), then I just wrote a brief statement and said “see document xxx”, which would be the full statement that I uploaded.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Laugane
Hi Brooke,
I applied for the 820/801 application in october 2018, I also read that it was not necesseray to upload your documents before 1 month before the processing time (between 21-28 months)
Until I found out your posts and others where you all uploaded your documents on the day you paid ! So I just started to upload my documents and I am a little bit stress now !
Also the thing is I am not from an English country so I have to translate all my documents from NAATI (extra fees !) so I mainly upload my partner documents who is Australian.
I also have a question about your family member that you put in your application, they then are in your application (just under your partner name) and have “additional documents” under each of their names, did you upload something ( their ID documents that you put in your application) ??
Also your blog is amazing and really help me to do things quicker as it is really clear.
Thanks heaps
brooke brisbine
LauganeHi Laugane,
I am really glad you saw this post and others, because I certainly don’t think you should wait 20 months to upload your documents!! Those processing times are for the last 25% of applications, which means the majority of applications (75%) will be assessed BEFORE 21 months… that could be 20 months or it could be 12 months (if you were crazy lucky), but you’d hate to have your application rejected for being incomplete! Best to get everything up ASAP. If you haven’t heard anything from Home Affairs, hopefully that means you still have time!
As for the family members: are you bringing family with you to Australia? Otherwise, I don’t think you need to upload any ID.
Best of luck getting all of your documents in and getting that visa granted soon 🙂
-Brooke
Laugane
brooke brisbineHi Brooke,
A little uptade.
So I applied for my partner visa as you know on the 24 of October 2018, saw your post in October 2019 (when I did not upload any documents , silly I know !). I also received a generic letter on the 24 October 2019 where they said “your visa is being processed”. I think everyone receive one after 1 year.
Thanks to your amazing blog , I finished to upload all my documents in December 2019.
Yestarday on the 26 February 2020, MY TEMPORARY PARTNERSHIP VISA WAS GRANTED !!!!
So it actually took only 16 months ! Knowing I upload my documents a year after I applied, so as you did it straight away, you might have it in 12 months !
Also now when I go on my application , I can’t upload any more documents, it said : ” Application status: Finalised.
Applicant : My name – Granted
Important information
Applicants who are granted the temporary visa will be eligible for consideration for permanent residence 2 years from the date this application was submitted. This application has been finalised please refer to messages .”
So I supposed in october 2020 I will have my partner visa, so it would be only 2 years of waiting. I will let you know !
I know you are in Melbourne, and I’m in Sydney, so my partner and I can’t thank you in person but we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts as without you, I will strangle to finish my application.
You made my day yesterday and I hope I will make yours today as I know you are helping hundred of people who go through this proceess. And making this blog must take a lot of your personal time and it’s all FOR FREE!
YOU ARE A TRUE CHAMPION !
Many many thanks !!!!
Also, just follow you in Instagram, so jealous of all your travel haha !
Cheers, Laugane & Mark
brooke brisbine
LauganeHi Laugane & Mark, an enormous congratulations on getting the temporary visa! You must be incredibly excited!!
Thank you so much for coming back with an update, I know other readers will really appreciate it. This is also a great example of how variable the visa grant process can be– I have an active BVB until December 2020, so I know my visa won’t be granted any sooner than 24 months (I applied December 2018). I am happy to see that isn’t the case for everyone!
You’re certainly right that putting this guide together took an enormous amount of time, but I’m always happy to have done it when I hear from people like yourselves who have found it helpful! Thank you for the wonderful comment, and best of luck to you both as you are one step closer to having a permanent place in this country together 🙂
-Brooke
Laugane
brooke brisbineHi Brooke,
Yes I could not stop saying it for a week to my partner haha !
I did not have a date on my BVB, weird. I would have thought you coming from an English speaking country, will be more easy…(they might love French cuisine lol)
I really hope you have your temporary soon, let me posted and I will once I got the PR !
THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP AGAIN !!!!
brooke brisbine
LauganeThank you again for the lovely message, Laugane!
If only I had some delicious cuisine or worthwhile culture to offer the country… unfortunately, I don’t think I can quite compete with French food 😂
All the best to you both, and please do keep me updated!
xx Brooke
Camilla
Hi Brooke,
I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your work and kindness in sharing this info. Trying to organise our whole partner visa without any definite guidelines as to how it is submitted has been what makes the whole process overwhelming, and your post helps so much. I sincerely thank you!
I hope you don’t mind if I ask: you mentioned that you have placed your ‘Social and Financial aspects’ within the ‘Evidence of Relationship’. As you did not mention any separate categories for these aspects, and also commented that others can choose to cover these aspects another subject like ‘Length of Relationship’, does that mean there is no actual separate areas to upload evidence for ‘Financial Aspects’ and ‘Social Aspects’ in the application?
I ask as we have been organising it in groups to help uploading – Relationship/Financial/Social /Commitment/Household – but if there is no specific Social and Financial then we would reorganise our info accordingly.
I acknowledge they tend to overlap and support each other. Just hoping not to need to reorganise and rewrite too much when its time to submit!
Again thanks so much for your time!
brooke brisbine
CamillaHi Camilla, thank you so much for the lovely message 🙂
I know it is completely counter-intuitive that we are told to build evidence in 5 categories and then these 5 categories aren’t part of the upload section, but that is the unfortunate reality! You can gather evidence in that way (I did), but at a certain point, you’ll need to break things apart and try to place them under the section headings on IMMI.
Obviously a disorganised application isn’t optimal, but COs will look at absolutely everything you upload, so as long as you make your own documents clear, it shouldn’t matter if you put a PDF of joint bills under “Evidence of Relationship” or “Length of Relationship”.
I hope that helps!
-Brooke
John Stewart
Dear Brooke
I left a post in late September but I don’t think it went through. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that after 211 days from lodgement, my wife’s 309 & 100 (Australian Permanent Residency) came through on 27th Sep. We spent 6 months preparing our documents including research and fortunately I came across your website. Your detailed posts on the preparation and submission of the Partner Visa was the best assistance and guidance we could ever have asked for. I can’t thank you enough Brooke. I also gave you a shout out on the Australian Forum. Best of luck with your own 820/801 application.
brooke brisbine
John StewartHi John, I’ve been away for the last 3 months in Latin America, but I just went through and replied to all the blog comments this morning– in case my earlier response didn’t go through to you, an enormous CONGRATS on the visa, that’s phenomenal news! I am so happy for you guys and really glad I could be helpful in the whole process 🙂
Wishing you both a very happy life in Australia now that this major hurdle is out of the way!
-Brooke
Dayne
Hi Brooke, again, massive thanks for uploading this! Its been a massive help for me and my partner. Just one little question, on your statements (provided in “contact while apart” and “mutual commitment” evidence), did you and your partner sign and date these? Currently in the process of the exact same thing and curious of a second opinion. Will the department see this as extra validity or is a simple typed up Word document sufficient?
brooke brisbine
DayneHi Dayne, many apologies for my late response– I’ve been travelling for the last 3 months and haven’t been on the computer much!
We did date and sign the documents to make them seem a bit more official, but they aren’t “legal” documents like a stat dec, so it probably doesn’t make an enormous difference.
Wishing you lots of luck with your visa!
-Brooke
Kaylee
Hi Brooke.
