The nature of the persons' commitment to each other is the fourth of the four matters the decision maker must consider under regulation 1.15A of the Migration Regulations 1994 for married couples, and regulation 1.09A for de facto couples. It lists four items: the duration of the relationship, the length of time during which the persons have lived together, the degree of companionship and emotional support that the persons draw from each other, and whether the persons see the relationship as a long-term one.
What is the Department working out from commitment evidence?
Whether the relationship is one the two of you have built a future around, rather than one that exists in the present tense only. Two of the four items are dates and can be documented. The other two are internal to the relationship, and no organisation issues a certificate for either. That is why this matter depends on the written statements more than the other three, and why the documents that do exist here — wills, nominations, powers of attorney, next-of-kin records — carry disproportionate weight. The framework for all four matters is on relationship evidence.
The duration of the relationship
This item is a timeline, and the timeline has to be consistent everywhere it appears. Fix the date you both regard as the start of the relationship, be able to say why that date, and use it in the application form, both personal statements, the supporting statements and any covering index. A start date that shifts by a year between documents is one of the most damaging things in a file, because it puts every other date in question.
Duration also has legal consequences. For de facto applicants, regulation 2.03A requires the Minister to be satisfied that the applicant has been in the de facto relationship for at least the 12 months ending immediately before the date of the application, unless compelling and compassionate circumstances can be established; subregulation (5) removes that requirement where the relationship is a registered relationship within the meaning of section 2E of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901. Those paths are on exemptions from the 12-month rule.
The length of time living together
This is a separate item from duration. Give the periods with dates: the address, when you moved in, when you moved out, and why if you did. Where you have lived apart — work away, study, caring for a relative, a visa that forced someone offshore — those dates belong in the statements too. The address evidence sits under nature of the household evidence, and couples who have spent long periods apart should read evidence when you live apart.
Watch out
Married applicants have no separate requirement to have lived together for any set period, and de facto applicants must generally show 12 months of relationship rather than 12 months of cohabitation. Time living together is one item within one matter — but where it is short, the rest of the matter has to do more work.
Companionship and emotional support
This item is answered by description, and it is the one applicants most often write badly. What persuades is specificity about hard periods rather than declarations of feeling. A surgery and who took time off work. A parent's death and who flew where. A job loss and how the household absorbed it. Say what happened, when, and what the other person actually did. Generic statements — that you love each other, that you support each other in everything — are interchangeable between applicants and add nothing.
Corroboration comes from supporting statements by people who were present, dated messages and call logs from that period, and records carrying a date of their own — flights taken at short notice, carer's leave, a hospital listing one of you as the contact for the other.
Communication during time apart
Where a couple have been separated, contact records are the main evidence of both companionship and continuing commitment. Present them as a sample, not an archive: a short extract from each month, with the dates and participants visible, shows the pattern without burying the reader. Call logs from a phone account are often more useful than message content, because a third party generated them and they show frequency at a glance. Flight bookings, visit dates and passport stamps show the contact was not only digital, and money sent during that period also answers the financial aspects evidence.
Whether you see the relationship as a long-term one
This item is where documents return, because the ordinary way of treating someone as permanent is to name them in the paperwork that only matters later.
The usual records are a will naming the partner as beneficiary or executor; a binding death benefit nomination with a superannuation fund; life, income protection and health insurance naming the partner; an enduring power of attorney, guardianship appointment or advance care directive; and next-of-kin or emergency contact records held by an employer, hospital or university. Each was made for a reason other than the visa, which is what gives it weight.
Plans with a paper trail belong here too: a home loan pre-approval, a lease renewed in both names, a wedding booked and paid for, fertility or adoption records, a trip booked months ahead. A plan you can date is evidence; a plan you only assert is a sentence.
