You apply for the subclass 820 online through ImmiAccount, while you are physically in Australia, and your sponsor lodges a separate sponsorship application as soon as possible afterwards using your transaction reference number or Application ID. The Department of Home Affairs sets the process out in five steps, and this page follows them in order, with the traps that make an application invalid flagged where they arise.
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.
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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.
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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.
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Decision-Ready Partner Visa Applications
What a decision-ready 820 partner visa application is, what complete means in practice, and how to balance lodging early against lodging complete.
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DIY vs Using a Migration Lawyer
When it is realistic to lodge an 820 partner visa application yourself, and when an Australian migration lawyer changes the odds.
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Applying for an 820 from a Visitor Visa
You can apply for the 820 on a visitor visa if it has no no-further-stay condition and you are in Australia. What to check first, and the 2026 proposal.
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Applying for an 820 from a Student Visa
How a student or graduate visa holder applies for the 820 — condition 8534, what happens to enrolment and work limits, fees and health cover, and timing.
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Applying for an 820 from a Working Holiday Visa
Applying for the 820 on a 417 or 462 visa — the 12-month de facto problem, condition 8547, whether to take a second year visa, and why leaving is a trap.
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From a Prospective Marriage (300) Visa to the 820
What a subclass 300 holder does next — marry the sponsoring partner, apply onshore for the 820 and 801, the lower charge, and what happens if things change.
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Applying for an 820 from a Temporary Skill Visa (482/SID)
Applying for the 820 while on a 482 Skills in Demand visa — keeping your job, what happens to condition 8607, and whether to run an employer nomination too.
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Applying While on a Bridging Visa or Unlawful
What status you get if you lodge an 820 on a Bridging visa A, C or E or while unlawful — the extra lodgement rules, section 48, work rights and travel.
Read the guide →Step 1: Before you apply
Check three things before you touch the application form, because each of them can stop the application being valid.
Check your visa conditions in VEVO. The Department tells applicants to check their visa status and conditions online through VEVO. What you are looking for is a no further stay condition, most commonly condition 8503. The Department's position is clear: you can apply for this visa if your current or previous visa does not have a condition that prevents further stay, and a waiver of a no further stay condition "must be approved before you can apply for this visa". A waiver can only be requested in limited circumstances, using the Department's No Further Stay waiver request form or Form 1447. Applying first and asking for a waiver afterwards does not work. See condition 8503 no further stay.
Check your immigration status. The 820 is an onshore visa, and the applicant must be in Australia when the application is made. Whether you currently hold a substantive visa changes what you must include, and it changes what you must prove later. There are also two bars to be aware of. The Department says you might not be eligible to apply if you do not hold a substantive visa and you have had a visa cancelled or refused — the area covered by the section 48 bar. And it says certain regional visa holders might not be eligible to apply.
Check your relationship qualifies. Married applicants must, in most cases, be 18 or older when they apply, and applicants in de facto relationships must be 18 or older. The relationship itself has to meet the legal definition of spouse or de facto partner, and the Department must be satisfied it is genuine. Work through 820 visa requirements before you spend money.
Watch out
Two conditions are checked at the moment of lodgement and cannot be repaired afterwards — being in Australia, and not being subject to an unwaived no further stay condition. Everything else about an application can usually be improved after lodgement. These two cannot.
Step 2: Gather your documents
The Department's instruction at this step is the one that shapes the whole application: "You should provide all required information with your application, or as soon as possible after you apply." An application that arrives complete can be decided without anyone having to write to you first. That idea is developed on decision-ready applications.
What has to be assembled falls into four groups.
- Identity documents for the applicant and for anyone applying with them: passports, birth certificates, evidence of any name changes, and evidence of the end of any previous marriage or de facto relationship. Documents that are not in English need translation.
- Relationship evidence, organised around the four areas the Department assesses: financial aspects, the nature of the household, social context, and the nature of the couple's commitment to each other. See relationship evidence.
- Police certificates from every country you have lived in for the relevant period. The Department says these are valid for 12 months from the date of issue for immigration purposes, and that it may ask for them again if they expire before a decision is made — so it tells applicants to check processing times before getting them. See police certificates.
- Health examinations. The Department says health assessment results are valid for 12 months, and that a health undertaking runs for six months. See health examinations.
Those validity periods are a scheduling problem, not just a checklist item. Partner applications can take a long time, so documents obtained too early can expire before a decision and have to be obtained again, at your expense.
The Department also says to make sure everything you provide is accurate: you must prove your identity and provide true information with your application. Getting this wrong is far more serious than a gap — it goes to the character requirement and can follow you into later applications.
If you do not hold a substantive visa
An applicant who does not hold a substantive visa, and who is eligible to apply, must include specific things at lodgement or the application may be deemed invalid. The Department lists them:
- a Sponsorship for a Partner to Migrate to Australia online form completed by the sponsor;
- evidence of the sponsor's status as an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen — for example a passport or birth certificate, because "a driver's licence or Medicare card is not sufficient evidence";
- at least two statutory declarations, each made within the last six weeks, by an Australian citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen, confirming the married or de facto relationship, on the Commonwealth Statutory Declaration form from the Attorney-General's Department;
- evidence that each declarant is a citizen, permanent resident or eligible New Zealand citizen.
