Distance is not a disqualifier, and neither is meeting online. What changes is which evidence does the work.
This page explains the wording that makes a long-distance relationship possible, how the 12-month de facto requirement is counted across time apart, and what a file needs when the couple have never shared a home.
What does the law actually require?
Section 5CB(2) of the Migration Act 1958 sets out four conditions for a de facto relationship. The couple must have a mutual commitment to a shared life to the exclusion of all others; the relationship must be genuine and continuing; they must be not related by family; and, under section 5CB(2)(c), they must "live together" or "not live separately and apart on a permanent basis".
The two limbs are alternatives. The second is satisfied where a couple are apart but the separation is not permanent. Section 5F(2)(d) uses the same two limbs for married couples, so this is not a de facto concession — it applies whichever path you are on.
The load-bearing word is permanent. A couple in different countries because of work, study, visa status, caring responsibilities or cost are apart temporarily. A couple who have settled into separate lives with no intention or prospect of living together are apart permanently. The evidence has to place you in the first group.
Key facts
nothing in the Migration Act or the Migration Regulations requires a couple to have lived together, shared a lease, or met in any particular way. The Department must consider all of the circumstances of the relationship, and living arrangements are one sub-matter among fourteen listed in regulations 1.09A and 1.15A.
How is the 12-month de facto period counted when you are apart?
Regulation 2.03A of the Migration Regulations 1994 generally requires the Minister to be satisfied that the applicant has been in the de facto relationship for at least the period of 12 months ending immediately before the date of the application. Married applicants do not face this rule; it applies only to de facto claims.
Time apart counts if, during it, all four conditions in section 5CB(2) were satisfied. So the question is not how many of the 12 months you spent in the same city. It is whether the relationship met the statutory definition throughout, including the second limb of section 5CB(2)(c).
Two things commonly go wrong. The first is nominating a start date you cannot evidence — the date you met online, rather than the date a mutual commitment to a shared life to the exclusion of all others began. The second is a period in the middle where contact effectively stopped; that is the kind of gap that breaks continuity. Read de facto partner requirements for how the period is calculated, exemptions from the 12-month rule if you are short, and registering your relationship for one of the routes around the rule.
What evidence carries a long-distance relationship?
Assemble it under the four matters in regulation 1.09A, or regulation 1.15A if you are married: financial aspects, nature of the household, social aspects, and the nature of your commitment to each other. Across a distance, the following usually do the most work.
Visits, with dates. Set out every trip in a simple table: who travelled, departure and return dates, and where you stayed. Support it with boarding passes, e-tickets, booking confirmations, passport entry and exit stamps, and travel insurance. A dated list that matches the documents is far more useful to a case officer than a folder of unsorted PDFs. Add accommodation bookings in both names and dated photographs.
Continuous communication. A sample spread evenly across the whole relationship, not a dense block from the last month. Include call logs and video-call records as well as messages, and note the everyday content — arrangements, money, family news — because that is what shows a shared life rather than a correspondence.
Money moving between you. Transfer receipts, remittance records, shared subscriptions, one person paying the other's bills, savings towards a wedding or a move, or a joint account even if it is lightly used. This is the heading long-distance couples most often leave empty, and it is the one that most often draws a request. See financial aspects evidence.
Each other's families and friends. Photographs and messages with parents, siblings and friends, video calls with family, introductions on each side, attendance at family events, and statements from people who know you both. Australian citizens and permanent residents can provide Form 888 statutory declarations. See social context evidence.
A plan to close the distance. This is what distinguishes temporary separation from permanent. Job resignations, notice given on a lease, removalist or shipping quotes, visa applications, school or course enrolments, or a lease or mortgage you have already taken on together.
Evidence when you live apart goes through the second limb of section 5CB(2)(c) in more detail, and how much evidence to provide helps with volume.
Why the personal statements matter more here
In a file with a shared lease, a joint mortgage and a decade of household bills, the documents speak for themselves. In a long-distance file they do not, and the two personal statements carry much more of the explanation: why you are apart, what each period apart was for, what contact continued, and what the plan is.
Write them separately, in your own words, and make them consistent on dates. Explain any gap rather than leaving it to be noticed. The relationship statement page sets out what to cover. The same account is what gets tested at partner visa interviews, and unexplained inconsistency is a recurring theme in why 820 visas are refused.
The practical problem with the onshore 820
The subclass 820 requires the applicant to be in Australia when the application is made, and any family members applying at the same time must be in Australia too. For a long-distance couple that is not a formality: it decides which visa you are applying for.
An applicant who cannot be in Australia at lodgement, or who will not have a lawful basis to remain here while it is processed, is usually looking at the offshore pathway instead. 820 vs 309 compares the two, and being in Australia when you apply explains the onshore requirement.
An application prepared by an immigration lawyer is more likely to succeed in a long-distance case, because the two things that sink these files — a de facto start date that cannot be evidenced back 12 months from lodgement, and an empty financial heading — are both decided before you press submit. No one can promise an outcome.
What to do next
Fix your relationship start date first and check it against the 12 months in de facto partner requirements. Then build the visit table and the communication sample, and fill the financial heading deliberately rather than hoping the rest carries it. If you are married and living apart, married spouse requirements sets out the same living-together condition as it applies to spouses.
Common questions
Can you get a partner visa if you have been in a long-distance relationship?
Yes. Section 5CB of the Migration Act 1958 requires de facto partners to live together or not live separately and apart on a permanent basis, and section 5F imposes the same condition on married couples. The second limb exists for couples who are physically apart. What has to be shown is that the separation is not permanent, which usually means visits, continuous contact and a concrete plan to live in the same place.
Does time apart count towards the 12-month de facto requirement?
It can. Regulation 2.03A of the Migration Regulations 1994 requires the de facto relationship to have existed for at least the 12 months ending immediately before the application, and a relationship exists during a period apart if all four conditions in section 5CB were met throughout it. Nothing requires the couple to have shared an address for those 12 months. Long gaps with little contact are what break the period, not distance by itself.
Does a relationship that started online count?
Yes. Nothing in the Migration Act 1958 or the Migration Regulations 1994 refers to how a couple met. A relationship that began on an app, a game, a forum or a dating site is assessed on exactly the same four matters as any other. The early online record is often useful evidence, because it is dated and continuous.
Can I apply for the subclass 820 while I am overseas?
No. The subclass 820 requires the applicant to be in Australia when the application is made, and family members applying at the same time must also be in Australia. A partner who is overseas and intends to stay there until the visa is decided is generally looking at the offshore subclass 309 and 100 pathway instead.
How many visits do we need to show?
There is no prescribed number. The Migration Regulations list the duration of the relationship and the length of time the couple have lived together among the matters the Minister must consider, but they set no minimum for either. What matters is that the pattern of contact and visits is consistent with a couple who intend to live together and are prevented from doing so by circumstances you can explain.
Sources
Keep reading
Partner Visas for Same-Sex Couples
Same-sex couples apply for the 820 and 801 on exactly the same criteria — what the Migration Act says, and how to evidence a relationship that had to be hidden.
Read the guide →
Getting Married in Australia Before Applying (NOIM)
The Notice of Intended Marriage, the one-month notice period, who can marry you, and what marrying in Australia does and does not do for a partner visa.
Read the guide →
Is Your Overseas Marriage Recognised in Australia?
The test for recognising an overseas marriage for a partner visa — section 5F(2)(a), section 12 of the Migration Act, Part VA of the Marriage Act, and the exceptions.
Read the guide →