Which documents evidence which item?
| Document | Item it speaks to | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Marriage or relationship registration certificate | Duration | A dated, official start point |
| Earliest dated messages, photographs, travel | Duration | When the relationship began |
| Leases, bond records, address history | Time living together | Dated periods at shared addresses |
| Will naming the partner | A long-term relationship | Provision made for after death |
| Superannuation, life or health insurance nomination | A long-term relationship | The partner named as the dependent person |
| Enduring power of attorney or guardianship | A long-term relationship | Authority over your affairs and care |
| Next-of-kin and emergency contact records | Companionship; long-term | Who you name when something goes wrong |
| Call logs and message samples from periods apart | Companionship | Contact sustained over distance |
| Flights and visits during separations | Companionship; long-term | Effort and money spent to be together |
| Loan pre-approval, deposit, wedding bookings | A long-term relationship | Plans with dates attached |
| Statements about support through hard periods | Companionship | The part no document can show |
None of these is a required document. The Department's lodgement requirements concern the sponsorship form, evidence of the sponsor's status and, for applicants without a substantive visa, statutory declarations. Everything above is commonly provided. The general list is on 820 visa document checklist.
Common gaps, and how honest people fill them
No will, no nominations, nothing formal. Many couples have none of this, and the absence is normal rather than suspicious. Put the documents in place now if you would have made them anyway — a will and a superannuation nomination are inexpensive — and be straightforward about when they were made. A recent document honestly dated beats a gap.
Statements that describe feelings instead of events. Rewrite them around dated incidents. The relationship statement page sets out how the two accounts should be structured so they corroborate rather than repeat each other.
A short relationship. Where the relationship is young, the answer is density — evidence covering every month of it, and clear evidence of the other three matters — rather than apology.
A long relationship never counted. Long relationships are often under-evidenced in the early years, and it is worth going back. The Migration Regulations define a long-term partner relationship as one that has continued for at least three years, or at least two years where there is a dependent child of both people other than a stepchild. Where the applicant was in one when the application was made, the usual two-year wait before the subclass 801 is considered does not apply — see long-term relationship exemption.
An application prepared with a migration lawyer is more likely to succeed on this matter, because the commitment section is written rather than collected, and two people describing their own relationship rarely notice they have produced a warm account containing no verifiable events.
What to do next
Write the two personal statements before assembling anything else under this heading, because they determine which documents you then need to find. Use the relationship statement page for structure, check the people side against social context evidence, and put in place the wills, nominations and next-of-kin records you were going to make eventually.
Common questions
What documents show commitment for a partner visa?
The ones where each person has formally named the other as the person who matters most. Wills, binding superannuation death benefit nominations, life and health insurance beneficiaries, powers of attorney and advance care directives, and next-of-kin or emergency contact records with employers, hospitals and schools. None of them is a required document, but together they answer the regulation's question about whether the couple see the relationship as a long-term one.
How do we evidence companionship and emotional support?
Mainly in writing. The applicant's and sponsor's statements should describe specific periods when one supported the other — an illness, a bereavement, a job loss, a visa refusal, a pregnancy — and what that support actually involved. Supporting statements from people who saw it, and dated messages or call records from that period, give the description corroboration.
What is the date our relationship started?
There is no single legal answer, and the honest one is often a range rather than a day. Pick the date you both regard as the start of the relationship, be able to explain why, and then use that same date everywhere — in the application form, in both personal statements and in the supporting statements. Inconsistent start dates across a file cause more problems than an imprecise one.
Does living apart hurt the commitment evidence?
Not by itself. The length of time living together is one item among four, and the decision maker must consider all of the circumstances of the relationship. What matters is that the periods apart are explained with dates and evidenced with continued contact, visits, financial support and shared planning across that time.
Does a longer relationship help at the permanent stage?
It can change the timing. The Migration Regulations define a long-term partner relationship as one that has continued for at least three years, or at least two years where there is a dependent child of both people other than a stepchild. Where the applicant was in a long-term partner relationship at the time of application, the usual two-year wait for the subclass 801 does not apply.
Sources
Keep reading
Financial Evidence for the 820
The five financial items in regulation 1.15A, the documents that evidence each, how to present them, and what to do when you keep your money separate.
Read the guide →
Nature of the Household Evidence
The three household items in regulation 1.15A, how to evidence a shared address over time, and what to do when only one name is on the lease.
Read the guide →
Social Evidence: Proving Your Relationship Is Known
The three social items in regulation 1.15A, who should write a statement, and how to evidence being known as a couple to employers, clubs and agencies.
Read the guide →