The Department is explicit that Form 888 does not satisfy this requirement: the current and any previous versions of the Form 888 are not acceptable, because they are not statutory declarations. That single sentence invalidates applications. See Form 888 statutory declarations.
Separately, an applicant without a substantive visa will have to meet additional criteria to be granted the visa, and must demonstrate that compelling reasons exist for the grant of a partner visa, unless they previously held a subclass 300 visa. That is the Schedule 3 criteria, and it is a grant requirement rather than a validity requirement — but it needs to be argued from the start.
Step 3: Apply online in ImmiAccount
The Department says you must apply online and while in Australia. The application is made in ImmiAccount, which is also where you will upload documents, receive correspondence and manage the file for the next two years or more.
Practical points at this step:
- The 820 and the 801 are applied for together in the one application, and one visa application charge covers both. The charge is paid when the application is submitted. See 820 visa cost.
- Include any family members applying with you. They must also be in Australia. See including children in your application.
- You can nominate your sponsor's email address for correspondence, or appoint an authorised recipient, but the Department may still contact you directly. Make sure the email address on the application is one you actually read.
- Protect the ImmiAccount and its password. The Department gives specific online safety advice for people whose relationship is not safe, including changing the password and considering a separate email account.
- Note the transaction reference number (TRN), or Application ID. Your sponsor needs it.
A screen-by-screen walkthrough is on lodging in ImmiAccount.
Step 4: The sponsor lodges the sponsorship application
Your sponsor's part is a separate application, and it is not optional. The Department says the applicant and anyone applying with them must have a sponsor when the application is lodged and while on the visa, that the Department must approve the sponsor, and that the sponsor should apply to sponsor as soon as possible after the visa application is made.
The sponsor can lodge the sponsorship form through their own ImmiAccount or through the applicant's, using the TRN or Application ID from the visa application. For an applicant without a substantive visa, remember that the sponsorship form is one of the things that must be there at lodgement.
One rule catches couples out later: you cannot change your sponsor. The Department says the person who sponsors you when you apply must be the same person who sponsors you for two years after the temporary visa is granted. See the sponsor's part of the application.
Step 5: After you apply, and the outcome
The Department acknowledges that it has received the application. If you held a substantive visa when you applied, a bridging visa is normally granted with it, taking effect when the current visa ends — see Bridging visa A.
Then the waiting begins, and the Department's advice for that period is active rather than passive: because partner applications can have long processing times, "you should update your documents and evidence of your relationship regularly through ImmiAccount". Tell the Department if anything changes — your relationship status, the birth of a child, your contact details or your passport.
You can be in or outside Australia when the temporary visa is decided. If the visa is granted, the grant letter gives the visa grant number, the date the visa starts and the conditions that apply. If it is refused, the refusal letter gives the reasons for the decision and says whether there is a right of review — and the Department says it will not refund the application fee if it refuses the application.
Where professional help changes the outcome
An application prepared by a migration lawyer is more likely to succeed, and on this page the reason is procedural rather than evidentiary. The 820 has validity rules that are unforgiving: being in Australia at the moment of lodgement, an unwaived no further stay condition that must be dealt with first, and a fixed list of things a non-substantive-visa applicant must file on the day — including statutory declarations no more than six weeks old, which a Form 888 does not satisfy. An application that fails on any of those is not refused on its merits; it is simply not a valid application, and the lodgement date, the bridging visa and the money go with it.
Next: work through 820 visa document checklist so you know what you are gathering, then read decision-ready applications before you decide when to lodge.
Unregistered agents
An unregistered agent who gives immigration assistance is acting illegally (Migration Act 1958 s 280). They carry no professional indemnity insurance, so if their mistake costs you a refusal, your fees or your pathway, there is no insurer to claim against. A practising Australian lawyer must hold that insurance.
Common questions
Can I apply for the 820 visa from outside Australia?
No. The Department of Home Affairs says you must apply online and while in Australia, and any family members applying with you must be in Australia too. If you are offshore, the equivalent visa is the subclass 309 and 100 partner visa, not the 820. Once the 820 application has been lodged you can be in or outside Australia when the temporary visa is decided.
Do my sponsor and I lodge the same form?
No. You lodge the visa application, and your sponsor separately lodges a Sponsorship for a Partner to Migrate to Australia application. The sponsor can lodge it through their own ImmiAccount or through yours, using the transaction reference number or Application ID from your visa application. The Department says the sponsor should apply as soon as possible after the visa application is made.
What happens straight after I lodge the 820 application?
The Department acknowledges that it has received the application. If you applied while holding a substantive visa, a bridging visa is usually granted at the same time, which comes into effect only when your current visa ends. You should then keep updating your documents and your relationship evidence through ImmiAccount, because partner applications can take a long time to decide.
Can I apply for the 820 if my visa has condition 8503 on it?
Not unless the condition is waived first. The Department says you can apply if your current or previous visa does not have a condition preventing further stay, such as condition 8503, and that a waiver must be approved before you can apply for this visa. A waiver can only be requested in limited circumstances, through the Department's No Further Stay waiver request form or Form 1447.
What do I get when the 820 is decided?
If the visa is granted, the Department sends a grant letter with the visa grant number, the date the visa starts and the conditions attached to it. If it is refused, the refusal letter sets out the reasons for the decision and says whether you have a right of review. The Department says it will not refund the application fee if it refuses the application.