If you are on a bridging visa or you are unlawful, the subclass 820 is often still open to you, but almost every practical detail is different from the ordinary case. This page deals with status: which bridging visa you end up on, what has to be in the application before it counts as an application at all, whether you can work, and whether you can travel.
Whether the visa can be granted is a separate question, dealt with at Schedule 3 criteria. Read that page as well as this one.
Which bridging visa you will get
A bridging visa is not a substantive visa. That single fact drives everything below.
| Your status when you lodge | Normally granted | Provision |
|---|---|---|
| Bridging visa A or B | Bridging visa C | clause 030.212(2) |
| Bridging visa C | Bridging visa C | clauses 030.212(2) and (2A) |
| Bridging visa E, now or since your last substantive visa | Bridging visa E | clause 030.211 excludes the Bridging visa C |
| Unlawful, no Bridging visa E since your last substantive visa | Bridging visa C | clause 030.212(2) |
| Unlawful, having held a Bridging visa E since then | Bridging visa E | clause 050.211(1)(a) |
Two points about the table. A Bridging visa A is not available, because clause 010.211(2) requires the applicant to have held a substantive visa at the time the substantive application was made. And the dividing line between the Bridging visa C and the Bridging visa E is not lawfulness — it is whether you have held a Bridging visa E since you last held a substantive visa. Clause 030.211 is an absolute bar: the applicant "does not hold a Bridging E (Class WE) visa and has not held such a visa since last holding a substantive visa".
Clause 030.212(2) also requires the bridging visa application to be made at the same time and on the same form as the partner visa application, or to be grantable under regulation 2.21B. Applying for it afterwards is not the same thing. Under section 82(3) of the Migration Act 1958, a bridging visa ceases when another visa comes into effect for the holder, so the new bridging visa replaces whatever you held before.
The extra requirements that decide whether you have applied at all
This is where applications are lost before anyone reads them. Where section 48 of the Migration Act applies to you, Schedule 1 item 1124B(3)(e) of the Migration Regulations 1994 requires you to provide, at the same time and place as making the application:
- the approved sponsorship form, completed and signed by the Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen who claims to be your spouse or de facto partner. The Department calls this the 'Sponsorship for a Partner to Migrate to Australia' online form, and says the sponsor can lodge it through their own ImmiAccount or yours;
- evidence of the sponsor's status — the Department gives a passport or birth certificate as examples and says "A driver's licence or Medicare card is not sufficient evidence";
- two statutory declarations, each made by an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen who is not the partner, each declaring that you and the partner are in a married or de facto relationship, and each declared no more than 6 weeks before the application is made; and
- evidence that each declarant is a citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen.
Important
the Department states that Form 888 is not a statutory declaration, and that "the current and any previous versions of the Form 888 are not acceptable as they do not satisfy this requirement". You need Commonwealth statutory declarations, from the form published by the Attorney-General's Department. The Department also says that if this information is not included when you lodge, the application "may be deemed invalid" — and an invalid application is not an application, so no bridging visa flows from it.
The six-week rule is a trap of its own: a declaration signed two months ago, while you were still assembling documents, is already too old. See Form 888 statutory declarations for what that form does do, and the sponsor's part of the application for the sponsor's side.
The section 48 bar
Section 48 applies to a person in the migration zone who does not hold a substantive visa and who, after last entering Australia, was refused a visa (other than a bridging visa refusal, or a refusal under section 501, 501A or 501B) or held a visa cancelled under one of the listed powers. Such a person may apply only for a visa of a class prescribed for that section.
Regulation 2.12 prescribes both Partner (Temporary) (Class UK) and Partner (Residence) (Class BS), the class the 820 and 801 are granted under. A partner visa is one of the few applications a section 48 affected person can still make onshore.
The limit is in item 1124B(3)(e)(i): the applicant must not have been refused any of the listed partner and spouse visas since last entering Australia. A person barred by section 48 gets one partner visa application, not a series of them. Section 48(3) adds that a bridging visa holder who leaves and re-enters the migration zone is taken to have been continuously in it, so a trip overseas does not reset the bar. See the section 48 bar.
Work rights, and the compelling need to work application
Assume you cannot work until you have checked the grant notice.
On a Bridging visa C, clause 030.614 provides that in the ordinary case condition 8101 — the holder must not engage in work in Australia — is imposed. On a Bridging visa E, clause 050.617 allows 8101 to be imposed among others, and clause 050.611 carries across whichever of a listed set of conditions, including 8101, applied to the Bridging visa E you already held.