Thanks so much for compiling all of this. It was the best resource I found on the internet about how to ACTUALLY upload everything.
I was hoping you could help because I just applied (I’m American too!) and my partner Isaac is about to start his sponsor application. I was looking for the Form 40SP that he’s meant to do and I literally can’t find it anywhere. Even in the link you included, it wasn’t there – so, I’m pretty confused.
Not sure if you have any insight on this or if I should just give immigration a call.
Again, thanks so much for sharing. I’ve done things a little differently but you’re right in that I don’t think there’s a “right way” to do this stuff. Good luck with everything!
brooke brisbine
KayleeHi Kaylee, many apologies for my late response– I’ve been travelling for the last 3 months and haven’t been on the computer much.
I’m sure you’ve already found the form, but thanks for letting me know the link was broken, I’ve just fixed it!
Wishing you lots of luck with your visa!
-Brooke
Aidan
Hi Brooke, thanks for the blog it has been extremely helpful. I’m still a bit curious as to how the upload portal is going to work though. Certain documents such as your passport can be used as evidence for multiple areas such as evidence of citizenship and evidence of travel document. Did you have to upload two copies of your passport under the two separate areas or can you just upload one copy of your passport which can then be attached to multiple different areas. Just seeing the as there is an upload limit I don’t really want to be uploading the same document twice, I hope that makes sense.
Thanks, Aidan
brooke brisbine
AidanHi Aidan, many apologies for my late response– I’ve been travelling for the last 3 months and haven’t been on the computer much!
I’m sure you’ve already answered this question yourself, but you can upload the passport under two areas if you need to. Even though there is a document limit, you should be well underneath it if you just group photos and similar items together in PDFs rather than uploading everything individually.
Wishing you lots of luck with your visa!
-Brooke
Lina
Dear Brooke, thank you so so much for all the information you are sharing in this blog, it’s so helpful! Could I ask you few questions as well, please?
We are applying for a partner visa offshore, my husband is Australian, we are married and have babies. The thing is, we don’t have joint bank account, it works for us without it here, will it seem weird for home affairs?
Another question, I honestly do not understand what to write in the commitment statement. Kind of obvious for me things? We love and care about each other and we want the best for our kids?
Another one, as my friends and relatives do not speak English well, should their statements’ translation be notary certified? Or how do you think that would work?
And the last one, there is a question in the application :”migrating family members that are included in the application”. Is my understanding correct that I DO NOT write anyone here? (Our babies are Australian, that is why they are not included in the application, right?).
Thank you so so much, Brooke, that would be just more than appreciated if you could help at least a tiny bit.
brooke brisbine
LinaHi Lina,
You are so welcome, I’m happy to hear all this info has been helpful for you and your husband! I’m also sorry for my delayed response, I’m travelling in South America and haven’t had time to get to all the comments until now.
It’s not a requirement that you have joint bank accounts, so you just need to explain your situation and how you share or divide finances. I don’t know if they will think it’s strange or not, but as long as you demonstrate some degree of financial interdependence, you have met the criteria!
For the commitment statement, you can mention your children, the fact that you’re married, if you are the beneficiary of your husband’s will, your relationship with each other’s family, etc. It sounds like this will be easy for you two!
I don’t know for sure about translating statements, but only Australians can complete the Form 888 stat dec. Any additional letters or statements that you submit from foreign family and friends are outside the requirements of the visa, so I just had my parents sign and date their letters. Now that’s what I did, you can always have them witnessed or notarised if you want, it can’t hurt.
As for your migrating family members, that is a bit of a confusing one. I THINK you would write them as non-migrating family members, but it is probably a good idea to confirm this in one of the forums.
I hope this helps a little, best of luck with your application!
-Brooke
Dee U
HI Brooke
Your page has been super helpful in my time of stress as my partner and I have applied for his 820 visa (he had the 300 visa initially). He has been granted the BVA and we have submitted 80 of the documents – just the stat dec from both us us detailing how we met, financial aspects, social aspects etc.
I have two question – his 300 visa will expire in a few days and the BVA will be active as per the letter. Now, do we have have to submit all documentation online before the BVA is active? I called immigration and they just said, well upload as soon as you can. So I’m a bit confused, do I have a strict deadline of uploading all documents before the BVA?
brooke brisbine
Dee UHi Dee,
I’m so glad to hear these posts have helped you with your visa, I know it can be really stressful trying to get everything together! As for uploading evidence, that is correct— there is no strict deadline, you’re just supposed to upload required documents as quickly as possible. You can keep uploading new things throughout the wait (e.g. more recent photos of you and your partner together).
I hope that helps!
-Brooke
Anonymous
Hi Brooke, I meant to also ask if you know if we can start the application in Canada then do the final submission when we arrive in Australia?
Thanks, Gae
brooke brisbine
AnonymousHi Gae,
I’m sorry for my delayed response, I’m travelling in South America at the moment and I haven’t had a lot of time to reply to comments!
You should be able to start the application from overseas as long as you wait until you arrive in Australia to submit.
Good luck with everything!
-Brooke
Gae
Hi Brooke. I’m so happy to have found your blog. I’m an Australian citizen returning to Australia with my Canadian husband. We are going to apply for the visa once we arrive there. From what I’ve been reading online once you submit your application you can stay in Australia until a decision is made. Do you know if that is correct? Have you heard of anyone being denied a temporary visa? It’s frightening to think that we could go through all this and then have the application denied. We are retired and would be selling up in Canada before moving. Any information would be greatly appreciated. This blog is amazing and you are so generous.
Kind regards,
Gae
brooke brisbine
GaeHi Gae, many apologies for my late response– I’ve been travelling for the last 3 months and haven’t been on the computer much!
I’m sure you’ve already answered this question yourself, but if you apply onshore, your husband will be granted a BVA (Bridging Visa) that allows him to remain in Australia until a decision is made on the 820/801 visa. True, there is no guarantee that the PR visa will be granted in the end (although it sounds like you guys will have absolutely zero trouble!), but all applicants have the right to remain in Australia during processing (with the BVA).
I hope you guys were able to find the information you needed and make a start on the big move! Always happy to answer further questions (if I can) in the future 🙂
-Brooke
Julie
Hi Brooke,
I’ve been trying to find this answer everywhere.
I see you’ve had your American family write stat decs as well to support the application. I’m planning to do the same thing (as well as having my partners Australian family to fill out the “real” certified form 888’s) however did you send your family the form 888 to fill out, or did you have them write a statement themselves? I hope my question makes sense.
Your blog is by the way a life saver!!! Thank so much.
– Julie
brooke brisbine
JulieHi Julie, so sorry for my late response– I’ve been travelling for the last 3 months and haven’t been on the computer much!
I’m sure you’ve already answered this question, but only Aussie’s can complete official Form 888s. There’s nothing to stop you from having your foreign friends and family complete the same form just since it’s a nice template, but you could also just have them write and sign a letter– since the Australian government doesn’t really recognise it as official either way, it’s really up to you.
Best of luck with everything!
-Brooke
Ann
Hi Brooke,
Thanks so much for your very helpful informations. I do appreciate your kindness. I have been doing this for the last 6 months but still not submit my applicayion yet but your review give me direction to go for it. And hope your application goes well.
I understand that after completing online application I will need to print and complete and scan the 40sp, 80, 888 form and attach to online application?
