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
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