Requests for More Information (s56) Explained

It asks you to give additional information about your subclass 820 application, in a way the letter specifies, by a date the letter sets. It is a routine step and not an allegation about your relationship. What makes it dangerous is the deadline.

What section 56 actually does

Section 56(1) provides that in considering a visa application the decision-maker may get any information that he or she considers relevant, and that if information is obtained, it must be had regard to in deciding whether to grant or refuse the visa. Section 56(2) adds that the decision-maker may invite, orally or in writing, the applicant to give additional information in a specified way.

Two things follow from the word "may". First, the power is discretionary: there is no right to be asked. Section 54(3) says plainly that a decision to grant or refuse a visa may be made without giving the applicant an opportunity to make oral or written submissions. An application that is thin at lodgement can be refused without anyone writing to ask for more, which is the strongest argument for lodging complete — see decision-ready applications.

Second, if the Department does obtain information, it has to take it into account. That cuts both ways: what you send in answer forms part of the material the decision is made on.

What the letter looks like

Section 58(1) requires an invitation under section 56 to specify whether the information may be given in writing, at an interview between the applicant and an officer, or by telephone. Most partner visa requests come in writing, listing items by number.

The letter will normally identify the application, list what is wanted, state how it is to be given, and state a date. On a subclass 820 that list is usually some combination of further relationship evidence in one of the four matters the Department must consider; Form 888 statutory declarations or the statutory declarations required at lodgement; identity documents or translations; police certificates or health examinations; and documents about the sponsor.

The deadline, and where it starts running

The date in the letter governs. Behind it, regulation 2.15 of the Migration Regulations 1994 prescribes the period for the purposes of section 58(2):

Regulation 2.15(2) carves out requests for information to be obtained from a third party about health, public interest criteria, English language capacity, or skills and qualifications. Those sit outside the prescribed period.

The period runs from when you are notified, and notification is a legal event rather than the moment you read something. Section 494C of the Act provides that a document made available through your online account, or sent by email, is taken to have been received at the end of the day it was made available or transmitted.

What happens if the deadline passes

Section 62 of the Migration Act is the provision that bites. If an applicant is invited to give additional information and does not give it before the time for giving it has passed, the decision-maker may make a decision to grant or refuse to grant the visa without taking any action to obtain the additional information.

Until then, you are protected. Section 63(2) provides that the decision-maker is not to refuse a visa after inviting information and before the first of these happens: the information is given, the applicant says they do not wish to give it or do not have it, or the time in which it may be given ends. So the file waits for the period — and then it does not. The practical consequence is ordinary and bleak: the Department asked because it did not consider the existing evidence sufficient, so if nothing arrives, the decision is made on that same insufficient evidence. See why 820 visas are refused.

How to ask for more time

Section 58(4) allows the prescribed period to be extended by the Minister for a prescribed further period. Regulation 2.15(4) sets that further period at 7 days where the applicant is in Australia and not in immigration detention (5 days in immigration detention; 7 days, or 28 if the Minister so decides, for an applicant outside Australia).

That is short. Treat an extension as a way to close a gap of a few days, not as a way to start gathering documents you have not begun. Ask in writing, before the original period ends. Say what specific document you are waiting for, why it is outside your control — an overseas police certificate, a medical appointment, a bank's records request — and when you expect it. Send whatever you already have at the same time rather than holding the whole response back.

Regulation 2.13 requires written communication about a visa application to include your full name as set out in the application, your date of birth, and one of your client number, the Immigration file number or the application receipt number.

How to answer a request well

Answer the question that was asked. If the letter asks for evidence of shared financial commitments, it is asking for the lease, the loan statement, the joint account records — not a narrative about your finances.

Provide the document, not an explanation of the document. A statement saying "we have lived together since March 2024" is worth much less than the tenancy agreement, the electricity account in both names, and the redirected mail. Where a statement is genuinely needed, attach it to the evidence it describes rather than in place of it.

Follow the numbering. If the letter lists six items, reply with six items in the same order, named so the file reads itself: Item 3 — joint bank statements, Jan 2025 to Aug 2026. A response a case officer can check in ten minutes gets checked.

Give it in the way specified. Section 56(2) lets the Department specify how information is to be given, and the note to regulation 2.13 confirms that where a way is specified, it must be used. Section 52(3) provides that a communication made in some other way is taken not to have been received unless the Department in fact receives it.

Say so if something does not exist. If you cannot obtain a document, say why, say what you have done to try, and provide the nearest alternative. Silence on an item reads as a failure to comply; an explained gap with substitute evidence does not. Send it as one organised response rather than piecemeal uploads.

Section 56 compared with section 57

If the letter puts something to you — an inconsistency, an adverse report, something a third party has said — it is likely a section 57 letter, and the response is a different exercise. See natural justice letters.

A response prepared with an immigration lawyer is more likely to succeed, because the failure mode here is specific: people answer the wrong question, send an explanation where a document was required, or let a 28-day period pass waiting for one certificate they could have flagged in writing on day two. Someone who reads these letters weekly knows which item in the list the decision actually turns on. No one can promise an outcome.

What to do next

Diarise the date in the letter and work backwards from it. If the request touches your relationship evidence, read how much evidence to provide before you answer. If the letter puts adverse information to you instead, go to natural justice letters.

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