Could I ask for some help please?
I could not find 40sp and form 80 from the link that you mentioned. Is it any possibility that you can send direct link to 40sp and 80 form please?
Thanks so much for your kindness.
Ann
brooke brisbine
AnnHi Ann, so sorry for my late response– I’ve been travelling for the last 3 months and haven’t been on the computer much!
I’m sure you’ve already found the forms, but thank you for letting me know the link was broken, I’ve updated the Form 40 link in my post!
Best of luck with everything!
-Brooke
Giselle
AnnHi Ann,
Just wondering if you found any clarification on the Form 40 vs Form 40SP issue. Form 40 description says it is not for the partner visa, and I also cannot find the Form 40SP and although it asks for it specifically on IMMI, it’s not in the actual form directory. Other people have suggested just doing a stat dec, is that what you did?
-Giselle
brooke brisbine
GiselleHi Giselle,
Apologies for the bad link… The links to this form keep breaking and I’m constantly updating them, which makes me think that Home Affairs might be phasing 40SP out completely. I still completed one anyway, just to be safe. I’ll update the links in this post, and here’s the right form from another site: http://www.fenfeivisa.net/Upload/40SP.pdf
-Brooke
Deniz
Just wanted to thank you, Brooke. You have been such a huge help for me and my fiance in putting our documents together!
brooke brisbine
DenizYou are so welcome, Deniz!
Thank you for the kind words, I hope the visa comes through quickly for you and your partner 🙂
-Brooke
Priya
Thank you so much Brooke for all these information!! You are a life saver! I hope you’re loving your life here in Australia!
PS. How long did it take for your PR to be approved?
brooke brisbine
PriyaYou’re so welcome, Priya!
I certainly love it here in Australia, but I’m still waiting on my PR. Nothing happens quickly with Home Affairs, it seems!
-Brooke
Nikki
Just submitted our partner visa and wanted to quickly say how appreciative we are of your efforts in making this process a lot easier. It was such a massive help! So thank you!
brooke brisbine
NikkiHi Nikki, thank you so much for the kind message! Wishing you guys a short wait on the visa 🙂
-Brooke
Christina
Hi Brooke! Thanks for the info- my question:
In the initial part of the application, you are required to write at most 2000 words on (let’s say) the Nature of your Commitment but you also have written here of a statement on the same subject. SO, did you write both? Did you write a statement in the ‘box’ of the application and then a second more detailed statement as a PDF attachment? OR did you just write in the ‘box’ “see PDF? Thank you so much! Beyond stressed with this haha
brooke brisbine
ChristinaHi Christina, so sorry for my late response– I’ve been travelling for the last 3 months and haven’t been on the computer much!
I usually just wrote “see PDF” in the box so that I wasn’t limited to 2000 characters (which is peanuts!). I’m sure you’ve already come to your own conclusion, so I hope you got the application in and everything went smoothly 🙂
Best of luck with everything!
-Brooke
Belle
Hi Brooke,
Thank you so much for your in depth explanation of the entire application process. It really assisted us so much for our 309 visa application. But I just have a small concern that I was hoping you may be able to clarify. Once you’ve completed uploading your evidence & forms, did you hit the ‘I confirm I have provided information as requested’ button? If so, could you still add further documents like say the medical check after confirming or will the visa immediately be under review?
Thanks a bunch!
x
brooke brisbine
BelleHi Belle, so sorry for my late response– I’ve been travelling for the last 3 months and haven’t been on the computer much!
I’m sure you’ve already figured this out, but you can continue uploading documents even after you “submit” the application (assuming the 309 application process is the same as 820/801).
Good luck with everything!
-Brooke
Jay
Hi Brooke,
Just a follow up question, i’m still a little confused. There is different information out there about what kind of BVA is given depending on what visa you were on before applying for a visa or what visa you are applying for. Do you know if yourself or anyone else has applied onshore with a 651 tourist visa for the 820 partner visa and received a BVA with work rights? You mentioned a student visa, which I assume had no work rights, but you were issued with work rights anyway correct?
In addition, have you heard of any issues getting work with a BVA? Some Government web pages say that all Australian workers have the same rights regardless of their visas, but is it possible an employer might discriminate and not hire based on the “unreliability” of the application outcome? What was your experience telling your employer about your visa status or did you just say I am legally able to work, and not discuss it in detail?
One thing which concerns me is that once you start the 820 process you cant seem to change it up.
The page says:
Do not get another visa
To get the permanent Partner visa (subclass 801), you must hold this subclass 820 visa. If you are granted any other visa, the new visa will replace your subclass 820 visa. This means you will not be eligible for the permanent Partner visa (subclass 801).
If we alternatively wen’t for a 190 visa then it would basically cancel the 820 process and i’m sure we wouldn’t get any money back, but if my Wife has trouble with a BVA and getting work then what are we to do?
Also conversely with the 190 visa, it appears that you can apply onshore which would suggest that you would also get a BVA for that visa as well if your substantive visa expires before the decision. Have you heard of anyone using the 190 track onshore and getting a BVA while waiting?
Also regarding processing times, I saw a post in the Australiaforum.com mentioning processing times for different nationalities. I know that the government would never post anything like this so I assume its the data from an immigration agent, but it suggested that the processing times for certain nationalities were much quicker on the 820 than others such as UK, possibly due to language and ability to verify documents faster? Have you heard anything about that?
Sorry for the multiple questions. Again thanks for the awesome blog, your a life saver!
brooke brisbine
JayHi Jay, many apologies for the delayed response, I’ve been travelling for the last 3 months and haven’t been at a computer much!
My student visa did have limited work rights, but my BVA is now unlimited. I also have a friend who just applied for a partner visa onshore after being on a tourist visa and she was issued work rights, although that’s not to say it will be the case for every single situation.
I am no expert on the situation, but I do not imagine your wife would have any trouble getting work with a BVA. I previously had a working holiday visa with a 6-month restriction (I could only work for one employer for half the year before looking for a new job) and even then I had no trouble finding work. It seemed to me that most employers have zero idea about visas, all they really care about is, yes or no, does this person have a legal right to work. I hope that will be the case for your wife, as well!
As for processing times, I have heard similar rumblings around the forums that nationalities such as UK, USA, Canada, etc will tend to be approved slightly quicker than others, likely due to the reasons you listed. It’s not any guarantee and there’s certainly no policy around it, but it seems to be the case for some people.
Hope these responses aren’t too late to be helpful!
-Brooke
Christina
Hi Brooke – in “Relationship, Evidence of – Spouse, De Facto” example you have, are all the bullet points included in one PDF? So in that one PDF, you would have all your joint photos, statements, receipts, etc. with the heading “Evidence of Relationship”? Thank you. Just a bit confused on how to organize everything!
brooke brisbine
ChristinaHi Christina, apologies for the confusion– every bullet point was a separate PDF (the ALL CAPS is the title of each individual PDF). You can organise things however you want, that is just how I did it 🙂
-Brooke
Connie
Thank you very much Brooke you’ve been very helpful… xoxo
brooke brisbine
ConnieSo happy I could help!
Good luck with the application, Connie 🙂
– Brooke
Madeleine
Hi Brooke:
As promised I will come back with answers as to our interview.
We have been told that our visa will be granted soon – in time for my girl to go to uni in Feb 2020. From the conversation we gather we will get our visa before uni starts in the new year.
