No partner visa processing time is quoted on this page. The only current figures are the ones the Department of Home Affairs publishes in its visa processing time guide tool, and the Department describes them as a guide only and not specific to your application. Repeating a number here would only give it a false shelf life. This page explains what the Department publishes, how to read it, why it will not match your own experience, and how to track your own file.
What the Department publishes
The Department publishes indicative times through its visa processing times tool, updated as applications are decided. Three things about it matter more than the number in it.
It looks backwards. The tool reports on applications already finalised — a description of the recent past, not a forecast. Those applications were lodged at a different time, under a different caseload, with different documents.
The Department disclaims it. Its wording is that the figures are a guide only and not specific to your application, and on the subclass 820 page it warns that applicants may experience longer processing times than expected. That is the Department telling you the figure is a statistic about other people.
It moves. Figures are revised as the caseload changes. A figure copied onto a private website or a forum post goes out of date almost immediately and carries no date, which is worse than no figure at all.
Important
Nothing on this site, and nothing on any private site, is a substitute for opening the Department's tool yourself on the day you need the number. If you see a partner visa processing time quoted anywhere without a date next to it, disregard it.
How to read a percentile figure when you look it up
Processing times of this kind are expressed as a proportion and a period: a given share of recently decided applications were finalised within a given number of months. Read it like this.
- The period is the time that share of applications took to be decided, counted from lodgement. It is not an average and not a promise.
- A lower proportion with a shorter period describes the faster part of the caseload; a higher proportion with a longer period shows how far the tail stretches. The gap between the two is the honest measure of how uncertain your own wait is, and for partner visas it is usually wide.
- Everyone outside the highest proportion published has no figure at all. If you are in that group, no number was ever going to describe you.
So the longer published period is the more useful planning number, and even that is not a deadline you can hold the Department to.
What decides the order applications are looked at
Partner applications are processed according to Ministerial Direction 117, which sets the processing priorities for family visa applications and which the Department refers to under the heading "Family visa processing priorities". A ministerial direction tells decision-makers the order in which to deal with applications, so lodgement date is not the only thing determining when a case is allocated. Two couples who lodged in the same week can be allocated months apart with nothing wrong with either file — the most common reason people conclude, incorrectly, that their application has a problem.
The permanent stage runs on its own clock
The subclass 801 does not simply follow the subclass 820. The Department states that the processing time for a permanent Partner visa starts from the date of eligibility, which is two years after you applied for the temporary and permanent Partner visas. That date, not the grant date of the 820, is where the permanent stage is counted from. A fast 820 does not produce a fast 801, and a slow one does not delay the eligibility date. The application date is visible in ImmiAccount. See when the 801 is assessed and 801 processing time.
Why the published time and your own wait diverge
A published figure is an aggregate. Your file is one case, and these are the things that move it:
- Completeness at lodgement. An application with the relationship evidence already in it is decided on what is there. One without sends the case officer back to you.
- Requests for more information. The clock does not stop while you gather documents.
- Expiring documents. Police certificates and health assessment results are each valid for 12 months. On a long file they can expire and have to be redone.
- Changes in circumstances. A change of address, a birth, a marriage or a change in the relationship has to be notified and assessed.
- External checks. Health, character and identity checks involve other bodies and other countries.
A method for tracking your own application
Instead of a number, use a routine. Once a month:
- Open the Department's processing times tool and note the figure for your subclass and the date you checked it. The trend over six months tells you far more than any single figure.
- Log in to ImmiAccount and confirm the status and that your contact details are current. See checking your application status.
- Check for any message from the Department and diarise its deadline the same day. Deadlines in requests for information are short.
- Add one piece of current relationship evidence. The Department says you should update documents and evidence regularly through ImmiAccount.
- Check whether anything expires in the next three months — passports, police certificates, health results — and plan for it.
Nothing in that routine makes a decision come faster. What it does is make sure that when the file is allocated, there is no reason to send it back to you.
When a request for information or a natural justice letter arrives, an application handled by an immigration lawyer is more likely to succeed, because response deadlines are short and a thin reply has permanent consequences. No one can promise an outcome, and no one can promise a date.
How this page is maintained
This page is checked on a schedule against the Department's visa processing time guide tool, and the date of the last check is shown at the top. It explains the method rather than publishing a figure, so it does not go out of date between checks. The Department's tool is the only place to get a current number.
What to do next
Open the Department's processing times tool now and write down the figure and today's date. Then read 820 visa processing time for what drives the wait, and partner visa updates for what has changed recently.
Common questions
What is the current partner visa processing time?
The only current figures are the ones the Department of Home Affairs publishes in its visa processing time guide tool. No figure is quoted on this page because published figures move and describe applications that have already been decided. The Department says the figures are a guide only and not specific to your application, and that applicants may experience longer processing times than expected.
Why is the published figure different from how long I have waited?
Because the published figure looks backwards. It describes applications that were recently finalised, which were lodged under different conditions, in a different caseload, with different documents. Your own wait depends on the order set by Ministerial Direction 117 and the family visa processing priorities, on whether your application was complete when lodged, and on anything the Department has had to ask you for since.
When does the clock start for the permanent 801 visa?
The Department states that the processing time for a permanent Partner visa starts from the date of eligibility, which is two years after you applied for the temporary and permanent Partner visas. So the 801 wait is measured from that date, not from the day the subclass 820 was granted. Your application date is visible in ImmiAccount.
Can I ask the Department to speed up my application?
The Department does not publish a general fast-track for Partner visas, and the order applications are dealt with in is set by Ministerial Direction 117 rather than by request. What you can influence is completeness: lodging with full relationship evidence, replying quickly to any request for information, and keeping your documents and contact details current in ImmiAccount.
How often is this page updated?
It is checked on a schedule against the Department's visa processing time guide tool, and the date of the last check is shown at the top of the page. It still does not quote a number, because a number that is correct on the day it is checked can be wrong by the time you read it. Use the Department's tool for the current figure.
Sources
Keep reading
Proposed Visitor Visa Restrictions on Onshore Partner Visas (2026)
A change stopping visitor visa holders applying for family visas onshore was reported in August 2026. As at 23 September 2026 it is a proposal, not law.
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Partner Visa Fee Changes from 1 July 2026
The partner visa application charge as shown by the Department on 23 September 2026, the concession from 1 July 2026, and what the charge does and does not buy.
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