Every page on 820visa.com.au is written from Australian government material: the Department of Home Affairs' own published pages, the Migration Act 1958 and the Migration Regulations 1994. This page sets out the rules that apply to that work, so you can judge for yourself how much weight a page deserves.
What counts as a source
Three sources, in order of priority.
- The Department of Home Affairs. For what the visa costs, what the Department asks for, how to lodge, and what it says it will do, the Department's own pages are the authority. Where the Department's wording is itself the fact — a fee, a validity period, a criterion — that wording is used rather than paraphrased into something looser.
- The legislation. For the legal tests, the Act and the Regulations govern: the definitions of spouse and de facto partner, the Schedule 2 criteria for each subclass, the Schedule 3 criteria, and the visa conditions in Schedule 8. A summary page and a provision sometimes read differently; where they do, the provision is what the law says and the page says so.
- Other Australian government bodies, where they own the subject: the Administrative Review Tribunal for review of a refusal, Services Australia for Medicare and payments, and the Attorney-General's Department for statutory declarations.
What is not a source: law firm articles, adviser blogs, directories, news reports, social media and forums. They are not cited, not linked and not used as the origin of a number, however confident they sound. The law behind the partner visa collects the provisions the guide relies on most.
Outbound links
Outbound links go only to Australian government and education domains. There are no links out to firms, directories or news sites anywhere on this site, and none are paid for. Where a page relies on a government source, that source is named in the text as well as linked, so the claim can be checked even if the link later moves.
Figures that move
Some numbers are true only on the day they are read. The visa application charge, concession amounts, processing times and tribunal fees all change, some of them annually on 1 July.
Any such figure is dated in the sentence that contains it — "as at 23 September 2026" — and followed by a line telling you where to check the current number yourself: the Department's Visa Pricing Estimator for charges, or its visa processing times tool for waiting periods. Processing times are never given as a flat figure, because the Department describes its own tool as a guide only, based on recently decided applications and not specific to any individual case.
Important
a dated figure is a record of what a government page showed on that date. It is not a guarantee that the amount is the same today. Check the current figure with the Department before you rely on it for money or timing.
Proposals are labelled as proposals
Migration policy generates a steady stream of announcements, and much of the confusion online comes from writing them up as though they were already law. Here, a proposed change is described as a proposal, with the date it was announced, and the page states plainly that the existing rule still applies and what would have to happen — regulations made, an Act passed, a commencement date reached — for that to change. Nothing is written as current fact on the strength of a media release. Changes being tracked are collected on partner visa updates.
Review dates
Every page carries a last reviewed date at the top. That date means the page was read against its sources on that day, not merely that it was published at some point.
Pages are grouped by how quickly they go stale. Cost pages, processing time pages and anything covering a proposed change are rechecked on the shortest cycle, and immediately after any 1 July change. Pages built on legislation — the relationship definitions, Schedule 3, the section 48 bar, the visa conditions — are rechecked against the current compilation of the Act and Regulations, and whenever an amendment touches them. Everything else is reviewed on a rolling basis. The date moves whether or not the check produced a change, so you know it happened.
The limits of this guide
Three limits, stated honestly.
- This is general information, not advice. Nothing on the site takes account of your visa history, your relationship, your sponsor or your documents, because none of that is known here. The same rule can produce opposite outcomes for two couples.
- Migration law changes. Regulations are amended, charges are indexed, ministerial directions are replaced and the Department rewrites its own pages. A page that was accurate when it was reviewed can be overtaken without notice. Always check the Department's current material before you act.
- No page here is a substitute for someone who can look at your case. Advice on your own application is immigration assistance under s 276 of the Migration Act 1958, and it should come from an Australian migration lawyer. In the harder situations an application a lawyer prepares is more likely to succeed — because the criteria are technical, because a single validity defect can make an application worth nothing, and because deadlines in the Department's letters and in tribunal review are short and cannot be extended. What a migration lawyer does, and how to check one, is on working with a migration lawyer.
Reporting an error
Errors get fixed. If a fact on this site is wrong, out of date or misleading, report it through the contact form: name the page, quote the sentence, and say what the correct position is with a link to the government page or provision that supports it. Factual corrections are treated as a priority, the page is republished with an updated review date, and the same check is applied to any other page that repeated the error.
What the guide is, and how it is funded, is set out on about this guide.
Common questions
Where does the information on this site come from?
From Australian government sources. The starting point is the Department of Home Affairs' own pages for the subclass 820 and subclass 801 visas, and behind that the Migration Act 1958 and the Migration Regulations 1994, which contain the actual legal tests. Other government bodies are used where they own the subject, such as the Administrative Review Tribunal for review and Services Australia for payments. Nothing is sourced from law firm blogs, forums or news reports.
How current is the information?
Every page carries a last reviewed date, shown at the top. Figures that move are dated in the sentence itself, so you can see exactly when the amount was checked rather than assuming it is current. Migration law changes often, sometimes at short notice, so a dated page is a record of what was published on that day, not a promise that nothing has changed since.
How are proposed changes handled?
A proposal is labelled as a proposal until it becomes law. Announced measures, exposure drafts and media statements are described as announcements, with the date, and the page says plainly that the rule has not changed yet and what would have to happen for it to change. Nothing that has only been announced is written up as though it already applies.
How do I report an error?
Use the contact form. Name the page, quote the sentence you think is wrong, and say what the correct position is, ideally with a link to the government page or the provision that supports it. Factual errors and out-of-date figures are corrected as a priority, and the page's review date is updated when the correction is published.
Sources
Keep reading
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