They praised us for being very organized with our applications and comment that our documents are very clear and complete ones and we are happy as we think this is a plus point! We hope to receive the visa soon – next few months’ time so we can prepare to make our move sooner than planned.
They (the case officer and her supervisor) are very nice people and we had a good chat with them. It was a very informal atmosphere.
Hope this shed some lights to others in the blog. If anyone wants to seek information for an off shore we are pleased to share.
Thanks
M
brooke brisbine
MadeleineHi Madeleine,
Thank you so much for providing an update on your interview, I hope this will help anyone else going through something similar. Also, a huge congratulations on how well everything went for you guys! I hope you get your visa soon and that everything goes smoothly 🙂
-Brooke
Jade
MadeleineHi Madeleine, we have just applied for the visa offshore. Do you know if you can come on a tourist visa during the application process?
Connie
Hi Brooke,
This is very helpful, thank you! I am also planning to apply for Sub Class 820 in the next months after our wedding.. I’m already starting to collate and read online on what evidences I will provide for my visa, I just have issues in creating a cohabitation statement (“EVIDENCE OF COHABITATION STATEMENT: Details from me about the addresses we’ve lived at together and when we moved in”). Quick question: did you create a statement on this? I am having difficulty creating one as I do not know where to start been searching online for sample statement but I can’t find one.. I hope you can help me.
Thank you!
brooke brisbine
ConnieHi Connie,
This is just how I chose to present our evidence of cohabitation– you can present your own evidence however you wish, this isn’t necessarily the “right way”, just my way 🙂
Basically, I wrote a few paragraphs about where we’ve lived and when we moved house, and then included a table of contents for various lease agreements, bond receipts, and correspondence with the real estate (all of these documents were part of the same PDF, I just attached them directly after my statement).
Here’s the document for your reference:
EVIDENCE OF COHABITATION PDF
SUMMARY STATEMENT
We have been living together since 20 November 2015, when Brooke graduated from uni in Wollongong and Callum left his work in Bendigo so that we could live together in Melbourne at ADDRESS. After Brooke was offered a PhD scholarship, we let the lease at South Yarra lapse, stayed with Callum’s parents for about two weeks, and then moved back to Wollongong together. We signed a lease on a new apartment at ADDRESS on 20 July 2016. We renewed the lease for another year on 20 July 2017. Just before our lease in Wollongong expired, we signed a new lease on 2 July 2018 at ADDRESS, which is closer to Callum’s work. We currently reside together at this property. For the last 3+ years, we have been jointly on our various leases and have always shared responsibility for the rental payments (not always 50/50, however). We have lived together without interruption since 20 November 2015.
CONTENTS
• Email to Brooke and Callum about inspecting the South Yarra property (October 2015; 2 pages)
• Letter to Brooke and Callum about newly commencing lease at South Yarra property (November 2015)
• Bond receipt for South Yarra property (November 2015)
• Email from Brooke (CC Callum) to real estate agent of Wollongong property (June
2016)
• Bond receipt for Wollongong property (July 2016)
• Page of rental agreement with joint signatures from Wollongong property (July 2016)
• Notice of rent increase at Wollongong property (July 2017)
• Renewal lease agreement at Wollongong property (July 2017)
• Email from real estate agent of Sutherland property accepting application (June 2018)
• Lease agreement for Sutherland property (July 2018)
• Bond receipt for Sutherland property (July 2018)
• Recent mail jointly addressed at Sutherland property (November 2018)
Jay
Thanks Brooke you’re a legend! I will be consulting your web pages a lot in the coming weeks and may have more questions for you. Thank you so much for all your help! 🙂
brooke brisbine
JayAlways happy to help, I know how stressful it can be!
Good luck with everything 🙂
-Brooke
Jay
Hi Brooke,
Did you get issued a bridging visa BVA straight away, and did it allow you to work? What was the process, did it just happen automatically as part of the 820 or did you have to do it separately? It says that theres a possibility the BVA does not include the right to work? Have you heard of that, is that only in specific circumstances or is it more the majority? Have you applied for a BVB at any point to be able to travel and if so was that also quick? What are the allowances of time to be able to travel on the BVB?
brooke brisbine
JayHi Jay,
You get issued a BVA as soon as Home Affairs receives your application for a partner visa (this happens automatically), but it might not be active right away. For example, I was on a student visa when I applied for my partner visa, so my BVA didn’t become active until my student visa expired. The same will be true of whatever visa you are on (tourist, work, whatever)– as soon as it expires your BVA will come into effect. There isn’t necessarily a guarantee of work rights with a BVA, but I don’t personally know of anyone who was issued a BVA without unlimited work and study rights. It’s possible in theory, but seems unlikely in practice, especially if you were on a valid Australian visa prior to applying for a partner visa.
As for the BVB, yes, I have applied for one and I wrote a whole post about the application and the conditions: https://brookebeyond.com/applying-for-a-bridging-visa-b-bvb-while-waiting-for-your-820-801-australian-partner-visa
You can read more in that post, but in brief, both the application and approval were extremely quick. The travel period depends on your circumstances– I got 3.5 months for a holiday (and I only asked for 2.5), but I know others have gotten close to a year for temporary overseas work, so it will come down to the reason for your travel, how long ago you applied for your partner visa (because they want you onshore when its granted), etc.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Christine
Many thanks Brooke, great suggestion ! – you’re doing a great service to many people.
Cheers and thanks again.
Christine.
brooke brisbine
ChristineSo happy I could help, Christine! Good luck with everything 🙂
-Brooke
Christine
Hi Brooke,
Thank you also for this sharing of information, its greatly appreciated. Could I ask a question please ? When you uploaded documents, say your joint bank account statement, did you upload the whole statement or just the first page ? and did you blank out the account numbers and balances etc ? Also the same for other documents, did you do the whole document or just the page with what you thought held the relevant information ?
Many thanks
Christine.
brooke brisbine
ChristineHi Christine,
I typically just uploaded the page with relevant information (and redacted anything personal, like bank account numbers). I know some people upload full bank statements to show continued use of shared funds, but we only uploaded proof of when the accounts were opened since I felt like we had enough other evidence. It’s totally up to you!
-Brooke
Jianyang
Hi Brooke,
Really appreciate your big help. I just finished my application for my wife, and this really helps. You are the best. Hope both of us can get the Visa approved soon~
Regards,
Paul
brooke brisbine
JianyangHi Paul,
I’m so happy to hear that this information was helpful to you and your wife! Wishing you a short wait without any complications 🙂
-Brooke
Christina
Hi Brooke,
Thanks for the great info! My question – how did you get your parents in the U.S.A to certify their statements? Did they just sign them and have a friend act as a witness? I am from Canada and we don’t really have stat decs as they do here. Thank you!
brooke brisbine
ChristinaHi Christina,
I don’t think Home Affairs recognises any certification or notarising from other countries, so I just had my parents sign and date their letters. They won’t be a substitute for the Form 888s that you will need from friends and family in Australia, but they can be a useful piece of additional evidence!