There is a route out, and it is a further bridging visa application rather than a variation:
- Bridging visa C: clause 030.212(3) allows a further one where the current visa was granted on a valid onshore substantive visa application, is subject to condition 8101, and the Minister is satisfied that the applicant has a compelling need to work. Clause 030.611 then imposes no conditions in the ordinary case.
- Bridging visa E: clause 050.212(8) does the same for a Bridging visa E subject to condition 8101, and clause 050.613 then limits the conditions that may be imposed to a list that does not include 8101.
Compelling need to work is defined in regulation 1.08: a non-citizen has one if and only if they are in financial hardship, or they fall within a narrow provision about an approved nomination for a subclass 457 visa. Financial hardship is a matter of evidence — income, expenses, dependants, debts — not of assertion. See work rights.
You cannot travel
A Bridging visa B is the only bridging visa that permits travel out of and back into Australia, and clause 020.211 requires the applicant for one to hold a Bridging visa A or a Bridging visa B. A Bridging visa C or E holder is not eligible, full stop.
So leaving Australia ends your bridging visa and leaves you with nothing to return on, and you must be in Australia when you apply in the first place. See Bridging visa B and travel and being in Australia when you apply. Funerals, sick parents and expiring passports are where this becomes real, and there is no quick fix.
Why this is the situation where advice matters most
An application prepared by an Australian migration lawyer is more likely to succeed here than on any other pathway on this site, for concrete reasons. Validity is decided at the moment of lodgement, by documents that have to exist on that day and be no more than six weeks old. Section 48 usually gives you one attempt. And the visa cannot be granted unless the Schedule 3 position is addressed in evidence, which does not happen unless someone writes it.
Nobody can promise an outcome, and nobody should. But this is the pathway where a self-lodged application most often fails for reasons that had nothing to do with the relationship. See working with a migration lawyer.
What to do next
Find out exactly what you hold and when it ends, using the Department's VEVO service, and find the date your last substantive visa ceased — both dates drive everything. Then read Schedule 3 criteria in full, check 820 visa requirements, and get advice before you lodge anything. If your last substantive visa carried a no further stay condition, start at condition 8503 no further stay.
Common questions
What bridging visa will I get if I apply for the 820 on a Bridging visa A?
Normally a Bridging visa C. Clause 010.211(2) requires the applicant to have held a substantive visa when the substantive application was made, and a bridging visa is not a substantive visa. Clause 030.212(2) covers an applicant who is not the holder of a substantive visa and who lodges the bridging visa application at the same time and on the same form, which produces a Bridging visa C.
Can I get a Bridging visa C if I have been on a Bridging visa E?
No. Clause 030.211 of Schedule 2 to the Migration Regulations 1994 requires that the applicant does not hold a Bridging E (Class WE) visa and has not held one since last holding a substantive visa. If you have held one in that period, the Bridging visa C is not available and the Bridging visa E provisions in Part 050 apply instead.
Can I work on a Bridging visa C or E?
Usually not at first. Clause 030.614 imposes condition 8101, the no work condition, on a Bridging visa C in the ordinary case, and condition 8101 is among the conditions that may be imposed on a Bridging visa E. A further bridging visa can be granted where the Minister is satisfied the applicant has a compelling need to work, which regulation 1.08 defines as including financial hardship.
Does a Form 888 count as one of the statutory declarations I have to lodge?
No. The Department of Home Affairs states that Form 888 is not a statutory declaration and that neither the current nor any previous version of it is acceptable for this requirement. You need Commonwealth statutory declarations, each made within the last six weeks by an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen who is not your partner.
Can I leave Australia and come back while my 820 is processed?
Not on a Bridging visa C or E. Clause 020.211 provides that an applicant for a Bridging visa B must hold a Bridging visa A or a Bridging visa B, so a Bridging visa C or E holder cannot be granted one. Leaving Australia ends your bridging visa and there is nothing to return on.
Sources
Keep reading
Lodging in ImmiAccount: Screen-by-Screen
How the 820 partner visa is lodged in ImmiAccount - who should own the account, what the form asks, attaching documents, the TRN, paying, and what happens next.
Read the guide →
The Sponsor's Part of the Application
What the 820 visa sponsor has to lodge - the Sponsorship for a Partner to Migrate to Australia form, when to lodge it, what it asks, and what happens if it is refused.
Read the guide →
Including Dependent Children in Your 820 Application
How to include children in an 820 partner visa application: who counts as a dependent child, what each child needs, consent and custody, and adding a child later.
Read the guide →