The permanent subclass 801 is not queued from the day you lodged. The Department of Home Affairs says that "the processing time for a permanent Partner visa starts from the date of eligibility. This is two years after you applied for the temporary and permanent Partner visas." Everything before that point is the qualifying period for the visa, not time spent being processed. No current figure is quoted on this page, because the published times change and the only reliable source for them is the Department's own tool.
Key facts
Two years of holding the 820 is not two years of processing. The clock starts at the eligibility point. Check the Department's processing time guide tool for indicative figures, and treat them as a description of decided applications rather than a promise about yours.
Where do the published figures come from?
From the Department's visa processing times page, which hosts a visa processing time guide tool reporting how long recently decided applications took. The Department states that it is "a guide only and not specific to your application", and warns that partner visa applicants "may experience longer processing times than expected".
Two things follow. First, the figures are historical: they describe files already decided, lodged under the caseload and policy settings of an earlier period. Second, they are distributions, not deadlines — a figure that describes most applications says nothing about which part of the range yours falls in. Passing a published figure is not in itself evidence that something has gone wrong.
Because the figures move, this guide does not repeat them. Processing time updates tracks changes to the published guidance, and 820 visa processing time covers the first stage.
What sets the order applications are decided in?
Ministerial Direction 117, which sets family visa processing priorities. The Department says partner applications are processed in accordance with it. A direction of that kind tells departmental officers how to order the caseload — which categories to take first — rather than how fast any individual file must move. It is why two applications lodged in the same week can be decided months apart without either being mishandled.
The date of eligibility is the point at which your application enters that queue for the permanent stage. If you were in a long-term partner relationship with your sponsoring partner when you lodged, the two-year requirement does not apply to you at all, and the permanent visa can be considered without that qualifying period — see long-term relationship exemption. That removes a criterion; it does not remove the processing.
What happens at the eligibility point, and what comes after?
The usual sequence is a request, a response, and then a wait of unpredictable length before the decision. It runs like this.
- The Department contacts you. At or after the two-year mark it normally writes asking for updated information and evidence that the relationship has continued since lodgement. The request arrives through ImmiAccount or the correspondence address recorded on the application, and the Department may also contact you directly even where an authorised recipient is appointed.
- You provide the updated material by the date given. That typically means a fresh statement about the relationship over the intervening period, updated financial, household and social evidence, updated statutory declarations from Australian citizens, permanent residents or eligible New Zealand citizens, and current personal documents. Police certificates are valid for 12 months from the date of issue for immigration purposes and health assessment results are valid for 12 months, so either may need to be redone. 801 stage documents has the full list.
- The file returns to the queue. Providing the evidence does not put your application at the front of anything. What commonly follows is a further period with no contact, which can be short or can run well past the published indicative figure. Some applications are decided without any further contact; others attract a second request, adverse information put to the applicant for comment, or an interview. Each of those adds a full round trip.
The response deadline is the part you control; the wait afterwards is the part you do not. Missing a deadline can cost far more time than it saves, because the Department may proceed to decide on the material it has. See requests for more information and checking your application status.
What can you do while you wait?
Keep the file current, and keep yourself contactable. The Department's advice during the temporary stage is that, because partner applications can have long processing times, you should update your documents and evidence of your relationship regularly through ImmiAccount. Doing that removes the scramble at the two-year mark and produces a continuous record rather than a burst of documents created for the visa. Keep contact, address and passport details up to date as well — Form 929 covers address and passport details, Form 1022 covers other changes. An email address you no longer read is one of the simplest ways to miss a request and lose months.
Your status while you wait does not change. The 820 lets you stay until the permanent Partner visa application is finalised or you withdraw it, with full work rights, study at your own expense, travel in and out of Australia, and Medicare if eligible. The thing to avoid is being granted a different visa: the Department says that to be granted the 801 you must hold the 820 or a Dependent Child visa (subclass 445), and that if you are granted any other visa you will no longer be eligible. New Zealand passport holders need to tell the border officer on arrival that they hold a temporary Partner visa and do not want a Special Category visa (subclass 444).
What if your circumstances change while you wait?
Tell the Department. The changes it asks to be told about include relationship status, the birth of a child, contact details, passports and anything else relevant to the application. A change of circumstances during the wait is not automatically bad for the application, but a change the Department discovers later, unreported, is a credibility problem on top of whatever it was. See telling Home Affairs about changes.
If the relationship ends while the permanent visa is being processed, the position changes immediately and the timeframes for doing something about it are short. There is a Notification of Relationship Cessation form in ImmiAccount, and the Migration Regulations allow the permanent visa to be granted after a relationship has ceased in defined circumstances, including where family violence has been committed by the sponsoring partner. If the relationship ends and family violence provisions set out those routes and where support is available.
An application taken through the permanent stage with an immigration lawyer is more likely to succeed, and the reason here is narrow: the Department's request at the eligibility point comes with a deadline, it usually asks for exactly the evidence people have not been collecting, and a late or partial answer converts a waiting problem into a refusal risk. Working with a migration lawyer explains how to check a lawyer's practising certificate.
Before your eligibility date arrives, read when the 801 is assessed and start assembling 801 stage documents.
Common questions
When does the 801 processing clock start?
At the date of eligibility. The Department of Home Affairs says the processing time for a permanent Partner visa starts from the date of eligibility, which is two years after you applied for the temporary and permanent Partner visas. The two years you spend holding the temporary 820 are the qualifying period, not processing time.
Where can I find the current 801 processing time?
In the Department's visa processing time guide tool, on its visa processing times page. The tool shows how long recently decided applications took, and the Department describes it as a guide only and not specific to your application. The figures move, so check the tool rather than relying on a number quoted elsewhere.
Why is my application taking longer than the published time?
The published times describe applications that have already been decided, not a target for yours. The Department warns that applicants may experience longer processing times than expected. Applications are processed according to Ministerial Direction 117, which sets family visa processing priorities, and an application that needs further evidence, an interview, a new police certificate or a new health assessment will take longer than one that does not.
Can I do anything to speed up the 801?
Not directly, but you can avoid slowing it down. Respond to the Department's requests within the deadline given, keep your contact details current in ImmiAccount, keep adding relationship evidence as it happens rather than at the end, and make sure police certificates and health assessments are current when asked for. Each round of correspondence adds time.
What happens to my visa status while I wait?
The subclass 820 continues until the permanent Partner visa application is finalised or you withdraw it, so you keep the right to live, work, study and travel that the temporary visa gives you. The one thing to avoid is being granted another visa, because the Department says that ends your eligibility for the subclass 801.
Sources
Keep reading
When Is the 801 Assessed? The Two-Year Eligibility Point
The 801 is assessed two years after the combined partner visa application was made, not two years after the 820 was granted. What happens at that point.
Read the guide →
801 Visa Documents and Evidence Update
What to provide at the 801 stage — updated relationship evidence for the whole period since lodgement, fresh statements, and what not to redo unprompted.
Read the guide →
Long-Term Relationship Exemption: Going Straight to the 801
If you were in a long-term partner relationship when you applied, the Migration Regulations remove the two-year wait for the permanent subclass 801 visa.
Read the guide →