Applying

Lodging in ImmiAccount: Screen-by-Screen

The 820 is lodged online in an ImmiAccount that should belong to the applicant, by starting a Partner visa (subclasses 820 and 801) application, completing its sections, attaching documents, paying the charge and submitting.

Last reviewed 23 September 2026General information, not legal advice

The subclass 820 is lodged online in ImmiAccount: you create an account, start a Partner visa (subclasses 820 and 801) application, work through its sections, attach your documents, pay the charge and submit. The Department of Home Affairs says you must apply online and while in Australia, so there is no paper alternative. The Department changes the wording and layout of its online forms, so what follows describes what each stage does rather than reproducing screen labels that may already have moved.

Who should own the ImmiAccount?

The applicant. An ImmiAccount is free and is created with an email address and a password. The account holding the application also holds the Department's correspondence, the upload function and the ability to update the file for years, so the person whose visa it is should control it.

That matters more than it sounds. The Department tells applicants to protect their ImmiAccount and passwords, and its online safety advice for people in relationships that are not safe goes further: change the password, avoid saved passwords, and consider a new email account. An applicant whose account is controlled by someone else can lose access to their own application at the moment they need it. See family violence provisions.

A sponsor can hold their own ImmiAccount. A migration lawyer normally lodges through theirs, an arrangement recorded on Form 956.

Starting the application

Inside the account you create a new application and choose the partner visa lodged in Australia — the 820 and 801 pair, which is one application and one charge covering both stages. Do not start a separate 801 application; there is no such thing at this point. The form saves as you go, and nothing is lodged until you submit and pay.

What the form asks for

The form collects five things:

Identity and travel history — passport and personal details, other names you have used, and your movements.
Your current visa and immigration status, including any previous visa refusal or cancellation. This is where the section 48 bar and no further stay issues surface.
The relationship — how and when you met, whether you are married or de facto, when the relationship began, and your sponsor's details.
Family composition, including children and other family members whether or not they are applying with you. Non-migrating family members still have to be declared.
Health and character declarations, and, for applicants 18 or older, the Australian values statement, which requires you to have read or had explained the Life in Australia booklet.

Answer everything, including the questions with uncomfortable answers. The Migration Regulations 1994 require a partner visa applicant to satisfy public interest criterion 4020, on bogus documents and information that is false or misleading in a material particular. An awkward fact disclosed is a fact assessed; the same fact concealed and later discovered is a different problem.

Adding family members to the application

Members of your family unit applying with you are added inside the same application, as combined applicants, and the Department says they must also be in Australia when the application is made. Each attracts a charge and needs their own documents — see including children in your application.

Attaching documents

Documents are attached against the person and the category they relate to — identity for the applicant, identity for each child, relationship evidence, and so on. Two habits make this section survivable.

Name the files so a stranger can read them. A case officer opening fifty attachments called IMG_4471 will find nothing; Smith-John-passport-bio-page tells them what they are holding.

Group the relationship evidence the way it is assessed, into financial aspects, the nature of the household, social context and the nature of the commitment. That is the structure the decision is written in. See relationship evidence.

Documents not in English need translations, and file size and attachment numbers are limited, so combine related pages into one PDF rather than uploading dozens of photographs of a single statement.

Important

The Department's instruction is to 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 writing to you first — see decision-ready applications.

The TRN and the Application ID

When the application is lodged it is given a transaction reference number (TRN), and an Application ID identifies it inside ImmiAccount. Write both down. Your sponsor uses one of them to attach their sponsorship form to your visa application, whether they lodge through their own ImmiAccount or yours, and you use them for checking your application status.

Paying, and submitting

The charge is paid at the end, and the application is not lodged until the payment goes through. As shown by the Department on 23 September 2026, it was from A$11,710.00 for most applicants and from A$1,955.00 for subclass 300 holders, with concessions in limited circumstances; use the Department's Visa Pricing Estimator for your own figure, because these amounts change. The Department says it will not refund the application fee if it refuses the application. See 820 visa cost.

Check the card will authorise a charge of that size before you submit. A declined payment means the application is not lodged, and if your visa is about to expire, that date matters.

What happens after you submit

The Department acknowledges that it has received the application. If you held a substantive visa when you applied, a bridging visa is normally granted at the same time and comes into effect only when your current visa ends — see Bridging visa A. From then on ImmiAccount is the file.

Correcting a mistake after submission

You cannot edit a submitted form, but you can correct it, and should do so immediately. Tell the Department in writing through ImmiAccount: what was wrong, what the correct answer is, and whatever proves it. The Department also publishes Form 1022 for changes in circumstances and Form 929 for a change of address or passport details. A correction volunteered early reads as an error; the same correction extracted at interview reads as something else.

Contact details and authorised recipients

The Department says an applicant can nominate the sponsor's email address for correspondence or appoint an authorised recipient, but that it may still contact the applicant directly. An authorised recipient receives the Department's letters on your behalf; appointing one does not hand over control of the application.

Think carefully before putting someone else's email on the form. Time limits in the Department's letters run from when the letter is taken to have been received, not from when it is passed on to you, so a nominated address nobody checks can cost a deadline — a risk that falls hardest on applicants who later separate from the sponsor.

Keeping the application alive while you wait

The Department is explicit: because partner applications can have long visa processing times, you should update your documents and evidence of your relationship regularly through ImmiAccount. Keep adding evidence as the relationship continues — a new joint account, a new lease, dated photographs. Tell the Department if anything changes: your relationship status, the birth of a child, your contact details or a new passport. See telling Home Affairs about changes.

An application prepared by a migration lawyer is more likely to succeed, and this stage is where inexperience shows as silence: a form answered too briefly, evidence uploaded as an undifferentiated heap, and a request for information with a short deadline arriving in an account nobody opens.

Next: your sponsor now has their own form to lodge, and it needs your TRN — see the sponsor's part of the application, or step back to how to apply for the 820 visa.

Common questions

Whose ImmiAccount should the 820 application be lodged in?

The applicant's own. The account holds the correspondence, the evidence and the ability to update the application for the next two years or more, so the person whose visa it is should control it. The Department of Home Affairs tells applicants to protect their ImmiAccount and passwords, and gives specific online safety advice for people in unsafe relationships, including changing the password and considering a separate email account.

What is a TRN and where do I find it?

A transaction reference number is the identifier the Department gives an application when it is lodged. It appears in ImmiAccount against the application, and in the correspondence acknowledging that the application has been received. Your sponsor needs it, or the Application ID, to attach their sponsorship form to your visa application, and you need it to check the status of the application later.

Can I fix a mistake after I have submitted the 820 application?

You cannot edit a submitted form, but you can and should correct it. Tell the Department in writing through ImmiAccount as soon as you notice, set out plainly what was wrong and what the correct position is, and attach any document that proves it. Leaving an incorrect answer uncorrected is far more dangerous than the mistake itself, because the Migration Regulations 1994 require the applicant to satisfy public interest criterion 4020, which deals with false or misleading information.

Can I keep uploading documents after I lodge?

Yes, and the Department expects it. It says that because partner applications can have long processing times, you should update your documents and evidence of your relationship regularly through ImmiAccount. Evidence added after lodgement is still considered, as long as it arrives before a decision is made.

Can I use my partner's email address for the visa correspondence?

You can nominate your sponsor's email address for correspondence, or appoint an authorised recipient, but the Department says it may still contact you directly. Whichever address is on the application has to be one the applicant actually reads, because deadlines in the Department's letters run from when the letter is taken to have been received, not from when someone forwards it to you.