Hope that helps 🙂
-Brooke
Jayne
Hi Brooke. I am applying for my partner visa here in melbourne and my other last question is would it be possible to have your friends or family as a witness while they are in overseas? By the way, my boyfriend has never been travelling outside the country of Australia and he never seen them in person however they have met him via video call. Would it be okay? Plus would it also be okay to provide their government i.d if they have no passport?
brooke brisbine
JayneHi Jayne,
Only those in Australia can complete the official Form 888s, because they need to be witnessed by an authorised person here. You need at least 2 people in the country to do this for you, so I wouldn’t choose your friends or family from back home. What about local friends, your partner’s family, your employer, etc?
That doesn’t mean, though, that your friends or family from back home can’t write a letter of support for your visa. My mum, dad, and stepmother (all in America) wrote and signed letters about when they’ve spent time with me and my partner. I attached these as extra evidence to my application, in addition to the Form 888s.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
sharmaine
Hi brooke your blog is very a big help to me and my husband , I have a question um we are planning to do it onshore because we don’t want LDR to happen to us again and our plan is to apply for a visitor visa subclass 600 for 6 months my question is that will we tell the immigration our plans to apply for partner visa onshore ? and state it honestly ? I know we will always be honest to immigration. Hope to hear from you , thank you 🙂 and we will attach our marriage certificate tho.
brooke brisbine
sharmaineHi Sharmaine,
I know a lot of people have similar questions about whether they should state their true intent on a visitor visa, and unfortunately I don’t have any personal knowledge of what to do. My advice would be to call Home Affairs and ask them directly, speak to a migration agent, or post on Australia Forum to see what other people have done in a similar situation.
I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful, but good luck with everything!
-Brooke
Stephanie
You are an angel! Thanks so much Brooke. I’m an Australian living in Belgium with my husband and we want to come home to Australia. It’s been so hard to figure out what to upload and how much is too much. Your blog post is amazing. Thank you!
brooke brisbine
StephanieHi Stephanie,
You are too sweet, thank you so much for the kind words! I really hope these posts make it a bit easier for you and your husband to move back to Australia.
Good luck with your application 🙂
-Brooke
Fiona
Hello,
Thanks for taking the time to do all this – it has been extremely helpful! My partner and I are going to be applying for the 820 Visa once I am on shore. I was just wondering if under the heading ‘Relationship – Spouse, De Facto Partner, Evidence of’ is where the social aspects and finance commitments come in? Also, is it 100 documents overall for applicants and sponsors identity documents and relationship documents combined?
Thanks again,
Fiona
brooke brisbine
FionaHi Fiona, my absolute pleasure 🙂
As with many of the upload sections, it’s kind of up to you where you want to put things. I personally uploaded social and financial evidence under this heading (Relationship), but I’m sure there are other people who put it somewhere else (e.g. Length of Relationship). Neither is necessarily “right”, so just do what feels right for you!
With the 100 documents, yes, that’s a total including everything you upload. If you run out, I think you can upload things under your partner’s application (sponsor application), but I personally didn’t get anywhere near running out. Just don’t upload dozens of photos individually, try to group them into a single document. Same goes for similar evidence– if you have bank statements or message transcripts to upload, put them into a single PDF instead of uploading heaps of separate pages. You should be fine 🙂
Hope this helps!
-Brooke
Anonymous
Thank you very much once again for doing this selflessly and free of charge. I’m on it right now.
One more question please. ..can I add ducuments and come back later to add some more?
How do I make sure my work is saved to continue uploading say, later.
Cheers
Serah
brooke brisbine
AnonymousHi Serah, you can definitely upload some documents and then add more later. As long as they are actually uploaded to the application, there is no need to save your work, it will be there when you come back to it!
-Brooke
Serah
Hi Brooke.
I want to thank you so much for this blog because I have just finished the application and it’s ready to be submitted.Its been so hectic just gathering the documents I needed but I must say reading you blog made things easier.I want to submit and pay tomorrow..
Hopefully I can beat the July 1st deadline when he visa fee goes up.
Thank you once again and all the best of luck even as you wait for yours.
You’re the best.
Cheers
Serah
brooke brisbine
SerahHi Serah, thank you so much for the lovely comment!! It was a fair bit of work to write all of these posts, so hearing that they are actually helping people with their visa application makes it totally worthwhile 🙂 I hope everything goes (or went?) smoothly with your submission, it will be a relief to get it done! Sending you lots of good luck 🙂
-Brooke
Gabriella
Hi again Brooke,
I’ve commented before and I never said thank you for your helpful response! I just submitted my application today and wanted to thank you again. You and your blog were so helpful along the way and it would have been much more of a stressful mess without your help. So grateful!
Cheers,
Gabriella
brooke brisbine
GabriellaHi Gabriella,
Thank you so much for this lovely comment! Wishing you and your partner a very quick and painless wait for your visa 🙂
-Brooke
Sophia
Hi Brooke,
Thank you for your response. I really appreciate it. It is so overwhelming going through this process and I just want to let you know that stumbling onto your website, it really helped me understand this process. So thank you.
^_^ Sophia
brooke brisbine
SophiaHi Sophia,
Thank you for the wonderful comment, it makes me so happy to know that I could help! I hope everything goes super smoothly with your visa application and you’re approved in no time!
-Brooke
Weetau
G’day,Brooke! You’re blog has been a lifesaver! I wish I had found it about a month ago lol. I used an immigration solicitor for the 820 which made it a breeze. This time i’m on my own and submitting my 801 this weekend…after waiting over 4 years for the glorious email haha🤗. So doing everything myself this time.🤞Just wondering how long do you think I have to upload evidence? And I felt like I had everything organised, but then I read your post and now I’m not sure anything is ready to upload. Do you feel the copy/pasting pics to a word doc is still the best way?
Thank you so much for your info! It is absolutely appreciated! Xx
And any other suggestions are also welcome. 😁
brooke brisbine
WeetauHi Weetau,
I am so sorry for my delayed reply, but I’m happy to hear this blog helped you with your application! Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find any specific information about a time limit on uploading evidence, which leads me to believe that “ASAP” is the best policy.
Personally, I do think pasting into a word doc is the best way to upload photos– you can group similar photos into a single document and provide captions for every photo, which will make it heaps easier for your CO. I usually convert these word docs into PDFs and then give them a name like “Travel photos 2016” or “Photos with friends March 2018”.
Hope that answers your questions, and best of luck with everything! 4 years is a LONG time, so it will be extremely well-deserved when you finally get the 801 🙂
-Brooke
Bijay
brooke brisbineHi Brooke,
i am just wondering to know, how can we compress the size of file just upto 5MB. I did the same thing, getting pictures all in one and prepared as pdf. But when i have a look on size of file, it was nearly 70MB. I am pretty sure it`s all because i use pictures from iphone with bigger resolutions and quality. Any idea on this situation? How can i compress the size of file without removing any files that i want……………
brooke brisbine
BijayHi Bijay,
I recommend using the website http://smallpdf.com to compress your files 🙂
-Brooke
jayne
Hi Brooke,
My name is Jayne and I am from the Philippines and currently staying in Melbourne holding visa subclass 600. I am planning to apply for the partner visa subclass 820. I started to fill out those forms on the website (online.immi.gov.au). I was just wondering after getting through those pages I was expecting to have a content that indicates attaching the documents. Unfortunately, I did not see anything where I can attach my documents for the evidence and I can only see the payment method for the partner visa. Is there something you can advise me from this or are they changing their platform already? If they don’t change then where I could find that page where I can upload my documents? Thanks in advance brooke!
brooke brisbine
jayneHi Jayne, not to worry! This seems to be a common question, so I might add some info directly to the post to avoid further confusion. For now:
Once you fill out the application and submit all of your responses, you actually need to pay BEFORE you are granted access to the upload page. That’s why it’s a good idea to think about what you are going to upload before you finalise the application (by paying)– it took me several months to gather all of my evidence. There’s no official timeframe advertised by Home Affairs that you have to upload things by, but I’d assume several months is a bit long! Get all of your evidence organised now and then pay for your visa when you’re ready to upload 🙂
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Sophia
Hi,
I found your post very helpful.
I just want to know, when you say “Provide certified copy” of certain documents, does that mean those documents have to be certified before uploading them?
Cheers
brooke brisbine
SophiaHi Sophia,
Yes, if you’re going to provide a certified document, it needs to certified before you upload. When you’re doing an online application, though, very few things are actually required to be certified. I know many of the descriptions provided by Home Affairs state that a certified copy of some document or ID is required, but this is for paper applications (https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/help-support/applying-online-or-on-paper/on-paper). For your online application, you can just upload a colour scan of the document without certifying anything!
Hope that helps,
-Brooke
Manasi
Hey!
Thank you so much for this information. actually i was in tremendous tension due to this PR application. I was just searching on google what i could find regarding the same and I found your blog which is very helpful to me and off course for everyone.
Pray for me as i am going to submit my application by this weekend. definitely I will follow your instructions.
Once again thank you so much & God bless you !
Manasi
Hey!
It looks you are so kind, you are very helpful to others.
Thank you so much for this information. actually i was in tremendous tension due to this PR application. I was just searching on google what i could find regarding the same and I found your blog which is very helpful to me and off course for everyone.
Pray for me as i am going to submit my application by this weekend. definitely I will follow your instructions.
Once again thank you so much & God bless you !
brooke brisbine
ManasiHi Manasi, thanks so much for your kind words! I know how stressful this application is, so it’s great to hear that my blog helped a little.
Sending you good luck vibes as you submit your application 🙂
-Brooke
Reg
This blog is really helpful! We just submitted our online application yesterday & when I saw the upload / requirements page, I almost had a heart attack! LoL We are doing it from overseas & would like to do it ourselves too – not through any migration agents. The information on the page is too overwhelming but coming across your blog helped 🙂 Thank you for sharing and I look forward to getting updates on your application! All the best to everyone! Cheers
brooke brisbine
RegHi Reg, so glad you found all this info helpful!
I felt the very same way when I looked at the upload page, totally overwhelmed and confused.. They certainly don’t make the process too easy, do they! But it will be very worthwhile when we’re all living in Australia with our partners 🙂
Best of luck with your application, hopefully everything goes through quickly for you guys!
-Brooke
Sarah Beardmore
I am so sorry I just realised I wrote to you twice! I didn’t realise the first one went through!
brooke brisbine
Sarah BeardmoreNo worries at all, good luck with your application! 🙂
-Brooke
sarah beardmore
Hi Brooke
Thanks again for all your help. It has been so nice to have your blog posts to refer back to. For the statements… Did you format this as a letter and if so did you address it to anyone or for example ‘To whom it may concern?’ And then did you sign the bottom and date it? Any tips on this would be awesome. I’ve been trying to find examples of personal statements online but can’t figure it out.
Thank you!
Sarah
Sarah Beardmore
Hi again Brooke
I have another question in regards to the written statements. What is the format? Do you write To whom is may concern? Is it a letter or more so something like- I Sarah Beardmore am writing to…… ?
And do you date and sign it at the bottom?
Thank you so much in advance!
Sarah
brooke brisbine
Sarah BeardmoreHi Sarah,
As far as I can tell, there is no required structure for these statements. In fact, I don’t think Home Affairs even requires you to submit separate signed statements, the only thing you are required to do is write short statements on the online application in the space provided. Heaps of people can’t fit everything they want to say in the 2000 character limit, so they write separate statements as well, which is what we did. You should be able to write your statement however you want! Some people sign and date at the bottom, some have the statements witnessed by a JP, but it’s up to you– I typed my statements and uploaded them to the application as PDFs.
I hope that helps!
-Brooke
Madeleine
Hi Brooke:
2 questions:
I submitted online last friday. I cannot upload the documents yet but can i say that afterthey received my payment I only can upload my documents?
Secondly, do I receive email from Immi officer as to my police checks and health checks?
Thank you.
Madeleine
brooke brisbine
MadeleineHi Madeleine,
That’s right, the upload section only becomes available after your payment has been processed. For me, it took a day for that to happen (I payed with BPay). As to your other question, if you didn’t already submit health and police checks then yes– your Case Officer will contact you to request these. The time frame is different for everyone, so it’s hard to say when that will be, but probably somewhere between 6-12 months from your submission date.
Hope that helps!
Brooke
Mahin
Hi brooke,
The commenta were also helpful.
I just wonder how long it takes to get the visa?
We have done all the steps and it is the 8 th month now.
Thank you so much
brooke brisbine
MahinHi Mahin,
It’s wonderful to hear that you found this info helpful! Unfortunately, it’s really not possible to say how long it will take to get your visa. The global processing time is 23-27 months at the moment– I’ve heard of people getting it in just over a year while another applicant commented on one of my posts saying it took 4 years for them. I hope you hear something from Home Affairs soon, but it’s very possible that you won’t hear a peep until the day your visa is granted, especially if you’ve included all your police and health checks.
Best of luck with everything!
-Brooke
Annie
Hi Brooke, my boyfriend and I are currently in the process of applying for the same visa. Your page is so helpful but we’re still quite unsure about a lot of things :/ I was wondering, in what stage of applying online, do you upload your documents? We have filled in the initial forms and questions and have been taken to the payment page. Do you upload all the evidence after you’ve paid and submitted? It would be helpful to hear from someone who’s been through the same situation. Thanks so much in advance 🙂
brooke brisbine
AnnieHi Annie,
The process is definitely confusing, so I hope I can help a little bit with some of your questions!
After completing the online application and paying the fee, then you will gain access to the upload portal on the application. You don’t have to upload everything the same day you submit, but I’d recommend organising most of your evidence before you pay the fee so you’re ready to upload sooner rather than later.
Good luck on your application!
-Brooke
Charlotte
Hi Brooke,
Thank you so much for all the information you have provided on this page, it is so informative and incredibly helpful! It’s incredibly stressful getting all of the evidence together (as you know) so your guidance based on your experience is so appreciated.
I did have one question though regarding the passport photograph. I took your advice and got a digital photo sent to me by Auspost. It notes printing the name of the person on the back of the photograph also, how did you go about doing this? I was given hard copies as well as went into the post office so wondering if I should print on the back of one of these and then scan in as well?
Thanks again!
Charlotte
brooke brisbine
CharlotteHi Charlotte,
It’s wonderful to hear that you’ve found this information helpful! As for the passport photo, I think those instructions really only apply to paper applications that are being sent in to Home Affairs. For the online application, you can just name the file as your own name and upload it under the relevant heading, which should provide clear identification without physically writing your name on the back of the photo.
Best of luck on the application– I know it’s stressful, but it will all be worth it 🙂
-Brooke
Sarah
Thank you so much Brooke! Great posts and travel site!
brooke brisbine
SarahThank you, Sarah! Good luck with your application!
Sarah Beardmore
Hi Brooke
Thank you so much for all of the information you have provided. It’s been a big big help!
I am wondering if you are meant to scan the back and front of passports, drivers license etc, birth certificates etc? It says to scan the front and back on the website but is it only for the documents that are double sided?
Thank you!
Sarah
brooke brisbine
Sarah BeardmoreHi Sarah,
Thanks for your lovely comment, I’m happy this information was helpful!
When it comes to your passport, you just need to scan both sides of the ID page (open like a book and flat on the scanner, if that makes sense) and the back of your licence. We didn’t scan both sides of our birth certificates or any ID that didn’t have information on the back, exactly as you said.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Madeleine
HI Brooke:
Thank you for your post. It is most helpful. I am currently doing the 309/100 because I am applying from oversea. I can relate to the amount of work having to put in for this visa. I am submitting my soon.
My question is that have you been granted the Visa?
Thank you.
Madeleine
brooke brisbine
MadeleineHi Madeleine,
Thanks for your comment, and I’m glad this post was helpful to you! I just submitted my application 6 months ago, so my visa has yet to be granted. I’ll definitely be writing more posts to share what the process is like as I hear more from Home Affairs about my own application!
Best of luck to you and your partner 🙂
-Brooke
Grace
Hi Brooke, thank you so much for writing this! It’s super helpful! I just submitted my application online last weekend and I have been thinking what’s the best way to arrange all the documents. I have one question though, how long after you submitted your application did you upload all the documents? Did you have them all ready to go right after submussion? Some of my documents still need a little bit of work and I’m not sure about time frame. Thanks again for sharing your experience!
brooke brisbine
GraceHi Grace, congratulations on submitting the online application, how exciting!
I personally had all of my documents ready to upload on the day I submitted my application, but I know plenty of people have taken a few weeks to get everything up– the general consensus seems to be that it’s totally fine to take a little bit of time. I probably wouldn’t recommend waiting months to put things up (with the exception of medical and background checks), but I don’t actually know if there is a specific window of time. All I can tell you is that I submitted 6 months ago, no one from Home Affairs has so much as glanced at my application yet, and the upload portal is still open if I wanted to add anything.
I hope that helps!
-Brooke
Jessica
Hi Brooke, thank you so much for writing this! It was so helpful for us to figure out how best to structure our evidence. Regarding the additional statements you uploaded regarding further information about your relationship, did you write it in a statutory declaration format / sign it?
brooke brisbine
JessicaHi Jessica, I love hearing that you found this post helpful! I arranged my evidence in a way that I thought made perfect sense… and then had to completely re-arrange it after seeing the upload screen for the application, so I wanted to help people from making the same mistake.
In terms of our additional statements about the relationship, we just signed them ourselves (no JP or official stat dec). I’ve heard from others that they took these to a JP to have them formally witnessed, but we didn’t think it was necessary since they were just an extension of the information we provided on the application itself. Unfortunately, Home Affairs doesn’t specify one way or the other on their current site, but old versions of the Partner Migration Booklet say that you can write your statement as a stat dec or on plain paper (sign and date it yourself). What you do is up to you, I don’t 100% know the right answer to this one so I don’t want to tell you the wrong thing– I can only tell you what we did!
Sorry for being vague, but I do hope that helps 🙂
-Brooke
Gabriella
Oh my goodness, bless you. This and your other post about what evidence to include are so extremely helpful. I do have a couple questions about how you uploaded text messages and travel proof. Did you just screen shot certain messages, put them all into a word document, and then save it as a PDF? And same for flight itineraries/hotel receipts?
Also, are some of the statements you uploaded about the different aspects of the relationship similar to what is asked for in the actual Immi Account application? I have worked on my Immi Account application but haven’t pressed submit yet so thank you so much for this information.
brooke brisbine
GabriellaHi Gabriella, I’m so happy I was able to help!
I have iMessage on my Mac, so I just copied the entire text transcript for the period of time I wanted and paste everything in Word. If there were super personal messages I didn’t want to show Home Affairs, I just “redacted” them by putting black boxes over the messages, and then I would export as a PDF. If you don’t have a Mac, screenshooting select messages could work (although it will be tedious), or you can get a get a copy of your phone records to show all the text messages you sent for a given period (this would just show date/time and phone number, not the actual message, so you could highlight your partner’s number to show all the times you texted them).
For joint travel, I merged individual PDFs of our flights, hotels, and other bookings into one big PDF (one for each year, since it got too big in the end!), and titled them “Joint Travel 2015” etc.
The statements we attached were usually just longer versions of what they asked for in the actual online application (because the word limit is so small). On the Immi application, I wrote some general information and then “See document titled Statement of Financial Aspects of the Relationship” etc so that I could provide more details. If you feel like you can say everything in the online application, you don’t have to attach any additional statements, but it’s useful if you want to elaborate beyond 2000 characters!
Hope this answers your questions! Good luck with the rest of the application– it’s definitely overwhelming, but it will be so worth it 🙂
Brooke
Gabriella
brooke brisbineI actually have one more question for you, Brooke. Did you get your stat decs witnessed and signed by someone? Do they count if they aren’t witnessed? I have three stat decs from friends and family, two of which are witnessed/certified and one that is not.
Thank you so much again!
brooke brisbine
GabriellaHi Gabriella,
If you’re talking about Form 888, it definitely needs to be witnessed by an authorised person. You probably need to get that friend/family member to take their form back and have it certified before you upload it.
Good luck with it all!
-Brooke
Red
brooke brisbineHi Brooke,
I’ve just lodge my visa 820 and I’m currently filling out form 1221, I’m having a hard time with these questions…
2. Other names you are or have been, known by( including name at birth, previous married names, aliases)
– should I put my full name? As the question no.1 is asking your full name shown on your passport
12- Do I need to put my residential address? as I’m already here and it’s questioning your proposed residential address in Australia
22- Do I need to answer this as it’s questioning if I’m funding my trip as I’m already here?
33- do I need to put my previous employment details? It’s asking on current employment details and I’m currently unemployed.
34- Only complete the sections relevant to you
Have applied for a visitor visa?
Have applied for a Business visa?
Have applied for a migration visa?
Are a student, academic, researcher of fellow?
My question is what part should I answer as I am applying for spouse visa? Should I leave it blank?
Thanks in advance Brooke,
brooke brisbine
RedHi Red, so sorry for my late response– I’ve been travelling for the last 3 months and haven’t been on the computer much!
I’m sure you’ve already answered these questions yourself, but just in case anyone else is wondering the same thing:
2) If you already provided your legal full name and you aren’t known by any other names, you don’t need to answer this
12) Yes, put your residential address
22) I just answered yes since I was already here
33) This is asking for the employment details of your “contact” in Australia (presumably your partner)
34) You have applied for a Migration Visa
Best of luck with everything!
-Brooke
Diego
Hey Brooke,
Thanks for all the explanation. So, did you update all the files in the “Other” section naming it accordingly?
Thanks
brooke brisbine
DiegoHi Diego, glad you found this page helpful!
Yes, some of my uploads didn’t really fit under one of the designated headings, so I would just select “Other” and write a good description of the document for the CO. Also, if I had grouped several documents together in one PDF (e.g. bills, photos, and lease as evidence of living together), I would write a statement and “table of contents” for the first page of the PDF just so it was really obvious what I was including and why.
Hope that answers your question, and best of luck!
-Brooke
Sulanne
Amazing blog, helping me a lot!
Thanks Brooke,
All the best!
brooke brisbine
SulanneHi Sulanne, so happy to hear that! Best of luck to you!
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John Stewart
Awesome Brooke – thanks so much!
John Stewart
Dear Brooke
Sorry to bother you but I wanted to ask about the Form 80. I take it from what you have said this form is not available as an “on line” form and you signed a hard copy and then scanned and uploaded it? Would you please clarify for me.
Kind regards, John Stewart
brooke brisbine
John StewartHi John,
Yes, I just downloaded the form, completed it, and scanned it. There were a few sections on the form that didn’t actually allow enough room for you to record all of your travels or employers or residential addresses, etc. With these, I just built a table in Word and inserted it into the PDF after I scanned the form. Hope that helps!
-Brooke
Bijay Tamang
brooke brisbinehi brooke
Is it ok to type online or de we need to download and write with pen?
I have completed via typing and thinking to print out then certify it….
brooke brisbine
Bijay TamangHi Bijay,
I’m pretty sure it’s fine to type these forms, but don’t 100% quote me on that!
-Brooke
Ikram
brooke brisbineHi, i don’t have a space to add more attach documents I have +98 attachment documents.. How can I delete documents to add forms??
brooke brisbine
IkramHi Ikram,
Unfortunately, there is no way to delete uploads. I’m sure you’re not the only one to find yourself in this situation, though, so if anyone reading this post has any experience with requesting additional uploads or uploading to the sponsor application, please comment and let Ikram know!
-Brooke
Anja
Bijay TamangHi Brooke,
Firstly I’d like to thank you so much! Your blog helped me so much figuring out what to attach to my 820 application! It must’ve taken you a while to write all this so thank you for sacrificing your time helping so many others!
I also have a quick question. What exactly did you write about in you commitment statement? I am not the best writer and very unsure of what to write about 😕
Thank you for your help!!
brooke brisbine
AnjaHi Anja,
So happy to hear you found these posts helpful!
We wrote our commitment statements about our future plans/goals and steps we have taken as a couple to work towards these (e.g. saving together), about how we’ve become part of each other’s families, about sacrifices we’ve made for each other (e.g. moving interstate together multiple times for job opportunities), and how we’ve interconnected our lives in permanent ways. I’m sure you could approach this from many different directions, that’s just how we interpreted “commitment” for us.
Hope that helps!
-Brooke
John Stewart
Dear Brooke
I just read your blog and it is outstanding. I am Australian and my wife is Thai – we will be submitting an off shore Partner Visa (309/100) in February and while I had much of what you have written about, the clarity in which you presented it has helped immensely. Thank you for sharing your knowledge on Australian Forum and on your website. It is very generous of you considering some have actually been charging $ for much the same information you have made available for free.
Your application sounds extremely good – obviously you are a very organised person!
Good luck and thanks again for your advice and guidance.
Kind regards, John Stewart
brooke brisbine
John StewartHi John, thank you so much for the lovely comment! I am really happy to hear that this information was helpful to you and your wife even at the final stages of your application. I’d been taking notes and trying to organise evidence for the better part of a year until I finally got my head around it, so it was exciting to feel like everything finally came together in the end— as I’m sure you will soon relate!
Wishing you and your wife a successful application and a short wait on your visa!
– Brooke
Avinash kaur
brooke brisbinePlzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz help.. i m stuck with page 11/18 of sponsorship for partner. it is asking to provide relationship details like financial,social,commitment etc. We actually filled all details in applicant’s application already.. do i again need to write in my words??? or can i copy paste same here???
brooke brisbine
Avinash kaurHi Avinash,
You do need to answer the questions again as the sponsor, but it doesn’t have to include the same level of detail if you already submitted long statements with the main application.
-Brooke
Samy
brooke brisbineHey Brooke,Hope you are doing well.
My name is Samy, i am currently providing evidences and writing statements for my partner visa, can you please confirm if i need to certify all of my statements, for example i just finished writing development of my relationship with my partner. Do i need to get this certified and all the rest of the statements as well ? Please let me know would be very much appreciated. thanks
brooke brisbine
SamyHi Samy,
You do not need to have any of your statements certified, nor any of your other documents (unless a CO specifically requested it). The only upload for the entire application that you are required to have witnessed is the Form 888, and these are done by your witnesses.
Hope that helps 🙂
Erin
Avinash kaurHello!
You have written extensive information that has been extremely helpful but I’m still stuck on some things that I need clarity with 🙂
My partner and I applied for 820/801 in Dec 2018 at this point we had lived together for more than 12 months and had legally registered our relationship 2 months prior in August 2018. In August 2020 the 820 was granted.
Last week I got an email saying we are ready for Stage 2 and directed us to the immigration website to start a new application for stage 2.
I am confused because I thought when I did the original application it was for stage 1 & 2 combined? Is it normal to have to do a whole new application for Stage 2?
I have started this application and it is asking me all the exact same questions as what I had originally submitted so I’m wondering if I’m going to have to re-upload every single document I did before or they will cross reference with the ones that I uploaded 2 years ago?
Feeling overwhelmed!
Any ideas?
Thank you
brooke brisbine
ErinHi Erin,
Yes, it is a requirement that you complete a secondary application and upload addition evidence for the 801 visa (unless you’ve been de facto 3+ years, in which case both visas are granted simultaneously).
Unfortunately, I can’t give you too much specific advice on this portion, as mine were granted together and I didn’t have to complete the second application. As I understand it, though, you do have to provide a lot of duplicate information and then include new evidence from the period since your 820 was granted.
Best of luck with it all!
-Brooke
Lia
brooke brisbineThanks Brooke..I just granted a Temporary Partner Visa…Your blog helped me a lot.
brooke brisbine
LiaHi Lia,
Wonderful, a big congratulations to you!!
xx Brooke
Lia
brooke brisbineHI Brooke…just one question…after the Subclass 820 was granted…Do I have to apply for the Visa 801 still?
Thanķs
brooke brisbine
LiaHi Lia,
Typically yes, 2 years after 820 is granted (or slightly before) you will need to apply for 801. The exception is if you have both visas granted simultaneously, as was my experience– this is based on a long-term de facto relationship 3+ years at the time of application (or 2+ years if you have children together).
-Brooke
Manasi
brooke brisbineHey Brooke Thank you so much for ur help through ur blogs..after long waiting(17 months) finally me n my 2 kids granted PR few days ago..now just waiting to open boarders to go. Eagerly waiting to see my husband n start life together ❤
Thanks for ur kind help n God bless u!
You are very kind hearted n you know this universe will give u everything u want.
Stay blessed!
Love you
Manasi
brooke brisbine
ManasiThank you so much for the lovely comment, Manasi, and congratulations on your PR!
Wishing you and your family a happy life in Australia 🙂
-Brooke
Natalia
brooke brisbineDonde puedo escribirte para todas las dudas que me quedaron? Tu post está increíble
brooke brisbine
NataliaHi Natalia,
Glad you found the posts helpful! If you have specific questions, you can leave them here in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer 🙂
-Brooke